Notes on the externally directed works of the Trinity (opera trinitatis ad extra):

1. Because the divine nature is one, there is one divine agency.

2. However, only persons, not natures, act. (This is missing in some post-2016 discussions.)
3. In order to appreciate how divine persons act, we must distinguish agency and mode of agency.

4. There is a mental but not a real distinction between agency and mode of agency, due to divine simplicity.

5. There is however a real distinction between various modes of agency.
6. Mode of agency corresponds to mode of subsistence; indeed, mode of agency *just is* mode of subsistence directed outwardly.

Accordingly:

7. The Father always acts through the Son and the Spirit.
8. The Son always acts from the Father through the Spirit.

9. The Spirit always acts from the Father and the Son.

10. As a result of the incarnation, the Son always acts in two natures via two agencies that, in accomplishing and applying salvation, together effect one work.
A great exercise would be to print these out, sit around a table with our Greek NTs, along with the biblical commentaries of Cyril of Alexandria, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas, and talk about it.

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More from @scottrswain

23 Apr
We sometimes miss significant aspects of biblical teaching on the Trinity because we are unfamiliar with ancient philosophical terms and concepts.

Here's an attempt to show how attention to the meaning of ἴδιος illumines two NT texts: scottrswain.com/2021/04/23/idi…
I didn't note it in the post, but patristic, medieval, and Protestant orthodox exegetes *rarely* missed the above-noted point. This is partly due, no doubt, to the fact (observed somewhere by Moises Silva) that some of them (e.g., Cyril of Alexandria) were native Greek speakers.
It's also due to the fact that they had a much better grasp of Greco-Roman philosophy, and its appropriation in Jewish and biblical sources.
Read 5 tweets
5 Feb
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.
Read 8 tweets
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

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