Seven "axioms" on the Trinity, the Bible, and theological interpretation. cc: @hains_todd

1. Certain material and social conditions are vital to, but not ultimately sufficient for, theological interpretation of Scripture.
2. The Trinity’s knowledge of the Trinity is the ontological foundation of our knowledge of the Trinity.

3. The Trinity reveals the Trinity by the Trinity; this is the epistemological foundation of our knowledge of the Trinity.
4. The Trinity reveals the Trinity by the Trinity in an economy that is first mediate, in the state of pilgrims, then immediate, in the state of the blessed.
5. The mediate revelation of the Trinity by the Trinity in the economy of grace presupposes and illumines vestiges of the Trinity in the economy of nature.
6. The mediate revelation of the Trinity by the Trinity in the economy of grace comes in a twofold embassy of prophetic and apostolic revelation.
7. The immediate revelation of the Trinity by the Trinity in the economy of glory crowns and perfects all prior revelation of the Trinity and constitutes our supreme and eternal beatitude.
I comment on each of these axioms at the conclusion of a collection of (previously published) essays on the Trinity and exegesis that is, Lord willing, due out later this year from @LexhamPress.
(For those paying attention, I've got the voices of @FredFredSanders and Kate Sonderegger in the back of my brain here.)

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More from @scottrswain

18 Jan
How did Christian theology revise classical pagan conceptions of causation? Let me count the ways.

1. Identified one intelligent cause of all things.

2. Identified that one cause not only as the final cause of all but also as the efficient and formal cause (in a sense) of all
3. Claimed that this single transcendent cause is the immediate cause of all things.

4. Claimed that this single transcendent cause knows, loves, and communicates with creatures (strong Augustine energy here).
(BTW 3 is not the denial of secondary causes. It’s the denial that God must be buffered from certain aspects of creation by intermediaries, an idea common in pagan philosophy.)
Read 4 tweets
31 Dec 20
By divine design, our lives move forward not only in space but also in time.

Time is the divine calendar that measures our movements in mornings and evenings, days and weeks, months, years, decades, and centuries.
By divine design, time not only measures our movements.

Time also teaches us that our movements have a goal, a teleology, the eternal rest appointed for human beings at the foundation of the world (Gen 2:1-3).
The deep tragedy of life east of Eden is that, while time continues to measure our movements, it does not crown our purposes. We do not enter God's rest (Ps 95:11).
Read 8 tweets
28 May 20
Here's a link to the PCA's ad interim committee report on human sexuality.

pcaga.org/aicreport/
A few quick thoughts following a first read:

(1) The committee did a very good job of addressing the wide range of topics they were assigned.

(2) There's a good balance of theological depth as well as apologetic and pastoral awareness.
(3) In a manner not reflected in some other statements on this topic, the PCA report offers a more complete description of marriage and sex.
Read 6 tweets
23 Apr 20
I've been thinking about an approach to pastoral encouragement/exhortation I've seen over the past couple of months. It's especially prominent across various social media platforms among a certain "Reformedish" type (though it's not an exhibition of truly Reformed pastoral care).
It always involves some kind of biblical exhortation, offered as a way of addressing specific forms of misery (physical, economic, etc.) that accompany the pandemic: "fear not," "be not anxious," etc., etc. Such encouragements, moreover, are often offered with great bravado.
Because it is the divine Word of the "God of all comfort" (2 Cor 1:3), the Bible is certainly the supreme source of encouragement and exhortation in times like these.

However, there is an *unbiblical* way of using the Bible to encourage and exhort. (In fact, there are *many*.)
Read 15 tweets
21 Feb 20
Once more on God, the Bible, and "being":

1. Theology happens as soon as one begins to give *reasons* for practices of religious devotion (i.e., reasons beyond the practices themselves), esp. when those reasons concern the identity and action of the *object* of devotion/worship.
(Theology, thus understood, is the *ratio* of doxology.)
2. Both OT and NT are *full* of reasons for worshiping YHWH alone. Both OT and NT are thus full of specifically *theological* claims. (Read the Bible.)
Read 10 tweets
23 Jan 20
In other news, while the NT most certainly is not a textbook on metaphysics, and while it does not offer a fully developed metaphysics, its metaphysical significance lies beyond merely the "implications" that we might draw from its discourse.
The NT employs many examples of the language and concepts of metaphysical discourse that were "live" in Greco-Roman and Jewish contexts.

A few examples:

(1) Septuagintal glosses on the divine name (e.g., Rev 4:8; possibly Jn 1:18)
(2) The language of "prepositional metaphysics," which portrays God as "cause" of all things (e.g., Rom 11:36; 1 Cor 8:6)

(3) The distinction between "so-called gods" and "gods by nature" (e.g., 1 Cor 8:5; Gal 4:8)
Read 4 tweets

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