by Ron Kangas

T he revelation of the Triune God in the Word of God

is balanced and complete. Failure to receive this di-
vine revelation in its fullness results in what we may call
cannot embrace the complete divine revelation of the Tri-
une God in a full, balanced way, systematized theologies of
the Trinity are inherently flawed.
trinitarian deviations. These deviations assume a variety of
forms: attempting to systematize the divine revelation, In the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology Bruce A. Demarest
thereby diminishing it; mixing worldly philosophy with offers the following definition of systematic theology: “An
the divine revelation, thereby corrupting it; receiving the attempt to reduce religious truth to an organized system”
divine revelation selectively according to one’s disposition, (p. 1064). Consider the elements of this definition. Attempt
thereby misapplying it; placing an extreme emphasis on suggests trying or endeavoring without certainty of success.
one aspect of the divine revelation, thereby distorting it; Reduce, in its primary denotation, means to diminish in ex-
ignoring a vital element of the divine revelation, thereby tent, amount, or degree. Religious truth, a generic term
vitiating it. All these deviations deserve critique. which refers in a general way to belief in a supernatural
power, surely differs from expressions such as divine truth
Deviations Related to Systematization and revealed truth, which refer to the truth of God disclosed
for human understanding. Organized signifies that which is
It is commonly supposed, mainly by professional systematic put together into a formally structured whole, often with a
theologians (e.g., James Oliver Buswell, Charles Hodge, hierarchical arrangement. A system, according to the The
William G. T. Shedd), that systematic theology is a neces- American Heritage Dictionary, may be understood as “an or-
sary and beneficial enterprise: necessary because, allegedly, ganized set of interrelated ideas or principles.” The word
the divine revelation concerning the Divine Trinity re- reduce requires further comment. To reduce the truth of the
quires systematization before divine revelation concerning
it can be rightly understood; Organized theological systems, the Divine Trinity is, in effect
beneficial because, allegedly, if not by intention, to dimin-
the results of systematization especially as they pertain to the ish, to lessen, to subtract
are regarded as spiritually en- from, this truth. Systematic
riching to believers in Christ. Divine Trinity, are deviant because theology is actually a reduc-
It is not widely recognized, tionist intellectual activity
however, that all attempts at they are contrary to God’s way which entails the denial or
systematizing the biblical diminution of particular ele-
truth concerning the Triune
of revealing Himself in the Bible. ments. This is especially
God lead to some kind of de- serious when the denied or
viation from the truth. Furthermore, such attempts are diminished elements are aspects of the truth concerning the
doomed because they presume to perform the impossible Triune God.
task of systematizing the truth regarding a reality—the true
and living Triune God Himself—which is not subject to In keeping with Demarest’s definition, the goal of this re-
systematization. Since a systematized theology of the Trinity duction of religious truth is an organized system. The

32 Affirmation & Critique

systematic theologian, taking the precious truth mercifully coexistent, yet coinherent. Our God is immutable, yet
revealed by God in the Word, first reduces it to manage- processed; transcendent, yet indwelling; sovereign, yet re-
able units and then forms them into an organized system spectful of human freedom; strictly just, yet merciful;
of ideas, concepts, and doctrines. What begins as a revela- infinitely great, yet able to be our spiritual air, water, and
tion from God passes through a process of reduction food. In the opinion of Gordon H. Clark, these should be
leading to the construction of an organized system—a regarded as “samples of the material which must be logi-
system which, more often than not, is a transmutation of cally arranged so as to formulate an intelligible doctrine
the original revelation into a form that pleases the natural of the Trinity” (The Trinity, p. 8). It is wrong for Clark
man and that appeals to the inveterate system-building or any theologian to say—altogether without scriptural
tendency of the natural mind. For systematic theologians warrant—that biblical material must be formulated into a
the procedure of reduction and transmutation produces a so-called “intelligible doctrine,” as if to suggest that this is
system. By the Lord’s gracious enabling, we prefer simply the only way to make it intelligible. Instead of trying to
to receive the revelation of the Triune God without fash- systematize the revelation of the Triune God in the Word
ioning it into an organized system. of God, we should simply believe it and receive it. “It
does not need first to be reduced to system and brought
Let not the reader suppose that by questioning the valid- under the arrangement of a theory” (Robert Govett, The
ity and necessity of theological system-building we are Twofoldness of Divine Truth, p. 21).
suggesting that Christians ought not to engage in serious
thought about the revelation of the Triune God in the Charles Hodge, an esteemed systematic theologian of the
Word of God. We surely must exercise our renewed mind previous century, disagrees:
to think clearly and soberly, and we must earnestly pray
for spiritual understanding. However, it is one thing to It may be asked, why not take the truths as God has seen
use our intellectual faculties to comprehend the divine fit to reveal them, and thus save ourselves the trouble of
revelation, and it is a very different thing to use them to showing their relation and harmony?
reduce the truth concerning the Trinity to an organized
system of doctrine. The answer to this question is…that it cannot be done.
Such is the constitution of the human mind that it cannot
Organized theological systems, especially as they pertain help endeavoring to systematize the facts which it admits
to the Divine Trinity, are deviant because they are con- to be true….The students of the Bible can…little be ex-
trary to God’s way of revealing Himself in the Bible. Here pected to be thus satisfied. There is a necessity, therefore,
we would draw attention to an obvious fact: The revela- for the construction of systems of theology. Of this the
tion of the Triune God in the Word of God is not given history of the Church affords abundant proof. In all ages
systematically. God did not inspire the authors of holy and among all denominations, such systems have been
Scripture to write a systematic theology. The divine reve- produced (Systematic Theology, 1:2).
lation is, therefore, asystematic, having been unveiled in
varying degrees and in different aspects through a number Hodge is partially right in claiming that the human mind
of writers. If we would understand this divine unfolding, cannot help forming theological systems, for this is true
what we need is not a humanly devised system of theol- of the unrenewed, natural mind, but it is not true of the
ogy but divine enlightenment. Paul did not pray that his renewed, spiritual mind (Eph. 4:23; Rom. 12:2), which
readers would take the revelation seen by him in spirit can receive the complete divine revelation without trying
and fashion it into a system (Eph. 3:3-5). Rather, warn- to systematize it. Hodge is altogether wrong in asserting
ing against “a system of error” (4:14), he prayed that “the that believers cannot “take the truths as God has seen fit
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,” would to reveal them.” We bear witness to the fact that this can
give us “a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full be done and that, by the grace of God, we are doing it.
knowledge of Him,” the eyes of our heart having been en- We can receive, and by the mercy of God we are receiv-
lightened (1:17-18). How, then, can anyone insist on the ing, the divine revelation as a living, organic whole
necessity of systematizing the revelation concerning the without following religious tradition and without acqui-
Divine Trinity? In knowing the Triune God, what is escing to the cravings of the fallen, natural mind. Hodge
necessary is not a course in systematic theology but a is, therefore, mistaken in saying that “the construction of
spirit of wisdom and revelation to understand what God systems of theology” is a necessity. Consider, as a sharp
has disclosed regarding Himself. contrast to Hodge, the words of W. H. Griffith Thomas:

The Bible reveals the Triune God in a complete way, un- There is obvious danger in every attempt at systematizing
veiling both the essential Trinity and the economical Christian truth, as we may see from the great works of men
Trinity. According to the Scriptures the true and living like Aquinas and Calvin….General lines of Christian truth are
God is one, yet three; the three of the Godhead are far safer….This method prevents teaching from becoming

