Church Principles

The Doctrine of the Trinity

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:13:42 +0000

Rev John Morrison

GENERAL REMARKS
From the outset it has to be said that this is an extremely difficult doctrine. It is so difficult that no illustration is available to simplify it. To many people out with Christianity this doctrine implies polytheism, because they conclude that three persons mean three Gods. Historically, the controversies about this doctrine centred on the one hand on the protecting of monotheism, but in doing this there was the denial of the personal distinctions within the Godhead; and on the other hand failure to handle correctly the essential deity of the second Person (the Son), and the third Person (the Holy Spirit). Going back to the days of Origen, he regarded the Son as subordinate to the Father, and the Holy Spirit subordinate to the Son; and there were others with a similar view. The Arians denied the deity of both the Son and the Holy Spirit. They represented the Son as the first creation of God – a doctrine held by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. To preserve the unity of God the other two Persons were made to differ in rank thus discarding their consubstantiality. The three persons were also seen as a number of modes in which God revealed Himself.

At the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, the Son was declared to be co-essential with the Father. It took a further fifty six years before the deity of the Holy Spirit was dealt with at the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD. This attempt was not sufficiently adequate. There was official agreement that the Son was generated by the Father, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. It was the work of Augustine that removed the elements of subordination, and was a complete statement. During the Post Reformation period this doctrine was again under attack. The Arminians regarded the Father as having preeminence over the Son and the Holy Spirit. To Schleirmacher the Trinity was just three aspects of God.

GOD AS TRINITY IN UNITY
God is Tri-personal and this is essential to His Being, and indeed explains the difficulty in illustrating this mysterious doctrine. W.G.T.Shedd says that there is a general self-consciousness of the Triune God as distinguished from the particular individual self-consciousness of each of the Persons of the Trinity. For in self-consciousness the subject must know itself as an object, and also perceive that it does. This is possible in God because of His Trinal existence. God could not be self-contemplating, self-cognitive, and self-communicating, if He were not Trinal in His constitution. (Dogmatic Theology p 393).

Because of limited space it is necessary to restrict Biblical passages to just a selected few from the many that could be cited. How clearly is this doctrine stated in the Old Testament? It has to be said that the three Persons are not named in any single verse. The name of God, Elohim, is appealed to because it is plural. The plural is to be found in some passages and the following are examples: In Genesis 1: 26, And God said let us make man in our image after our likeness; and in Genesis 11: 7, Go to let us go down and there confound their language……. There are of course many references to the promised Messiah throughout the Old Testament, and supposing no other passages in the Old Testament referred to His coming except the following, they would suffice: Isaiah 7: 14, Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall be called Immanuel: and Isaiah 9: 6, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

In the New Testament Mark 1: 11 accounts for two of the Persons, the Father speaking from heaven, and the Son; and in John 1: 32 –34 we have in that passage the Son and the Holy Spirit, with reference to the first Person, And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. Throughout the accounts by the four evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - there are constant references to the Father and Son, and also to the Spirit. In passages such as Acts 2 we have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; and in Acts 8: 28 and Acts 11: 12 speech is attributed to the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 4: 30 warning is given against grieving the Spirit; and in Mark 3: 29 blaspheming the Holy Spirit is an unpardonable sin: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost (Spirit) hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation. However, the only passage where the three Persons are named is

2
Matthew 28: 19, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

From this it follows that the above passages demonstrate that upon them is based a Tri-personal Godhead. Therefore in the Divine Being there is one indivisible essence and hence God is One in His constituted nature- There is but one God the living and true only. (Question/Answer 5 Westminster Shorter Catechism based on Deuteronomy 6: 4, and Jeremiah 10: 10.)

By this doctrine is meant that there are three individual subsistences, or distinctions. It is relatively easy to speak of distinctions among human beings, but in referring to distinctions within the Godhead great care must be exercised. There is a personal self-distinction within the divine essence, and not a different essence that constitutes each Person. To John Calvin, Persons meant subsistence, and what distinguishes each Person are incommunicable properties, such as begetting which belongs to the first Person, the Father, begotten, to the second Person, the Son, and procession, to the third Person, the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

The uniqueness of the divine nature is that it can subsist wholly in more than one Person. The unity of the essence in person is regarded as the numerical unity. In regards to personal subsistence, ontologically the Father is first, the Son second, and the Holy Spirit third, but this does not for one moment suggest subordination. The succinct definition of the Godhead in the Westminster Shorter Catechism Question/Answer 6 states, There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

