Revelation 3:14 states:
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
The reason I bring up this text is that it is a commonly misused text by Unitarians. They present it as meaning that Christ is the first created thing. I think this has some problems:
i) There is debate whether it should be translated “the Beginning of the creation of God” or “The ruler of God’s creation”. It is a common theme that Christ does rule over creation. The latter is unlikely and it should be the former. He is the beginning of God’s creation in the sense that he is the source of everything that exists. This idea of Jesus being the first cause or original source of all things is what most commentators and lexicons think the verse is referring to:
3. the first cause, the beginning (Philos. t.t. ODittrich, D. Systeme d. Moral I 1923, 360a, 369a;—Ael. Aristid. 43, 9 K.=1 p. 3 D.: ἀρχὴ ἁπάντων Ζεύς τε καὶ ἐκ Διὸς πάντα; Jos., C. Ap. 2, 190 God as ἀρχὴ κ. μέσα κ. τέλος τῶν πάντων [contrast SIG 1125, 10f]) of Christ ἡ ἀ. τῆς κτίσεως Rv 3:14; but the mng. beginning=‘first created’ is linguistically probable (s. above 1b and Job 40:19; also CBurney, Christ as the Ἀρχή of Creation: JTS 27, 1926, 160–77). [ὁ γὰ]ρ π̣̄ρ̣̄ (=πατὴρ) [ἀρ]|χή ἐ[σ]τ̣[ιν τῶν μ]ελλόν|των for the Father is the source of all who are to come into being in contrast to the προπάτωρ, who is without a beginning Ox 1081, 38f (SJCh 91, 1 ἀρχή; on the context, s. WTill, TU 60/5, ’55 p. 57).
Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 138). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
ii) The eternality, immutability, and divinity are taught throughout the scriptures: John 1:1, 8:24, 58, Rom. 10:13, Col. 1:15-20, Heb. 1:10-12, etc. The fact of the matter is that Christ created everything and is uncreated.
iii) Furthermore, it isn’t decided to which creation is being referred to. It could be referring to the original creation. The notion that Jesus created everything isn’t something foreign to John’s writings. He makes that very point two chapters later in Rev. 5:13. The other and very probable reference is that of the New Creation.
Christ is also the beginning of God’s creation. Some translations have the words, “The ruler of God’s creation” (e.g., NIV). But this is a less likely meaning. The thought is similar to 1:5, where Christ is “the firstborn from the dead” (see Col. 1:18). By his resurrection he has inaugurated or begun the new creation.1 Only in and through him will the Laodiceans receive spiritual renewal now, and the resurrection of the body when the new heaven and the new earth come.
The Council 