January 1996 33
 hardened into a cast-iron system which cannot expand….an A theological system may be revered to such an extent
absolute, rigid system of doctrine from which there is no re- that for some adherents it may even replace God Himself.
lief and of which there is no modification (The Principles of Whenever a theological system is allowed to become a re-
Theology, p. xxiv). placement of God, that system becomes an idol. If a
theologian loves his system instead of God, or even more
Not only is systematic theology unnecessary; its alleged than God, that theologian is an idolater. The command of
benefit is subject to serious question for several reasons. the apostle John is relevant here: “Little children, guard
yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). In this verse idols
Reliance upon a system of theology can cause one to com- denotes anything—including ideas, concepts, and systems
promise his loyalty to the truth. Commitment to a of thought—that replaces the true and living God. Pagans
theological system may hinder one from recognizing and may fashion idols of wood and stone; theologians may
accepting the complete divine revelation in the Word of fashion idols of thought and concept. We respect J. I.
God. In their reading and study of the Bible, adherents of Packer’s word concerning this: “Imagining God in our
a particular system—Calvinism, for example—may impose heads can be just as real a breach of the second command-
a system upon the Word of God and by so doing make it ment as imagining him by the work of our hands”
extremely difficult for them to see in the Scriptures any as- (Knowing God, p. 47). To imagine God, to conceive of God,
pects of the truth—the economical Trinity, for example— in a way contrary to His revelation of Himself is to make
which do not fall within the field of their preferred system. an idol. To dote on our image or concept of God is to
They wear “blinders” whenever they read the Bible. For in- worship the idol we have made. “All speculative theology,
stance, Lorraine Boettner, insisting that “Christianity comes which rests on philosophical reason rather than biblical
to its fullest expression in the Reformed faith” and advocat- revelation is at fault here….To follow the imagination of
ing “the framework of the Five Points of Calvinism,” reads one’s heart in the realm of theology is the way to remain
the Bible through this framework (The Reformed Faith, ignorant of God, and to become an idol-worshipper—the
p. 24). The same practice is exhibited in the motto of The idol in this case being a false mental image of God, made
New Geneva Study Bible: “Bringing the Light of the Refor- by one’s own speculation and imagination” (p. 48). The
mation to Scripture.” By Reformation is meant “a summary principle also applies to the more subtle procedure of mis-
of Reformed theology,” that is, Calvinism. It surely is auda- conceiving and misrepresenting God through systematizing
cious to claim that Scripture—the Word of God, which is the revelation of the Triune God in the Word of God or
light—needs “light” brought to it from a manmade system of allowing a system of doctrine to replace the reality of
of theology. Such an assertion implies that in some sense God. William Law recognized this in relation to the sys-
Scripture is devoid of light and needs to be illumined by tematizing of Calvinistic teachings: “Images of wood and
“the light” of Calvinism. clay will only be exchanged for images of doctrines.
Grace, works, imputed sin, imputed righteousness, and

D evotion to a theological system may lead to an unac-

ceptable practice concerning the truth—the practice
of regarding as false any statement that does not comport
election will all have their worshipping advocates, dividing
the body of Christ in the very zeal to defend their own
good opinions about Scripture doctrines” (The Power of
with or is not compatible with a system of doctrine to the Spirit, ed. Dave Hunt, p. 28).
which one is committed and of accepting as true only what
is in harmony with one’s system. This leads to a denial of Systematic theology may also arouse a lust for knowledge
important elements of the divine revelation because they do resulting in spiritual death. The subtle, satanic seduction of
not fit (or cannot be forced to fit) one’s theological system. the human race began with a question uttered by a serpent:
The result is that, in actuality if not in theory, a theological “Has God said…?” (Gen. 3:1). Dietrich Bonhoffer calls this
system is regarded as equal to, or is given priority over, the “the first theological question,” and he is right. This was the
Word of God. For example, J. I. Packer, a participant in the first question designed to induce speculation concerning
attempt to bring “the light” of Reformed theology to the God, to incite man to lust for knowledge, and to alienate
Word of God, fails to recognize the divine truth concerning man from God, who desires to impart Himself into man as
the human spirit and rejects the biblical distinction between the divine life for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. Lest
soul and spirit, arguing that “the view of man as body, soul, we be tempted to think that the scenario in Genesis 3 is an-
and spirit…leads to a crippling anti-intellectualism cient history which cannot be reenacted today, we should
whereby spiritual insight and theological reflection are pay attention to Paul’s word of intimate concern: “I fear lest
separated” (The New Geneva Study Bible, p. 10). In addi- somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your
tion to being false, this statement illustrates both the thoughts would be corrupted from the simplicity and the
danger of imposing a systematized theology on Scripture purity toward Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). As the context makes
and the presumption of bringing “the light” of Calvinism clear, the agents of this corruption were religious men who,
to the Bible instead of bringing the light of the Word of in their rebellion against God, became purveyors of a system
God to Reformed theology. of religious thought and were utilized by Satan to lead the

34 Affirmation & Critique

believers astray from Christ, their true Husband (v. 2). Are
we less vulnerable today? Certainly not! In his craftiness Sa-
tan continues to use religious thinkers to arouse in the Faith Bringing in Reality
believers a lust for theological knowledge and thereby to
lure them away from the reality of the Triune God. William
Law had a clear perception of this danger: F aith brings the reality of the gospel into us and
brings us into the reality of God. “By faith
Abraham, being called, obeyed to go out…and he
Corruption, sin, death, and every evil of the world have went out, not knowing where he was going” (Heb.
entered into the Church, the spouse of Christ, just as they 11:8). Apparently he was going out to a promised
entered into Eve, the spouse of Adam, in Paradise. And in land; actually he was embarking on a journey that
the very same way, and from the same cause: namely, a would take him into the Triune God. If we would
desire for knowledge other than that which comes from know the Triune God as He is revealed in the
the inspiration of the Spirit of God alone. This desire is Word of God and not be frustrated by traditional,
the serpent’s voice in every man, doing everything to him systematic theology, we also must be able, in the
and in him which Satanic deception did to Eve in the gar- obedience of faith, to go beyond what we know (or
den. It carries on the first deceit, it shows and think we know). Reason retains us in the sphere of
recommends to him that same beautiful tree of human speculation and theory; faith ushers us into the
wisdom, self-will, and self-esteem springing up within realm of revelation and reality. To see this is to re-
him, which Eve saw in the garden. And this love of hu- alize that two paths are set before us—the path of
man wisdom and knowledge so blinds man, that he reason and the path of faith. The former is the way
cannot see that he is eating of the same forbidden fruit of knowing; the latter, the way of not knowing, the
and keeping up in himself all the death and separation way of believing.
from God which the first hunger for knowledge brought
forth….Let then the clever architect of words, the opin- “If God leads you to walk a way that you know, it
ion-broker, the worshipper of human reason, and every will not benefit you as much as if He would lead
zealous builder of religious systems be told that the thirst you to take the way that you do not know. This
and pride of being learnedly wise in the things of God is forces you to have hundreds and thousands of con-
keeping him grossly ignorant of divine truth (The Power of versations with Him, resulting in a journey that is
the Spirit, pp. 52-53). an everlasting memorial between you and Him”
(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, 7:1144). It is a
Furthermore, the pursuit of theological knowledge can great mercy and a marvelous blessing to be brought
lead to a reliance upon reason instead of an exercise of by God through faith into the way that we do not
faith. “God does not demand a faith that is unreason- know, for the more we walk in this way, the more
able,” William Law remarks, “but He does demand a we experience the Triune God in His all-inclusive
faith that goes beyond the limits of human reason. And reality and enjoy Him as our all-sufficient supply.
thus there is a point where faith and reason divide the hu-
man race into two kinds of men fully distinct from each
other” (p. 106). What will we be—a man of reason or a seeing, tasting, touching, smelling, nor hearing the things
man of faith? Will we exercise our faith within the limits of the Spirit of God” (Law, p. 101). Likewise, to reason
of our reason or beyond these limits? Will our reason about God is not to know God. “To think that reasoning
confine our faith or will our faith transcend our reason? about God from Scripture words is to know Him, is just
To transcend reason by faith is not to be irrational in our as sensible as to think that reasoning about food is the
mental life—it is to be normal in our spiritual life. same as to eat it” (p. 101). Whereas the theologian rea-
sons about God, the man of faith, in compliance with the

