Jesus claimed to have existed before he was born in the flesh. In his great prayer to the Father in John 17:5, he says, “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” This 
doctrine is often called the “Pre-existence of Christ.” Morey says, “While the concept of the pre-existence of Christ does not require the deity of Christ, the deity of Christ does require the pre-existence of Christ. If His pre-existence is eternal, then His deity is established.” The Jews rejected Jesus on the basis of His claims but they should have noted that the Messiah of the Old Testament was supposed to have been pre-existent.
We all know the Christmas passage in Micah 5:2 regarding Bethlehem. It says, “But as for you Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler of Israel. His going forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” This Messianic prophecy not only says Jesus will be born in Bethlehem, it also claims that he existed before, from the days of old. Although in his humanity, Jesus was born in Bethlehem according to the prophecy, the passage also teaches that as to His deity, he eternally existed. Commenting on John 1:1; “in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God,” Fruchtenbaum points out, “According to this verse, the Son existed in the beginning with God the Father. In other words, as long as God has existed, so also the Son has existed. Since God the Father has existed from all eternity, therefore, the Son must have existed for all eternity as well. John 1:1 is clear evidence that some of the cultic teachings, which claim that the Son was created by God the Father, are wrong. The point of John 1:1 is that as long as the Father has existed, which has been for all eternity that is how long the Son has existed.”
The eternality of Jesus is one of the lofty theological issues that seem irrelevant to our daily lives. The church councils and even some cultic sects today are divided over this issue and many looking at the professors of faith see only silly disagreements. Yet, the eternality of Christ is a central theme which is the only basis of hope for the true believer. Not only did Jesus exist throughout the past ages, His eternality assures us will exist in all future ages as well. Morgan says, “Jesus Has Changed the Way We Look at the Future. Humans have been made for hope. Death always appears as an enemy. The prospect of life that ends is alien to us because we were designed for eternity. Hope is, therefore, a part of our makeup. But the Christian alone has reason to believe in a blissful future. The reason is Jesus Christ.”