Theology Corner

Addressing commonly asked questions about Christianity from the perspective of a non-theologian

Theology Corner

1.)  AREN'T ALL RELIGIONS ESSENTIALLY THE SAME?

2.)  WHAT IS YOUR THEOLOGY?

3.)  WHAT ARE THE CORE BELIEFS OF CHRISTIANITY?

4.)  IS THE SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT THE ULTIMATE ACT OF LOVE?

5.)  WHAT IS THE GREATEST OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY?

6.)  IS THERE AN INTERMEDIATE PLACE?

7.)  WHAT ARE THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?

8.)  WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING TO DO AFTER YOU DIE?

9.)  WHAT IS THE APOSTLES' CREED?

10.)  WHAT IS THE NICENE CREED?

11.)  WHAT ARE THE DECREES OF GOD?

12.)  WHAT WILL YOU DO IN THE INTERMEDIATE STATE?

13.)  WERE THE OT TEN COMMANDMENTS REPLACED BY THE NT GREAT COMMANDMENT?

14.)  WHEN DOES GOD MAKE HIS DECISION ABOUT YOUR FINAL DESTINATION?

15.)  WAS JESUS TEMPTED IN EVERY WAY?

16.)  SHOULD WE ASPIRE TO UNBROKEN COMMUNION WITH GOD?

17.)  WHAT WERE THE ATTRIBUTES OF JESUS DURING HIS INCARNATION?

18.)  WHAT IS THE MYSTERIOUS LAW OF RESERVE?

19.)  CAN CHRISTIANS DEFEND THE TRINITY AND THE INCARNATION?

20.)  WHY NOT CALVINISM?

21.)  WHO WAS JAMES ARMINIUS AND WHAT DID HE DO?

22.)  WHO WAS JOHN WESLEY AND WHAT DID HE DO?

23.)  IS JESUS CHRIST THEANTHROPIC?

24.)  WHAT IS THE SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST?

25.)  WHAT MIGHT A METHODIST THEOLOGIAN SAY ABOUT THE SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT?

26.)  WHAT MIGHT A METHODIST THEOLOGIAN SAY ABOUT THE TRINITY?

27.)  WHAT WERE THE ORIGINAL FIVE POINTS OF THE REMONSTRANTS?

28.)  DO INTELLECTUAL CHRISTIANS MINIMIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRINITY?

29.)  DID JESUS DESCEND INTO HELL?

1.)  CAN GOD'S WILL BE THWARTED?

2.)  DID GOD ELECT ONLY A FEW FOR SALVATION WHILE CONDEMNING THE GREATER PART OF MANKIND TO HELL?

3.)  FAITH OR SALVATION: WHICH COMES FIRST?

4.)  DID GOD THE FATHER BEGET JESUS CHRIST?

5.)  WHAT ARE THE TWO NATURES OF CHRIST?

6.)  WHAT IS ANTINOMIANISM?

7.)  WHAT IS SABELLIANISM?

8.)  WHAT IS PELAGIANISM?

9.)  DOES LOVE REALLY WIN?

10.)  IS YOUR WILL REALLY YOUR WILL?

11.)  CAN TWO THEOLOGIES BE TESTED FOR COMPATIBILITY?

12.)  WHAT IS THE FRAUD OF FIDEISM?

13.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES THEOLOGY?

14.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH CHRISTIAN SCIENCE THEOLOGY?

15.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH MORMON THEOLOGY?

16.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS THEOLOGY?

17.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH SCIENTOLOGY THEOLOGY?

18.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH UNIFICATION CHURCH THEOLOGY?

19.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH THE WAY INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGY?

20.)  IS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD THEOLOGY?

21.)  IS REPENTANCE REALLY NECESSARY?

22.)  WHAT ARE SOME MUSINGS OF A METHODIST THEOLOGIAN ON LIMITED ATONEMENT?

23.)  WHAT ARE SOME QUESTIONS FOR THOSE WHO TEACH A LIMITED ATONEMENT PROVIDED ONLY FOR THE ELECT OF GOD?

24.)  WHAT WERE CALVIN'S ACTUAL WORDS?

25.)  WHAT IS GNOSTICISM?

26.)  WHAT IS THE UNPARDONABLE SIN?

27.)  IS CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY COMPATIBLE WITH PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY?

28.)  CAN CALVINISM BE SENT TO THE DUST BIN?

29.)  IS YOUR FREE WILL AN ILLUSION?

1.)  IS CHRISTIANITY COMPATIBLE WITH POSITIVE TOLERANCE?

2.)  CAN WE HAVE A FORM OF GODLINESS, BUT DENY THE POWER THEREOF?

3.)  WHAT IS THE GREAT WAR?

4.)  SHOULD PRESIDENT TRUMP HAVE BEEN IMPEACHED FOR IMMORALITY?

5.)  WHO SAID MOSES WAS HUMBLE?

6.)  COULD CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE BENEFIT FROM WOKE REVISION?

7.)  DID EINSTEIN BELIEVE ALL CHRISTIANS WERE CALVINISTS?

8.)  WHY IS MARXISM A MAGNET?

9.)  WHAT IS TRUE SCIENCE?

10.)  CAN YOU LOSE YOUR SALVATION?

11.)  WHAT ARE THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS?

12.)  WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS?

13.)  WAS PAUL ENTIRELY SANCTIFIED?

