Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You write concerning Louis Berhof’s writing from 1939:

In personal subsistence the Father is first, the Son second, and the Holy Spirit third. It need hardly be said that this order does not pertain to any priority of time or of essential dignity, but only to the logical order of derivation. The Father is neither begotten by, nor proceeds from any other person; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son from all eternity. Generation and procession take place within the Divine Being, and imply a certain subordination as to the manner of personal subsistence, but no subordination as far as the possession of the divine essence is concerned.

Berkhof is clearly talking about procession and clearly removing his comments from being connected to any part of the divine essence or Deity, thus he is not talking about a subordination of will, authority or actions. He isn’t even close to teaching the full ESS doctrine of Bruce Ware.