Theological term
Sabellianism
6 sermons · All terms
CTF 2025: What Are the Modern Day Issues With the Trinity?
Two ministers survey the modern doctrinal errors threatening a right understanding of the Trinity, contrasting them with the robust trinitarianism of the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689 LBCF) Chapter 2. The discussion identifies the eternal subordination of the Son controversy, Arianism, Sabellianism, and social trinitarianism as recurring and contemporary departures from orthodox Trinitarian confession. Particular attention is given to the Confession's insistence on the one will and one operation of God, against models that fracture the divine unity by assigning separate wills or discrete percentages of action to each person.
CTF 2025 - What Are the Modern Day Issues With the Trinity?
This preview conversation addresses two recurring categories of Trinitarian error — subordinationism and social Trinitarianism — that the Classical Theism and the Faith 2025 conference will treat. The speakers ground their discussion in 1689 LBCF Chapter 2, particularly paragraph 3, arguing that the eternal Son is fully equal with the Father (contra eternal subordination of the Son), and that the divine persons share one will and one operation (contra social Trinitarianism and tritheism). The practical stakes are high: errors in Trinitarian theology distort both worship and social ethics, and confessional churches must arm their people with the historic biblical formulation.
The Danger of Rejecting the Son
John 8:21–29 records Jesus warning a hostile religious leadership that they will die in their sins if they do not believe that He is the great I Am — the divine Son eternally generated from the Father, sent into the world in the economy of redemption. The sermon works through the passage in three movements: the announcement of Christ's departure and the condemnation it implies, the question of His identity and the slander levelled against Him, and the reference to His crucifixion as the moment of disclosure. The central doctrinal burden is that a deficient Christology — whether ancient Arianism, Sabellianism, or modern proposals of eternal functional subordination — amounts to the very unbelief Christ condemns, and that the church's primary calling is to preach the triune God with particular weight on who the Son is and what He has done for sinners.
The Ministry of the Holy Spirit
What is the Holy Spirit's relationship to the Father and the Son, and why does it matter that Christians understand this precisely? Working through Ephesians 1:13–14 as the destination, this sermon first establishes the full personal divinity of the Holy Spirit by tracing his presence and activity across both Testaments — from creation in Genesis 1 through the baptism of Christ, Pentecost, and the apostolic letters — demonstrating that the Spirit is not a force or a lesser deity but the third person of the one undivided triune God. The sermon draws on the 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 2 paragraph 3, the Nicene Creed, and a wide range of triadic New Testament texts to guard against the heresies of Sabellianism and Arianism. The congregation is called to pursue the knowledge of this triune God as the irreplaceable foundation of assurance, evangelism, and Christian perseverance.
Clip: Theology is crucial for every church and believer
Theology proper — the knowledge of who God is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is not an academic luxury but the essential foundation of Christian life, worship, and witness. This sermon clip from an exposition of Ephesians 1:3–14 argues that the church's tendency to rush past doxological passages to practical ethics has left believers spiritually thin, prone to a mercenary relationship with God rather than one grounded in the infinite riches of his grace. The preacher calls the congregation to disciplined study of the Trinity, warning that without it believers become vulnerable to ancient heresies and lose the impetus to proclaim Christ to a lost world.
The Superiority of Christ Over the Prophets
Hebrews 1:1–3 opens with a compressed Christological argument: God who spoke through the prophets of the old covenant has now spoken definitively and finally through His Son, and this Son is superior to every prophet in seven demonstrable ways. The sermon works through those seven evidences of Christ's supremacy — heir of all things, Creator, brightness of God's glory, express image of the Father's person, sovereign administrator, Savior, and exalted King — grounding each in the text and in supporting Scripture. Along the way it treats the unity of Scripture across the covenants, the cessation of new revelation, and the nature of the 'last days' as the present messianic era. The practical summons is to rest salvation entirely on Christ's finished work and to adore Him in His threefold office of prophet, priest, and king.