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Subsection
Doctrine of Appropriations
God’s Works
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Order of Contents
Intro
Essential Works Inside Himself ad intra 4
Works Outside Himself ad extra 10+
Latin 2
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Intro
As Christian evangelicalism continues to try and reinvent the wheel of theology from a blank slate, profound and fundamental, old, truths are lost sight of and contradicted.
The modern heresy of the Eternal Subordination of the Son presumes, wrongly, that each Person of the Trinity has a distinct will. Rather, according to the orthodox, early Church councils (and reformed orthodoxy), each Person shares the exact same, numeric, divine will. The love of each Person of the Trinity for the others, is a love, not of a separate will, but of existing in each other and in the self-same, pure act of love.
Whenever God acts towards the creation (ad extra) this willing is done by all three Persons through the divine essence and is undivided. Yet that one will terminates in its effects according to the distinct Persons, such that some effects may be ascribed to one Person and not the others.
Learn here more about your inexhaustibly glorious God.
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On God’s Essential, Common, Works Ad Intra, Inside of Himself (as well as Ad Extra)
Articles
1200’s
Aquinas – Summa, pt. 1, Treatise on the Creation, Question 45, ‘The Mode of Emanation of Things from the First Principle’, article 6, ‘Whether to create is proper to any person?’
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1600’s
van Mastricht, Peter – section 7, ‘The distribution of the divine works’ in Theoretical Practical Theology (RHB), vol. 3, bk. 3, ch. 1, ‘The Actions & Decrees of God’, pp. 5-6
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2000’s
Muller, Richard
5.2, ‘The Father as Origin & Source: ‘Works’ of the Godhead Ad intra & Ad extra‘ ToC in Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: the Rise & Development of Reformed Theology, ca. 1520 – ca. 1725, vol. 4, The Triunity of God 2nd ed. (Baker Books, 2003), pp. 255-75
Muller (b. 1948) has been a professor of reformed, historical theology at Calvin seminary.
‘opera Dei ad intra’ in Dictionary of Latin & Greek Theological Terms 1st ed. (Baker, 1985)
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Quote
John Owen
An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews… vol. 2 ed. W.H. Goold in Works (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1862), vol. 19, Preliminary Exercitations, Ex. 28, ‘Federal Transactions Between the Father & the Son’, pp. 87-88
“The will is a natural property, and therefore in the divine essence it is but one. The Father, Son, and Spirit, have not distinct wills. They are one God, and God’s will is one, as being an essential property of his nature; and therefore are there two wills in the one person of Christ, whereas there is but one will in the three persons of the Trinity…
…for such is the distinction of the persons in the unity of the divine essence, as that they act in natural and essential acts reciprocally one towards another—namely, in understanding, love, and the like; they know and mutually love each other. And as they subsist distinctly, so they also act distinctly in those works which are of external operation.
And whereas all these acts and operations, whether reciprocal or external, are either with a will or from a freedom of will and choice, the will of God in each Person, as to the peculiar acts ascribed unto Him, is his will therein peculiarly and eminently, though not exclusively to the other persons, by reason of their mutual in-being.
The will of God as to the peculiar actings of the Father in this matter is the will of the Father, and the will of God with regard unto the peculiar actings of the Son is the will of the Son; not by a distinction of sundry wills, but by the distinct application of the same will unto its distinct acts in the persons of the Father and the Son.”
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On God’s Works Ad Extra, Outside of Himself (Relating to the Creation)
Articles
1200’s
Aquinas – Summa, pt. 1, Treatise on the Creation, Question 45, ‘The Mode of Emanation of Things from the First Principle’, article 6, ‘Whether to create is proper to any person?’
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1500’s
Beza, Theodore – Ch. 2, 4. The Works of the Trinity are Inseparable in A Brief & Pithy Sum of the Christian Faith made in Form of a Confession (London, 1565)
Viret, Pierre – A Christian Instruction… (d. 1571; London: Veale, 1573), A Familiar Exposition of the Principal Points of the Catechism
Of the Union that is between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in their works
Of the Moderation & Measure that ought to be holden in this matter
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1600’s
Cheynell, Francis – pp. 128-32 in ch. 6 in The Divine Trinunity of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit… (London, 1650), pp. 61-180
Cheynell (1608–1665) was an English, presbyterian, Westminster divine.
Owen, John
p. 407 (Secondly) in A Brief Declaration & Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity: as Also of the Person & Satisfaction of Christ… in Works (NY: Robert Carter, 1850), vol. 2
Owen (1616–1683) was an English, congregationalist puritan.
