I think you are not responding directly to the phrase"was with God... was God" from which the phrase itself is showing that something is missing in it. Lets consider that such is poetry or that a word is missing in such phrase.You should read John 1. It is explained quite well. He is the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. John 1:14. He is the Word -- who was WITH GOD and WAS GOD. John 1:1 GOD IS TRIUNE. The Word (God) became flesh and dwelt among us. He is called the Son of God because he was God and man...born of a woman. He created all things....therefore He is the Creator.
I'm very impressed of how accurate is your statement. I didn't know how well informed are today's churches about the proper identity of the messiah.
Let me see, "you are the respondent who is with Barn Sour and is Barn Sour", does such sound OK for you?
Since God is Father, Son, and Spirit then it sounds perfectly fine to me. He is three persons in one being. Just as Gen. 1:26 says, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
As a human being, I am also triune...composed of body, soul, and spirit. When I create something (like a painting, for instance), I use my body, my soul, and often times my spirit to contribute to the thing I "create". I, of course, am not God so I cannot create the heavens and earth and such the way God did.
If John was to portrait the so called trinity, he should include the third person in his phrase, but he didn't.
In order to decipher that phrase, you must have to return back to Genesis, the first two chapters. Right there is the answer to that phrase of John.
Allow me to explain the reason of my advice.
The order to the disciples was to announce the good news. That's all.
The only message to be given to Israel and the rest of the world was announcing the Gospel, that the messiah died and was resurrected, that death has been conquered.
From here, in order to understand what such a sacrifice of Jesus means, the new followers were to learn the scriptures where the whole explanation is given.
The apostles never preached Genesis, or prophet Isaiah, neither about Moses. They never did it because that was not their job.
The apostles might have mentioned several biblical quotes from the scriptures (old testament for you) as "a granted known knowledge" that must have been acquired by the listeners thru teachings received in synagogues.
Yes. The new gentile disciples were complete ignorant of Genesis, Leviticus, Numbers, etc. because they came from foreign religions. These gentiles didn't know about king David, the divided kingdom of Israel, etc. Then, how you think they will interpret the words of Jesus if they ignored what Jesus was talking about when Jesus said words like "from the beginning It was not so" in reference to the law of Moshe?
New believers were supposed to learn the Torah, the Prophet and the Scriptures right after they accepted Jesus as the messiah.
And the same it happened to many gentiles who didn't learn the "old testament" in order to understand "the new testament", the same is happening to you.
You grew up receiving biblical teachings from ignorant people. Your pastor is an ignorant because he also received teachings coming from other ignorant preachers. It is a long chain of pure ignorant people throughout generations.
I can bet you don't understand the first chapter of Genesis, then, how in the world you pretend to say you can understand the words of John?
John is talking to people who understood the Torah, not to you.
Go back to Genesis the first and second chapter.
That is the only way you will understand that phrase (incomplete or edited) was with God... was God.
By learning properly the bible from beginning to end, you will realize that such doctrine of the trinity is 100% false.
Well, we agree on the trinity doctrine being false. How could Jesus be "with God" and also be God as you point out.
However, you missed the Greek grammar evidence for John 1:1 and also Jesus' defense of his deity in John 10:34-36 where Jehovah calls other sons of God: "gods" (Hebrew elohim - literal plural) quoting Psalms 82:6
(KJV+) IH589 have said,H559 Ye are gods;H430 and allH3605 of youH859 are childrenH1121 of the most High.H5945
Concerning the Greek word for God (G2316/theos), Strong's Greek dictionary explains:'
G2316
θεός
theos
theh'-os
Of uncertain affinity; a deity, especially (with G3588) the supreme Divinity; figuratively a magistrate; by Hebraism very: - X exceeding, God, god [-ly, -ward].
Total KJV occurrences: 1343
In John 1:1 the first occurrence of theos is with G3588 (the Greek definite article = the) and hence means the Word was with the supreme Dininity. The second occurrence of theos is without the Greek definite article and means "a deity."
See the Greek here (from our interlinear):
Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY
This is an authorized Web site of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is a research tool for publications in various languages produced by Jehovah’s Witnesses.
wol.jw.org
Therefore, using Strong's definitions, John 1:1 should read:
In the/a beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the supreme Divinity, and the Word was a deity."