Does the Bible present the Holy Spirit as a person, distinct from the Father and the Son? Yes. Did John use the masculine demonstrative pronoun ἐκεῖνος (instead of the neuter ἐκεῖνο) in John 14:26, 15:26, and 16:13–14 to make that point? An impressive list of people answers yes. But Andy Naselli and I argue they’re wrong in “Prooftexting […]
Trinity
One God in Three Persons: Unity of Essence, Distinction of Persons, Implications for Life
I am excited to point out a new book from Crossway that tackles some of the issues facing the doctrine of the Trinity today: One God in Three Persons: Unity of Essence, Distinction of Persons, Implications for Life. I had the privilege of contributing a chapter with my good friend Andy Naselli. Our chapter, “An […]
Warfield, Vos, and Van Til: Is God One Person?
Orthodox trinitarianism typically refers to God in terms of three persons or subsistences (personas, subsistentia, or ὑποστάσιες) and one essence or substance (essentia, substantia, or οὐσία). But is there a sense in which God is one person? To put it another way, is God’s oneness personal? Here’s how three Princeton theologians addressed this topic. B. B. […]
The Doctrine of the Trinity in Five Theses
Here’s how Geerhardus Vos articulates the core affirmations of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity: There is only one divine being. Scripture expresses itself decisively against all polytheism (Deut 6:4; Isa 44:6; Jas 2:19). In this one God are three modes of existence, which we refer to by the word “person” and which are, each […]
Warfield on Eternal Subordination in the Trinity
Those who reject the notion of hierarchy in the imminent Trinity often point to B. B. Warfield as a supporter of their position. In his article in ISBE on the Trinity,1 Warfield discusses at length his reservations about reading what we see in the economic Trinity back into the immanent Trinity. 19. The Implications of “Son” […]
Did the Incarnation Improve God?
Earlier this week, the Gospel Coalition blog featured a post on the Incarnation and God’s immutability, which caught my attention. An individual asked, How do we hold together the idea that God doesn’t change with what happened at the incarnation and resurrection—where Jesus was united to a human nature and took on an earthly body and […]
How Do the Father, Son, and Spirit Differ?
In recent debates about the Trinity—particularly the ones that stem from the gender debate—the question of the differences among the persons of the Trinity comes to the forefront. How do the Father, Son, and Spirit differ from each other? John Brown of Haddington answers this way:1 By their names of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Mt […]
Are the Father, Son, and Spirit Equally Persons?
Here’s Karl Barth’s answer: . . . even if the Father and the Son might be called “person” (in the modern sense of the term), the Holy Spirit could not possibly be regarded as the third “person.” In a particularly clear way the Holy Spirit is what the Father and the Son also are. He […]