The idea is either God literally knew Jeremiah or He literally didn't. There isn't a middle ground here. If God doesn't literally know those He foreknows, but still speaks as though they have personhood then in the logos they exist. That's the only example of Jesus pre-existing.
Where if Jesus said to have spoken or did anything before his birth?
Paul clearly thinks Jesus preexisted:
1Co 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father,
from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord,
Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
Php 2:5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in
Christ Jesus,
Php 2:6
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Php 2:7 but
emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Php 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Col 1:13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved
Son,
Col 1:14
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Col 1:15
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Col 1:16 For
by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—
all things were created through him and for him.
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
And the writer of Hebrews:
Heb 1:8 But
of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
...
Heb 1:10 And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;
Heb 1:11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment,
Heb 1:12 like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”
Heb 1:13 And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?
Notice that all these passages are saying the exact same thing as John 1:1-3:
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
The only logical conclusion is that John, Paul, and the writer of Hebrews believed Jesus was the eternal, incarnate Son of God. All the above passages are false otherwise.
And, of course, it must be added that all the above is perfectly consistent with what Jesus thought of himself:
Joh 6:38 For
I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but
the will of him who sent me.
…
Joh 6:62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man
ascending to where he was before?
Joh 8:58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
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.”
(The disciples now understand and believe that Jesus "came from God.")
Joh 17:5 And now,
Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Joh 17:6 “I have manifested
your name to the people whom
you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and
you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Joh 17:7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.
Joh 17:8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that
I came from you; and they have believed
that you sent me.
(All ESV.)
There is only one understanding based on a plain reading of the texts: Jesus truly believed he preexisted with the Father, telling the disciples that he did. So, it should be no surprise then that we see John and other NT writers saying the very same thing.
Then can you prove Jesus is God in nature and explain the instances where he is not God in nature?
I have given numerous passages which prove Jesus is God in nature. It makes no sense to ask to "explain the instances where he is not God in nature," since God cannot cease to be God. As God in human flesh, the Son is going to be limited in what he can do as God and can choose to limit his use of his divine nature, but he can never cease to be God.
Jeremiah 1
5“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you...
Knew what? That he would appoint Jeremiah as a prophet.
The only God mentioned in the passage is the Father.
Phil 2
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to
the glory of God the Father.
That's begging the question. Paul has already said in verse 6 that Jesus is God in nature. That Paul mentions God the Father doesn't mean that Jesus isn't God the Son.
Form in Phil 2:6 means the outward appearance. It refers to what one visually sees with their eyeballs. See also Mark 16:12 where Jesus looked visually different. God Himself is invisible, Jesus is not invisible, hence he
G3444. morphé
Strong's Concordance
morphé: form, shape
Original Word: μορφή, ῆς, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: morphé
Phonetic Spelling: (mor-fay')
Definition: form, shape
Usage: form, shape, outward appearance.
Look at the context and ask yourself what does it even mean to "look like God"? And what does it mean to look like God
prior to becoming a man? And what does it mean for Jesus to look like God and then empty himself--empty himself of what and how? And what does it mean for him to look like God, empty himself, and then take the appearance of a servant?
If
morphe in this passage is only visual appearance, then none of the above really makes a whole lot of sense, although it still supports his preexistence.
