The Second Helvetic Confession Chapter 3
Of God, His Unity and Trinity
God Is One. We believe and
teach that God is one in essence or nature, subsisting in himself, all
sufficient in himself, invisible, incorporeal, immense, eternal, Creator of all
things both visible and invisible, the greatest good, living, quickening and
preserving all things, omnipotent and supremely wise, kind and merciful, just
and true. Truly we detest many gods because it is expressly written: The Lord
your God is one Lord (Deut. 6:4). I am the Lord your God. You shall have no
other gods before me (Exod. 20:2‑3). I am the Lord, and there is no other
god besides me. Am I not the Lord, and there is no other God beside me? A
righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me (Isa. 45:5, 21). The Lord,
the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast
love and faithfulness (Exod. 34:6).
<The mystery of the ages,
God is One! This most of the world,
meaning mankind can accept. What
else could a living being be other than one?
The debate would be whether God is the only God, or just perhaps chief
among many gods. The tiny spark of
light left in mankind from the fall says there is a god and establishes a
baseline desire to worship in mankind. We
call this the light of nature. Paul
addresses this in Romans one and goes so far as to say that where mankind by
this natural light does that which is in concord with the law of God, that there
is no need for the law, or in the words of Paul they are a law unto themselves.
This does not establish a natural law that is equal to the revealed law
of God, but acknowledges that indeed as promised God has revealed Himself to all
mankind so that in the most base of creatures, the full knowledge of God
resides, though not made manifest nor recognized by the creature without the
enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Thus
here we make the statement not only that God is one essence or person, but also
most emphatically testify that there is no other god period.
This stands in stark contrast to the liberal church of today that in
places declares there are more ways to God than Christ, or that perhaps there is
value to other so-called world religions. This
is false for there cannot be a religion where no god exists.
In their blindness people believe and bow before images of that which
does not exist in reality. The
whole of the contest between Elijah and the false priests of religion in his day
on Mt. Carmel was to prove this one point, besides God there is no other
God.>
God Is Three.
Notwithstanding we believe and teach that the same immense, one and indivisible
God is in person inseparably and without confusion distinguished as Father, Son
and Holy Spirit so, as the Father has begotten the Son from eternity, the Son is
begotten by an ineffable generation, and the Holy Spirit truly proceeds from
them both, and the same from eternity and is to be worshiped with both.
<Calvin attempted to explain this as one of essence, yet
three in subsistence. That is while
one in essence each of the three persons we know as the Trinity is able to
subsist as the whole and complete person.
This is the best explanation through the centuries in that it ends
the debate of the foolish imagination of man that would deny the clear Word of
God that says God is one, yet pays attention to the individual persons within
the Godhead. Every heresy has its
roots here in the whom and what of the God is three statements.
We are dealing with the spiritual, a metaphysical nature that is beyond
the ability of man to see or demonstrate; therefore man continues to search for
the how of the Trinity. Many miss
the whole concept and as will be dealt with in a moment, create three gods or
one god with three heads as if some sideshow freak of nature.
Anything that denies the oneness of God, or attempts to deny the full
deity of all three, or separate the three in any way is heresy and to be given
absolutely no countenance in the church. All
heresies have done one or all of these things.
Calvin’s preferred wording here appears to be that the Son proceeds (is
begotten) from the Father Eternally and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the
Father and Son eternally. This is
important, especially the word eternal in this construction.
God does not change and God has never changed.
Add to this the understanding that eternity is not an infinitely long
time line, but the absence of time, which God created for the benefit of the
creation, and an understanding of God begins to develop.
The existence of God in community (as Three) in eternity is an important
concept for the development of human relationship as the visible means of what
God has had from the beginning, the perfect relationship within the Godhead.
This is why God uses marriage and family so often as the example of His
relationship to mankind and especially His people.
Man cannot understand the rest of Scripture until this point is accepted;
this is the pivot point for all properly formed theology.
This drives home a point most men seem to forget, you cannot develop one
portion of systematic theology if it causes conflict with another point.
As God is whole, so must any complete theology come full circle and be
whole or one. God is one and God is
three is not in conflict with one weighed against the other, but both statements
are an absolute truth.
A footnote supposedly from the original Helvetic renders
the full understanding here as “ Lest any man should slander us, as though we
did make as though the persons existing together, but not all of the same
essence, or else did make God of divers natures joined together in one, you must
understand this joining together so as that all the persons (though distinct one
from the other in properties) be yet one and the same whole Godhead, or so that
all and every of the persons have the whole and absolute Godhead.” >
Thus there are not three gods,
but three persons, consubstantial, coeternal, and coequal; distinct with respect
to hypostasis, and with respect to order, the one preceding the other yet
without any inequality. For according to the nature or essence they are so
joined together that they are one God, and the divine nature is common to the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
<My learned
forefather here is careless in wording in that it is not only a commonality of
nature, but essence, God is one! Calvin’s
subsistence is much more precise here. The
attempt here is to show the three are the same in all things and each is fully
God. This can cause some rather
strange mental images to the created in that as an example it is not wrong to
say God was on the cross, nor is it God that indwells the heart of His people.
