If errors start with S

The Scutum Fidei in the background.

When asked “What would be your proper definition of how we should define the Trinity?” one Trinitarian pastor answered:

“Yeah, so there’s three errors, and to alliterate, I just like to use the three S’s here that I use as sort of umbrella terms, they cover a number of different views.” These being Sabellianism (or Modalism), Subordinationism (or Arianism) and Socinianism. He proceeds with some preconceived bias though with all three of these being “errors” and his theology being correct, which has the advantage in his mind of not starting with an S. He then defines the Trinity, in typical Scutum Fidei terms as: 

Three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one true eternal God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. And so, while these persons are one as to their essence or Godhood, they are distinguished according to their personal properties, namely the properties of paternity, affiliation and spiration; that is, the Father begat the Son, the Son is begotten of the Father and the Spirit is breathed or spirated. And so, that’s the doctrine of the Trinity in a nutshell.

He then elaborated:

And, one thing I would say about this, by the way, is if you’re thinking fundamentally about God and what we mean by “God,” one of the things you’re saying is that God is the underived and independently existing one. Right? He is the one who exists in and of himself and doesn’t depend on anything outside of himself, and who caused all other things to exist and depend on him. And so, any doctrine of God that’s going to be consistent with that fundamental presupposition is going to have to, you know, it can’t undermine that fundamental sense of independence. I mean that’s what it means to call God “God.” And in my mind, it’s only the doctrine of the Trinity that can actually preserve what we mean when we say God is independent. God has all life and glory and communion and blessedness and everything that, you know, we might say of a superlative being. He has all of that in and of himself and doesn’t have to look outside of himself to realize these things. There are no hidden potentialities in God. And so, it’s only in the doctrine of the Trinity that you actually have this sort of thing. In every other version of God, you know, God has to look outside of himself in order to realize his hidden potential for love or communion or communication or fellowship or whatever else it may be.

Responses I have to this detailed presentation are:

• God can still be complete as a solitary person, the Father. He created not out of need but out of love.
• His presentation failed to include how Jesus could have died and be resurrected by his Father.
• His presentation failed to include how the Holy Spirit as a person was involved with Mary becoming pregnant with Jesus.

Thus, it is not “only the doctrine of the Trinity that can actually preserve what we mean when we say God is independent,” but God being the Father alone also preserves it. The doctrine of the Trinity then, as stated, appears to be opposed to Christianity, and is not something any Christian would want to believe in, either.

Thus, in closing, if errors start with S, then Trinitarianism is Scutum-Fidei-ism.

See also the entry “Trinitarian Samples” for a more detailed explanation: jimspace3000.blogspot.com/2016/04/trinitarian-samples.html

• YouTube link: youtu.be/Xg6llckd8R4 
• Information on the Scutum Fidei: What a tangled web we weave... jimspace3000.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-tangled-web-we-weave.html