Cheryl Schatz

Craig,
You said:

As you state at the end – ” Bruce Ware’s view is that only one leads as only one has the highest honor, the highest praise, etc. ” Therefore each person of the trinity is NOT FREE to do the same things in their own individual way.

This is exactly the case with Bruce Ware’s point of view and it is very well stated. You have hit the nail on the head. Bravo!

Ware’s point of view would be that the “harmony” would come into play because in a task each person of the Trinity must be doing different things because by the nature of their “place” in the Trinity only one person of the Trinity is allowed to lead. So when it comes to the “part” that the Father plays in the incarnation, the Father “sends” the Word because that is an expression of His “place” as leader of the Word. Anything the Spirit does is subordinate. Thus no matter what the Word does in the Trinity, according to Ware, by the nature of being a subordinate person He has no ability to express His personhood in the same way as the Father does because He is not the leader. His part in “harmony” is being a follower who expresses His godhood by following the Father’s orders. So the persons of the Trinity are limited in expression of their personhood by their “place” in the Trinity. The Word then could never do exactly as the Father does or He would be in the equal place of highest honor and Ware does not believe this.

This is not the view of the church councils or the early Christian writers who believed that the persons of the Trinity were equal in their essence. I honestly believe that Ware loves to express his view of the “differences” of the Trinity since he has found a way to justify his own “highest honor” as a male while claiming not to be a misogynist.

You are on the right track to figure out the unorthodox view of people like Bruce Ware. This view puts a limitation on two persons of the Trinity while giving full freedom of expression to only one. Well actually come to think of it that isn’t quite true. Ware also limits the Father in that the Father is NOT FREE to act in any way that would look like He submits to the Son. Therefore the Father’s limitation is that He must lead and He must receive the highest of everything thus He is not free to “lower” Himself to serve the Son in anyway that would look like submission. That apparently would demean the very position that the Father holds by His nature according to Ware. The Father just has to be on top.