While there is no inequality of essence, subsistence, or whatever term
you choose to define the Three in One, contrary to what some teach there is a
definite subordination in place and each person has assigned duties and
responsibilities toward the other. The
equality of essence and existence however point to the Avoluntary@
subjection that exists in perfection in the Godhead that is God’s will for all
of His creation. This is where we
can see how all relationships among men should be. God created relationships
because He has always existed in community and the desire for community is part
of the nature of man. This fact is
the very heart of understanding and applying the fifth commandment. God created man and woman, to bring about marriage and family
that we might have a visible picture of what divine relationship is all about.
If man perfectly understood and applied the first five commandments I do
not think there is a need for the last five.
Mankind is commanded to first seek the kingdom of God before any earthly
or material benefits are added to man. This
seeking of the kingdom of God is tied up with this understanding of God being
One yet Three. God graciously gave
to us the first four commandments just for this purpose, seeking the kingdom of
God. When man has gained the
understanding and application of the first four, the fifth stands as the golden
gate to life in the flesh. The term
father and mother has not so much to do with birth parents but to all persons in
the life of a believer and the responsibility of each person to those in any
station of life, whether above or beneath their own station in life
providentially provided by God. Covenant
relationship is in sight from before the revealed existence of God in eternity.
Covenant relationship is then a position in God (Christ) and not of
person whereby the Bible says in more than one place God is not a respecter of
person. What is the bottom line?
God is one and God is three. Don’t
understand that? Join the party, no
man has ever fully understood though many have attempted to explain. It is in the eternal truth of God revealed in His own Word;
thus an absolute fact that will not change.
In each person’s heart this truth can take root and bring that person
to a place of peace with the three-ness of one God. Not having any analogy or model which man can use to explain
means that this will remain the hardest of all Biblical doctrine to explain to
another. The issue is faith, and
God has supplied that to His chosen people.
Without faith it is impossible to please God because man cannot
understand God’s existence. In
faith the earthly marriage and family becomes this tool to understand the
relationship within the Godhead and sets the pattern for all relationships among
men. >
For Scripture has delivered to us a manifest
distinction of persons, the angel saying, among other things, to the Blessed
Virgin, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of
God (Luke 1:35). And also in the baptism of Christ a voice is heard from heaven
concerning Christ, saying, This is my beloved Son (Matt. 3:17). The Holy Spirit
also appeared in the form of a dove (John 1:32). And when the Lord himself
commanded the apostles to baptize, he commanded them to baptize in the name of
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). Elsewhere in the
Gospel he said: When the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the
Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear
witness to me, etc. (John 15:26). In short, we receive the Apostles' Creed
because it delivers to us the true faith.
<Perhaps my esteemed brother gives to Mary more honor
than is due to her. Blessed she
was, a virgin she was, but not to be a title to set her apart.
It is no error that Mary is not mentioned after the birth except in
passing references where we find Christ place the believers at His feet above
His mother and brothers. Not wrong, but not careful enough less the error of Rome that
has some saints above others resulting in idolatry. All are called to be saints and in the Spirit all are
sanctified. We need clarification
of the last sentence here. The AApostles
Creed@ a
document of men, not the apostles as such was developed to handle the
Christology of the church, which deals with the conception, birth, life, death,
resurrection, ascension, and return of Christ.
It establishes His deity from the beginning, not something bestowed at
the incarnation. The necessity of
this document was better spelled out in the Nicene Creed because it is in the
error of whom and deity of Christ all heresies are born. >
Heresies. Therefore we
condemn the Jews and Mohammedans, and all those who blaspheme that sacred and
adorable Trinity. We also condemn all heresies and heretics who teach that the
Son and Holy Spirit are God in name only, and also that there is something
created and subservient, or subordinate to another in the Trinity, and that
there is something unequal in it, a greater or a less, something corporeal or
corporeally conceived, something different with respect to character or will,
something mixed or solitary, as if the Son and Holy Spirit were the affections
and properties of one God the Father, as the Monarchians, Novatians, Praxeas,
Patripassians, Sabellius, Paul of Samosata, Aetius, Macedonius, Antropomorphites,
Arius, and such like, have thought.
<Bullinger boldly names, names and declares the error of
those who deny the Scriptures and the oneness of God while Three.
However be careful with two things here.
It is not ours to condemn though such language in certain times has been
used and accepted by the church. Only God condemns, man declares or testifies to
the truth. Thus our forefather boldly testified against this unholy use
of the name of God in his day and truly such testimony was before the God who
does condemn. What we condemn here
must be understood in this way. Second,
it would appear that Bullinger has contradicted Baynard in that Baynard asserts
subordination in the Godhead (Trinity). Not
true! We both do not place one
person as subordinate to the other in essence, subsistence or any other way.
I say there is an apparent subordination of works even as we see the work
divided in the Scriptures and there is a respect of position in the Godhead, not
a subordination of equality. For
example nowhere do we find Christ as indwelling the heart, but the Holy Spirit.
Understanding this difference and how God intended subordination of
relationship to exist is the key to avoiding the corruption of relationship we
find among men. This is especially
true regarding the place of gender in godly relationships.
The difference is not just semantics.
Bullinger places emphasis on the equality while I expand it to show that
there is subordination of duty and responsibility of one to the other within the
Godhead. This is the same responsibility assigned to earthly relationships by
the Westminster Divines in their treatment of the Fifth Commandment. >