14.)  ARE YOU LIVING IN A WORLD AT WAR?

15.)  WHAT IS THE DIRECT METHOD FOR PROVING A CONDITIONAL PROPOSITION IS TRUE?

16.)  WHAT IS THE CONTRAPOSITIVE METHOD FOR PROVING A CONDITIONAL PROPOSITION IS TRUE?

17.)  WHAT IS THE CONTRADICTION METHOD FOR PROVING A CONDITIONAL PROPOSITION IS TRUE?

18.)  WHAT MIGHT A METHODIST THEOLOGIAN SAY ABOUT PURGATORY?

19.)  WHICH BIBLE PASSAGES ELUCIDATE CORE ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY?

20.)  DO SELECTED NIV VERSES ELUCIDATE CORE ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY?

21.)  DO SELECTED AKJV VERSES ELUCIDATE CORE ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY?

22.)  DO SELECTED YLT VERSES ELUCIDATE CORE ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY?

23.)  DO SELECTED 'VOICE' VERSES ELUCIDATE CORE ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY?

24.)  COULD THE CONCEPT OF 'SALVATION ONLY FOR THE ELECT' HAVE BEEN ROOTED IN THE MIND OF AUGUSTINE BEFORE HE EMBRACED CHRISTIANITY?

25.)  DID AUGUSTINE RECEIVE PUSHBACK FOR HIS TEACHING OF 'SALVATION ONLY FOR THE ELECT' DURING HIS LIFETIME?

26.)  WHAT DOES REFORMED THEOLOGY MEAN BY PREDESTINATION; IS IT TRUE OR FALSE?

WHY IS JESUS CHRIST CALLED 'GOD THE SON'?

In some Bible translations, the words “only begotten” appear in reference to Jesus Christ (John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9).  This seems to imply that Jesus Christ is a created being and, therefore, although He may be of high stature, He would not qualify as a coequal member of the Trinity.  This seeming conflict can be traced to a defective translation of the Greek word monogenes.  Nevertheless, after centuries of contemplation, the idea that Jesus Christ is a created being has persisted from Arius to Charles Taze Russell and beyond. 

Church fathers of the fourth century, in the heat of the Arian controversy, took the word monogenes to be a union of mono, which means only, and the verb gennao, which means to generate or beget. Thus, the English words only begotten are derived from fourth century usage.  As explained by Buswell, “When the orthodox church fathers were challenged by the Arians, who said that Christ was a created being and who pointed to the word monogenes for their evidence, the orthodox fathers did not have the facilities to prove that the word has nothing to do with begetting, but they knew that in the light of other Scriptures, Christ was not created: ‘There never was a time when He was not.’  They therefore accepted the word begotten but added the words not created.”  (Buswell, p 111)

 

However, careful lexicographical studies prove beyond question that the word monogenes is not derived from the root gennao (to generate or beget) but is derived from genos which means type or kind.  The word monogenes, therefore, means one and only or unique!  For example, the French Bible correctly reads son fils unique for the English his only begotten Son.

 

It can be said, with confidence, that the Bible has nothing whatsoever to say about begetting as an eternal relationship between the Father and the Son.  The Nicene Creed deals with this issue by saying begotten not made which reduces the meaning of begotten to zero.

While the mystery of begetting has been resolved, it gives rise to a second question.  If the theanthropic Jesus Christ is, in fact, a distinct, uncreated, transcendent, immanent, infinite, eternal and immutable person who is co-equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, why is He called God the Son?  Such a name would seem to relegate Jesus to a subservient position.  However, the Son is never presented by Scripture as a generated being, as a subordinate, or as an inferior in any sense.  When Jesus called Himself the Son of God and claimed that God was His own Father, this was, in the language in which it was understood, “making himself equal with God” (John 5:18). 

 

The words God the Father and God the Son convey a type of personal relationship in the Trinity between two distinct, co-equal, uncreated, transcendent, immanent, infinite, eternal and immutable divine persons.

 

This is almost never clarified from the pulpit; many Christians believe Jesus was begotten by God the Father, as His Son, at the time of the incarnation.  The uncreated, one true God has existed eternally as three distinct, co-equal, uncreated, transcendent, immanent, infinite, eternal and immutable divine persons (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit: The Holy Trinity); at the instant of the incarnation, God the Son became theanthropic -- human as well as divine.

The true implications of the titles ‘God the Father’ and ‘God the Son’ were clarified by the words of Samuel Wakefield, a 19th century Methodist Theologian:

 

“It follows, therefore, that it [Son of God] is a title characteristic of his mode of existence in the Divine essence, and of the relation which exists between the first and the second person in the ever-blessed Trinity.”  (Wakefield, p 219)

 

and the words of James Oliver Buswell, a 20th century Reformed Theologian:

 

“It should not be difficult to understand the words ‘Father and Son’ as conveying a personal relationship in the eternal Trinity, without in any sense involving the thought of generation, or of any essential subordination.”  (Buswell, p 112)

 

Some contemporary expositors continue to promote the eternal generation of God the Son, from eternity past, by God the Father; they also promote the essential subordination of Jesus Christ to God the Father.  On these issues, the theology of the advocates differs only marginally from the theology of Arianism and it serves no useful purpose!

(See also Sections 1.10, 1.19, 1.23, 2.4 and 12.15 of Theology Corner)