Tried With Fire

The Christian life is a life of communion with the Father who loved and loves us, with the Son who gave himself for us and who ever lives to protect and bless us, and with the Holy Spirit who brings us into the communion of the Holy Trinity and makes it his special delight to glorify Christ in us and to us (John 16:14). Is there anything in life to rival such astounding privilege? John Owen wrote, 'Our greatest hindrance in the Christian life is not our lack of effort, but our lack of acquaintanceship with our privileges.' How right he was! Your and my greatest privilege in life, this life and the life to come, is to know the Holy Trinity, and even more wonderfully to be known by the Holy Trinity. May the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, give us all the grace to become more personally acquainted with our privileges, the greatest of which is knowing this triune God to be our God. The Gospel-Shaped Life , Ian Hamilton, Banner of Truth Trust, 2017, pgs. 3-4. Photo...

I read Prelude to Philosophy several years ago. At that time, the Trinity wasn't on my radar, probably not on many people's radar which reveals how low the doctrine was on the totem pole. One of the good outcomes of the Trinity debate is that it is getting us thinking about how we do theology. Author Mark Foreman uses the Trinity as an examples of how sound thinking AKA philosophy helps theological understanding. "Another way philosophy aids theology is in helping Christians to draw out and express important theological concepts. For example, a cardinal belief for Christians is the doctrine of the Trinity: God in three persons. It is often surprising to many Christians to find out that not only is the word trinity not located in the Bible, but there is not even a straightforward, clear statement of the doctrine. This does not mean the doctrine is not in Scripture, for it can be inferred through bringing together a number of passages However, the main problem is that t...

The elephant of the Eternal Subordination of the Son (ESS) is still in the room. Thankfully some folks are not letting this go quietly into the night without raising the alarm. If you are new to the debate, this latest round of podcasts provide good summaries of what is at stake when you turn the Trinity into a hierarchy. Theology Gals: Eternal Subordination of the Son with Rachel Miller Does ESV=ESS ? - A professor, pastor, and parishioner look at the ESV translation of a few passages. I dare you not to wince when some notes from the ESV Study Bible are read out loud. Eternal Functional Subordinatino is wack yo . - This podcast raises a number of good questions - Is a reformulation of the Trinity being used to shore up a particular view of men and women? Are seminary candidates being trained in questionable theology and not allowed to disagree with their teachers, which is then propagated to future congregations? Is the Son's subordination to the Father being used as th...

"Here, just as the Father has authority over the Son in the Trinity, so the husband has authority over the wife in marriage. The husband's role is parallel to God the Father and the wife's role is parallel to that of God the Son. Moreover, just as Father and Son are equal in deity and importance and personhood, so the husband and wife are equal in humanity and importance and personhood. And, although it is not explicitly mentioned in Scripture, the gift of children within marriage, coming from both the father and the mother, and subject to the authority of both father and mother is analogous to the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Father and Son in the Trinity." pp. 256-257. S ystematic Theology by Wayne Grudem, Zondervan, 1994. "The relation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then, is one of glorious harmony. Each has his work to contribute, and each does this in recognition of the authority and submission order that is true among these Persons. Th...

"Of greater significance is the teaching of the Old Testament to the effect that God brings everything in His creation and providence into being by His Word and Spirit. He is not a human being, who, at the cost of great difficulty and exertion, makes something else out of the materials He has at hand. Instead, simply by the act of speaking, He calls everything into being out of nothing. In the first chapter of Genesis we are taught this truth in the loftiest way possible, and elsewhere, too, it is expressed most gloriously in word and song. He speaks, and it is done; He commands, and it stands fast (Ps. 33:9). He sends out His word, and melts the morsels of ice (Ps. 147:18). His voice is upon the waters, shakes the wilderness, causes the hills to skip like a calf, and discovers the forests (Ps. 29:3-10). Two truths are contained in this exalted account of God’s works: the first is that God is the Almighty One who has but to speak and all things leap into being, whose word is law...

