Dr Paul Allen

  One of the fundamental points of Christian theology is the deity of Jesus Christ —the belief that Jesus of Nazareth was truly the God of the Old Testament, born of a woman, living as a human being.  But Christ’s divinity does not mean that God was nowhere else when he lived on earth. Both God and Jesus simultaneously existed (as they had before Jesus was born). While on earth Jesus referred to God as “Father.” Consequently, Trinitarianism speaks of “God the Father” and “God the Son” (Jesus). The third person of this Trinity is the Holy Spirit. So even though Jesus is God, he is not the Father—hence the play on words: Jesus is God, but he isn’t God (the Father). Jesus is identified as God in several ways in the New Testament. Scripture describes him as having attributes and authority possessed only by God. John 1:1–2, 14 straightforwardly identifies Jesus as God: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.… And the

As I understand things, there are basically three views in dispute (with thanks to Dr. Michael Svigel for the chart below): The  incarnational   subordination  view holds that the second member of the Trinity is submissive to the first beginning at the incarnation, or “in the state of His humiliation” (Goligher’s words). In other words, before the incarnation, there was no submission within the Trinity. This is the view I see Trueman and  Goligher defend . The  economic   subordination  view holds that there is submission, in the Trinity before the incarnation, but only in relationship to others outside of the Trinity—so the Son submits to the Father in matters of creation and redemption, but there is no submission between the Father and the Son as they relate to each other.  The  eternal   subordination  view teaches that there is submission in the Trinity not only in matters of creation and redemption, but also in how the Son and the Father relate to each other—so