Jehovah's Witnesses affirm that Jesus Christ existed before his human birth as a spirit being in heaven. He was the first and only being directly created by Jehovah God, existing before all other creation through whom all other things were created. This pre-existent being is identified in Scripture as 'the Word' (John 1:1), 'the only-begotten Son,' 'the firstborn of all creation' (Colossians 1:15), and is identified by Jehovah's Witnesses as Michael the Archangel—the chief of God's angelic creation.

This pre-existence is affirmed but understood very differently from the Nicene/Trinitarian teaching of the eternal, uncreated Son. In JW theology, Jesus's pre-existence is the existence of a created spirit being of extraordinary power and dignity, not the co-eternal divine Person of the Nicene Creed. The Incarnation is understood as Jehovah transferring his Son's life to a human womb, not as the eternal Second Person of the Trinity 'taking on flesh.' After the resurrection, Jesus returned to a spirit existence—though now with more authority, as the exalted King at Jehovah's right hand.