Proverbs 8:12, 22
"I wisdom dwell with prudence,...The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old."
1 Corinthians 1:24
"But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."
Problem:
Jesus is called "the wisdom of God" in 1 Corinthians 1:24, and therefore Trinitarians speculate that the reference to "wisdom" in Proverbs 8:22 is a reference to Jesus, thereby proving that Jesus pre-existed before his birth, and that Jesus was in the beginning of Creation - a fundamental point in the Trinitarian's claim that Jesus is God.
Solution:
In 1 Cor. 1:24, we find that Jesus is also referred to as "the power of God". In Acts 8:10, Philip the evangelist is also described as the "Power of God", by Simon the sorcerer. But that doesn't mean that Simon thought that Philip was Jesus, or vice versa.
The gospel itself is described as the "power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18), but that doesn't mean that the gospel and Jesus are one and the same thing.
Jesus is described as the "power of God" in 1 Cor. 1:24, and yet Jesus sits at the right hand of "the power of God" (see Luke 22:69). But how can Jesus sit at the right hand of himself?
In Ephesians 3:10, we find out that there is a VARIETY in God's wisdom: "... to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God".
In Proverbs 3:19 we find a similar reference to "wisdom" being part of Creation: "The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens." In this passage we find that not only was "wisdom" with the LORD in the beginning, but so too was UNDERSTANDING! In order to be consistent, Trinitarians would have to make "Understanding" into a living being!
I should be clear that the there is nothing in the book of Proverbs that would prove that "wisdom" is a reference to Jesus.
Ron Abel
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