Did Yahusha claim he was the Great I Am ?

John 8
55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad." 57 "You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!" 58 "I tell you the truth," Yahusha answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Yahusha hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

In the scene above Yahusha is telling the Jews that because they transgress The Law of Yahuah with their human tradition and commandments of men (The Talmud) they are liars when they say they know Yahuah. When Yahusha made the statement “before Abraham was born, I AM” in context of the Word of Yahuah and the predestined plan of Yahuah to send a human Messiah; Yahusha was simply saying “before Abraham was born, I am (prophesied to come and have pre-eminence among the sons of Yahuah in the pre-ordained Plan of Yahuah).” Letting scripture interpret scripture we establish sound doctrine to overcome this sound bite. Yahusha knew he was given preeminence among all things in the plan of Yahuah which was with Yahuah at creation therefore “before Abraham”. Paul confirms this fact:

Colossians 1:15-20
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Yahuah 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 Yahuah and for Yahusha. 17 And Yahuah is before all things, and in Yahuah all things hold together. 18 And Yahusha is the head of the body, the church. Yahusha is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything Yahusha might be preeminent. 19 For in Yahusha all the fullness of Yahuah’s Spirit was pleased to dwell, 20 and through Yahusha, Yahuah would reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his stake (Yahuah would reconcile creation in covenant with Yahusha).

Paul is explaining what Yahusha was stating… two facts: 1.) he was before Abraham and had pre-eminence in the Plan of Yahuah. 2.) Yahusha is before Abraham in the resurrection being the first born of all eternal creatures. As I stated early, Yahusha accepted worship as the preeminent son of Yahuah and was before all men in the Plan of Yahuah. Below is the meaning of preeminence:

pre·em·i·nence
noun: pre-eminence; plural noun: pre-eminences; noun: preeminence; plural noun: preeminences
1. the fact of surpassing all others; superiority.

So before Abraham was born, Yahusha said “I am preeminent among the sons of Yahuah”. Yahusha’s use of the phrase “I am” was no different than how you and I would use it today. If you ask me if I am a son of Yahuah, I would reply “I am”. Would you stone me for blasphemy? I am not claiming in any way to be Yahuah nor saying that I am The Great I AM simply because I used the phrase “I am”. Neither was Yahusha. In fact, Yahusha use this phrase often and never was he implying he was the Great I AM in the process. Below we see Yahusha use the phrase I am and what he meant:

1. Bread - “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger.” John 6:35

2. Light - “I am the light of the world; he who fallows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12

3. Gate - “I am the gate; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” John 10:9

4. Good Shepherd - “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for His sheep.” John 10:11

5. Resurrection and Life - “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies.” John 11:25

6. Way, Truth, Life - “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” John 14:6

7. True vine - “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” John 15:1

Given Yahusha’s use of the term I Am he would have said “I am the Great I AM” if that is what he intended to say. Again, to understand what Yahusha was saying in John 8:58 we must put this statement into context of Scripture. Christianity takes John 8:58 out of context and combines it with John Chapter 1 that is mistranslated to come up with the false teaching that Yahusha claimed to be God.

In fact those two verses do combine to give us the truth of what Yahusha was saying. Yahusha was simply saying that before Abraham was born, Yahusha was prophesied to come in the Plan of Yahuah and was preeminent in that plan.

John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the plan of Yahuah, and the plan was with Yahuah (and defined His purpose in creation), and the plan was Yahuah's. 2 The same plan was in the beginning with Yahuah. 3 All things were done according to the plan of Yahuah, and without the plan of Yahuah nothing was done, that was done. 4 In this plan was (predestined) life (through a human Messiah’s sacrifice), and that life was the light (revelation) to mankind. 5 Now that light (revealed plan to send a human Messiah) shines in the darkness, but the darkness does not take hold of it…

Again, in every case where incarnation is taught it is taken out of context. Put back into context that false doctrine crumbles. The Trinity and Incarnation doctrines are literally built upon implied doctrine and the Christian scribes had to add words to Scripture in order to even be able to “imply” such nonsense. If you take out the words added to scripture to promote the “doctrine of the false messiah” and put those verses back into context there is zero references to incarnation and The Trinity. We have been lied to for 2000 years:

Jeremiah 8:8-9
“How can you say, ‘We are wise, and The Law of Yahuah is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. 9 The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken; behold, they have rejected the word of Yahuah, so what wisdom is in them?