Is God Like A Totem Pole Or A Circle? Why We Need To Insist On Nicaean Orthodoxy To Avoid Falling Into Heresy -- By: William David Spencer

Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 27:4 (Autumn 2013)
Article: Is God Like A Totem Pole Or A Circle? Why We Need To Insist On Nicaean Orthodoxy To Avoid Falling Into Heresy
Author: William David Spencer


Is God Like A Totem Pole Or A Circle? Why We Need To Insist On Nicaean Orthodoxy To Avoid Falling Into Heresy1

William David Spencer

William David Spencer is ranked Adjunct professor of Theology and the Arts at Gordon-Conwell Theological seminary/Boston campus and the editor of Priscilla Papers. His newest books are Name in the Papers (an adventure/mystery novel from Helping Hands press [of Trestle press]) and Reaching for the New Jerusalem: A Biblical and Theological Framework for the City (Urban Voice series of Wipf and stock).

Is God more like a totem pole or a circle? That is to ask, is God a being in tandem, a hierarchical Godhead with degrees of rank, glory, and even divinity: the Father at the top, the Son in the middle, and the Holy Spirit on the bottom? Or, is the Trinity an equal community—a permanent triunity of one great God, in three completely coeternal, completely coequal persons (or personalities, or faces)?

A more contemporary way to ask is: Is the Trinity more a family or a business? In a family, different members can come to the fore depending on what the family is addressing. In a business, the chairperson of the board is over the chief executive officer, who is over the plant manager.

One evangelical brother who espouses the totem-pole model in the Trinity describes the divine relationships this way: “The Father is supreme over all, and in particular, he is supreme within the Godhead as the highest in authority and the one deserving of ultimate praise.”2 He also writes:

An authority-submission structure marks the very nature of the eternal Being of the one who is three. In this authority- submission structure, the three Persons understand the rightful place each has. The Father possesses the place of supreme authority, and the Son is the eternal Son of the eternal Father. As such, the Son submits to the Father just as the Father, as eternal Father of the eternal Son, exercises authority over the Son. And the Spirit submits to both the Father and the Son. This hierarchical structure of authority exists in the eternal Godhead even though it is also eternally true that each Person is fully equal to each other in their commonly possessed essence. The implications are both manifold and wondrous.3

Where do such “manifold and wondrous” “implications” take place for this writer? He explains they are “in our own relationships in the home and in ministry,”4 when “wives submit with joy and gladness to the husband’s leadership in the home.”You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
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