What does God send? He sends His Word. “the Word was God”
Therefore, the Father’s Word is the Father being sent by His Word.
Can you provide just one example where a son is his own father or a father is his own son? The Father cannot be the Word and certainly cannot be the Son. First, that makes God's revelation of the Father Son relationship nonsense to us; it communicates nothing. Second, the Greek doesn't allow it:
"Was the Word." "Was" is the Greek,
en, which speaks of absolute preexistence before any creation. What that statement means is that when the beginning began, the Word was
already in existence, and hence, there was never a time when he did not exist. The very same applies to the Father, who has absolute preexistence.
"And the Word was with God." "With" is the Greek word
pros, and being in the accusative case, it denotes motion towards. It isn't merely being with but is intimate union and communion; it is interpersonal relationship inseparable from God, yet distinct from him. "God" contains the article in the Greek--"the God"--and is therefore a reference to the Father (at a minimum). Only a person can be in intimate relationship with another person; a person can never be said to in an interpersonal relationship with their own words.
"The Word was God." It is significant that "God" doesn't have the article in the Greek. As such, it is a qualitative statement that refers to the nature of the Word. It is saying that the Word was divine or deity.
John's whole point is who the Word is. To sum then, the Word had eternal preexistence, the same as the Father, in intimate relationship with God, and was in nature deity himself. Yet, we know there was only one God. The best explanation is that there is a plurality of persons within the one God. Therefore, the historical doctrine of the Trinity best takes this evidence into account.
All of what John says in his prologue is supported by John saying that "God is love" in 1 John 4:8, 16. To say God is love, is to make a statement about his essence, his nature, and not merely the idea that he is loving; He cannot not love.
What then is love? At its fullest, it is
both a healthy love of self and an outward expression towards others. We should fully expect then, that if God
is love, that his love
must have the fullest expression and necessarily includes love of others from before creation of all time and space, from eternity past. However, if God is a monad (unitarian), then to say that “God is love” means 1) that the one-person God loved only himself, and 2) that the fullest and proper expression of his love is dependent on creation. This contradicts the statement that “God is love,” as it leaves His love incomplete and deficient. A unitarian god simply cannot be the God of the Bible.
When we consider the Trinity, however, it all works. There are three persons each being truly and fully God, equally possessing the full and undivided essence (one being that is God), having been in an intimate, loving relationship and communion for eternity past. Only now we can truly say that God is love. Diversity within the unity.
One of the names of Jesus is “Everlasting Father” because the Word Jesus is, is the Father.
"Everlasting Father" in Isa 9:6 has nothing to do with the Father. The Word "Father" has several uses and meanings in the OT. It would be worth your while to do some study on that.
Jesus can be recognized as the Father because the Word is made flesh. Which means the Father is made flesh by the Word who Jesus is called.
The entire NT is against the idea that the Father is the Son and vice versa. It is to make the NT say a lot of nonsense.
1Jn 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—
1Jn 1:2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life,
which was with the Father
and was made manifest to us—
1Jn 1:3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with
the Father and with
his Son Jesus Christ.
In addition to the clear distinction between the Father and the Son, note the echoes of John 1:1-2,14.
1Jn 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
...
1Jn 2:23
No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
Of most importance here is that Jesus is our "advocate [
parakletos] with the Father." An advocate, according to the relevant definition from Merriam-Webster, is "one who pleads the cause of another." Of course, that is done on behalf of another before another or others (such as a judge or a court). Logically then, the Son
cannot be an advocate with the Father if he is the Father. It would be nonsense to make such a claim. It's worth noting that the "Helper" in John 14:16 is also the Greek word
parakletos, but another
parakletos.
And further evidence that the Father cannot be the Son:
Joh 14:10 Do you not believe that
I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you
I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
Joh 14:11 Believe me that
I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Joh 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because
I am going to the Father.
Joh 14:13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that
the Father may be glorified in the Son.
...
Joh 14:23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and
my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Joh 14:24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And
the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.
Joh 15:23
Whoever hates me hates my Father also.
Joh 15:24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated
both me and my Father.
Joh 16:27 for
the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed
that I came from God.
Joh 16:28
I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
Joh 16:29 His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech!
Joh 16:30 Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe
that you came from God.”
Joh 16:31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?
Joh 16:32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone.
Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.
Joh 17:3
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Joh 17:4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that
you gave me to do.
Joh 17:5 And now,
Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
And on and on it goes, with the Father
always being kept distinct from the Son, which would be pointless and meaningless if they were one and the same.
(All ESV.)
