Theology Central
Theology Central exists as a place of conversation and information for faculty and friends of Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Posts include seminary news, information, and opinion pieces about ministry, theology, and scholarship.More Debate Over the Trinity
Alistair Roberts weighs in.
The University Bookman
If you don’t know about The University Bookman, you should. It’s a good source for reviews from a conservative perspective.
Debate Over the Trinity
Caleb Lindgren traces the current dispute about the eternal submission/subordination of the Second Person at Christianity Today.
Is Seminary Really Necessary?
Canadian pastor and blogger Tim Challies reviews a book by Jason Allen, president of Midwest Baptist Seminary.
Central Seminary Fall Conference: China Vision
October 4, 2016. Jesus promises His disciples that He will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The realization of this promise is happening not only in the United States but around the world. Even in limited access nations, Jesus is building His church through faithful men who are willing to risk all to serve Him. Read more.
Netanyahu at the UN
Rebukes UN, invites Abbas to address Knesset. See here.
A Fundamentalist on Trinitarianism
“The distinctions between the Persons within the essence of the Godhead and the distinctions between their respective duties and work are explained theologically by the eternal generation of the Son by the Father and the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son….
“By the eternal generation of the Son is meant that eternal act whereby the Father communicates or makes common the divine essence to the Son—the eternal sonning of the Son….
“The essence is indivisible and cannot be divided into three persons; it can only be “made common,” not divided or parceled out to individual personalities, so that the whole of the divine essence (the unity) is in each of the three personalities (the trinality)….
“Similar to eternal generation, procession refers to that eternal act whereby the Father and the Son make the divine essence common to the Spirit—the eternal spirating of the Spirit…. [T]he external, temporal mission of the Spirit is predicated on the internal distinctions of the Trinity, which in the case of the Spirit goes back to His eternal procession from the Father and the Son…. [B]oth the Father and the Son send the Spirit. The Father sends the Spirit in Christ’s name….
“Eternal generation and procession describe the theological processes whereby the eternal, undivided essence of God subsists wholly, indivisibly, simultaneously, and eternally in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father generates the Son and together with the Son spirates the Spirit. It is always in that order theologically. Both generation and procession constitute an eternal, divine act….
“The doctrines of eternal generation and procession also account theologically for the three individual persons in the Godhead and for their evident administrative and functional order. It explains the relations and activities within the one, undivided, all-pervading, unceasingly circulating common essence or deity, relative to matters both internal and external to the Godhead….
“The internal activity is the eternal trinalizing of the essence or the resultant Trinitarian distinctions of the First, Second, and Third Persons. The First Person is the Father, the ingenerate paternal subsistence of the divine essence. The Second Person is the Son, so called because the divine essence is made common to Him by generation/filiation. The Third Person is the Spirit, so called because the divine essence is made common to Him by spiration/procession….
“As for the external activity, it refers to the transitive work of the Trinity via the functional order of the economy existing between the three Trinitarian persons. The Father does not generate some of His own fatherhood or His personal paternity to the Son, nor do the Father and Son do so for the Spirit. However, it is still the person of the Father, not the essence, which generates the person of the Son (not essence)…. All three persons issue from the essence of deity; therefore, all are equally and eternally God in the Ontological Trinity (i.e., having to do with being or essence). But the eternal generation of the Son by the Father and the eternal procession of the Spirit from the Father and the Son form the structure of the Economic Trinity (having to do with function)….
“Both generation and procession are eternal acts. There is no thought of origin, nor any notion of temporal succession. It is an eternally simultaneous action by which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit subsist as co-equal, consubstantial, and co-eternal persons of the triune God. There is never any thought of one member existing previously to the others, nor of one ever being non-existent. Neither is there any idea that the relationships within the Godhead of Father, Son, and Spirit have been anything but eternal (e.g., that at some point the Second Person became the Son).”
–Rolland McCune, A Systematic Theology of Biblical Christianity, I:292-294
Degree Mills and Accreditation Mills
The Council on Higher Education Accreditation is the organization that accredits the accreditors. See their resources on degree mills and accreditation mills here.
A Looming Showdown in the ETS?
Stan Gundry objects to last year’s resolutions in an open letter.
Denny Burk replies.
Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, and Church Unity
“There has been almost universal agreement that unity exists in a spiritual sense in the invisible church. Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and others ascribed to the invisible church a unity that is indivisible because of its center in the living Christ. The fundamentalists and evangelicals in the [Twentieth Century] came from similar backgrounds and, for the most part, agreed that there was (or at least would be in the eschaton) unity in the universal church. Therefore, the discussions of fellowship and separation had to center around the visible ‘church,’ whether that view of the church was seen to be local churches, denominations, associations or Christendom as a whole. The National Council of Churches, the National Association of Evangelicals, the American Council of Christian Churches and the various denominational groups connected to these broader organizations were all expressions of unity in one form or another as those within these organizations saw it.”
–Larry Oats, The Church of the Fundamentalists, 167
Fundamentals and Fundamentals
“Let it never be forgotten that the virgin birth is an integral part of the New Testament witness about Christ, and that that witness is strongest when it is taken as it stands. We are not averse, indeed, to a certain logical order of apologetics; and in that order the virgin birth certainly does not come first. Before the virgin birth come the things for which testimony in the very nature of the case can be more abundant than for this. To those things no doubt the inquirer should be directed first, before he comes to consider this mystery which was first attested perhaps only by the mother of the Lord. But though that is true, though theoretically a man can believe in the resurrection, for example, without believing in the virgin birth, yet such a halfway conviction is not likely to endure. The New Testament presentation of Jesus is not an agglomeration, but an organism, and of that organism the virgin birth is an integral part. Remove the part, and the whole becomes harder and not easier to accept; the New Testament account of Jesus is most convincing when it is taken as a whole. Only one Jesus is presented in the Word of God; and that Jesus did not come into the world by ordinary generation, but was conceived in the womb of the virgin by the Holy Ghost.”
–J. Gresham Machen, The Virgin Birth of Christ, 396-397
Welcome to Theology Central!
Welcome to the blog of Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Our seminary, founded in 1956, is an accredited, degree-granting graduate and postgraduate institution dedicated to assisting New Testament churches in equipping spiritual leaders for Christ-exalting biblical ministry. We have created this blog to help our students, future students, and friends better understand the heartbeat of our faculty. We will post here our personal reflections on theology and ministry. We value biblical theology, Christian charity, and clear thinking, and we hope that this blog will promote the cause of Christ.
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