Introduction
Does the 1689 Confession affirm a special monarchy of the Father within the Trinity? This theological question dives deeply into the nature of God, highlighting crucial distinctions between the divine essence and the roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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Transcript
Pastor Cam Porter 00:00
Welcome to the both of you, Jim and Sam, it’s nice to have you with us. It’s good timing for this podcast recording because it coordinates with the the confessing the Faith Conference, our second annual conference. Our second annual conference that we hold here in Chilliwack, British Columbia. And we have two of our speakers here today, Dr Sam Renihan from Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in La Mirada, pastor of that church in La Mirada, and Pastor Jim Butler, pastor of Free Grace Baptist Church here in in Chilliwack, B.C. So it’s good to have both you brothers here for for some questions and answers.
So the first question that we have here is, does the 1689 Confession affirm the monarchy of the Father? The elaboration on that is, does Chapter 2, paragraph three of the Confession affirm or deny the Trinitarian monarchy of the Father? How should we understand the language of order within the Godhead?
Dr Sam Renihan 01:11
To answer the question, we need to start out by saying that we affirm divine monarchy. We affirm divine monarchy, but the question is asking about a particular or peculiar monarchy for the father in a way that excludes the Son and the Holy Spirit. And so we would affirm divine monarchy, the monarchy of God, but we would deny the exclusive monarchy or the sole monarchy of the Father. And the confession does not use the language of monarchy. So it’s not exactly a question that easily is answered by the confession, because the confession isn’t necessarily addressing it in that way. However, the confession does say that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equal in substance and equal in power, among other things. And so since we attribute monarchy to the divine essence, or the divine substance. It is equal to the Father Son and the Holy Spirit. If the Father and the Son and the Spirit are consubstantial, if they’re of one substance and one power, then therefore they there is no monarchy that we would attribute to the Father. Now, some people would say, But doesn’t the son submit to the Father and obey? Obey the Father. So even if they have equal power, there seems to be a disproportion of authority. And we would deny, no, there is no there. Well, we actually have to be clearer than that. We would affirm that the Son, according to his human nature and his human will, submits and obeys, submits to and obeys the singular Divine Will of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So the language of authority and submission or obedience and so on is with regard to the son according to his human nature, or the son as mediator. And John Owen has a very good quotation, quotation that I’d like to read about this. John Owen said, The Kingdom that Christ does now peculiarly exercise is his economical mediatory kingdom. So Jesus is ruling as mediator, as incarnate in his mediatorial kingdom, or economical kingdom, which he then continues to say, which shall have an end put to it when the whole of his intent, intendment, or his intention in that work shall be fulfilled. When his work as mediator is fulfilled, that kingdom comes to an end as being accomplished. But he goes on that he is not also sharer with his father in that universal monarchy, which, as God by nature, he has overall, this does not at all prove so. The fact that the Son has a mediatorial kingdom and is king of that kingdom as mediator, you know, God in the flesh, God incarnate, in no way takes away from the fact that he shares with the Father and the Spirit that universal monarchy. So that’s why I started out by saying that we affirm divine monarchy, the monarchy of God, a universal, exclusive soul, authority and rule over all things, because God made all things, and is the God of all things, then we would want to add to this. People might say, but it seems that language of planning, language of authority, is is regularly attributed to the Father, and it seems almost always to the Father. So doesn’t the father have some kind of monarchy? And we would want to explain further what’s called the doctrine of inseparable operations, that all that God does add extra the things that God does outside of himself or in creation, in all things made he does as God, the Father Son and Holy Spirit, the external works of God and. The Trinity are undivided, inseparably operating together, because it’s one power, one substance, the divine essence, that’s acting that’s true, and yet, at the same time, the scriptures attribute to or appropriate to the father or the son or the Holy Spirit, certain works or certain acts, not because only the Father and the Son or the Spirit do that act. They do them inseparably, but because those acts in a special way reflect the manner of subsisting of the father or the son or the Holy Spirit. And since the father is of none. There is a certain firstness of a kind that his manner of subsisting shows to us, and therefore acts of planning, acts of authority, those types of acts, though he does not do them alone. The Father Son and Holy Spirit do them inseparably. They are attributed to him because they reflect his manner of subsisting. And so we would affirm, we would say, yes, the Scriptures do speak of the Father regularly by attributing to him or appropriating to him, plan authority that type of language, but not because he alone does those things, rather because those things reflect his manner of subsisting. And when I say a firstness, I simply mean that he is of none. The Son is begotten of the Father, but eternally begotten of the Father, and the spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, but eternally, that is without beginning and without end. So that firstness is not a firstness of time, and it’s not a firstness of rank. It’s simply the particular manner of subsisting that, in many ways, makes the Father the Father. He’s of none, and only he is of none. And so those types of works that most reflect his manner of subsisting are attributed to him or appropriated by him. But that does not justify some kind of exclusive monarchy of the Father, or a Trinitarian monarchy the monarch. The term monarch, must be attributed to the divine essence, to God, divine monarchy and the son shares that, or has that possesses it equally with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Cam Porter 07:20
Yeah, terrific. No, that’s great. Thank you, Dr Dolezal and Pastor Butler, maybe
Dr Sam Renihan 07:27
I’m pleased to be called Dr Dolezal, but that is not exactly my name.
Pastor Cam Porter 07:33
You just sounded like him with your with your great theological precision there. Thank you, Dr Renihan, for that excellent answer. Pastor Butler, maybe just to come and piggyback on top of that with your preaching through the Gospel of John, and what John discloses there, theologically, with regards to the Trinity, anything on that topic from the Gospel of John as he been preaching through it.
Pastor Jim Butler 08:01
Yeah, the eternal processions of the Son and the Spirit are revealed through temporal missions. They’re not completely revealed. Not everything that can be known about God ad intra is known from God ad extra, but it’s a good window, or a good way for John to display the Spirit of God to display the relations between the Son and the Father and the Spirit to the Father and the Son. So what we see in those eternal processions, the father unbegotten, the son begotten by the Father, and the Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son are revealed in the temporal mission. So the Father sends the son. The son comes into the world in the incarnation and passion. And then, of course, Christ sends the Spirit from the Father according to Acts 2:33, and then also what we see disclosed in Acts, I’m sorry, John 15:26, so when you you understand that what we see in the mediatorial work of Jesus does reveal to us great and glorious things about God, as to who He is in himself, again, not exhaustively, not completely, not fully. Our confession rightly emphasizes that God is incomprehensible to us, and that doesn’t mean we can’t know anything about God, but we can’t know everything about God. We can learn through the 31,000 propositions that He’s given us in Scripture, and we can learn through the created order things about God, but we won’t comprehend God the way God comprehends God. But John is a great window in terms of these Trinitarian relations. You know, he starts off in the prologue with theology, John 1, verses 1 to 18, and then he turns attention to the economy. So John 1:19 all the way on. I think it’s epitomized in John 1:29 Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But before that, we’ve got the Word, Who was in the beginning, Who was with God, and Who was God and that Word, who became flesh and dwelt among us. So John gives us a window into who God is in himself, and how God works amongst men through the mediatorial, or mediatorial mission of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pastor Cam Porter 10:17
Yeah. Terrific. Thank you, brothers. Excellent. You.
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