Dr Paul Allen

One of the most essential doctrines for a Christian understanding of the Trinity is eternal generation. When the equality of the Son with the Father was thrown into question in the fourth century, the church fathers turned to the doctrine of eternal generation not only to distinguish the Son from the Father but to ensure that the Son is understood to be equal with the Father.  For these reasons, the doctrine of eternal generation became a cornerstone of the Nicene Creed, that standard-bearer of Christian orthodoxy. But over the last several decades, evangelicals have gained a bad reputation for rejecting this doctrine. Even when evangelicals have affirmed it, they do not appear to understand why. Could it be that we do not really grasp what eternal generation is in the first place? I want to invite you on an adventure into the mystery of this indispensable Christian doctrine. But instead of exploring the eternal generation’s biblical warrant (see Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Fathe

“Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” ( Psalm 139:16 ) This is an amazing verse, testifying as it does to the omniscient fore-planning of our Creator for each human being. Each person has been separately planned by God before he or she was ever conceived; His eyes oversaw our “unperfect [not imperfect, but unfinished] substance”—that is, literally, our embryo—throughout its entire development. Not only all its “members” but also all its “days” (the literal implication of “in continuance”) had been “written” in God’s book long ago. While modern evolutionists argue that a “fetus” is not yet a real person and so may be casually aborted if the mother so chooses, both the Bible and science show that a growing child in the womb is a true human being. Instruments called fetoscopes have been able to trace every stage of embryonic development, showing that