The outward working is called the Economic Trinity. Regarding redemption, the planning is ascribed to the Father, the purchasing of redemption to the Son, and the application of redemption to the Holy Spirit. For this reason we see Father applied to the Triune God as the originator not just of redemption only, but also the work of creation and providence; Ephesians 3: 14 – 15, and James 1: 17. He is also Father in the relationship between the first and the second Person of the Trinity whereby God calls the latter His Son, because He is eternally begotten of Him; and the Son calls Him Father; references to this relationship can be found in John 1: 14, 18; John 8: 54; John 14: 12 – 13. He is also called Father in His theocratic relation to Israel in Deuteronomy 32: 6, Isaiah 64: 8, and Malachi 1: 6. In the New Testament He is a Father to all who love him, and by the Spirit of adoption acknowledge Him to be so, Romans 8: 15- 17, and 1 John 3: 1. Erring on this doctrine is a fundamental error. There is no doubt that most heresies involve erroneous views of the Trinity.

Psalms only: right or wrong?

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:20:47 +0100

Rev KM Macdonald

“Why do you only sing Psalms?”

I am sure most of us have been in situations where we have had visitors to our congregations who are taken aback by our material of praise

It does seem genuinely strange to them to find us singing “songs and hymns” that are not familiar to them. Even when we explain that we only sing Psalms, the reality is that that can still draw blank looks and leave them just as bemused. In most cases there will be a need to further define why we only sing Psalms in public worship, and how we have them in metrical form. It is also important to explain that we are not anti-hymns, but that such can only be used outwith public worship.

We should remind people that the Psalms are not only full of references to the Saviour, but also clearly refer in many instances to the different experiences of man, even as he is today, saved and unsaved. No one singing these words need ever be distracted as they sing, wondering as to whether the sentiments expressed are theologically correct. Sadly we cannot have that confidence in much of what passes as Praise in many churches today.

We should not be apologetic in any way for only using “God’s Hymn Book” and at the same time take the opportunity, despite the ignorant cry heard so often “what about Jesus?,” to show that while we may not sing the name of Jesus that our Psalms are full of Christ.

The reality is that many have never considered that these very Psalms, (in Hebrew form of course) were the songs of praise on the lips of our Saviour, and was the only book of praise in the Second Temple.

“Show me examples in the Psalms of references to Jesus.”

Numerous examples of direct, or typical references to Christ are scattered throughout this wonderful Biblical Book.

Messianic passages can be found in Psalms 2, 8,16, 22, 40, 45, 68, 69, 72, 110.
Consider him as King for example in Psalm 2, 45, 72, and as King and Priest in 110.
If any have eyes to see, who cannot but recognise Christ referred to in his sufferings in Psalm 69 and 22?

When we take the words of Psalm 22

“My God my God why hast thou me forsaken why so far
Art thou from helping me, and from my words that roaring are?” (vs.1)

or else,

“For dogs have compassed me about; the wicked that did meet
In their assembly, me inclosed; they pierced my hands and feet.”
(vs 16)

who would dare say that they have composed better words describing the suffering of our Redeemer as he hung there on the cursed tree?

His glorious resurrection is before us in 16,

“Because my soul in grave to dwell shall not be left by thee;
Nor wilt thou give thine Holy One corruption to see.”

and his ascension in 68.

“Thou hast O Lord most glorious ascended up on high;
And in triumph victorious led captive captivity”

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. (Luke 24:44)

“How can the Psalms be as relevant as recently-composed hymns?”
When we read and sing;

“His mouth with cursing, fraud deceit, is filled abundantly;
And underneath his tongue there is mischief and vanity”

in Psalm 10, do we not recognise man, every man, in his sinful state?

We can read and sing of the contrast between the worldly and the godly in the first Psalm,
“That man hath perfect blessedness who walketh not astray
In counsel of ungodly men nor stands in sinners’ way.”

then turn to Psalm 40, and there praise the Lord in the words that every convert to the Lord Jesus Christ can sing with thankfulness;

“He took me from a fearful pit and from the miry clay
And on a rock he set my feet establishing my way.”

The experience of backsliding is brought before us in Psalm 81,

“But yet my people to my voice would not attentive be…”

but also the sweet sense of restoration in the 23rd.

