Timeline of Classical Theism

That's a great segue into the next question I have here. So, about building bridges in the Reformed world, but really thinking of Chapter 2, which is titled, Of God and the Holy Trinity. Can you trace out the development of triune thought? in classical theism from year zero to now, and try to highlight if any church groups are moved away and how it got back, or if it's more a common shared heritage. Just speak to that a little between our confession, the other confessions, and potentially broader into the broader church world to highlight distinction and unity of chapter two.

Wow. All right. That is a big question. Tracing the history of Trinitarian thought from year zero and moving forward.

Well, I think maybe just first, if we work backwards, the question about Chapter 2, across the confessions that you mentioned at the beginning here, so the Westminster, the Savoy, the Second London, the Belgic, and other Reformed confessions, historically there is a significant measure of solidarity at the point of the doctrine of God. The subject matter of Chapter 2, the divine perfections, and then the triune reality of our blessed God. So there is nothing but solidarity at the point of that chapter on the Reformed confessions. You know, in our modern day, there have been some deviations from historical classical theism.

We're seeing it considerably. But at the time of the writing of these confessions, there was a solidarity across Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists. And, you know, one of the things that we're trying to do with the conference, especially given the fact that it is on chapter 2, is to demonstrate that historical solidarity and, in a sense, to reclaim that doctrine of God that seems to have been fallen on hard times in our modern era. Yeah, and

Patristic and Medieval Inheritance

tracing it back from year zero going to our day, this is what the early church fathers taught. This is what the best medieval theologians taught. Certainly our Reformed confessions, they didn't do brand new work on chapter 2 or chapter 8 of Christ the Mediator. They reached back into the historical church and took the best creedal expressions of the that doctrine of God and the Holy Trinity.

So, for instance, in chapter 2, you see the backdrop of Nicaea as you work through there. Chapter 8, you see the backdrop of Chalcedon. So, when it comes to the Reformed confessions, We appreciate that those brothers stood on the shoulders of men that had gone before them. Now, that doesn't mean we agree with every jot and tittle of everything that every church father or every medieval theologian taught, but in those things most surely believed among us, vis-a-vis the doctrine of the Trinity, there has been a consistent expression of good theology in the life and context of the church.

And so, that's one of the main things that we want to call attention to and just to show that unity that we have. Again, differences, to be sure. variations in the tradition to some degree or other with reference to peripheral things. But when it comes to the doctrine of God, there's been a consistent exegetical tradition. We call that today, or it's been called today classical theism. some take exception with that term, whatever you want to call it.

However, the Scriptures articulate the doctrine of the Trinity, and then the Church, as gifts given by the ascended Christ, has theologized on Scripture and produced her creeds and confessions. We see that right up until the 20th century when there was some significant departure, and certainly that's carried through to today in the 21st century.

Classical Theism and Modern Departure

It used to be called Christianity. We call it classical theism, but it used to simply be Christianity. One of the phrases in the introduction to our confession of faith is,

Confessions as Received Heritage

we have no itch to clog religion with new words. And so, as Jim said, the confessionalists, those who frame these confessions, they are faithfully expressing what the Scriptures teach regarding these subjects, but they're also demonstrating that they are the inheritors of a received theological heritage. Spurgeon said something like, we take this doctrine of God and we make a pilgrimage into the past, And we see father after father, confessor after confessor, shaking hands with us and demonstrating that this is the doctrine of Christ's church. And that's what we're trying to express, to uphold, and to encourage with these conferences.