Cheryl Schatz

Mark,

The question needs to be asked, does God use them himself to help us understand Him better. Of course he does- Ezekial 16 is a classic example.

God certainly does show his care for us in word pictures, but this is a far cry from any claims that there is a hierarchy within the eternal Godhead. Try finding anyplace in the OT where the LORD God ever commands the LORD of hosts. It isn’t there. The LORD God does not ever take his authority over the other persons in the Trinity. Authority is taken over creation but not over Himself. These are faulty human ways that are this side of the fall and taint our own view of human relations. How much more do these views taint our view of who God is?

If God has given us human analogies to help us, which he has, let’s use them to better understand Him and his word.

But we must not add to the Scriptures things that are not there. Adding a commanding authority removes God from a loving relationship amongst the three to a required obedience that is different than the other wills. There is never any obedience required if their wills are in perfect harmony. How anyone could even think that the LORD God has to command the LORD of hosts in the eternal nature of the Trinity is beyond me.

Frank,

Thanks again for your insightful thoughts. I’m not sure what you mean by all scholars apart from Grudem and Co, but i have found very few, non egalitarian scholars who think that ‘source’ is the common meaning. I think that ‘beginning’ or pre-eminance are probably more common than ‘source’.

Beginning, source and origin are synonyms.

Main Entry: beginning
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: start of an event or action
Synonyms:
alpha, basis, birth, blastoff, commencement, creation, dawn, dawning, day one, genesis, inauguration, inception, induction, infancy, initiation, installation, introduction, kickoff, onset, opener, opening, origin, origination, outset, point of departure, preface, prelude, presentation, rise, root, rudiment, source, spring, square one, starting point, takeoff, threshold, top