Even as we were recording this episode last night a new round of controversy (on social media) arose over the orthodoxy of the doctrine of the so-called “eternal subordination of the Son” or the “eternal functional subordination of the Son” AKA “eternal relation of submission and authority.” This view emerged in the 1980s and fundamentalists, evangelicals, and some Reformed folk were sought to ground their resistance feminism in the relations between the Trinity. Critics of ESS/EFS object that in so doing the proponents have verged upon or crossed into the heresy of Arianism, i.e., the doctrine rejected at the Council of Nicea (AD 325) that the Son is an eternal creature, that “there was when the Son was not.” The proponents of ESS/EFS deny this charge, of course. Some critics have called ESS/EFS “semi-Arian.” In this episode we also discussed the doctrine of the so-called “social Trinity,” and the proposal mooted in some Reformed circles that God may be said to be three persons and one person. We did all this as we walked swiftly through the 44 articles of the Athanasian Creed (c. AD 500). As always good fun and colorful theme music was enjoyed by all. For more on the questions discussed see the resources below.
For future reference: the HB media archive version.
From the gluttons for punishment department: the YouTube version:
RESOURCES
- How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia
- The Heidelblog Resource Page
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- Heidelmedia Resources
- The Ecumenical Creeds
- The Reformed Confessions
- Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008).
- Heidelcast Series: I Am That I Am
- New Resource Page: On The Doctrine Of God
- How Did Some Evangelicals Come To Teach The “Eternal Subordination Of The Son”? Biblicism
- A Response To Grudem’s Appeal To Hodge On Eternal Subordination
- How Should A Lay Christian Learn Theology?
- Trueman: What Is The Status Of Nicene Orthodoxy In Modern Calvinistic Evangelicalism?
- We Are Not Merely Discussing Economic Subordination
- The Eternally Begotten Son Is Consubstantial With the Father
- Heidelberg 33: God’s Eternally And Only Begotten Son And His Adopted Sons (1)
- God the Son the Covenant of Grace: Caspar Olevianus, Eternal Generation, and the Substance of the Covenant of Grace
- John Owen Defended Eternal Generation Against The Socinians
- Ufilas Or ESS?
- Trueman: Might You Be A Socinian And Not Know It?
- How The Athanasian Creed Can Help Contemporary Evangelical Theological Discourse
Bruce Ware cites PT Forsyth regularly, and in God a Holy Father (by Forsyth, 1901) within a paragraph of Ware’s favorite quote, Forsyth equates Christ to the angels, and says he, unlike Satan, kept His estate as Son, by His obedience. So Ware is quoting a heretic (in the proper sense) to back up his claims. Not to mention their complete ignorance of the fathers’ exegetical use of the economy completely misses the Ecumenical Councils, and they completely miss the fact that if the Father predestines and the Son does not, then they are accusing the Son of lying when He says He does all things the Father does in John 5, as Nyssa and Augustine understood that passage in Against Eunomius, The Trinity, and the Tractates on John