In what way is Christ “God’s Son”? We are talking specifically about his divine nature here because he is also “son of God” by virtue of his human nature just as Luke describes Adam as God’s Son. John 3:16 describes Jesus as God’s “only begotten son.” It seems that Arians who did not regard Jesus… Continue reading Eternal Generation and the EFS debate
Tag: ESS
Gethsemane and The Father – Son relationship
I would now like to revisit Matthew 26 and Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. You will recall from earlier posts that the events here are central to our discussion about how the Son relates to the Father. Orthodox Christology asserts that because Jesus is one person with two natures and that he is… Continue reading Gethsemane and The Father – Son relationship
Grudem and Ware: heretics or a disagreement over language?
I’m breaking off from where I planned to go next in my discussion of the Trinity and the relationship of the Son to the Father. The reason is that I want to look at a specific example of a dispute. The dispute concerns “Eternal Generation.” A Creedal Matter This is the belief as stated in… Continue reading Grudem and Ware: heretics or a disagreement over language?
How does the Father relate to the Son? (A second look at John 5:19-27)
The context to John 5:19-29 is that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. He claimed the right to do this because he was doing what his Father did. His opponents saw in this reference to God as father a claim to divinity and therefore blasphemy. We can assume from that, that it was not the… Continue reading How does the Father relate to the Son? (A second look at John 5:19-27)
Mike Ovey on The Will of the Father and The Son
I have been looking at the Eternal Functional Subordination debate over a series of posts. We started with a brief look at a couple of Bible passages and it is my plan to to return to them in a little more detail towards the end before making some practical application. We then saw that central… Continue reading Mike Ovey on The Will of the Father and The Son
How does a Father Relate to his Son?
EFS advocates are primarily concerned with how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit relate to each other. There is no dispute about their oneness and equality when it comes to essence. The argument rather is that it is possible to identify distinctions in terms of persons and that this distinction includes a form of order.… Continue reading How does a Father Relate to his Son?
Why do we want to talk about one will in God?
The view of The Church over many centuries has been that the individual persons of the Trinity do not each have their own will, rather God has one will. This will is a property of his nature. This also leads to the conclusion that Jesus, having two natures, must have two wills, one human and… Continue reading Why do we want to talk about one will in God?
The Son with two wills
In my last article on EFS, I began to talk about something called the Third Council of Constantinople. You may be forgiven for not having heard of it even if you are well read in Church history and doctrine. It does not have the same prominence as some of the other Councils such as Chalcedon… Continue reading The Son with two wills
Eternal Functional Subordination, The Will of God and The Creeds
In the last two articles on EFS, we picked up on what Jesus says in John 5 and Matthew 26. We saw, that on the face of it, The Son submits his will to The Father. Proponents of EFS argue that this is exactly what the Son is doing and that this must be an… Continue reading Eternal Functional Subordination, The Will of God and The Creeds
The Son with amnesia?
In an earlier post, I talked about the challenges and the importance of talking about the Doctrine of God. I mentioned the controversy around the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Eternal Functional Subordination debate. Over the next few posts, I want to talk in a little more detail about this. My personal view is… Continue reading The Son with amnesia?
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