T he economy of God is in faith (1 Tim. 1:4); the revela-

tion of God is “out of faith to faith” (Rom. 1:17); and
the operation of the mysterious Triune God is according to
revelation in John 6, partakes of God in Christ as spiritual
food and drink. By the Lord’s grace he has been made to
realize that “to reason about life cannot communicate it
faith (Heb. 11). Those who are one with God for the carry- to the soul, nor can a religion of rational notions and
ing out of His economy exercise faith to receive the opinions logically deduced from Scripture words bring
revelation of the Triune God in the Word of God. Those the reality of the gospel into our lives” (p. 103).
who are devoted to systematic theology for the sake of relig-
ious interest rely upon reason to systematize the divine There is yet another reason to question the benefit of sys-
revelation in the Word. tematic theology—the tendency of theologians to deny the
reality of and the necessity for the subjective, spiritual experi-
Reason may be helpful in erecting theological systems, ence of the indwelling Triune God. Gordon Clark
but it is “helpless in the spiritual realm; it is neither exemplifies this tendency: “The New Testament does indeed

January 1996 35
teach a mutual indwelling of Christ and the believer. There God,” knelt for a while in prayer. “He reported to his
is a very real sense in which minds interpenetrate….Christ secretary, Brother Reginald, that he had learned more theol-
dwells in us and we in him by our thinking and believing ogy on his knees in those fifteen minutes than from all the
his doctrines” (First John: A Commentary, p. 120). In Clark’s theology that he had ever studied or written about in his
opinion, Christian experience is equal to studying theology: many tomes” (George Maloney, A Theology of “ Uncreated
“If anyone studies theology…it is a Christian experience” Energies,” p. 5). Only in his final moments did he enjoy un-
(p. 117). For Clark to have intimacy with God is merely a ion with the Triune God. “That happened just before the
matter of theology: “This intimate fellowship consists of veil was torn, before God would finally show Him as He
having the same ideas, of thinking alike, of being in exten- really is” (p. 7).
sive agreement. Hence, intimacy with God, too, consists in
knowing what God thinks. That is to say, in knowing a Surely it is not God’s desire that we spend our entire life
good bit of theology” (p. 143). learning about Him without experiencing and enjoying
Him. According to the Scriptures the three of the Divine
At the end of his life, Thomas Aquinas repented of such an Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—are all in us
outlook and came to recognize the necessity of living, experi- for us to enjoy in our spiritual experience (Eph. 4:6; John
ential contact with God. Shortly before he died in a Cistercian 14:20; Col. 1:27; 2 Cor. 13:5; John 14:17). God’s inten-
monastery, Aquinas, “who had searched all his life to know tion in revealing Himself as the unique Triune God is not
that we might formulate systematized theologies of the
Trinity and then engage in endless debate about them. On
the contrary, God’s intention in unveiling Himself is to pre-
The way to be sound pare the way for Him to dispense Himself into us according
regarding the truth to His economy. As those who accept with simplicity the
entire scriptural revelation of the Triune God, we desire to
of the Divine Trinity turn to Him, open to Him, receive Him, experience Him,
and enjoy Him as our life and our everything.
is to receive in simplicity
In his book The Pentecostal Reality, J. Rodman Williams
the complete divine advocates a position with which we heartily agree:
revelation in the The Scriptures nowhere suggest that to believe in God as
Word of God, Trinity, or Triune—or to ‘think God’ in such and such a
manner (often leading to speculation and abstractness)—is
apply this revelation really the important thing. The concern is that people be
introduced into the reality of God as the Father, the Son,
in faith and love, and the Holy Spirit. It is primarily a matter of the life to
be lived, not a teaching or doctrine to be held….The pur-
comprehend this revelation pose of that part of the Great Commission, ‘Go

with a renewed mind therefore…baptizing,’ is not to make learners out of peo-

ple in regard to God, but to introduce them into life lived
according to the spiritual in the reality of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit….For
these disciples [the early Christians], clearly, a statement
wisdom and understanding about God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was not
dogma, nor was it an abstruse teaching that they had to
granted by God in answer accept for salvation. It was rather the reality of God
wrought into their lives. It was not creed yet, or theology
to prayer, and live out (such as ‘one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity’). It was
this revelation in our that which precedes all significant theology: event, hap-
pening, experience….Thus, what is vital in talking about
regenerated spirit for the the Holy Trinity is not that it is simply a doctrine to be
embraced but a reality to be lived (pp. 101, 102, 104,
fulfillment of the 105).

eternal purpose of God Williams is correct in emphasizing the experience of the

Triune God. The believers in Christ should not be content
(Eph. 3:9-11). with a mere objective knowledge about God, much less
with a systematized theology of the Trinity. Rather, we all

36 Affirmation & Critique

should hunger and thirst for the reality of the Triune God (Kenneth S. Kantzer), involves the attempt to “synthesize
to fill, permeate, and saturate our whole being. For this all knowledge into a coherent, consistent system” (S. R.
we need to exercise faith in the Word of God and open Obitts). The problem is that the viewpoint, the synthesis,
ourselves to the Lord that we might experience Him in a and the system are of the world and not of God (1 John
subjective way. 2:15-17). By world we mean “the sum-total of human life in
the ordered world, considered apart from, alienated from,

