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Does 'today I have begotten you' mean Christ became God's Son at a point in time rather than by eternal generation?

TL;DR

Robert Sungenis explains that Catholics apply "today I have begotten you" to the Son's eternal generation, while Protestants apply it to Christ's coming as man. Without calling the Catholic view wrong, he says the grammar and context of Psalm 2 and its New Testament uses seem to point to the Incarnation, and that the Protestants have an argument Catholics need to wrestle with more.

A viewer asks whether the phrase 'today I have begotten you' means Christ became God's Son at a point in time, as opposed to eternal generation.

Answer

Here is a place where Protestants and Catholics definitely disagree. Protestants think 'today I have begotten you' applies to the time when Christ came to earth; the Catholic Church says it applies to the eternal being of the Son. Now, I admit I have a little problem with the Catholic view. I am not saying it is wrong, but grammatically and contextually, when you read Psalm 2 and its repetitions in Luke and Matthew, it does appear that the context and grammar point to the very time when Christ was begotten as a man, in other words when He came as the God-man. And that reading would make 'begotten' much more comprehensible, because who knows what 'begotten' means in eternity, when the Son is as eternal as the Father? The incarnation had a beginning: before it there was no God-man, after it there always will be, and that is like a begetting. So I think the Protestants have an argument the Catholics need to wrestle with more. I am not settling it, but that is the distinction between the two sides.

Answered by Dr. Robert Sungenis

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