The Psalms we sing are also full of the prayers of the holy psalmists led by the Holy Spirit as we find for example in the 85th, which we can read and sing for our own edification and worship of the Lord. No wonder Spurgeon would say, “The Holy Ghost by David has furnished us with the best expressions which we can utter before the Lord in prayer”

We sing of children in the 127th psalm; of mothers in 139; of fathers in 103 and of old age in 71.

We rejoice as we lift up our voices in praise for the assurance we have that God will be our strength and help in the words of Psalm 46,

“God is our refuge and our strength in straits a present aid;
Therefore although the earth remove we will not be afraid.”

and then we can praise him with the beautiful words of the unity of Church in the 133rd Psalm.

“Behold how good a thing it is and how becoming well
Together such as brethren are in unity to dwell.”

The words of the Apostle come to mind “And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me …” to speak of Psalms that show the divinity and the humanity of Christ; of his eternal sonship; of his trial; of his burial; of his second coming and the triumph of his kingdom.
For ourselves as we struggle along life’s journey we find experiences authored by the Holy Spirit that will address our times of encouragement and failure; of mountain top experiences and valleys; of the sense of sin within and without; of our fears and hopes.

“Every emotion of the renewed heart Godwards” said John (Rabbi) Duncan, “ finds adequate expression in the book of Psalms”

In our Praise, in our times of Public Worship, we cannot better what he himself has given us to use.

The Kingship of Christ (2)

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 22:56:59 +0000

CHRIST’S KINGSHIP
Rev. John Morrison

This is the second part of an article dealing with the Kingship of Christ. The earlier article dealt with the nature of His Kingship.

Its Duration
There are numerous views expressed on this point, some of which are unscriptural. Those who hold to the view that it will not commence until His second advent, deny Christ’s present mediatorial Kingship. Others restrict His Kingship to His ascension. But according to the Scriptures His appointment as mediatorial King was received in eternity, and it became effective immediately after the fall. His mediatorial Kingship was indispensably necessary to believers in both the Old and the New Testament. In the Old Testament it was carried out through the judges and the typical kings.
Shedd says: The Logos was not actually and historically a mediator until He assumed human nature. In the Old Testament it was discharged by anticipation – it was in view of His future advent. Until there was a miraculous conception was there actually a God-man, and not until then was there an actual mediator. And regarding its duration he says: …..there will be no longer an access to a holy God for sinful men through Christ’s blood.. According to him the mediatorial office is temporary: It begins in time and a time will come when it will cease to be exercised. This is taught in 1 Corinthians 15: 24 – 28. As there was once a time when there was no mediatorial work of salvation going on, so there will be a time when there will be none.( p677 Dogmatic Theology). Turretin supposes that the delegated mediatorial kingdom over the church will undergo a change in the mode of administration at the final consummation, but in other respects that it will continue because the Theanthropos will be the direct medium for the saints guidance and government forever and ever. Dabney speaks in a similar vein, His people will need protection and guidance, just as they will need teaching and intercession forever. For their glorification will not render them naturally impeccable or infallible…..But it seems far more natural to suppose that these blessings will still be given through Christ their Head to whom they were spiritually united at conversion. (Lectures in Systematic Theology pp551, 555). Dick did not see the necessity of a mediatorial work in glory, and that God would deal directly with the saints.

Of course a distinction must be drawn between His universal Kingship and His spiritual Kingship. The latter will never end, but the former will be given up according to 1 Cor 15: 24. As King of the universe He promotes the interests of His Church, defending it against its enemies, and directing all things for the good of His people. This kingship was a promised reward according to Ps 2: 8 – 9; and Eph 1: 20 –22, and also part of His exaltation. It did not add anything to the power He already had as God, but as the God-man He was put in possession of it. This reign will continue until all his enemies are destroyed and death abolished. At the consummation of all things the God-man will give up the authority conferred on Him and return the commission to God the Father that He may be all in all.

