Summary
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Benjamin B. Warfield’s view of the Trinity addresses “the twin issues of God’s unity and diversity.” He asserts the “Divine Being” is “shared with absolute equality by all three Persons,” who share “identical essence” and are “numerically one in essence, and can be represented as distinct only in person.” Warfield notes “Son,” for Christ, “expresses His consciousness of close relation, and indeed of exact similarity, to God,” but the order “Father, Son, Spirit” “does not express the essence of the doctrine of the Trinity.” He argues “Sonship rather denotes likeness and equality with the Father, not subordination,” and “Spirit of God” “imports accordingly identity with God.” He concludes these terms “do not imply any notion of subordination or derivation,” stating it is “illegitimate to press such passages to suggest any subordination for the Son or the Spirit which would in any manner impair that complete identity with the Father in Being and that complete equality with the Father in powers.”