#170 – Doctrine of God Roundup with Dr. Matthew Barrett
Knowing Faith
The Doctrine of Divine Simplicity
Underneath the surface is this doctrine of simplicity. God is without a composer. He doesn't have to become his attributes more or less at any point. If we forfeit divine simplicity, I would argue we're actually forfeiting Christian orthodoxy itself.
Jen Wilkin, JT English, and Kyle Worley are joined by Matthew Barrett to discuss some big picture ideas on the Doctrine of God.
Questions Covered in This Episode:
- Why did you write “None Greater?”
- Is an attribute of God something God has or something God is?
- What do we lose if we lose the Divine Simplicity of God?
- When we talk about some of these attributes, love for example, how does saying that God is love or that God loves not challenge the doctrine of impassibility? Does God have an emotional life? If not, then how does saying “God loves you” mean anything?
- What do we do with language that seems to communicate that God is passionate?
- Can you give a brief explanation of the doctrine of the eternal functional subordination of the Son and what you think of it?
- Why do you find this view concerning?
Helpful Definitions:
- Divine Simplicity: The incomprehensible God we are speaking of is without parts, His essence is His attributes and His attributes is His essence.
- Pure Actuality: God is so alive and complete and therefore, never has to be changed, acted upon or moved. He is life without measure.
- Passive Potency: We have potential that has to be activated in order to be brought to completion.
- Theistic Mutualism, Theistic Personalism, Mono Polytheism: Describing the God of modern theology in broad strokes. This God is one but not all that different from gods in polytheistic religions. These are gods that might feel comforting to us at first but not that we would worship in the end
- Immutable: From eternity past to eternity future God is unchanging. God is always the same.
- Aseity: God is a se, or has aseity: He is self-existent and self-sufficient.
- Impassibility: God is without passions.
- Passions: Exist whenever a finite creature is acted upon by, effected by, or even changed by something external to ourself; a change occurs within that moves you.
- Eternal Functional Subordination: The way we should think of the trinity is in terms of roles and relationships of hierarchy, authority, and submission. The Father has greater authority and power than the Son (Still equal in essence). The Holy Spirit is functionally lower still.
Guest Bio:
Dr. Matthew Barrett is Associate Professor of Christian Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also the founder and executive editor of Credo Magazine. He is the author of numerous books including: Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Spirit, None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God and God’s Word Alone: The Authority of Scripture.
Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- John 4, Isaiah 40-45, 1 John, 1 Samuel 15, Philippians 2
- “None Greater” by Matthew Barrett
- “Confessions” by Saint Augustine
- Nicene Creed
- “Does God Suffer?” by Thomas Weinandy
- Westminster Confession
- London Baptist of Faith
- “The Impassable God of the Bible: Replying to Some Objections” by Wesley Hill
- “Simply Trinity” by Matthew Barrett
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