#156 – Who is God? - God the Son

Jen Wilkin, JT English, and Kyle Worley continue their discussion on the doctrine of God by talking about God the Son.

Questions Covered in This Episode:

• When we refer to God the Son, we refer to him as the second person of the Godhead, does this mean he is in second place?
• From where and when has God the Son come? Who created God the Son?
• What does it mean to say that God the Son is eternally begotten?
• How does this shape the way we talk about God the Son?
• Does Jesus have one will or two?
• What relationship does God the Son have to the Father?
• What is the definition of Open Theism?
• What is the error in Open Theism and Eternal Function Subordination?
• What is the distinction between the Son and the Holy Spirit when they are both sent?
• Why is this view of the Son of God better?
• Is it possible to talk too much about God the Son, or emphasize him too much over the Father or the Holy Spirit?

Helpful Definitions:

• Trinitarianism: God eternally exists as one essence and three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each of which is fully God, yet there is One God.
• Eternally Begotten: The Son’s unique attribute in relation to the Father and the Spirit: the Son is sourced in the Father, but there was never a time when the Son began. All things are from the Father, through the Son, and by the Spirit. 
• Homoousios: Same essence
• Homoiousios: Like essence
• God Ad Extra / Economic Trinity: What God Does.
  • A view of the Trinity focused on God in the history of redemption, or the functional acts (economies) of the Godhead in the creation and salvation of the world; this perspective is distinguished from that of the immanent Trinity.
• God Ad Intra / Immanent Trinity: Who God is.
  • The view that centers on the Trinity in and of Himself, or the internal relations between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as present (immanent) only to Himself (c.f. Jn 1:1-2,18); this perspective is distinguished from that of the economic Trinity.
• Inseparable Operations: That which any person of the Godhead does, is rightly attributed to God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• Monothelitism: Jesus has one will. This was denied.
• Dyothelitism: Jesus has two wills; the divine will and the human will. One person with two natures.
• Tritheism: Views the three persons of the Trinity as three distinct gods.
• Eternal Functional Subordination of the Son: A position that subordinates the Son’s divine will to the Father’s divine will.
• Social Trinitarianism: The view that God is only his activity in the world.
• Open Theism: The view that God is subject to some of the creaturely limitations or some of the operations of the world in ways that we are subject to.
• Christocentric Trinitarianism: The very persons of Father, Son, and Spirit are to highlight God the Son; He is the image of the invisible God and the one that the Spirit is supposed to show us.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Chick-fil-A
• John 5:26, Colossians 1:15-20, Matthew 24:36, Mark 13:30-32, Hebrews 1:1-4, Philippians 2:1-11
• “On the Incarnation” by Saint Athanasius

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