Jesus and the Trinity

This paper reviews and evaluates four non-Trinitarian views of the Holy Spirit, comparing them with the Trinitarian view that the Holy Spirit is the third divine person in one God. Oneness Pentecostals affirm that the Holy Spirit is God in one of his roles, modes, or manifestations. Biblical Unitarians, also known as Socinians, generally regard the Holy Spirit as an abstraction equivalent to God’s power. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that “holy spirit” is an impersonal divine force that emanates from Jehovah God. Mormonism views the “Holy Ghost” (their usual preferred title) as a third God alongside Jesus Christ, who is the God Jehovah, and believe that Christ, the Holy Ghost, and Heavenly Father are just three of an unknown number of Gods in existence. In response to these non-Trinitarian doctrines, it is shown from Scripture that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, someone personally distinct from the Father and the Son, yet not a different or separate God. Finally, some lessons are drawn from this study of relevance to defending a Trinitarian view of the person of Jesus Christ.

2017

THE SON AND THE SPIRIT: THE PROMISE OF SPIRIT CHRISTOLOGY IN TRADITIONAL TRINITARIAN AND CHRISTOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Kyle David Claunch, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2017 Chair: Dr. Bruce A. Ware This dissertation evaluates various contemporary Spirit-Christology proposals. Herein, Spirit Christology is defined as an approach to Christology that affords paradigmatic prominence to the Holy Spirit for understanding traditional Christological categories. Contemporary Spirit-Christology proposals occur along a spectrum of faithfulness to Nicene Trinitarianism and Chalcedonian Christology. While modifications to traditional formulae (implicit or explicit) are commonplace in contemporary proposals of Spirit Christology, it is the thesis of this dissertation that such modifications are neither helpful nor necessary. Rather, Spirit Christology can and should offer a pneumatological enrichment of traditional Christology and a boon to Christian devotion. Such a model will n...

2018

Presented on Tuesday, November 13, 2018 during the 70th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Denver, CO. Over the last forty years, the Trinity has become a central topic of debate among evangelical theologians in all disciplines due to the popularization of a newer conception of intra-Trinitarian relations—referred to by many as eternal, functional subordination (EFS) or alternatively as eternal relations of authority and submission (ERAS). Current supporters of EFS/ERAS, such as Wayne A. Grudem and Bruce A. Ware, affirm that the three persons of the Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—are fully equal ontologically, but deny equality in terms of roles, functions, and authority. Those who maintain this view assert that there is a unilateral-hierarchical ordering pattern that is essential to the triune God in which the Son is exclusively subordinated in function and authority to the Father, and the Spirit is exclusively subordinated in function and authority to the Father and the Son (for those who accept the filioque clause) in eternity. Although EFS/ERAS continues to grow in popularity in some circles, there are other evangelical theologians, such as Kevin N. Giles and Millard J. Erickson, who have heavily criticized this conception of the Trinity, declaring it to be a significant departure from Scripture and traditional Christian orthodoxy. While these scholars join EFS/ERAS proponents in upholding the full ontological equality of the Trinitarian persons, they adamantly disagree with an eternal, unilateral hierarchy in the Trinity. They alternatively assert what can be called temporary, functional subordination (TFS), meaning that the Son and the Spirit were subordinate in function to the Father only during the times in which they accomplished their respective missions in the plan of redemption. This paper seeks to test the two theses of EFS/ERAS and TFS regarding intra-Trinitarian relationships by way of a case study on the relationship between the Son and the Spirit in the New Testament (NT) in order to answer the following research question: does the NT portray the relationship between the Son and the Spirit as a unilateral-hierarchical relationship in which the Spirit is eternally subordinated in role, function, and authority to the Son or as a mutual-reciprocal relationship in which they equally share authority and have overlapping roles and functions? This case study is not intended to definitively settle the debate between EFS/ERAS and TFS—though its aim is to be a small step toward the resolution of this theological conflict—but it is intended (at the least) to advance the dialogue taking place among evangelicals regarding intra-Trinitarian relations. Specifically, the paper (1) explores whether there is a consistent, unilateral-hierarchical ordering pattern of the Son and the Spirit or a variety of ordering patterns in the NT by building on Roderick K. Durst’s research in Reordering the Trinity: Six Movements of God in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2015); (2) ascertains whether the economic actions of the Son and the Spirit in the plan of redemption are distinct, shared, or both; and (3) examines the major historical, christological movements of the Trinity in the NT to determine if there is a unilateral-hierarchical or mutual-reciprocal relationship between the Son and the Spirit. Conducting this case study leads the paper to conclude preliminarily that the NT textual evidence on these three points suggests that (1) various ordering patterns of the Son and the Spirit are used in the NT, (2) the Son and the Spirit share in (at least) many of the same economic roles and functions, and (3) the Son and the Spirit submit to one another at various historical moments in the plan of redemption. Thus, the Son and the Spirit do not relate to one another in a unilateral-hierarchical order, but in a mutual-reciprocal relationship of complete equality.

Heythrop Journal

In contemporary theological discourse, the Western doctrine of the Trinity, as articulated by figures like Thomas Aquinas, is commonly criticized on the grounds that it presupposes an underdeveloped theology of the Holy Spirit that denies the third person of the Trinity the fullness of divine personhood. This paper will demonstrate that the standard critique of the Western doctrine of the Holy Spirit springs from a misapprehension of the term ‘person’ as it is traditionally used to refer to the divine persons. In offering a counter-narrative concerning the nature of divine personhood—and a corrective reading of Aquinas’ thought—this paper will aim to throw into relief the full personhood of the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, it will suggest that some of the key critiques of Western Trinitarian doctrine that are thereby resolved may actually be said to apply to the work of its critics.

Matthew Darby, 2020

This essay is a continuation of a previously published essay "The Triune God." This paper seeks to identify the "what" of God in light of his triune nature. I specifically explore a triune way of understanding what it means to be free, spirit and Holy.

The Bible Translator, 2010

Pneuma, 2009