Podcast Throwback – Credo Alliance: Why We Believe in Eternal Generation
“Begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father.”
With these words, the Nicene Creed sets the standard of Christian orthodoxy for pastors and church members. As Christians confess the creed today, they link arms with brothers and sisters throughout the ages in affirming their belief in the eternal generation of the Son.
In this episode, Credo Fellows Scott Swain, Fred Sanders, J.V. Fesko, and Matthew Barrett discuss why they believe in eternal generation. Through affirming doctrines such as eternal relations of origin and denying ideas such as eternal functional subordination, this episode of the Credo Alliance seeks to discuss and demonstrate that Christian unity is measured more by doctrinal and biblical fidelity than personal sincerity.
Fred Sanders
Fred Sanders is a systematic theologian who studies and teaches across the entire range of classic Christian doctrine, but with a special focus on the doctrine of the Trinity. He has taught in the Torrey Honors Institute since 1999, and is an amateur historian of Biola’s institutional history. He and his wife Susan live in La Mirada with their two children, Freddy and Phoebe. They are members of Grace Evangelical Free Church.
J. V. Fesko
J. V. Fesko (PhD, University of Aberdeen) serves as professor of systematic and historical theology at RTS Jackson. He has been an ordained minister since 1998 in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church serving as a church planter, pastor, and now teacher. Dr. Fesko has authored or edited more than twenty books including Reforming Apologetics: Retrieving the Classic Reformed Approach to Defending the Faith, The Trinity and the Covenant of Redemption, Death in Adam, Life in Christ: The Doctrine of Imputation, Justification: Understanding the Classic Reformed Doctrine, and The Covenant of Works: The Origins, Development, and Reception of the Doctrine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).
Matthew Barrett
Scott R. Swain
Scott R. Swain is President and James Woodrow Hassell Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Swain has served on the RTS faculty since 2006, having previously taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He serves as co-general editor of two series: Zondervan Academic’s New Studies in Dogmatics and T & T Clark’s International Theological Commentary. Dr. Swain is the author of several books including Retrieving Eternal Generation, Trinity, Revelation, and Reading: A Theological Introduction to the Bible and Its Interpretation, Reformed Catholicity: The Promise of Retrieval for Theology and Biblical Interpretation and The Oxford Handbook of Reformed Theology (forthcoming). He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America. He and his wife, Leigh, have four children. Dr. Swain blogs on a regular basis at Common Places.
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