Kevin Giles
Appears on the Christians for Biblical Equality website download.
In the Evangelical Theological Society Doctrinal Basis only two matters are made fundamental to the evangelical faith: belief in the inerrancy of the Bible in its original autographs and belief in a Trinity of Father Son and Holy Spirit, three “uncreated” persons, who are “one in essence, equal in power and glory.”
In the history of the ETS the first fundamental belief has caused many a painful disruption in the evangelical family, the second has not. In this paper I argue it is high time we critically considered what many members of the ETS are teaching on the Trinity because I maintain it directly contradicts what the ETS statement of faith says on the Trinity. ETS members are bound to believe that the three divine persons are one in essence and equal in power.
To argue that the Son is eternally subordinate in authority, set under the Father, denies both that he is one in power with the Father and the Spirit and by implication, that he is one in essence/being with the Father and the Spirit. To deny, explicitly or implicitly that Jesus is one in being/essence with the Father is of course the Arian heresy.