p. 34 (2.) in Exercitation 26 of An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews… vol. 2 ed. W.H. Goold in Works (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1862), vol. 19, Preliminary Exercitations
van Mastricht, Peter – Theoretical Practical Theology (RHB)
vol. 2, bk. 2
ch. 15, ‘The Will & Affections of God’
section 9, ‘The independence of the divine will. Its four corollaries’, p. 298
ch. 24, ‘The Most Holy Trinity’
section 12, ‘The economic offices of the three persons’, p. 506
section 13, ‘The economic turns in governing for the persons’, pp. 506-7
ch. 25, ‘God the Father’
section 6, ‘His distinction from the rest of the persons’, pp. 529-30
vol. 3, bk. 3
ch. 1, ‘The Actions & Decrees of God’
section 6, ‘The mode of working specific to the divine persons’, pp. 4-5
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1700’s
De Moor, Bernard – Continuous Commentary
ch. 6, section 1, ‘Divine Decrees as Internal Acts ad extra‘
ch. 8, section 1, ‘From the Internal to the External Works of God’
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1900’s
Pohle, Joseph – Ch. II, ‘Oneness of External Operation of the Three Divine Persons’ in The Divine Trinity, a Dogmatic Treatise 2nd ed. trans. Arthur Preuss (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1912), pp. 275-81
Pohle (1852-1922) was a Romanist professor of theology in the Catholic University of America and at the University of Breslau. He also wrote numerous articles for the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913). This work is vol. 2 of his 12 volume Manual Of Dogmatic Theology.
Emery, Gilles – 14. ‘Trinitarian Creation & Action’ in The Trinitarian Theology Of St Thomas Aquinas (Oxford Univ. Press, 1990), pp. 338-60
Emery (b. 1962) has been a Dominican, Romanist professor of theology at the University of Friborg.
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2000’s
Muller, Richard
5.2, ‘The Father as Origin & Source: ‘Works’ of the Godhead Ad intra & Ad extra‘ ToC in Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: the Rise & Development of Reformed Theology, ca. 1520 – ca. 1725, vol. 4, The Triunity of God 2nd ed. (Baker Books, 2003), pp. 255-75
Muller (b. 1948) has been a professor of reformed, historical theology at Calvin seminary.
Dictionary of Latin & Greek Theological Terms 1st ed. (Baker, 1985)
‘opera Dei ad extra’
‘opera Dei essentialia’
‘Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa’
‘operationes Dei externae’
Jones, Mark – ‘Subordination in the Pactum? (& the Irony of ESS)’ at NewCityTimes
Jones has been a presbyterian minister in the PCA.
Sammons, Peter – ‘When Distinction Becomes Separation: The Doctrine of Inseparable Operation in the Contemporary Evangelical Church’ in The Master’s Seminary Journal, vol. 33, no. 1 (Spring, 2022), pp. 75-99
Abstract: “This article seeks to demonstrate that those Bible scholars who refuse to utilize historicaltheological categories and terminology in their exegetical method will be left proliferating inadequate exegetical conclusions at best or damning errors at worst…
…this article aims to prove that the taxonomy of inseparable operations is the necessary ramification of classical theism (in
accordance with the doctrines of pure actuality and divine simplicity in particular). Therefore, classical theism—and the terminology supplied therein—functions as a proper guardrail for explaining divine action in a way that keeps the exegete from the pitfalls of tritheism or social trinitarianism.”
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Book
Adonis Vidu – The Same God Who Works All Things: Inseparable
Operations in Trinitarian Theology Ref Buy (Eerdmans, 2021)
“In the first book-length treatment of this doctrine, Adonis Vidu… engaging with recent and historical objections. Taking aim at a common ‘soft’ interpretation of the inseparability rule, according to which the divine persons merely cooperate and work in concert with one another, Vidu argues for the retrieval of ‘hard inseparability,’ which emphasizes the unity of divine action, primarily drawing from the patristic and medieval traditions.
Having probed the biblical foundations of the rule and recounted the story of its emergence in nascent Trinitarianism and its neglect in modern theology, Vidu builds a constructive case for its retrieval. The rule is then tested precisely on the battlegrounds that were thought to have witnessed its defeat: the doctrines of creation, incarnation, atonement, ascension, and the indwelling of the Spirit.”
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Latin
Forbes, John – Historical & Theological Instructions on Christian Doctrine… (Amsterdam, 1645), bk. 1 This volume was commended by Polyander, Trigland, Spanheim, Voet, Maets, Hoornbeeck, Cloppenburg, Coccejus and Maresius, as well as Gerhard Vossi, an Arminian.
ch. 8, ‘On the Inseparability of the Most Holy Trinity & on the Undivided Operation towards that which is Without’, pp. 20-21
ch. 9, ‘On the Theandric Operations, or on the Powers of God’, p. 21
ch. 10, ‘Inseparability does not obstruct in order, appropriations, nor in the separation of words or symbols’, pp. 21-23
ch. 21, ‘Useful rules unto understanding expressions of God the Trinity. When one is interpreted to work in some way three, the universal operating of the Trinity is understood’, pp. 37-38
Forbes (1593-1648) was one of the Aberdeen doctors. This volume of his gained him the reputation of being one of the greatest theologians of the reformed Church. The covenanters ‘acknowledged his orthodoxy and high Christian character’ (DNB).
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Latin
1600’s
Alsted, Henry – ch. 4, ‘Actions of God in General’ in Distinctions through Universal Theology, taken out of the Canon of the Sacred Letters & Classical Theologians (Frankfurt: 1626), pp. 29-32
Voet, Gisbert – V. Of the Decrees or the Immanent Actions of God’ in Syllabus of Theological Problems (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 1, tract 2 Abbr.
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Related Pages
On the Grace of Union & the Logos Assuming Flesh