Journal: Journal of the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies
Volume: JIRBS 03:1 (NA 2016)
Article: UNITY AND DISTINCTION— "One God in Three Persons: Unity of Essence, Distinction of Persons, Implications for Life", A Review Article
Author: Stefan T. Lindblad

JIRBS 3 (2016) p. 153

UNITY AND DISTINCTION—
One God in Three Persons:
Unity of Essence, Distinction of Persons, Implications for Life,
A Review Article

Stefan T. Lindblad*

*Stefan T. Lindblad is a pastor of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church, Kirkland, WA, and a Ph.D. Candidate in Historical and Systematic Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, MI.

The subject of One God in Three Persons (OGTP)1 is no insignificant theological topic. As I write, however, the doctrine of the Trinity, and particularly formulations of the doctrine defended in this volume, is a topic of much online debate. I hesitate to broach the subject for this very reason. By the time this review is published, it is likely that all that need be said will have seen the light of day. Yet, the debate is not new, as this volume attests; and every indication is that apart from wholesale retractions the doctrinal formulations advanced within the pages of OGTP will remain contentious for some time.

According to Bruce Ware and John Starke, the unified burden of these essays is to demonstrate from across the various theological disciplines that a proper conception of gender relations and roles is grounded in and patterned after the ad intra life of the Triune God, in which the Son is understood to be eternally subordinate or submissive to the authority of the Father (14). The aim, in other words, is to establish and defend the doctrine of eternal relational authority-submission (ERAS) against its critics, and so to maintain that ERAS grounds gender complementarianism.

These essays, however, are not as unified as Ware and Starke lead us to believe. Neither Michael Haykin nor K. Scott Oliphint, for example, make any mention of ERAS or gender complementarianism. Robert Letham’s survey of the patristic

JIRBS 3 (2016) p. 154

development of the doctrine of eternal generation stands in uneasy tension with ERAS, especially in view of the varied reception of the doctrine of eternal generation by other contributors to this volume. There is also significant divergence on the interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11:3 and the doctrine of the divine will, Claunch criticizing the argumentation of Grudem and Ware on both topics. Despite these and other points of disagreement, OGTP taken as a whole does portend to handle the major topics necessary to any discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity, namely, as the subtitle indicates, the unity of the divine essence, the distinction of the divine persons, and the practical implications of the doctrine. With some notable exceptions, moreover, these essays art...