“The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me” (John 10:25). John 1-12, the so-called “Book of Signs,” provides the Fourth Evangelist’s testimony regarding Jesus’ public ministry. According to John, the marvelous words and deeds that Jesus speaks and performs during his public ministry reveal the truth about his person. John […]
The greatest prooftext for the doctrine of eternal generation?
The doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son is a central feature of orthodox Christian teaching. In this doctrine, the church confesses not simply that the second person of the Trinity is the one true and living God but how he is the one true and living God: as the Son eternally begotten by […]
God’s singular sovereign agency
I am currently working on an essay on the external works of the Trinity. Below is an excerpt, which focuses on the “oneness” of those external works. Scripture repeatedly draws our attention to the connection between the oneness of God and the oneness of God’s agency in his external works. In response to God’s wonderful […]
Divine agency in Nicene perspective
God acts. God is known by his acts. Few theological propositions are more foundational to Christian theology and theological method than these two. The modern “revival” of trinitarian theology relied on a version of these two propositions in its quest to discover the so-called “immanent Trinity” by means of the “economic Trinity.” That quest has […]
Ten theses on the externally directed works of the Trinity
I posted the following theses last week on Twitter. I am reposting them here for the sake of ease in reading them. (1) Because the divine nature is one, there is one divine agency. (2) However, only persons, not natures act. (This is missing in some post-2016 discussions.) (3) In order to appreciate how divine […]
“Idiocy” in trinitarian theology
We sometimes miss significant aspects of biblical teaching on the Trinity because we are unfamiliar with philosophical terms and concepts common in the ancient world. One such example is the Greek term ἴδιος and the philosophical concept of a “natural property” to which the term sometimes refers. The semantic range of ἴδιος is fairly broad. […]