O ur last observation regarding those who promote the

systematizing of the revelation concerning the Triune
God is to point out that they often succumb to the tempta-
and hostile to God, and of the earthly things which seduce
from God” (M. R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testa-
ment, 1:389). The world system is inspired by the Zeitgeist,
tion to regard the Trinity as a puzzle to be solved, an enigma “the spirit of the age,” which R. C. Trench defines as “all
to be studied, or a riddle for theological play, rather than a that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, specula-
mystery to be revered and a reality to be enjoyed. All who tions, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations, at any time current
presume to participate in the questionable enterprise of sys- in the world” (cited by Kenneth S. Wuest, In These Last
tematizing the divine truth should hearken to Philip Schaff: Days, p. 126). To join worldly philosophy and divine reve-
“All speculation on divine things ends in a mystery…before lation is actually an attempt to produce fellowship between
which the thinking mind must bow in humble adoration” light and darkness and concord between Christ and Belial
(History of the Christian Church, 3:671). The words of (2 Cor. 6:14-15). Such fellowship and concord are impossi-
Robert Leighton, a Puritan writer, are even more emphatic: ble because divine revelation and worldly philosophy are
fundamentally incompatible
As to the mystery of the and irreconcilable.
Most-Holy Trinity…I have
always thought it was to be
We may have a This is supported by the
received and adored with
the most humble faith and
philosophical system fact that in the New Testa-
ment the word philosophy is
reverence, but by no means
to be curiously searched
or we may have Christ, used only once, and that in
a negative sense: “Beware
into, or perplexed with the
presumptuous questions of
the embodiment that no one carries you off
as spoil through his phi-
the schoolmen. We fell by
an arrogant ambition of
of the Triune God, losophy and empty deceit,
according to the tradition
knowledge; by simple faith
we rise again and are rein-
but we cannot have both. of men, according to the
elements of the world, and
stated. And this mystery not according to Christ”
indeed, beyond all others, (Col. 2:8). Paul’s concern
seems to be a tree of knowledge prohibited to us while we was that philosophy would be used by God’s enemy to
sojourn in these mortal bodies (Lectures and Addresses, make a prey of the believers, to carry them off as spoil, or
pp. 126-127). booty, gained in war. Paul goes on to say that philosophy
is empty deceit. The Greek work rendered empty denotes
Systematizing the revelation of the Triune God in the what is devoid of truth, futile, fruitless. “It is used of
Word of God is neither necessary nor beneficial, for it is things that will not succeed, that are to no purpose, that
defective and deviant both in procedure and in product. are in vain” (Wuest, Colossians, p. 200). “The danger was
The way to be sound, healthy, regarding the truth of the that of a pretended knowledge,” W. H. Griffith Thomas
Divine Trinity is to receive in simplicity the complete di- observes, “the emptiness of purely abstract thought”
vine revelation in the Word of God, apply this revelation (Studies in Colossians and Philemon, p. 85). Paul makes it
in faith and love, comprehend this revelation with a renewed emphatically clear that philosophy—empty deceit with its
mind according to the spiritual wisdom and understanding subtle reasonings and vain, profitless speculation—is not
granted by God in answer to prayer (Col. 1:9), and live out according to Christ. Calling this phrase “the sacred watch-
this revelation in our regenerated spirit for the fulfillment word,” H. C. G. Moule remarks:
of the eternal purpose of God (Eph. 3:9-11).
Not on His line, not measured by Him, not referred to
Him; not so that He is Origin, and Way, and End, and
Deviations Related to Philosophy
All. The “philosophy” in question would assuredly include
Serious deviations from the truth concerning the Divine Him somehow in its terms. But it would not be “accord-
Trinity occur whenever worldly philosophy is mixed with ing to Him.” It would take its principles, and draw its
divine revelation. Philosophy, as “the over-all interpreta- inferences…and then bring Him in as something to be
tion of the universe from a particular viewpoint” harmonized and assimilated, as far as might be. But this

January 1996 37
 would be a Christ according to the system of thought, His essence and nature. James 1:17 says, “All good giving
not a system of thought according to the blessed Christ and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from
(Colossian and Philemon Studies, p. 85). the Father of lights, with whom is no variation [or, vari-
ableness] or shadow cast by turning.” Because God is
Actually, no system of philosophy, including so-called immutable, unchangeable, Hebrews 6:17 speaks of “the
Christian philosophy, is truly according to Christ. We unchangeableness of His counsel.” For God to be immu-
may have a philosophical system or we may have Christ, table means that “no change is possible in God, whether
the embodiment of the Triune God, but we cannot have of increase or decrease, progress or deterioration, contrac-
both. tion or development” (Augustus Strong, Systematic
Theology, p. 257). Hodge agrees: “God is absolutely im-
The Christian faith—“the faith once for all delivered to mutable in His essence and attributes. He can neither
the saints” (Jude 3)—is not a philosophy, and it cannot increase nor decrease. He is subject to no process of de-
be harmonized with worldly philosophy. Griffith Thomas velopment or self-evolution” (p. 390).
says, “There is a great deal in current thought that is at-
tractive, even fascinating, but when properly examined it We wish to receive the biblical truth concerning God’s
is seen to be `not after Christ.’ This is the test of move- immutability, but we cannot accept a doctrine of divine
ments, of institutions, of books: are they ‘after Christ’?” unchangeability that is a mixture of divine revelation and
(p. 85). Colin Brown explains that one danger of aligning Greek philosophical notions. Such a doctrine, in Pinnock’s
the divine revelation with a particular philosophical sys- words, has been “forged out of materials both biblical and
tem is that “the Christian faith has to be manipulated philosophical” and is therefore “a synthesis of revelational
to make it fit. Some things have to be stretched, while and rational elements” (p. 38). This synthesis involves
others have to be lopped off or at least discreetly ignored” mixing with the divine revelation two unacceptable philo-
(Philosophy and the Christian Faith, p. 270). In his essay sophical concepts: that God is an “Unmoved Mover” and
“The Need for a Scriptural, and Therefore a Neo-Classical that God is impassible.
Theism” Clark Pinnock insists that “revelational norms”
must “exercise control over any and all philosophical influ- As the so-called Unmoved Mover—an idea derived from
ences” (Perspectives on Evangelical Theology, ed. Kenneth S. Aristotle—God is the impersonal First Cause of the uni-
Kantzer and Stanley N. Gundry, p. 42). Pinnock then verse who “cannot think about anything in the changing
goes on to say: and imperfect world,” the “only perfect thing worthy of
God’s attention” being Himself, and whose “only activity is
Philosophical ideas have to be rigorously subordinated to contemplation of his own nature” (Ronald N. Nash, The
scriptural revelation or else they will tend to take over in Concept of God, pp. 20-21). John Sanders informs us that ac-
theology….Philosophical borrowings can easily come to tually “Aristotle’s supreme God…has no need of entering
rival scriptural teachings and become idols that compete into relations with others….God is literally apathetic toward
with God’s self-disclosure….But if we do make use of them the world and he has no concern or feelings toward it” (The
[philosophical ideas], let us exercise the greatest of care Openness of God, p. 66). This God is immutable not in the
not to twist the Scriptures on their behalf. Our motto biblical sense but in the sense of being inert, aloof, disinter-
ought to be, Let God be God! (p.42). ested, and unconcerned about the world or anything in it.
The supposed impassibility of God is the “doctrine that God
If we truly let God be God and if we subject all philo- is not capable of being acted upon or affected emotionally
sophical notions to the divine revelation, we will avoid by anything in creation” (G. R. Lewis, Evangelical Dictio-
two serious deviations from the truth concerning the Di- nary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell, p. 553). Impassibility
vine Trinity—one related to God’s being and the other, is a dubious doctrine “because it suggests that God does not
to God’s becoming—and we will affirm the twofold bibli- experience sorrow, sadness or pain. It appears to deny that
cal truth that the Triune God is immutable in His essence God is touched by the feelings of our infirmities, despite
and processed in His economy. what the Bible eloquently says about his love and his sor-
row” (Pinnock, The Openness of God, p. 118). The biblical

T he Bible reveals that the Triune God is immutable.

