Category Archives: Trinity

The Impassibility of God

If you have never studied this doctrine of the divine impassibility, I encourage you to read the following history by Dr. Robert Culver. It is very good and thought provoking:

THE IMPASSIBILITY OF GOD

Here is an important excerpt from the paper:

Impassibility comes into our language as translation of the Greek word apatheia in the writings of Church fathers, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Apatheia, despite the obvious etymological connection with apathy and apathetic in modern English, (Pelikan) started out as meaning “the state of an apathes” (alpha privative, plus pathos) without pathos or suffering” (Liddell and Scott Lexicon). Among the Greek Fathers pathos or passion was the right word for the suffering of Christ, as it still is. So in theology to be impassible means primarily to be incapable of suffering. Early theology affirmed that in heaven our resurrected bodies will be pathes in this sense. The word came to be extended to mean incapable of emotion of any kind and beyond that, apathes (impassible) in important theological discourse meant without sexual desire (Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism, chap. xxxv, “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series,” edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, 1910, ii, 5, pp. 502-504). As applied to God, incapacity for any emotions sometimes is meant. We will return to this. The twelfth canon of the Second Council of Constantinople (553, Fifth Ecumenical) seems to say Christ on earth was impassible in the sense of “longings (passions, presumably sexual) of the flesh” (Henry Denzinger, The Sources of Catholic Dogma, trans. R. J. Deferrari, Hersler Book Co., 1954, 224).

In this paper I am interested mainly in the question of whether or not the divine nature is capable of emotion, including, in a secondary way, the experience of suffering.

Free Apologetic MP3 Downloads from Doug Wilson

If you’ve never heard Doug Wilson debate, now is your chance and best of all… it’s FREE! Pastor Wilson is a very important figure in the ongoing debate with the “New Atheism” that has so loudly proclaimed itself as the truth in recent years. Thankfully, Canon Press is now offering several mp3s and a new book where Pastor Wilson has debated these atheists. See the information below for what they are offering. But first, I would like to draw your attention to the free mp3 they are offering on why Doug Wilson would even attempt to debate an atheist. You can download that mp3 from my web site here or listen to it from the player in this post. Enjoy!

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Here is the info about the free mp3s:

Apologetics, the Why and the How

“But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…” (1 Peter 3:15, ESV)

For most Christians, Peter’s words present a daunting challenge. Unless you’re a pastor, or an evangelist, or someone else similarly gifted and accustomed to preaching the Gospel, giving a defense of your faith tends to be a messy enterprise. Answers rarely come easy. Objections, on the other hand, come like a mighty river, and they’re often difficult to refute and turn aside. And often, Christian apologetics seems to be a futile exercise—we can’t argue anyone into the truth, and sometimes it looks like our efforts only make unbelievers more stubborn in their resistance to the Gospel.

Over the past year-and-a-half, Pastor Wilson has written several books attacking the “New Atheism” movement, but debating atheists is not a newfound hobby for him. Wilson has debated atheists Eddie Tabash and Dan Barker—each of them twice, no less—in the past fifteen years. And in this CRF Lecture, Why Debate an Atheist, he explains what good can come of such debates and why he has taken the time to participate in them. For those who question debates’ worth, or who would simply like to know what they can learn from them, this lecture provides answers.

To celebrate the release of Is Christianity Good for the World?, we’re offering this talk as a free MP3 download. Please visit the item page to download the talk, and please share it with your friends: it is a wonderful introduction to and defense of Christian apologetics, particularly since we face the ongoing attacks of New Atheism.

And speaking of Is Christianity Good for the World?, we have been very pleased with the reception it has received thus far. Not only has it sold well on Amazon and other online retailers, but it is also being featured on front tables in Barnes & Noble stores across the country. (Please feel free to point your friends or your blog links to ischristianitygoodfortheworld.com: not only can they see a good-sized picture of the book, but they can choose where they would like to purchase a copy.)

Gheens Lectures by Simon Gathercole

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has now posted online lectures by Simon Gathercole (NT lecturer at the University of Cambridge), delivered there in November 2004:

The first three talks in these Gheens Lectures served as the foundation for Gathercole’s book, The Preexistent Son: Recovering the Christologies of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

[HT: JT]

Athanasius’ Creed

Whoever wills to be in a state of salvation, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith, which except everyone shall have kept whole and undefiled without doubt he will perish eternally.

Now the catholic faith is that we worship One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is One, the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit; the Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated; the father infinite, the Son infinite, and the Holy Spirit infinite; the Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet not three eternals but one eternal, as also not three infinites, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated, and one infinite. So, likewise, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty; and yet not three almighties but one almighty. So the Father is God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God; and yet not three Gods but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord; and yet not three Lords but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by Christian truth to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be both God and Lord; so are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say, there be three Gods or three Lords. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and the Son, not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding. So there is one Father not three Fathers, one Son not three Sons, and one Holy Spirit not three Holy Spirits. And in this Trinity there is nothing before or after, nothing greater or less, but the whole three Persons are coeternal together and coequal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Trinity in Unity and the Unity in Trinity is to be worshipped. He therefore who wills to be in a state of salvation, let him think thus of the Trinity.

But it is necessary to eternal salvation that he also believe faithfully the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The right faith therefore is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man. He is God of the substance of the Father begotten before the worlds, and He is man of the substance of His mother born in the world; perfect God, perfect man subsisting of a reasoning soul and human flesh; equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood. Who although He be God and Man yet He is not two but one Christ; one however not by conversion of the Godhead in the flesh, but by taking of the Manhood in God; one altogether not by confusion of substance but by unity of Person. For as the reasoning soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life eternal, and they who indeed have done evil into eternal fire.

This is the catholic faith, which except a man shall have believed faithfully and firmly he cannot be in a state of salvation.