Did Jesus exist before he was born on Earth?

I'm not a Christian, but I'll tell you how I view this:

The Gospel of John gives, by far, the most esoteric and complex cosmology of Christ:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 [a]He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not [b]comprehend it.

I personally find it an astounding thought, and annoying. Astounding because of its mystical nature. If you take away the Trinity doctrine, which this author probably didn't have in his wheelhouse, this has some interesting and gnostic beliefs on the soul that I agree with. I find it annoying because it, as per tradition, casts the dark energy of the universe (feminine, chaos, the dark part of the Yinyang symbol) in a negative light. But that's what any good propitiating savior myth needs, I suppose.

He became a baby the same way all of us do: via reincarnation.

We are all sons of God, yea, we are all Gods. Why would Christ be any different.

Jesus is God manifest - as are we. A word study on nephesh yields some interesting findings. Nephesh is the breath of God and the blood of man - it is the godstuff that unifies us in a world of dualities.

He sought truth, and found the universal way back home.

Adam is certainly the son of the God, although I think Adam is purely mythic, while Christ lived historically. Jesus is referred to as a second Adam. Paul is tying Jesus into the Adam and Eve myth to show how his discoveries while man paved the way for all of us to remember our pre-fall truth.

/r/DebateAChristian Thread