New Credo Podcast: Is the Son Eternally Subordinate to the Father? Simply Trinity (Parts 3 & 4)

In part 1 of this two part episode of the Credo Podcast, Matthew Barrett fields questions from Ronni Kurtz and Samuel Parkison about his new book, Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son and Spirit (Baker). They tackle the question: “Is the Son eternally subordinate to the Father?” Many of our listeners will be familiar with the debate over the novel theological position known as Eternal Functional Subordinationism (EFS). In the first conversation, Matthew, Ronni and Sam evaluate this position, and Matthew places it within its recent, historical context, revealing that EFS’s redefinition of the Trinity is inconsistent with biblical, Nicene orthodoxy. They also discuss how EFS is incommensurate with orthodox doctrines such as divine simplicity and eternal generation, and throws into question the total equality of the Son.

In the second conversation, they continue their discussion of the novel position known as Eternal Functional Subordinationism (EFS), this time evaluating its narrow biblicist method. They also warn against EFS and its tendency to project that which occurs in the economy of salvation back into the immanent life of the Trinity. Matthew also takes a deep dive into Scripture, showing how EFS is not only theologically erroneous, but biblically misguided in its neglect of key hermeneutical principles.