Dr Paul Allen

Have you encountered the doctrine of Son’s eternal generation (i.e., being eternally begotten of the Father)?  We recognize the importance of affirming that the Son of God is not a creature but is Himself, God. But I could not conceive why it was necessary to discuss the nature of Son’s begetting in such detail. Where in the Bible would one get such an idea? And why does it matter? It turns out that it matters a great deal and that it’s not as speculative as it may seem at first. The God of Scripture is Trinitarian—one God in three persons1. The distinctions between the persons are not between levels of deity, for all three persons are equally God. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism captures it, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are “the same in substance, equal in power and glory” (WSC 6). Christians should not doubt the deity or personality of any person of the Godhead. Instead, the distinctions among the persons of the Trinity are known as personal properties: the Father

English: Christ is tempted by Satan. The engraved drawing was by Jacob de Wit after Peter Paul Rubens. 1711-12. School: Dutch. This print is from a group of 36 drawings after Peter Paul Rubens' ceiling panels in the Jesuit Church, Antwerp, for engraving and publication by Jan Punt. Dimensions: height: 340 millimetres; width: 403 millimetres. http://www.archive.org/details/TheBowyerBible (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God , tell this stone to become bread” ( Luke 4:3). When Satan first approached Eve , he did not initially contradict what God had said, but rather simply questioned God’s Word. He does the same here. God the Father had just told Jesus , “You are My Son, whom I love” (Luke 3:22). Now Satan calls this into question: “If you really are God’s Son, then turn stones into bread.” The issue is the trustworthiness of the Word of God, and Jesus replies to Satan, “ It is written : ‘Man does not live on bread alone’ ” (Luke 4:4).

“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith . Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ?” ( 1 John 5:4-5 ) The favorite hymn titled “Faith Is the Victory” contains many allusions to scriptural concepts and passages. The theme, as is repeated in the chorus, is “faith is the victory, . . . O glorious victory, that overcomes the world.” The primary passage used for the source of this hymn is in our text, where we see that it is the Christian —the one “born of God”—who “believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” who “overcomes the world.” The victory comes through faith. Encamped along the hills of light, Ye Christian soldiers rise, And press the battle ere the night, Shall veil the glowing skies. Against the foe in vales below Let all our strength be hurled; Faith is the victory, we know, That overcomes the world. This first verse harks back to several battles in

Our Lord Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Being “about thirty years of age. . .”—the period of maturity. Who was it reached maturity? The Son of God as Man—the maturity of all physical powers, all soul powers, all spiritual powers, and not until that point was reached did God thrust Him out into the three years of service. “I do always those things that are pleasing to [My Father] ” (rv). Where did Jesus learn that power? In those thirty silent years. Can God say of us—“That soul is learning, ‘ precept upon precept; line upon line’; it is not nearly so petulant and stupid as it used to be, it no longer sulks in corners, it no longer murmurs against discipline, it is getting slowly to the place where I shall be able to do with it what I did with My own Son”? What was that? God took His hand off, as it were, and said to the world, the flesh and the devil, "Do your worst”— “. . . greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” God shielded His Son from no

Jesus image (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Long before there was a human nature, there was a second person of the Trinity . Here the second person of the Trinity, very God of very God, God himself, was able to take upon himself a human nature. No human being could reverse the process and take upon himself a divine nature. I cannot add deity to my humanity. It’s not as if Christ changed from deity into humanity. That’s what I hear all the time. I hear that there was this great eternal God who suddenly stopped being God and became a man. That’s not what the Bible teaches. The divine person took upon himself a human nature. We really can’t understand the mystery of how this happened. But it is conceivable, certainly, that God, with his power, can add to himself a human nature and do it in such a way as to unite two natures in one person. The most important council about this in the history of the church, whose decision has stood for centuries as the model of Christian orthodoxy and is

The Baptism of Christ, 1474-1475, Verrocchio assisted by Leonardo da Vinci (Uffizi, Florence) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The Sovereignty of God . What do we mean by this expression? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the god-hood of God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of Heaven , and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto Him what doest Thou? (Dan. 4:35). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in Heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will (Psa. 115:3). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is “The Governor among the nations” (Psa. 22:28), setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as pleaseth Him best. To say that God is Sovereign is to