In perusing the blogsphere, I have read many posts challenging women to exercise discernment in regard to the resources they use. Concerns have been raised about: - Hermeneutics. How does the author interpret scripture? - Commitment to the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible. - The subtle incorporation of New Age mysticism. - Shared platforms and endorsements by questionable teachers, e. g. Word of Faith/prosperity gospel teachers - Ecumenicism that muddies the gospel. - Inadequate recognition of sin and calls for repentance. - Legalism that supplants the gospel. I could list more, but you get the point. People may have varying degrees of discomfort over the meat-to-bone ratio and which issues are deal-breakers, but I think we would agree that it is wise to consider who is teaching and what is being taught. Given the recent debate over the Trinity and more specifically the relationship between the Father and the Son, it's worth repeating the question t...

Exhibit A: The Bible several times says that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, but He's at the right hand. He sits with Him on His throne. He has equal glory and equal honor but not equal authority. The Father and Son are equal in all their attributes, and the Holy Spirit is too. But among those persons of the Trinity, though they are equal in all their attributes: infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, infinitely loving, just and merciful, omnipresent and omniscient; they share all attributes, but there is a difference in the way they relate. The Father has an authority that the Son does not have. .. The idea of headship and submission never began. It has existed eternally in the relationship between the Father and Son in the Trinity. It exists in the eternal nature of God himself. And in this most basic of all relationships, authority is not based on gifts or ability. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal in all attributes and perfections, but authority is just t...

"What the Christian goes on to confess about that God is not summarized by him in a number of abstract terms, but is described, rather, as a series of deeds done by God in the past, in the present, and to be done in the future. It is the deeds, the miracles, of God which constitute the confession of the Christian. What the Christian confesses in his creed is a long, a broad, and a high history. It is a history which comprises the whole world in its length and breadth, in its beginning, process, and end, in its origin, development, and destination, from the point of creation to the fulfillment of the ages. The confession of the church is a declaration of the mighty deeds of God. Those deeds are numerous and are characterized by great diversity. But they also constitute a strict unity. They are related to each other, prepare for each other, and are interdependent. There is order and pattern, development and upward movement in it. It proceeds from creation through redemption to san...

In light of the recent and lively debate about the Eternal Subordination of the Son and gender, here is Kevin Giles on the word "role." The French word role originated in reference to the part an actor played on stage. In the 1930s, it became a key term in functional sociology. It was only in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the study of sociology became established in the universities, that the word began to be widely used in the English-speaking world. I can find no evidence of Christian usage of the word in theological discourse before this time. 1 Giles then gives an example of an officer and a private in the army. They have different roles, but the roles do not imply inferiority of one to the other. Likewise the roles are not intrinsic to the persons involved. A private may be promoted up the ranks. The officer may be demoted. 2 Makes sense, right? A parallel cannot be made with the complementarian-hierarchical view of women. In this case, because a woman is ...

The expression "first-born" does not in clude Christ in the realm of the creatures, but ex cludes him from that realm. Being the firstborn and only begotten Son and Logos, and the adequate image of God, he from eternity sustained a very unique relation to the Father. And although as Mediator Christ is represented as dependent upon and subordinate to the Father; so that he is the servant sent to complete the Father's work, obedient unto death, and delivering his kingdom unto the Father; in essence and being he remains, nevertheless, co-equal with the Father. Accordingly, when in John 14:28 Jesus says that his going to the Father is for the disciples and occasion for rejoicing, "for the Father is greater than I," he does not mean that the Father is greater in power - for John 10:28-30 teaches differently - but he refers to himself in his humiliation . The Father in his glory is greater than the Son in his humiliation. But when Jesus goes to the Father this infer...

THREE IN ONE, ONE IN THREE, GOD OF MY SALVATION, Heavenly Father, blessed Son, eternal Spirit,   I adore thee as one Being, one Essence,         one God in three distinct Persons, for bringing sinners to thy knowledge and to thy kingdom. O Father, thou hast loved me and sent Jesus to redeem me; O Jesus, thou hast loved me and assumed my nature,       shed thine own blood to wash away my sins,       wrought righteousness to cover my unworthiness; O Holy Spirit, thou hast loved me and entered my heart,        implanted there eternal life,       revealed to me the glories of Jesus. Three Persons and one God, I bless and praise thee,   for love so unmerited, so unspeakable,        so wondrous, so mighty to save the lost and raise them to glory. O Father, I thank thee that in fullness of grace   thou hast given me to Jesus, to be his sheep...