The word mutable means liable or subject to change
or alteration; capable of change or being changed in form,
revelation of the living God thus has been transmuted into
the notion of a static deity.

quality, or nature; given to changing or constantly chang- This mixture of Greek philosophical concepts with the
ing; hence, fickle, inconstant. In contrast, immutable (not truth regarding the immutability of God revealed in the
mutable) means not capable or susceptible of change; un- Bible leads not to clarity but to confusion. What pur-
changeable, unchanging, invariable, unalterable. To say ports to be an explanation of God’s eternal being is
that the Triune God is immutable is to say that He is not actually an insult to His person and a departure from
subject to change, that He is unchanging, invariable, in His self-disclosure. In this attempt to combine divine

38 Affirmation & Critique

revelation and worldly philosophy, “two visions of real- (“The Stunted God of Process Theology,” in Process Theol-
ity”—that of the Bible and that of Greek philosophy—are ogy, p. 362).
brought together, with the result that “biblical teaching
becomes warped and twisted and the resultant synthesis Mixing philosophy with revelation has produced two ex-
doctrinally objectionable” (Pinnock, Process Theology, tremely serious deviations from the truth concerning the
p. 41). This is a vivid illustration of the incompatibility of Divine Trinity—the notion of a static God and the con-
revelation and philosophy. cept of an evolving God. The way to avoid these
deviations is to repudiate all philosophical speculation and

A nother illustration is afforded by the attempt of to-

day’s “process theologians,” including John Cobb,
David Ray Griffin, and Norman Pittinger, to combine the
receive the biblical truth regarding the immutability and
process of the Triune God.

divine revelation concerning God’s becoming with a

philosophical system, articulated by Alfred North White-
head, which views both God and the universe as existing
A ccording to the Bible the Triune God is immutable
in His essence, attributes, promises, and purpose.
God’s immutable essence is unalterable; it remains forever
in a state of perpetual process, evolution, and develop- the same. The God who reveals Himself as I Am—the
ment. In process theology, reality is regarded essentially as ever-existing, self-existing One (Exo. 3:14)—speaks of
an ongoing evolutionary process, and God is viewed as Himself as the One who is, who was, and who is to come
part of the process. This entails the concept of a changing (Rev. 1:4). “There never was a time when He was not;
God—a God without an immutable nature who is chang- there never will come a time when He shall cease to be.
ing, learning, growing, and developing along with the God has neither evolved, grown, nor improved. All that
world. Instead of “I Am,” God is now “I am becoming.” He is today, He has ever been, and ever will be” (Arthur
The following is Ronald N. Nash’s description of the God W. Pink, The Attributes of God, p. 37). God’s immutable
of process theology: essence is in contrast to the changeable, perishing creation
spoken of in Psalm 102:25-27. As God is immutable by
The classical Christian doctrine of divine immutability is His nature, creation is mutable by its nature. “Herein,”
replaced by a notion of a changing God….God literally says Pink, “we may perceive the infinite distance which
experiences and exemplifies process….God’s perfection is separates the highest creature from the Creator” (p. 38).
being attained successively; God is continually growing
and developing in perfection….Process thinkers insist that God is immutable in His attributes. He is perfect and un-
God actually receives something from the world; the changing in His life, light, love, holiness, righteousness,
world adds something to God, something which He glory, wisdom, knowledge, power, grace, compassion,
would otherwise lack….God is involved in an endless love, mercy, and in all other attributes. “Whatever the at-
process of change (Nash, Process Theology, pp. 16-18, 20). tributes of God were before the universe was called into
existence, they are precisely the same now, and will re-
The immutable God of the Bible is replaced with an main so forever….The attributes of God can no more
evolving deity. This evolving deity is not triune. Within change than Deity can cease to be” (Pink, p. 37). The di-
the being of this God there cannot be found the eter- vine attributes are subject neither to development nor to
nally coexistent and coinherent three-one—the Father, deterioration.
the Son, and the Spirit. Two well-known process theolo-
gians claim that the doctrine of the Trinity is “a source God is immutable in His promises. God is not capricious;
of distortion, and an artificial game that has brought there is no fickleness, inconstancy, or arbitrariness in
theology into justifiable disrepute” (John Cobb and Him. Because God is immutable in His promises, with
David Ray Griffin, Process Theology: An Introductory Ex- Him there is no variation or shadow caused by turning.
position, p. 109). They hasten to add that “process God’s immutable promises are included in the “unchange-
theology is not interested in formulating distinctions able things” mentioned in Hebrews 6:18. The God who
within God for the sake of conforming with traditional is immutable in His promises always keeps His word and
Trinitarian notions” (p. 110). Even when process theo- honors His covenant.
logians use Trinitarian language, “their conception is
modalistic: God acts in three or more different ways Finally, God is immutable in His purpose. Psalm 33:11
or there are different aspects of the creative process” says, “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, / The plans of
(Donald G. Bloesch, “Process Theology and Reformed His heart from generation to generation.” This is confirmed
Theology,” in Process Theology, ed. Nash, p. 42). Carl F. H. by Isaiah 14:24: “The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying,
Henry states the issue with force: “Process theologians `Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and
deny the Christian doctrine of the Trinity according to just as I have planned so it will stand.” Elsewhere in Isaiah
which three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—exist the Lord declares, “I am God, and there is no other; / I am
eternally and coequally within the one divine essence” God, and there is no one like Me, / Declaring the end from

January 1996 39
the beginning / And from ancient times things which have Himself into His redeemed and regenerated people as
not been done, / Saying, `My purpose will be established, their eternal life and life supply.
/ And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’” (46:9-10).
What God has purposed in Christ (Eph. 3:11) will be ac- Concerning the immutability of the Triune God, the di-
complished, no matter how much the enemy of God may vine truth in the Bible is twofold. In Himself God is
try to frustrate it. unchanging, for His essence is immutable. His nature is
unalterable; He can never become either more or less
Although the Triune God is immutable, He is neither than what He is. Nevertheless, this eternal, immutable,
static nor inactive. “The notion that God’s immutability unchanging Triune God has, in Christ, passed through a
is a complete inactivity, a timeless mental and spiritual im- process in time in order to dispense Himself into man
mobility, is found for the accomplishment of His eternal purpose. Apart
in the writings of from this process, there is no way for the Triune God to
some of our best come into man.
theologians, but In Christ
is nowhere sup-
ported by the
Scriptures”
the Triune God A lthough this process involves a sequence in time, it
absolutely does not involve any change in the im-
mutable essence of God. Whereas God’s immutability is
(Bus-well, p. 52). has been related to His being, God’s process is related to His be-
The Bible often coming. Henry rightly says, “The Bible does affirm a
likens God, in His processed, ‘becoming’ within the Godhead. But it does so on its
“dynamic immut-
ability,” to a flow-
and now this own terms and in its own way: the eternal Logos be-
comes flesh (John 1:14), that is, becomes the God-man
ing river. In processed, by assuming human nature in the Incarnation” (p. 362).
Revelation 22:1-2 This indicates that a balanced view of the Divine Trinity
we have a picture yet immutable, demands that we accept the biblical testimony both of
of the immutable, God’s being and of His becoming. This does not require
yet active, Triune One can compromise with process theology. “In the Christian
God. Out of the view divine becoming… contrasts at once with ancient
throne of God and
enter into us Greek notions of abstract being and becoming, and with
of the Lamb flows as the modern process theology’s misconceptions of divine be-
the river of water coming that postulate change in the very nature of God”
of life. No doubt, all-inclusive (Henry, p. 369). According to the Bible we believe in
this river is a sym- the immutability of the Triune God; according to the
bol of the Spirit of life-giving Spirit Bible we believe also that in Christ the Triune God has
the flowing God passed through a process for the carrying out of His
(John 7:37-39). to be our life, economy.
Our God is the
fountain of living
our life supply, The word process may be defined as a series of progressive
waters (Jer. 2:13). and our and interdependent steps by which a goal is reached or an
The Father as the end is obtained. In the New Testament we have a full and
fountain is in the everything. complete revelation of the steps of the process through
Son, and through which the Triune God has passed. Through incarnation the
the death and res- very God became a man. By incarnation divinity was
urrection of Jesus brought into humanity and was mingled with humanity in
Christ, the Son of God, the living waters have been released the person of the God-man Jesus Christ, although neither
(John 19:34). When we come to the Lord Jesus in faith, divinity nor humanity lost any of its respective properties.
believing into Him (3:15-16) and drinking of the living This God-man, the complete God and perfect man, lived a
water which He alone can give us (4:14; 7:37), this water human life on earth for thirty-three and a half years, express-
becomes in us a spring of water gushing up into eternal life. ing God in humanity. As the next step of the process, the
Eventually, it becomes rivers of living water proceeding out God-man was crucified, dying a substitutionary death for
from our innermost being (7:38). For eternity the Spirit as our redemption and releasing the divine life for our regener-
the river of water of life will proceed out of the throne of ation. The process continued with Christ’s resurrection. On
God and of the Lamb. On the one hand, the perpetual ex- the one hand, Christ was resurrected with a body of flesh
istence of the river signifies the immutability of the Triune and bones (Luke 24:36-43); on the other hand, through
God; on the other hand, the flowing of the river signifies resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b).
the ceaseless, vital activity of the Triune God in dispensing Finally, as the culmination of His process, the God-man,

