Category Archives: Trinity

Is the Trinity a biblical doctrine?

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Challenged by a Jehovah’s Witness heckler to find the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in the Bible, J.I. Packer responded along the following lines:

Jesus

(i) endorsed Old Testament monotheism (Mark 12:29), yet
(ii) regarded Himself as ‘the Son’ in a unique sense (Matt. 11:27; Mark 12:1-12; 13:32), and prescribed and accepted worship of Himself as Son of God, treating this as a proper expression of faith (John 5:23; 9:35-38; 20:28); and
(iii) promised the Holy Spirit as ‘another Comforter’ in succession to Himself, to carry on His own many-sided ministering role (John 14:16); and
(iv) bracketed Father, Son and Spirit together as the triune ‘name’ (singular, note, not plural) into which – that is, into a relationship with which – future disciples were to be baptized (Matt.

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Perichoresis

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This term (and its Latin equivalent, ‘circumencessio, circuminsessio‘), refers to the mutual indwelling, or coinherence, of the persons of the Trinity.

We rightly distinguish between the persons of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  They are distinct, but not separate.  Each indwells the others.  They interpenetrate one another.  Their operations are inseparable.

In popular thinking, perichoresis is often understood in terms of ‘dance’.  The attraction here is that this enables the concept to be pictured – dramatised, even. …

Trinitarian distinctions

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Morton Smith:

There is an order in the mode of subsistence of the Three Persons, which cannot be reversed, and properties that cannot be interchanged, an order of relationship. This is not to be construed as subordination, however. These distinctions between the Persons are not distinctions of essence, but of person. They are “the same in substance, equal in power and glory.” The essence of God involves infinite, eternal, and unchangeable being and perfection. The fact that we recognize each of these persons as deity implies that there can be no subordination of essence.…

1 Corinthians 15:28 – ‘The Son himself will be subjected to [God]’

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1 Corinthians 15:28 ‘When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.’

Donald MacLeod refers to the ‘formidable difficulty’ contained in these words.

‘They seem,’ he writes, ‘to teach blatant subordinationism: the Son himself will be subject to the Father.  Does this not place him very clearly on the side of creation rather than on the side of the Creator?’…

Kevin Giles: Trinitarian orthodoxy according to the Nicene Creed

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Here are extracts from a paper given by Dr Kevin Giles at the plenary forum on the Trinity at the Evangelical Theological Society annual conference, 15th November, 2016 at San Antonia. The other speakers were Dr Bruce Ware, Dr Millard Erickson and Dr Wayne Grudem; Dr Sam Storms presided.

Giles’ main focus was on the Nicene Creed.  In fact, although he mentioned the Bible (or Scripture) over fifty times, and insisted on its primacy, he made relatively little actual appeal to the biblical text itself.…

Trinity: unity AND diversity

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Trinitarian orthodoxy teaches that the members of the Godhead are equal in nature but distinct in their roles.

In the recent debate about the doctrine of the eternal subordination of the Son, critics are in danger of over-emphasising the first of these, whereas advocates are at risk of placing too much stress on the latter.

This is not, of course, the only area in theology where a tension has to be maintained between two (or more) truths that human reason cannot fully reconcile. …

Subordinationism: what is it?

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Eternal subordination of the Son ought to be (but is not always) distinguished from the heresy of subordinationism.

Subordinationism has been defined as,

‘A doctrine that assigns an inferiority of being, status, or role to the Son or Holy Spirit within the Trinity.’ (R. C. and C. C. Kroeger, “Subordinationism,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 1st and 2nd editions)

This, however, is a little too broad, because (setting aside the word ‘inferiority’) it implies that any kind of subordination is to be regarded as heresy.…

Eternal Submission of the Son: the main issues

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Early on in the debate which erupted in mid-2016, Andrew Wilson attempted to tease out the main issues at stake.

Here are headlines:

  1. Is the Eternal Functional Submission of the Son (EFS) taught in Scripture?
  2. Is the Eternal Functional Submission of the Son novel?
  3. Is the Eternal Functional Submission of the Son heterodox, or even heretical?
  4. Is there a separation of the divine will?
  5. Does the Eternal Functional Submission of the Son imply that Christ only had one will?
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Eternal subordination not a novel doctrine

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Critics of the doctrine of the Eternal Subordination of the Son (such as Kevin Giles and Liam Goligher) are very ready to assert that it is a novel doctrine: it is inconsistent with the historic creeds of the church, and whenever, in the past, it has reared its head it has been summarily rejected.  This has led Goligher and others to accuse those who subscribe to this doctrine of heresy, and of having disqualified themselves from teaching office in the church.…

Some theses on the Father and the Son

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Fred Sanders, a systematic theologian with a special interest in the Trinity, has jotted down 18 Theses on the Father and the Son.

I found the following extracts helpful, particularly in relation to discussions about the ‘eternal subordination of the Son’.

The reason we know the Father-Son-Holy Spirit distinction is because the Father sent the Son and the Holy Spirit. The distinctions among the three persons were revealed in the act of the Son and Spirit coming to be among us for our salvation.

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