The Bible’s Concept Of Time – How Individuals Existed Prior To Birth

The bible’s concept of time and how individuals existed prior to their birth is best demonstrated in the following scriptures:

Jeremiah 1: 5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.”

Zechariah 12: 1 “Lord . . . formeth the spirit of man within him”.

Acts 17: 28 “poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”

Acts 17: 26 “determined the times before appointed.”

Romans 8: 29 “he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son”.

Romans 9: 11 “purpose of God according to election.”

Romans 11: 2 “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.”

Galatians 3: 8 “foreseeing that God would justify the heathen.”

Ephesians 1: 4 “he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.”

Ephesians 1: 5 “having predestinated us unto the adoption of children.”

2 Thessalonians 2: 13 “God hath from the beginning chosen you.”

2 Timothy 1: 9 “called us . . . before the world began.”

1 Peter 1: 2 “elect according to the foreknowledge of God.”

1 Peter 1: 20 “who verily was foreordained before the foundation.”

(Romans 4:17-22) “As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.”

So when Jesus says to the Jews:

John 8:56-58 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad . . . Before Abraham was, I am”.

The Bible does not indicate that Abraham received a literal vision of Jesus coming (“to see my day”) rather Abraham, having received the promise from God, knew that God’s promise would come to pass and looked forward (rejoiced) to the coming of the One in whom “all families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Abraham never mentions the word Jesus. The apostles (and Jesus) knew he was that promised seed (Acts 3:25; Ephesians 1:3).