This is a direct quote from the London Baptist Confession of 1689, it about says it all concerning the trinity
Chapter 2: Of God and of the Holy Trinity
1._____The Lord our God is but one only living and true God; whose subsistence is in and of himself, infinite in being and perfection; whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself; a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him, and withal most just and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty.
( 1 Corinthians 8:4, 6; Deuteronomy 6:4; Jeremiah 10:10; Isaiah 48:12; Exodus 3:14; John 4:24; 1 Timothy 1:17; Deuteronomy 4:15, 16; Malachi 3:6; 1 Kings 8:27; Jeremiah 23:23; Psalms 90:2; Genesis 17:1; Isaiah 6:3; Psalms 115:3; Isaiah 46:10; Proverbs 16:4; Romans 11:36; Exodus 34:6, 7; Hebrews 11:6; Nehemiah 9:32, 33; Psalms 5:5, 6; Exodus 34:7; Nahum 1:2, 3 )
2._____God, having all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself, is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creature which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them; he is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things, and he hath most sovereign dominion over all creatures, to do by them, for them, or upon them, whatsoever himself pleaseth; in his sight all things are open and manifest, his knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to him contingent or uncertain; he is most holy in all his counsels, in all his works, and in all his commands; to him is due from angels and men, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience, as creatures they owe unto the Creator, and whatever he is further pleased to require of them.
( John 5:26; Psalms 148:13; Psalms 119:68; Job 22:2, 3; Romans 11:34-36; Daniel 4:25, 34, 35; Hebrews 4:13; Ezekiel 11:5; Acts 15:18; Psalms 145:17; Revelation 5:12-14 )
3._____ In this divine and infinite Being there are three subsistences, the Father, the Word or Son, and Holy Spirit, of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided: the Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son; all infinite, without beginning, therefore but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties and personal relations; which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God, and comfortable dependence on him.
( 1 John 5:7; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Exodus 3:14; John 14:11; 1 Corinthians 8:6; John 1:14,18; John 15:26; Galatians 4:6 )
Hi folks – stumbled onto this post. You may be interested to know that this confession was laid out right as a heated, many-sided, drawn out, and fascinating controversy about the Trinity broke out in England. We’re talking at least several dozen books and pamphlets here. Can’t summarize it here, but good summaries of it can be found in three places.
(1) Dixon’s 2003 book Nice & Hot Disputes
(2) Hunt’s 1873 book available in print form only here: http://www.lulu.com/content/750610, and
(3) the “Trinity” article, section 5 in the free, online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – this isn’t out yet, but should be by, say, the end of Sept 2007.
PS – Re: this post – “Sola Scriptura”?
Dale
trinies.org
Comment by Dale — September 4, 2007 @ 1:40 am |
Dale,
It’s understandable that there’ll be disagreements among the framers of the confession. After all, they came from different churches. The fact that they were able to come up with the confession is a tribute to them. Moreover, I noticed that the dates of the literature that you listed above came out more than 200 years later. Many things happened in those 200 years or so. It would be more credible if someone among the framers wrote a book or a pamphlet to publicly express his objection.
Melvin
Comment by Melvin — September 4, 2007 @ 11:09 pm |
Yes, it might have been more credible, but it is in keeping with the practice of the day. Though pamphlets and the like or what they would pass for one did happen, it was not the norm. They considered the Confession to be their “pamphlet” and besides if they disagreed on some point they did not make an issue out of it. History is full of instances were either a confession or its cousin a creed was approved and written, then by in large ignored. Some of those who gathered to consider the Aryan controversy and formulated the Nicean Creed actually when it came to practice ignored the creed. Athanasious is known to have objected to some of those who were at the counsel to have objected to their duplicity. Personally I object to those who say that are in agreement with the Confession and Creeds, but argue against some of the articles. We are not much different when we repeat it, but deny what it says.
Comment by Thomas — September 4, 2007 @ 11:24 pm |