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2ndcommandment ambrose ames aquinas augustine barker bavinck beale beeke berkhof bernard beza bierma bolton boston bower brakel bridge bucey burgess butner calvin carmichael carpenter carson casselli charnock cho christ clark confessionalism confessions davenant davis decampos dennison dickson dolezal dpoythress duby duguid dunnam durham farrel ferguson fesko flavel fortunato frame gaffin gamble garcia garner gatiss gerstner giles gillespie gonzalez goodwin gootjes gouge guthrie henry hiestand history hperkins jacomb jones jue kevan klauber kline knox krans kruger lane leigh letham lewis lillback lindberg luther lynch mackay manetsch marriage mcgrath mcgraw mcwilliams muller murray oberman oliphint opc osborne owen packer pentecost perkins phillips pictet poythress predestination ralphdavis rcross resurrection roberts roney rutherford salazar shannon shedd sibbes silva sinnema spiritualgifts sproul strange svisser swain synopsis teellinck theonomy thompson tipton trueman tuckney turretin urcna vanasselt vandixhoorn vanmastricht vanraalte vantil venema versteeg vos waddington wallace warfield watson white whitman willemteellinck williams witsius woolsey zwingli { timeline }

Summary of Eternal Begetting

  • The eternal begetting of the Son does not involve a change in God. God is eternally triune; he does not become a Trinity in time. There never was a time when the Son (or the Spirit) was not.

  • The eternal begetting of the Son cannot be likened to human generation, except on one matter: like produces like, and thus fathers and their offspring are of the same nature. Divine begetting is "immaterial," "spiritual," like the unceasing light coming from the sun, or "light from light," or the utterance of the divine Word.

  • The eternal begetting of the Son is not to be understood in terms of temporal, contingent causation or as human begetting in the created order. The eternal generation of the Son and procession of the Spirit are necessary divine acts ad intra. Nothing is produced outside of God.

  • The Son, on the basis of his eternal begetting, is to be confessed as "true God from true God, one in being [homoousios] with the Father."

  • The eternal begetting of the Son eternally and indelibly differentiates the Father and the Son as "unbegotten God" and "begotten God." It does not differentiate or separate them in being or power, or as underived deity (the Father) and derived deity (the Son and the Spirit), or as contingent and noncontingent God. The Father, the Son and the Spirit all possess aseity. They are each "true God," each self-existent God.

 

Kevin Giles, The Eternal Generation of the Son: Maintaining Orthodoxy in Trinitarian Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 9


2ndcommandment ambrose ames aquinas augustine barker bavinck beale beeke berkhof bernard beza bierma bolton boston bower brakel bridge bucey burgess butner calvin carmichael carpenter carson casselli charnock cho christ clark confessionalism confessions davenant davis decampos dennison dickson dolezal dpoythress duby duguid dunnam durham farrel ferguson fesko flavel fortunato frame gaffin gamble garcia garner gatiss gerstner giles gillespie gonzalez goodwin gootjes gouge guthrie henry hiestand history hperkins jacomb jones jue kevan klauber kline knox krans kruger lane leigh letham lewis lillback lindberg luther lynch mackay manetsch marriage mcgrath mcgraw mcwilliams muller murray oberman oliphint opc osborne owen packer pentecost perkins phillips pictet poythress predestination ralphdavis rcross resurrection roberts roney rutherford salazar shannon shedd sibbes silva sinnema spiritualgifts sproul strange svisser swain synopsis teellinck theonomy thompson tipton trueman tuckney turretin urcna vanasselt vandixhoorn vanmastricht vanraalte vantil venema versteeg vos waddington wallace warfield watson white whitman willemteellinck williams witsius woolsey zwingli { timeline }