40 Affirmation & Critique

with an uplifted human nature, ascended to the right hand a theology which emphasizes God’s sovereign control
of the Majesty on high, where He was enthroned and over everything and everyone. This indicates that a sub-
made the Lord and Head of all. Although the eternal, im- jective, psychological element may be involved in the
mutable God has not changed and cannot change in His formation of competing theological systems. The theolo-
essence or in His Godhead, there is now a glorified Man on gian G. C. Berkouwer muses openly upon this:
the throne of God in the heavens exercising God’s adminis-
tration in the universe. From all this we see that in Christ Such a variety of differing and mutually exclusive ‘interpre-
the Triune God has been processed, and now this pro- tations’ arose—all appealing to the same Scripture—that
cessed, yet immutable, One can enter into us as the serious people began to wonder whether an all-pervasive
all-inclusive life-giving Spirit to be our life, our life supply, and seemingly indestructible influence of subjectivism in
and our everything. the understanding of Scripture is not the cause of the plu-
rality of confessions in the Church. Do not all people
The fact that the Triune God has passed through a pro- read Scripture from their own current perspectives and
cess for the carrying out of His economy is indicated by presuppositions? Do they not cast it in the form of their
certain terms used in the New Testament to describe the own organizing systems, with all kinds of conscious or
eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14): “the Spirit of Jesus” (Acts subconscious preferences, ways of selection which force the
16:7), “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9), “the Spirit of Je- Scripture into one particular direction? (Studies in
sus Christ” (Phil. 1:19), “the Spirit of Dogmatics: Holy Scripture, p. 106).
life” (Rom. 8:2), “the Spirit” (John
7:39; Gal. 3:14; Rev. 22:17), and
“the seven Spirits” (Rev. 1:4). Ac-
If we These preferences and ways of selection
often are related to a person’s disposi-
cording to the Greek text, John 7:39 would know tion. Disposition denotes “the prevailing
says that the Spirit was “not yet” be- tendency, aspect, mood, or inclination of
cause “Jesus had not yet been the truth one’s spirits”; “the complex of attitudes,
glorified.” This does not mean, of proclivities, and responses conditioning
course, that the Spirit of God did not of God, conduct.” It thus refers to “one’s accus-
exist eternally. It means that with re- tomed attitudes and moods in reacting
spect to the process of the Triune we need to to life around one” (Webster’s Third New
God, the Spirit as the all-inclusive
Spirit of Jesus Christ was “not yet”
acknowledge International Dictionary). Realizing that
disposition is “usually the most intracta-
until Christ was glorified through His the power ble of all the departments of man’s
resurrection (Luke 24:26). Andrew complete personality” and the “slowest
Murray, a man of unimpeachable or- of disposition to yield to any radical change,” A. T.
thodoxy concerning the Trinity, came Pierson explains that disposition “literally
to realize something of God’s process to lead means the peculiarity of character which
in His economy and wrote about it in
his classic The Spirit of Christ (see the
us astray. ‘disposes’ in any given direction….It
conveys the thought of a natural bent,
extended excerpt on the next page). inclination, or susceptibility” (Godly Self-
According to the Scriptures, we affirm control, p. 31). One’s disposition, which
that the Spirit of God, who exists eternally as a distinct is altogether natural, innate, inborn, “indicates what one
person within the Godhead, enters into believers today as is, in the inmost being” (p. 45). Furthermore, our disposi-
the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ. To make such an tion is influenced by our fallen, sinful nature. Recognizing
affirmation is to affirm that the Triune God is both im- this, Pierson says that the “need for renewal of disposition is
mutable in His essence and processed in His economy. universal. Every natural disposition evinces to some degree
the perversion of sin, and, therefore needs the conversion of
Deviations Related to Disposition grace” (p. 33).

Dr. Louis Evans, Jr. once delivered a lecture at Princeton Central to our purpose here is the extremely significant
Theological Seminary entitled “Our Theologies as fact that our disposition affects, even determines, our view
Psychobiographies.” His thesis was that our psychological of and attitude toward the divine revelation, for we may
makeup inclines us toward a particular kind of theology. be “disposed” in favor of certain aspects of the truth or to-
Our theology, therefore, may be a reflection of our per- ward particular theological formulations. If dispositional
sonality. For instance, one who is aloof and withdrawn doctrinal tendencies go unchecked, the result will be
may be inclined toward a theology which presents God as deviation. Pierson writes:
transcendent, “wholly other,” and virtually untouch-
able. One with an authoritarian personality may prefer Disposition doubtless affects our views of the truth. No

January 1996 41
 little doctrinal divergence may be traced to it; for it consti- through the mind” can distort the truth (p. 10). In this way
tutes a medium through which truth is seen, by which it our “subjective world”—the realm of our disposition—be-
may be refracted, distorted, colored, as through a lens. He comes a source of deviation.
who is arbitrary, vindictive, irascible, will naturally mis-
construe the character of God, as autocratic, revengeful, Disposition can even make us willfully selective with respect
wrathful. He will unconsciously color his conceptions of to divine truth. Dominated by his disposition with its biases,
divine things by seeing them in the lurid light of his own a believer may exercise self-will in receiving or rejecting the
unsanctified temper (p. 44). divine revelation. Evidence for this is found in the meaning
of the Greek word rendered heresies in 2 Peter 2:1 (hairesis—
If we would know the truth of God, we need to acknowl- used also in Acts 5:17; 15:5; 24:5, 14; 26:5; 28:22; 1 Cor.
edge the power of disposition to lead us astray. 11:19; and Gal. 5:20 and, in the adjectival form, in Titus
3:10). W. E. Vine’s exposition is helpful:
Disposition can lead us astray in the matter of biblical inter-
pretation by introducing subjective, personal biases which “a choosing, choice…then, that which is chosen, and
affect our understanding of the Word. In The Psychology of hence, an opinion, especially a self-willed opinion, which
Biblical Interpretation, which explores “the impact of the is substituted for submission to the power of truth, and
subjective world of the interpreter on the reading of the Bible,” leads to division and the formation of sects…such errone-
Cedric B. Johnson contends that “conflicting theological ous opinions are frequently the outcome of personal
positions are in part due to the fact that we all approach a preference or the prospect of advantage” (An Expository
text, sacred or secular, with our strong subjective biases….The Dictionary of New Testament Words, p. 217).
biblical data are sometimes distorted through the ‘specta-
cles’ of our personality” (pp. 10, 42-43). Hence, Johnson The Greek word thus refers to “self-chosen doctrines,
says that the “subjective world of the interpreter expressed alien from the truth” (Henry Alford).

