Herman Bavinck: Reformed Dogmatics Volume 2: God and Creation
I. Old Testament Seeds
A. Creation is viewed by Scripture as being by God, his Word and his Spirit. The Trinity is revealed in God’s revelation to Israel. YHWH reveals himself as the God of the covenant through his word which is given by the angel of the Lord and endows his people with many gifts through his Spirit.
II. Intertestamental Judaism
A. Wisdom was personified and given divine attributes in Jewish apocryphal writing of this time. Greek philosophy is also evident in these writings. Ideas and reason are personified.
A. All of the New Testament is Trinitarian, not just isolated verses. The Trinity is revealed in the birth of Jesus, his baptism and his commission to his church. The Father is called “Father” because he is eternally the father of Jesus. He is the initiator of creation and re-creation.
B. The Son is revealed in the New Testament with a variety of titles. He is the “Logos,” it is through the word that God has revealed himself in creation and recreation. He is the “Son of God” metaphysically by his nature throughout eternity. He is the true “image of God.”
C. The Holy Spirit is the breath of God. He proceeds from God, given by the Father and the Son. In Scripture he performs personal activities and is ascribed divine attributes.
IV. Development of Trinitarian Dogma
A. The early church fathers believed that Christ was God; their understanding was based on the Scripture, not philosophy. The Holy Spirit he is viewed as equal to the Father and Son. In the second century the deity is expressed in even clearer terms as the church battles Gnosticism. Justin Martyr called Jesus God but his view was defective viewing Christ as subordinate.
B. Irenaeus believed that the Son existed from eternity and is God and there is unity between the three persons but he does not address the distinction. Tertullian developed the doctrine of the Trinity further, supplying the terms used today: three persons, one substance distinct in order and economy. Origen viewed the generation of the Son as eternal and therefore always existing.
C. At Nicaea Origen’s subordinationism was rejected by the council of Nicaea. Nicaea affirmed there was a distinction between the three persons but one God. Augustine an introduced important modification to the doctrine by beginning with the essence and not the Father. The essence is the same in each of the three persons, though the Father is still the fountainhead of the deity.
V. The Opposition: Arianism and Sabellianism
A. Arianism is the belief that the Father is God alone and that the Son is inferior and is not divine. The Son is placed between the eternal God and the created universe and he is somewhere in the spectrum between the two depending on the form of Arianism.
B. Sabellianism denies that God is three persons, the Father, Son and Spirit are seen as one being, the personal properties are denied.
VI. Trinitarian Terminology
A. As the doctrine developed it was evident that the terminology needed to expand beyond the vocabulary of the Bible which reflected the way Jesus and the apostles quoted Scripture.
B. Being was originally synonymous with nature. Sustantia, essentia and natura were used regularly of the divine essence. The term “persons” is used to distinguish not by mode but by unique existence.
VII. Distinctions among the Three Persons
A. The first person of the Trinity is the Father and his personal attribute is fatherhood and unbegottenness which sets him apart from creation. He is the eternally Father.
B. The personal attribute of the second person of the Trinity is filiation. The Father begets the Son from his being and in eternity, not once but perpetually.
VIII. East and West
A. Athanasius believed that the Holy Spirit proceeded from God through the Son. But Augustine saw the three in relation to the Godhead, so he believed that both the Father and Son were the “originating cause” of the Holy Spirit (316). This lead to a division in the church. The Western church followed Augustine but the Eastern church continued to follow Athanasius.
IX. The Trinitarian Economy
A. The “ontological Trinity is mirrored in the economical” (318). The works are performed by God, yet each person fulfills the work in relation to their order in the Trinity.
X. Trinitarian Analogies and Arguments
A. The number three occurs in Scripture, in other religions, nature, philosophy, grammar, and even language. The church attempted to use these naturally occurring triads to explain the Trinity.
XI. The Importance of Trinitarian Dogma
A. The doctrine of the Trinity has to be based on Scripture alone and cannot be proved with arguments based on reason or philosophy though these arguments can help dispel the myth that the Trinity is absurd or impossible. The doctrine of the Trinity is important because it makes God known to us as living not abstract. It reveals his fullness, his unity in diversity.
John Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion
I. How God is to Be Distinguished from Idols
A. Scripture bears witness that there is one God and his divinity cannot be transferred to others. The Lord has revealed the form of worship that he desires through his law. The idols who are raised up and the saints venerated steal his glory.
B. The distinction between latria and dulia renders service to the saints and honor to God but to be enslaved means giving honor to the one who owns you and therefore the saints receive more than God.
C. Paul condemns the dulia of the Galatians and John was rebuked by the angel for giving him honor. Though Cornelius did not intend to worship Peter but only honor him, he was still warned not to do it.
II. In Scripture We Are Taught One Essence of God, Which Contains Three Persons
A. God is spoken of anthropomorphically in the Bible, it is God lisping for our benefit but it does not truly express who God is.
B. God is set apart from other gods by his triune nature. The Son’s hypostasis distinguishes him from God the Father and the same can be said of the Holy Spirit. There are three hypostases in God.
C. “Trinity” and “persons” clarify the truth found in Scripture. Those who reject unbiblical words impose an interpretation “patched together out of the fabric of Scripture” (124).
D. These expressions are helpful in indentifying false teachers. Though Arius confessed that Jesus was the Son of God, he believed that he was created and therefore rejected homoousious. The church responded to Sabellius’ heresy of three modes, one person by stating that God was a Trinity of persons.
E. There has been some confusion in the church over the use of these theological terms. The Western church used homoousious instead of essence to indicate that Christ was of the same substance as the Father. Jerome stated it was a sacrilege to say there were three substances and yet Hillary said it.
F. Person is called “subsistence” which is different from essence. If the Word was exactly the same as God with no distinctions, then John could not say that “the word was with God” (John 1:1).
G. The Son was the word spoken at creation, the world was made through him and he upholds all things by his powerful word (Heb 1:2-3). John states that Christ was at the beginning with the Father (John 1:1-3). The Spirit of Christ spoke through the prophets (1 Peter 1:10-11).
H. Some believe that the Word began at creation but that would contradict James who said that there is no variation or change in God (James 1:17) and Jesus said that he was with the Father before the foundation of the universe (John 17:5).
I. Christ’s deity is confirmed by the Old Testament. In Psalm 45 and Isaiah 9 he is called God and in Jeremiah 23:5-6, he is called “The LORD is our righteousness.”
J. The angel of God was Christ. He referred to himself as God and permitted a sacrifice to himself that a created angel would not allow (Judge 13:16). Manoah realizes from this that he has seen the Lord.
K. Isaiah’s prophecy that the Lord of Hosts would be a “stone of stumbling” (Isa. 8:14) is fulfilled by Christ (Rom. 9:32-33) and it was the glory of Christ that was revealed to Isaiah (John 12:40).
L. When Christ said that he has been working with the Father from the beginning, the Jews realized that he was equating himself with God and sought to kill him (John 5:17, 18). God blots out transgressions (Is. 43:25), yet Jesus says that he can forgive sins and proves it by a miracle (Matt. 9:6).
M. Christ demonstrates his own power and divinity by the miracles he and the disciples perform. Those who call on God’s name will be saved (Joel 2:32), but we are saved in the name of Christ.
N. The deity of the Spirit of God is evidenced by his works in creation, empowerment of the prophets, sustaining, regeneration, communion with God, justification, sanctification, and apportioning gifts.
O. The Scriptures refer to the Holy Spirit as God. The church is called the temple of God in which the Holy Spirit dwells (1 Cor. 3:16-17). Ananias is rebuked by Peter for lying to the Holy Spirit saying that he lied to God (Acts 5:3-4). Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven (Matt. 12:31).
P. When Christ commanded the apostles to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit he was commanding them to baptize in the name of God.
Q. There is a distinction between the Father, Son and Spirit but not a division. This distinction existed throughout eternity not just from the time that Christ became man, he was the only begotten at his Father’s side (John 1:18).
S. The Father is the creator, the Son is the wisdom and counsel and the order of all things and the Spirit is the power. The Father is first and then the Son is from him and the Spirit is from both.
T. The distinction between the Father and Son is in relation not essence. In himself, the Son is the beginning but in relation to the Father his beginning is the Father.
