Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 27:4 (Autumn 2013)
Article: The Trinity And The Eternal Subordination Of The Son
Author: Francis H. Geis

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PP 27:4 (Autumn 2013) p. 23

The Trinity And The Eternal Subordination Of The Son

Francis Geis

Francis Geis is a committed Christian lay minister who has taught Sunday school and been active in his church’s worship team, education committee, and missions committee for the last fifteen years. His blog is called “Barnabas Hall.” An active member of Christians for Biblical Equality and a Vietnam Era veteran, he lives in Lakewood, Colorado.

The doctrine of the Trinity is one of those core Christian beliefs that—on the basis of scriptural revelation, orthodox religious tradition, and common Christian spiritual experience—was carefully pondered, debated, and then formulated in the Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creed, and Athanasian Creed. These “ecumenical creeds” are recognized and subscribed to by most Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Protestant churches as the true definition of who and what the Lord God Almighty, the One True God we worship and serve, truly is.

However, both in the past and in the present, some Christian teachers and groups have argued, contrary to the creeds, that there is an essential hierarchical structure within the Triune God, with the Father being supreme over both the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the fourth century, this subordinationist understanding of the Trinity was known as Arianism. Today, as propagated by certain evangelical teachers and scholars, it is known as the eternal subordination of the Son. Before we can address these deviations from Christian orthodoxy, we first need to review the doctrine of the Trinity itself.

The Trinity Is A Definition Of The Deity

The doctrine of the Trinity is not an object or thing; rather, it is a definition of God’s being and communal character. Dr. Robert K. Wright explains:

The Trinity is not a “thing.” It is a doctrine, a propositional description amounting to a definition of God. That is, for the Christian, the word Trinity is a synonym for God. It is our definition of the Deity. . . . The basic framework of the doctrine consists of six statements, each of them exegeted directly from the Bible. They are: 1) The Father is Jehovah, 2) the Son is Jehovah, and 3) the Holy Spirit is Jehovah. These describe the eternal unity of the One God. Then; 4) the Father is not the Son, 5) the Son is not the Spirit, and 6) the Spirit is not the Father, distinguishing the Three Persons with the Being, or Substance of God.

For this reason, the Athanasian Creed warns us against either “confusing the Persons [or] dividing the Substance” of God. Within God’s eternal being, there are three centers of consciousness who, while they each exhaust the other’s awareness, still think of themselves as I and Thou. Jesus’ own expressions in...

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