The best (old) explanation...

A bite-sized lesson in doctrine: 1 Concept, 2 Definitions, 3 Passages...

Welcome back to Theology Thursday!

Here is your bite-sized lesson in orthodox biblical doctrine in 3 simple steps:

ONE concept explained

TWO concise definitions that must be kept distinct

THREE Scripture passages to meditate on

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Concept: Three Persons or Subsistences

God eternally exists as one essence in three distinct persons. What distinguishes the person of the Trinity? Subordination? Mission? Differing roles? Below is the Athanasian Creed. This stands among some of the earliest creeds of the Christian church and properly communicates Scripture’s teaching about distinguishing the persons of the Trinity. Read it. Save it. Confess it:

“Whoever desires to be saved should above all hold to the catholic¹ faith.

Anyone who does not keep it whole and unbroken will doubtless perish eternally.

Now this is the catholic faith:

That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity,
neither blending their persons
nor dividing their essence…

Thus the Father is God,
the Son is God,
the Holy Spirit is God.
Yet there are not three gods;
there is but one God.

Thus the Father is Lord,
the Son is Lord,
the Holy Spirit is Lord.
Yet there are not three lords;
there is but one Lord.

Just as Christian truth compels us
to confess each person individually
as both God and Lord,
so catholic religion forbids us
to say that there are three gods or lords.

The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten from anyone.
The Son was neither made nor created;
he was begotten from the Father alone.
The Holy Spirit was neither made nor created nor begotten;
he proceeds from the Father and the Son.

Accordingly there is one Father, not three fathers;
there is one Son, not three sons;
there is one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits.

Nothing in this trinity is before or after,
nothing is greater or smaller;
in their entirety the three persons
are coeternal and coequal with each other.

So in everything, as was said earlier,
we must worship their trinity in their unity
and their unity in their trinity.”

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Definitions/Distinctions:

Human Generation: This refers to the ordinary process associated with human reproduction and gestation. A separate human being, possessing both soul and body, is produced that has similar but distinct DNA from its parents. This is a physical process that occurs over time, where parents bring about the existence of a new human being that is subject to future change/development.

Eternal Generation: This term was and is used to refer to how God the Son can be every bit of God as God the Father, but not the same person as the Father. The Son is “begotten from the Father alone” (See above), thus, He possesses the same essence. Unlike human generation, this is eternal—It did not “take place” in time. There was never a time when the Son was not begotten of the Father; that’s why He’s called “Son.” This is true because the Father communicates the divine essence to the Son (doesn’t cause His existence), revealing to us two distinct persons who are one being or substance (Greek: homousios), not two separate beings or gods.

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Passages:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16

“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”

John 5:25–26

“My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

John 10:29–30

1. “Catholic” here means “Universal.”