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10 Weeks on the Trinity: Only Begotten

· March 1, 2021

Dr. Matthew Barrett, with the help of renowned Baptist theologian John Gill, has identified 9 marks of an unhealthy doctrine of eternal generation. Rather than defining eternal generation through the lens of human generation, we must allow God’s eternity, immutability, and simplicity to shape our understanding of the Son’s “begottenness.” This is the only way to guarantee that the Father and Son are consubstantial – identified by the same divine essence – and to protect the Godhead from division. Indeed, without the doctrine of eternal generation, Jesus’s identity as “very God of very God” is called into question.

The doctrine of eternal generation has become increasingly modified, ignored, or rejected in recent history. While some suggest that abandoning this doctrine would leave the core claims of Christianity unchanged, Dr. Barrett has demonstrated that the gospel itself depends on the reality of the Son’s eternal generation.

Join Dr. Barrett to learn key trinitarian concepts, which can safeguard us from future Trinity drift and help us find our way home to a biblical and orthodox understanding of the Trinity. Sign up for the full course through the For the Church Institute. And if you enjoy this first lecture then read chapter 6 of his book, Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Spirit (Baker).

Unit 6: Introduction

Matthew Barrett

Matthew Barrett is the editor-in-chief of Credo Magazine, director of the Center for Classical Theology, and host of the Credo podcast. He is professor of Christian theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the author of several books, including Simply Trinity, which won the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award in Theology/Ethics. His new book is called The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. He is currently writing a Systematic Theology with Baker Academic.

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