Cheryl

Hi Under Much Grace,
To be fair, Bruce Ware would say that he does believe very strongly in the Deity of Jesus. However his belief in essence works itself out in action as a limited celebration of honor so that the Deity of Jesus is celebrated less than that of the Father. What this means is that Jesus cannot be worshiped through the act of prayer because this part of worship is an honor given uniquely to the Father. The Father must be honored as the greatest in the Trinity and the worship of prayer must be given only to the greatest which is the Father. In essence Jesus is given limited worship and the Father given unlimited worship because of their levels of authority. Ware concludes that the Father must be given the highest honor and the greatest praise and that Jesus and the Holy Spirit have submitted themselves to a lesser place of honor because they both are under the authority of the Father and work only at his command. For some reason he does not see how this devalues the Son and the Holy Spirit. He believes that every relationship must have a “boss” and someone who submits to the “boss” and that this is a permanent fixture of both human relationships and the relationship of the Trinity. However this is a human way of doing business in a corporation and the Trinity is not a corporation but a full unity of three equals in one essence as God. If we define the Trinity as one “boss” having ultimate authority over the others, then we have degraded the Trinity into a big God and two little gods.