U. God is to be understood as one God in essence and three persons. The name God refers to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit but since there is an order the name of God is applied to the Father.
V. We need to leave to God the knowledge of himself. He is his only witness and nothing can be known of him except what he reveals. We are to confine ourselves to his word to understand him.
W. God’s essence is simple, not divided, but there is a distinction between the Father, Son and Spirit. If we hold to this doctrine, then we will not fall into the error of Arius and Sabellius.
X. Some believe that God the Father formed the Son and the Spirit and infused his deity into them as an “essence giver” (149). Since Christ is called the Son of God, the Father alone bears the title “God.” But the apostles attributed to Christ Old Testament passages that refer to God.
Y. When called “good” (Matt. 19:17), Christ repudiates the honor since his goodness is divine. Every knee shall bow (Phil. 2:10). Christ was equal to God before he humbled himself (Phil. 2:6-7).
Z. The essence of Christ is without beginning but the beginning of his person is God.
AA. The Father is the beginning of deity and the Son, as mediator, holds “the middle rank between God and man” (155). When Jesus says that “the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), he was not saying that he was inferior to the Father in essence, he was acknowledging the Father’s higher rank.
BB. Those who reject the deity of Christ look to Irenaeus who said that the Father is alone the God of Israel but he was contending with those who thought that the Father of the New Testament was not the same as the God of the Old Testament. They also try to use Tertullian but he advocated that “God is one in unity of substance, and nonetheless the unity is disposed into a Trinity by the mystery of dispensation or economy” (157).
CC. The doctrine of the Trinity was supported by the early church. Justin supports it on every point as does Hillary and though they call the Father “the one God” that does not mean they deny the deity of Christ.
Francis Turretin: Institutes of Elenctic Theology
I. Middle Knowledge
A. Knowledge of God is divided into natural and indefinite which concerns possible things and free and definite which concerns future things. Middle knowledge is between natural and free, it is God’s foreknowledge of an event that depends on the free actions of creatures. It is unbiblical since God’s knowledge is not contingent.
II. The Will of God
A. God wills both by a hypothetical and absolute necessity. He is good and the end of all things and he cannot but will all things. He “cannot nill his glory or deny himself” (219).
III. The will is distinguished between decree and precept
A. There is a distinction in the will of God between his perceptive will which is resistible and his decretive will which is irresistible.
IV. The Will Cannot Be Distinguished into Antecedent and Consequent.
A. The antecedent will is God’s purpose in saving all men and his consequent will is his decree to save only believers and to damn the unbelievers. The problem with this view is that God would have contradictory wills and he would be impotent since he wills something he is unable to accomplish.
V. No Cause Can Be Assigned to the Will of God
A. The will of God is not caused by something outside of himself since his will is the cause of everything. God cannot be moved to will anything. The reason for the will of God can be secret to us.
VI. Is the Will of God the Primary Rule of Justice?
A. God’s justice regulates his will and our justice is regulated by his will.
VII. The Justice of God
A. The Scocinians believed that justice is not part of God’s nature, his justice is the effect of his will but the orthodox believe that his justice is a property of God (with some variations). It is confirmed by: Scripture (Rom. 1:18; Ex. 34:7), the widely held belief in the religions of the world that God is just and his wrath must be appeased by sacrifices, the law of God which demonstrates that there is a connection between sin, sacrifice and punishment, and Christ’s death on the cross.
VIII. The Goodness, Love, Grace and Mercy of God
A. God is good absolutely in himself and extrinsically toward his creation. The goodness of God extends to all creatures but not equally. Love flows from God’s goodness and is diverse. Love is succeeded by grace which is God’s gracious love given to his creatures who are without merit. Mercy comes from God’s goodness toward the undeserving sinner. God grants mercy to both the elect and the reprobate, granting eternal blessings to one and temporal blessings to the other.
IX. The Power of God
A. God is able to do whatsoever he wills but he is bound by his nature. He cannot do what is morally impossible due to his holiness and he cannot do what is supernaturally impossible but he can do what is supernaturally possible (the resurrection) and what is naturally possible (creation).
X. The Dominion and Sovereignty of God
A. God is the Lord of heaven and earth and by his very nature has dominion over his creation. His dominion is absolute, universal and limitless.
