Theology Proper

“Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Spirit. The book… does two things. First, it shows how a good portion of evangelical theology on the Trinity has drifted from the classical Christian tradition.

“Who is God? If we could pick only one passage from the Old Testament to answer that question, it would be hard to improve upon Exodus 34. God is revealing himself to Moses, causing his glory to pass by Moses, whom God has put in a cleft in the rock (33:22).” - WORLD

“The transcendentals – goodness, beauty, and truth – they’re called the transcendentals because they are ubiquitous; they’re not merely parts and aspects of our reality, they are the moral-fabric that make up all of reality. Being as they are communicable attributes of our Creator God it stands to reason that they will be found, in greater or lesser degrees, in every part of God’s creation.” - Ref21

“So in one sense, mercy is not getting what we deserve, as our penalty was paid for by another. But it is so much more. The children of Israel came to a designated place once-a-year through an intermediary. We come to a person.” - Ref21

“So what exactly is meant by passions? What are affections, or emotions for that matter? And why have Christians throughout the ages been so adamant that God does not have passions? We’ll define some terms in a moment, but it’s good to say upfront that what’s being protected in the doctrine of Divine Impassibility is any creatureliness or finitude within the Godhead.” - Ref21

“Widows and Widowers will often say, ‘You marry me, you marry my kids.’ When I see my [second] wife’s love for my children I know she loves me. So too with God and His children. Loving our Christian brethren is John’s context and main referent for 1 John 4:8, 16.” - Ref21

“We live in an age depleted of mystery…. For many of us, while paying lip service to God’s ability to perform miracles (as if He needs our encouragement a la clapping for Tinkerbell), our reality is more akin to the prayer warriors praying for Peter’s release from prison.” - John Ellis

“[T]he angels and demons are also spirits, but they are not omnipresent. This is because God is the infinite Spirit, that is, His ‘spiritness’ is infinite; it’s not bound by physical space because He is not physical and is not bound by physical realities or created dimensions.” - Ref21

“Divine simplicity is the doctrine which states: God is what God is, simply. God is not composed of parts. God’s essence is not parceled out piece by piece….Because God is one and undivided, we can rest secure that since God is for us, no one can be against us.” - Ref21

“The word aseity is from the Latin “a se” meaning “from oneself.” This is not to say that God is “self-made,” or that He created Himself, but it relates to God’s self-sufficiency…. We need to be reminded of God’s aseity because we are often guilty of using our own characteristics and experiences as the template for understanding the attributes of God.” - Ref21