PCUSA: The Trinity – lost in the FOG?

The authors of the FOG Foundations Draft 5 have some work to do on their “Core Theological Commitments”. The triune God of the Bible is MIA.

Not surprisingly (this being the PCUSA), they couldn’t seem to bring themselves to mention “God the Father”. Indeed, the word “father” appears only twice in this theological “core”, both in scripture passages that do not name God so much as refer to him:

• “Father of us all” (Ephesians 4:6)
• as part of the church’s call to be “Christ’s faithful evangelist”, to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”

Thankfully, they didn’t choose a politically correct, gender-sanitized paraphrase, or even those references wouldn’t appear.

In section 1.01 God’s Activity, this inability (or unwillingness) to deal with the essential relationship between God the Father and God the Son leads to a bit of uncertainty about the Trinity itself, described in Jim Berkley’s blog. As he noted, Jesus (section 1.0102) and the Holy Spirit (1.0103) seem to be separate entities, apart from God (1.0101).

The confusion is evident in the statement that the God of section 1.0101 (not the Jesus of section 1.0102) created the heavens and the earth. The New Testament teaches that the Jesus of section 1.0102 was the member of the Trinity who did the creating described in the Old Testament: “by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth”. (Colossians 1:16). So who is the God of section 1.0101?

Berkley offers the opinion that section 1.01 presents – not a Reformed understanding of the Trinity – but the heresy of Modalism. Modalism would answer the question this way: The Old Testament manifestation of God (1.0101) created the universe. Later, this same single person (not a member of the Trinity) manifested himself as Jesus Christ (1.0102) and was credited by Paul for the creation he accomplished in his earlier manifestation.

Further, the writers don’t seem to know – or be willing to proclaim – some important truths about Jesus. For example, section 1.0102 Jesus Christ creates the impression that he did not exist before his incarnation in human form. Nor does it mention that he is the Son of God, of one substance with the Father. Both of these lapses point to Modalism.

As Berkley observed, this is not a good start. It could be that the committee hurried over the theological foundation in order to get on with the fun business of writing a new constitution – and meeting an absurd deadline. A lot more is liable to be lost in the rush to have a new FOG ready for the next GA 19 short months from now.

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