“The Spirit of the Glorified Jesus”

T he Holy Spirit was not yet; be-
cause Jesus was not yet
glorified. The expression: the Spirit
and sanctified for Himself. And
just so the Spirit of God as poured
out at Pentecost was indeed some-
disturbed our relation to God’s
law, but to God Himself….Christ
came not only to deliver man from
was not yet, has appeared strange, thing new….When poured out at the law and its curse, but to bring
and so the word given has been in- Pentecost, He came as the Spirit of human nature itself again into the
serted. But the expression, if the glorified Jesus, the Spirit of the fellowship of the Divine life, to
accepted as it stands, may guide us Incarnate, crucified, and exalted make us partakers of the Divine na-
into the true understanding of the Christ, the bearer and communica- ture….From His nature, as it was
real significance of the Spirit’s not tor to us, not of the life of God as glorified in the resurrection and as-
coming until Jesus was glorified. such, but of that life as it had been cension, His Spirit came forth as
interwoven into human nature in the Spirit of His human life, glori-
We have seen that God has given a the person of Christ Jesus….And fied into the union with the
twofold revelation of Himself, first of this Spirit, as He dwelt in Jesus Divine, to make us partakers of all
as God in the Old Testament, then in the flesh, and can dwell in us in that He had personally wrought
as Father in the New. We know the flesh too, it is distinctly and lit- out and acquired, of Himself and
how the Son, who had from eter- erally true; the Holy Spirit was not His glorified life….And in virtue of
nity been with the Father, entered yet. The Spirit of the glorified Je- His having perfected in Himself
upon a new stage of existence sus, the Son of man become the new holy human nature on our be-
when He became flesh. When He Son of God—he could not be until half, He could now communicate
returned to Heaven, He was still Jesus was glorified. what previously had no existence—
the same only-begotten Son of a life at once human and Di-
God, and yet not altogether the This thought opens up to us fur- vine….Of this Spirit it is most
same. For He was now also, as Son ther the reason why it is not the fully true, ‘The Spirit was not yet,
of Man, the first-begotten from the Spirit of God as such, but the because Jesus was not yet glorified.’
dead, clothed with that glorified Spirit of Jesus, that could be sent (From The Spirit of Christ by
humanity which He had perfected to dwell in us. Sin had not only Andrew Murray)

42 Affirmation & Critique

To exercise self-choice, accepting the truth selectively ac- God reveals Himself. According to the modalistic concept
cording to disposition, is to rebel against God and His of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not
revelation. As believers in Christ, we are required to live equally and eternally coexistent and coinherent but
in the obedience of faith. We have no right to be selective merely successive manifestations of God, or three tempo-
concerning God’s revelation, receiving what matches our rary modes of His activity. Modalism appears today in
disposition and rejecting what does not. All selectivity the heretical teaching of the Oneness Pentecostals, who
must be abandoned. Knowing the truth of God requires a insist that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not “real,
particular kind of denial—the denial of disposition with its distinct, coequal persons in the eternal Godhead, but are
inclinations and preferences. only different roles that one divine person temporarily as-
sumes” (Gregory A. Boyd, Oneness Pentecostals and the
Denying our disposition entails a personal, subjective ex- Trinity, p. 9).
perience of the cross of Christ (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20).
This source of deviation—disposition—is subjective, The most notorious modalist in the ancient church was
and the solution—the experience of the cross—must also Sabellius. According to Sabellius the Father, Son, and Holy
be subjective. The more Spirit are all one and the
we apply the cross to our same, being the three
disposition, the more we names of the one God
will be delivered from its who manifests Himself in
domination and saved from
The Bible stands apart different ways according
this source of deviation. to the situation. As the
from the heretical extremes Father He is Creator,
Deviations Related to Governor, and Lawgiver;
Heretical Extremes of modalism and tritheism as the Son He is incarnate
as the Redeemer; and as
The revelation of the Tri-
une God in the Word of
to testify that God is three-one the Spirit He is the Regen-
erator and the Sanctifier.
God is balanced in its For Sabellius, He is the
twofoldness, showing us and one-three and that one and the same God,
that God is uniquely one the one and the same di-
yet three—the Father, He is triune essentially vine person, who acts in
the Son, and the Spirit. these ways, appearing in
There are, therefore, two
aspects to the Divine
and economically, successive and temporary
manifestations, with the
Trinity: the aspect of the one and the same God ap-
one-three and the aspect in His dispensing, pearing now as the
of the three-one. To Father, now as the Son,
push either aspect to an and in our and now as the Spirit,
extreme results in hereti- but never all at the same
cal distortion of the
truth. Modalism is an ex-
experience of Him. time (Williston Walker,
A History of the Christian
treme on the side of the Church, pp. 69-70). Sabel-
three-one, and tritheism lius’s fundamental thought
is an extreme on the side is that the unity of God
of the one-three. Both are deviations and both are he- unfolds in the course of the world’s development in three
retical. periods of revelation, and after the completion of redemp-
tion returns again to unity. Therefore, the Trinity of
In supplementing what we have written previously in this Sabellius is not a Trinity of essence, of the inner being of
issue concerning modalism (p. 30), it may be helpful to God, but only of revelation (Schaff, 2:581-583). Father,
define some terms. According to its philosophical mean- Son, and Holy Spirit are simply designations of three differ-
ing a mode denotes the appearance or form assumed by a ent phases under which the one divine essence reveals itself
thing, the manner of arrangement of some underlying (J. F. Bethune-Baker, An Introduction to the Early History of
substance. The adjective modal specifies the mode of a Christian Doctrine, p. 105).
thing as distinguished from its substance or essence. Mo-
dalism is the theological doctrine that the Father, the Son, Sabellius’s denial that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit
and the Spirit are not three distinct persons in the God- eternally coexist in the inner being of God and his insis-
head but rather three modes or forms of activity in which tence that they are merely temporary and successive

January 1996 43
manifestations of God are contrary to the revelation of Deviations Related to Not Caring for God’s Economy
the Triune God in the Word of God. According to God’s
revelation of Himself, the one God is eternally three-one: We have pointed out that the Bible reveals that God is tri-
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, all of whom are God une both essentially and economically, that God is triune
(1 Pet. 1:2; Eph. 1:17; John 1:1; Rom. 9:5; Heb. 1:8; both in His inner being and in His economy (cf. pp. 21,
Acts 5:3-4), all of whom are eternal (Isa. 9:6; Heb. 1:12; 29). Whereas the essential Trinity refers to the essence of
7:3; 9:14), and all of whom exist at the same time (John the Triune God for His eternal existence as Father, Son,
14:16-17; Eph. 3:14-17; 2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Cor. 12:4-6). and Spirit, the economical Trinity refers to the stages, the
Modalism, a heresy on the extreme of the three-one, is a steps, of the Triune God for the carrying out of His econ-
serious deviation from the divine revelation and must be omy. The New Testament revelation emphasizes the
repudiated. Divine Trinity in the divine economy. This means that in
the New Testament the Triune God is revealed mainly in