Turretin states that 1Cor 15: 24 can be understood in two ways: (1) Thus the sense is that Christ (the work of salvation having been consummated) will bring to the Father the Church perfectly consummated and redeemed from all enemies, to be fully blessed according to the oracle of Isaiah: This is claimed for Christ “Behold I and the children whom God has given me” Heb 2: 13; but still in such a way that he will always remain the head. And (2) Or understood formally as to the mode of its administration which is concerned with collecting, governing and defending the Church from her enemies (which will have no place after her enemies are vanquished). Thus he will deliver up the kingdom not by a disposition and abdication of it, but by an exhibition of it as consummated. (Vol 2 p 493 Institutes of Elenctic Theology).
Charles Hodge, in commenting on 1Cor 15: 24 expresses more or less a similar view: It must be remembered, that the Scriptures speak of a threefold kingdom as belonging to Christ. 1. That which necessarily belongs to him as a divine person, extending over all creatures, and of which he can never divest himself. 2. That which belongs to him as the incarnate Son of God extending over all his own people. This also is everlasting. He will for ever remain the head and sovereign of the redeemed. 3. That dominion to which he was exalted after his resurrection, when all power in heaven and earth was committed to his hands. This kingdom which he exercises as the Theanthropos, and which extends over all principalities and powers, he is to deliver up when the work of redemption is accomplished. He was invested with this dominion in his mediatorial character for the purpose of carrying on the work to its consummation. (The First Epistle to the Corinthians p 330).

The Kingship of Christ (1)

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 23:39:40 +0000

CHRIST’S KINGSHIP
Rev. John Morrison

Introduction
The Kingship of Christ is referred to in the following passages: Psalm 2: 6, Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion; Psalm 132: 11, The Lord has sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne; Daniel 2: 44, And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever; Luke 1: 33, And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end; John 18: 36, Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. There are other relevant passages but these suffice.
The kingship of Christ in defined in the Westminster Larger Catechism Q/A 45: Christ executeth the office of a king, in calling out of the world a people to himself, and giving them officers, laws and censures, by which he visibly governs them; in bestowing saving grace on the elect, rewarding their obedience, and correcting them for their sins, preserving and supporting them under all their temptations and sufferings, restraining and overcoming all their enemies, and powerfully ordering all things for his own glory, and their good; and also in taking vengeance on the rest, who know not God and obey not the gospel.

His Kingly office extends to three spheres, the visible church, the invisible church and the world. The most import of the three is the invisible church. Every member of the invisible church was elected to eternal life from eternity, and for such Christ suffered, died and rose again. Some of its members are in glory, others are at present in the world who have come to a saving knowledge of Christ, others are in the world who are His but have not yet been effectually called, and also all they who are His in the generations following.

The Nature of the Kingship
In dealing with Christ’s Kingly office, it has to be made sufficiently clear that as the second Person of the Trinity coequal with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, He has original right in having dominion over the whole universe. However, that authority is different in a number of ways from His mediatorial Kingship, because He is invested with the latter, and it is exercised as the God-man (Theanthrpos), and consists of His Kingly rule in the world, and indeed in the Universe - for all power has been given unto Him in heaven and in earth- restraining and overcoming the enemies of His church, ordering all things to His glory and their good. This rule extends to the Day of Judgment.

Christ’s spiritual kingship is established in the hearts and lives of His people, and administered by the Word and Spirit, and the government of the church. But He who is their King is also the Head. The following passages refer to the Headship: Eph 1: 22 – 23; And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all; Col 1: 18, And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. The citizenship of the Kingdom is co-existent with the invisible Church’s membership. A distinction has to be made. The former is more extensive than the latter because ‘…it extends to life in all its manifestations.’ The visible church is the external organisation of the Kingdom. Within the visible church membership there are both the Kingdom’s citizens and others though professing to belong to Christ are ignorant of His saving grace.

The spiritual character of the kingdom applies to both the Old Testament and the New. It was somewhat obscured by the ceremonial law, in comparison with the New Testament. Regarding the latter there are frequent references in it to the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of heaven – these are employed interchangeably and mean the same. The Premillinarians view the kingdom of God as the universal kingdom, and the kingdom of heaven as Christ’s mediatorial kingdom. But this distinction is incorrect. This is not a natural kingdom. Jesus reminded Nicodemus that it is not possible to enter into it but by the rebirth. John 3: 1 –8; and this subject is also dealt with in Luke `17: 20 –21, And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! Or Lo there! For the kingdom of God is .within you. Some are of the view that the present kingdom will become the ‘……. future kingdom imperceptibly….’ This however is not the teaching of Scripture according to Matt 24: 21 – 44; 1 Thess 5: 2- 3; and 2 Pet 3: 10 – 12. Although the kingdom is more extensive than the church, it is through the church that it can extend.

This article will be continued shortly. The second part will focus on The Duration of Christ’s Kingship.