XI. The Holy Trinity
A. Essence (ousias) “denotes the whatness of a thing” (253). It is the “I am” of Exodus 3:14, God’s deity and nature.
B. There was some confusion over the term “substance” in the church. Hillary saw it as “three subsistences in the deity” (253) others viewed it as essence or nature.
C. Subsistence was view as personality. To subsist means a “mode of existing proper to substances” (253) it is used to exclude accidents.
D. The Greeks used the word “hypostae?s” to denote subsistence which led to quarrels with the Western church. Athanasius asserted that hypostasis was substance and meant that something existed.
E. Although the word “Trinity” is not in Scripture the idea is there (1 John 5:7). God is triune “not triple because there are three persons, but only one numerical essence” (255).
F. The word “homoousion” (same in essence and nature) was used during the Arius controversy to distinguish the orthodox position from Arianism (homousion, meaning of a similar substance).
G. Emperich?r?sis is the union of the three persons of the Trinity, though it is not used in Scripture the idea is there (John 10:38; 14:11).
H. Can we use these terms even though they are not used in Scripture? They are necessary to separate orthodoxy from heresy and other terms such as “sacraments” and “original sin” are not in Scripture.
XII. The Trinity Is a Fundamental Article of Faith
A. Eternal life is based on this knowledge (John 17:3). It was the universal belief of the ancient church which is attested by the writings of the fathers, the creeds, councils and the confessions.
XIII. In the Divine Essence There Are Three Distinct Persons
A. The Trinity is proved by the baptism of Christ where the Father spoke from heaven, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and the Son ascended from the Jordan (Matt. 3:16, 17). The baptism of a Christian is in the name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).
XIV. The Mystery of the Trinity Is Proved from the Old Testament
A. In Genesis 1:26 God is not speaking of himself in the royal “we” since it was unknown in this idiom and it is not used of monarchs. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that man was created in the image of angels.
B. In Hosea 1:7 God says, “I will deliver them by the LORD their God,” in Genesis 19:24 the Lord rained down brimstone from the Lord out of heaven, and the “Lord said to my Lord” in Psalm 110:1.
C. God delivered Israel from Egypt. The angel of the Lord went before Israel in a pillar of cloud and fire. In Isaiah 63 the Holy Spirit is said to have been a part of the deliverance of Israel.
D. The distinct persons are evident in the messianic passages (Is. 61:1, 2; Haggai 2:4,5).
XV. The Divine Persons Can Be Distinguished from the Essence and Each Other
A. The Father is self-begotten (though unbegotten), the Son is begotten of the Father and the Spirit is from the Father and the Son by spiration. They are distinct in terms of relation and works.
XVI. The Son Is True and Eternal God
A. That the Son of God is eternal and consubstantial with the Father can be proved by Scripture: he is called God (Ps. 45:7; Isa. 9:6), divine attributes are attributed to him such as eternity (Is. 9:6; ), omnipresence (Matt. 18:20), and others (Matt. 28:18; John 2:24, 25), by his divine works of creation (John 1:13), miracles (John 5:21), and salvation (Eph. 5:26), and by worship (Phil. 2:9-11).
XVII. The Eternal Generation of the Son
A. The Son was begotten by the Father from eternity, necessarily and voluntarily. In Psalm 2:7 God declares, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you,” this is applied to Christ (Acts 4:5).
XVIII. The Deity of the Holy Spirit
A. That the Holy Spirit is a person can be proved by: actions attributed to him such as teaching, and creating, he is called “another Paraclete” by Christ and physically appearing as a dove at Christ’s baptism and as tongues of fire at Pentecost.
B. That the Holy Spirit is God can be proved by: being called God in Scripture (Acts 28:25, 26), his divine attributes such as eternity (Gen. 1:2), omnipresence (Ps. 139:7, 8), omniscience (John 16:13), and omnipotence (Luke 1:35), and by his works of creation, salvation, and miracles and the divine worship that he is given in Scripture.
XIX. The Procession of the Holy Spirit
A. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and this proceeding is different from the generation of the Son since they are different persons with different relationships. The nature of this distinction is a mystery.
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