I had been reading about how Jesus may have appeared to others in the Old Testament before his Incarnation here on Earth. I'm talking about people like Melchizedek, who was considered a "King Priest", or how the "Angel of the Lord" visited Hagar on her way back to Egypt. These are just two accounts of when Jesus may have made appearances for God as messenger. I've heard others even say that it was Jesus who walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. (The logic here is that no one can see God as He truly is). I had discussed this with my wife and she sees this as heresy, or some type of heretic doctrine that doesn't line up "biblically". She is under the impression that Jesus would not (or could not) be seen (or be sent) before His birth, death, and resurrection. as chronicled in the New Testament. But, I was really intrigued with this idea of Jesus making appearances before then and I didn't want to chase some crazy idea down a rabbit hole until I had more information on the subject. So I turned to the Internet....
There's not much on the subject of Christophany online, except to say that some people think it's possible. Depending on what school of thought one bought in to, there might be some basis to it actually being a fact. So, the next thing I did was turn to our our corporate religious doctrine - Pentecostal and more specifically the Assemblies of God Doctrine regarding this belief. I think the Internet is the coolest invention since sliced bread and I found the Assemblies of God website and began my search. It's really pretty cool. The following is an excerpt from from an "Enrichment Journal" found on the AoG website entitled Bible Doctrines: The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ
Prior to that great coming of God in a new way into human history, the Word was
eternally in existence, functioning as the Revealer of God. It is very probable that the
theophanies (divine appearances) of the Old Testament were in reality
“Christophanies,” since in His preexistent state, Christ’s brief encounters with
people to reveal God’s will would be in perfect accord with His office work as
Revealer. Consider for example such passages as Genesis 21:17-20; 48:16; and
Exodus 23:20. In these passages “the angel of the Lord” is clearly identified as
Deity, yet distinguished from God the Father. Genesis 48:16 specifically refers to the
heavenly messenger as one who “redeemed” (KJV), or “delivered” (NIV). In other
passages where the angel of the Lord is both identified with God and distinguished
from Him, or where the angel of the Lord receives worship (as in Judg. 13:16-22), it
seems obvious that the angel was a manifestation of Christ.2 Such Old Testament
manifestations of the Second Person of the Trinity point forward to the Incarnation,
when Christ would come to make His dwelling among the people of this world.
Some fear that identifying the angel of the Lord with Christ would take away from
the uniqueness of Christ’s New Testament incarnation. However, that uniqueness
involves Christ’s full identification with humanity in His birth, life, ministry, death,
and resurrection. No temporary preincarnate manifestation takes away from that
uniqueness.
I thought this was neat, but I still haven't talked with our Pastor about it. For all I know this could just mean that there are other "Bible Doctrines" out there that are not in line with what the AoG agrees with. Anyway, for me, it was a little bit of proof that I may not need to be chasing just a crazy, heretical ideology.
Reference: http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/extra/BibleDoctrines_Chapter3.pdf
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