I think we're good with that. In terms of the positive that we're teaching about classical theism, great as per confession. What are a couple sort of modern issues that we will see come up contrasting Chapter 2, where current guys have gone away from the orthodox understanding? Well,
Eternal Subordination of the Son
I think one of the big ones is going to be the equality of the Son with the Father. You know, going back to 2016 when there seemed to be a little bit of an explosion with regards to the eternal subordination of the Son or the eternal functional subordination of the Son or eternal relationships of authority and submission. I think that will be one of the modern departures from historic truth that will be treated. Simply, and we sing it in the hymn, laud and honor to the Father, laud and honor to the Son, laud and honor to the Spirit, ever three and ever one.
And the old hymn used to have the lyrics, consubstantial, co-eternal, while unending ages run. The simple truth and the glorious truth is that the eternal Son, the eternally begotten Son of the Father, is equal with the Father, that there is no degradation in the Trinity, there is no hierarchy in the Trinity. And so that will certainly come up because that error has always been with us, and it seems that it will continue to be with us until Christ comes again, and so it's important that we educate our people in the churches. And these conferences, again, these conferences don't replace church, but they're a good avenue to bring up the truths of the Bible and to target and inoculate ourselves against these modern errors and arm us with the blessed truth against such departures from it.
Yeah, and I would say that
Arianism and Sabellianism
historically, I mean, there's a lot of errors and a lot of heresies involved in the Trinity and in Christology. I would say two of the primary ones, or the overarching ones, would be Arianism, which has a problem with the unity of the divine essence, and then Sabellianism, which has a problem with the triunity of persons. So, those always raise their heads in every generation it seems. And again, you could fill, you know, a book with the various departures, but those seem to be kind of, you know, recurring challenges to the doctrine of the Trinity as espoused in Scripture and formulated in the creeds and confessions.
Yeah, and I think when
Social Trinitarianism and Tritheism
paragraph 3 of chapter 2 is treated as well, there will probably be something of a discussion on social Trinitarianism, which seems to be closer to tritheism than actual biblical Trinitarianism, because it does separate the persons in a particular sense, you know, saying that the Trinity is more of a community than it is the one God who eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The connected error to that is the The assertion that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have separate wills and separate operations. And our confession, very carefully, and actually our Second London Baptist Confession, the paragraph three is much more robust. then we have the advantage of time, mind you, because we came after the Congregationalists and before them, the Presbyterians. But it's a very robust chapter that articulates, in fact, in a very Trinitarian way, the oneness of God, the threeness of persons, the oneness of God, the threeness, the oneness and the threeness.
It reiterates it and it establishes against such modern errors like social Trinitarianism or Tritheism, which we probably don't see as much as the Arianism and the Sabellianism that Jim talked about. but certainly the upholding of the one will and the one operation of God. That the persons aren't acting in such a manner where the Father does 33 and a third percent, the Son the same, the Spirit the same, but much rather that
One Will and One Operation
all the outward acts of God are the acts of the one and only living and true God who eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And as we've seen in our Saturday morning studies, I think it was Barrett's book, Simply Trinity, all the social Trinitarian models produce leftism and communism. So practically it's a bad way to go. Yeah, very good.