T ritheism, a contrasting deviation, a heresy on the ex-

treme of the one-three, must also be repudiated.
Tritheism is the belief in three Gods. Such a belief may
relation to His economy. Those who know neither God’s
economy nor the Triune God in His economy are bound
to deviate from the completeness of the revelation of the
arise when the distinctions among the Father, the Son, Triune God in the Word of God. Deviation commonly
and the Spirit are pressed too far or when the term per- takes the form of regarding the Trinity merely in an ob-
son is used vaguely or imprecisely in relation to the three jective way or as a theological abstraction and thereby
of the Trinity (see p. 30). A form of tritheism appeared denying God’s dispensing and the believers’ experience of
in the teaching of Johannes Philoponus, who pushed the the Triune God in His dispensing. Sometimes deviation
distinction among the Father, the Son, and the Spirit to takes the less common but much more extreme form of
an extreme, claiming that there were three essences in confusing the biblical revelation of the Triune God in His
the one common essence of the Godhead (R. S. Franks, economy and dispensing with the idea of “evolution into
The Doctrine of the Trinity, p. 119). A similar form of God”—the preposterous notion that the Godhead is sub-
tritheism is held today by those who teach that there are ject to alteration and increase and that human beings,
three personalities in the Godhead, or who speak of the creatures of God, can become God in the sense of attain-
Father, Son, and Spirit as being not only distinct but ing the Godhead and being objects of worship.
also separate, or who believe that the Godhead is a family
consisting of three individual members. E. Calvin Beis- The Triune God’s dispensing is His imparting Himself in
ner provides an example of contemporary tritheistic Christ into His chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people
tendencies when he says, “There is one God who is a be- as their life and everything for the producing and building
ing composed of three individuals” (God in Three up of the church as the Body of Christ. The Father is the
Persons, p. 24). Another example is the following: source of the divine life; the Son is the expression of the
“There are three separate and distinct Persons in the divine life; and the Spirit is the transmission of the divine
Godhead” (Paul E. Little, Know What You Believe, p. 32). life. When Christ, the embodiment of the divine life
To say that the Father, Son, and Spirit are individuals or (1 John 5:11-12), was crucified, “He laid down His life on
that they are separate—meaning to “set or keep apart” or our behalf ” (3:16) in order to release the divine life from
“existing as an independent entity” (American Heritage within Him. Now in resurrection He, as the life-giving
Dictionary)—goes beyond the divine revelation and is Spirit, imparts, dispenses, this released divine life into us,
dangerously close to a tritheistic doctrine of the Trinity. first for our regeneration (1 Pet. 1:3) and then for our
Many who are not tritheists in doctrine are tritheists at gradual growth in life unto maturity (Eph. 4:13). Accord-
heart. Regarding those who “nurse an error [tritheism] ing to Romans 8 the Triune God is dispensing Himself as
in their hearts,” Stuart Olyott says, “Many Christians, in life into the tripartite man, causing our spirit and soul to
their heart of hearts, tend to think of God more in terms become life and imparting life into our mortal body (vv.
of His three-ness than His one-ness” (The Three Are 10, 6, 11). Through this marvelous dispensing the Christ
One, p. 87). All forms of tritheism are condemned by who is “sitting at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1) be-
the Bible, which clearly, emphatically, and repeatedly comes the indwelling Christ who is “our life” (1:27; 3:4).
tells us that God is uniquely one.
The Triune God is also dispensing Himself into us as spiri-
True to the principle of balance in God’s creation and to tual food. In John 6 the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, the
the principle of the twofoldness of divine truth, the Bible very God Himself, reveals that He is bread: the true bread
is balanced. The Bible stands apart from the heretical ex- (v. 32), the bread of God (v. 33), the heavenly bread (vv.
tremes of modalism and tritheism to testify that God is 41, 50), the bread of life (vv. 35, 48), and the living bread
three-one and one-three and that He is triune in His es- (v. 51). Unless we eat Him, we do not have life within our-
sence, in His economy, in His dispensing, and in our selves (v. 53); that is, we do not have Him as our life supply.
experience of Him. Only by eating Him can we live: “He who eats Me, he also

44 Affirmation & Critique

shall live because of Me” (v. 57). To eat the Lord is to re- concerning Christ revealed in us (Gal. 1:15-16), Christ living
ceive Him, digest Him, and assimilate Him in order to be in us (2:20), Christ being formed in us (4:19), Christ mak-
constituted with Him. This metabolic process is an issue of ing His home in us (Eph. 3:17), Christ being magnified in
the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. us (Phil. 1:20), and Christ being all and in all (Col. 3:11). As
Christ, who is unsearchable in His riches and immeasurable
In addition, the Triune God is dispensing Himself into us in His dimensions, makes His home in our hearts, we are
as love and grace. The book of Romans speaks of the love filled “unto all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:8, 18-19).
of God (8:39), the love of Christ (v. 35), and the love of
the Spirit (15:30). This love, which is actually the Triune This indicates that the divine dispensing of the Divine
God Himself, has been dispensed into us, “because the Trinity has a glorious issue—the church, the Body of
love of God has been poured out in our hearts through Christ, as the corporate expression of the Triune God.
the Holy Spirit” (5:5). Now we should believe “the love That this is God’s goal in His economy is emphatically
which God has in us” and abide in the Triune God, who revealed in the New Testament. The dispensing of the
is love (1 John 4:16). Triune God as life produces the Body of Christ (Rom.
12:4-5). The dispensing of the all-inclusive Christ as the

G race, like love, is the Triune God

Himself. The New Testament
speaks of “the God of all grace” (1 Pet.
life-giving Spirit, who is now
one with our spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b;
6:17), produces the Body of Christ
5:10), “the grace of the Lord Jesus The divine as the corporate Christ (12:12).
Christ” (2 Cor. 13:14), and “the Spirit The transmission of the Triune
of grace” (Heb. 10:29). The fact that dispensing of the God into the believers produces
grace is imparted to us is indicated by the
phrase grace to you at the beginning of
Divine Trinity has “the church, which is His Body,
the fullness of the One who fills
Paul’s Epistles (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; a glorious issue— all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23). The Fa-
2 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3; Eph. 1:2; Phil. ther’s strengthening us with power
1:2; Col. 1:2; 1 Thes. 1:1; 2 Thes. the church, through His Spirit into our inner
1:2). To Paul, this phrase was declara- man so that Christ may make His
tory as well as salutatory. The grace of the Body of Christ, home in our hearts produces the
the Lord Jesus Christ, which is with
our spirit (Gal. 6:18; Phil. 4:23),
as the corporate church as the fullness, the expres-
sion, of the Triune God (3:14-21).
confirms our heart (Heb. 13:9) and expression of the When the Triune God is dis-
becomes our all-sufficient supply pensed into and mingled with the
(2 Cor. 12:9). As we receive “grace Triune God. believers, the outcome is the Body
upon grace” (John 1:16) and as this of Christ, which is building up it-
grace is dispensed into us, we become self in love (4:4-6, 16). To know
what God wants us to be: “By the the Triune God, therefore, is to
grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10). This is the know Him not only as He exists eternally in Himself
grace of God—the Triune God dispensed into us as grace— but also as He is revealed in His economy and dispensing
becoming the constituent of our inner being. for producing the Body of Christ as His corporate ex-
pression. To know Him in this way is to be rescued
Since Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, the from deviation and to return to the purity, fullness,
more Christ is wrought into us, the more we are filled, per- and completeness of the revelation of the Triune God
meated, and saturated with the Triune God. Paul writes in the Word of God. Œ

In the Father we have the unseen God, the Author of all. In the Son God revealed, made manifest,
and brought nigh.…In the Spirit of God we have the Indwelling God.
Andrew Murray
The transcendence in the Deity is expressed by the Father; the expression of the Deity is represented by the Son; while the
truth of the immanence of the Deity for man’s moral and spiritual life is that for which the Holy Spirit stands.
W. H. Griffith Thomas
As the source, God is the Father. As the expression, He is the Son. As the transmission, He is the Spirit. The Father is the
source, the Son is the expression, and the Spirit is the transmission, the communion. This is the Triune God.
Witness Lee

January 1996 45