The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fifth Year / Divine Immanence and the Holy Ghost

by B. H. Roberts

SPECIAL TEXT: "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your Father; and to my God and your God." (Jesus—St. John xx:17.)

DISCUSSION.

1. Alikeness and Diversity in the Nature of Divine Beings: Whatever may be said in the scriptures of the union in knowledge, mercy, love, power, and will—in a word, whatever may be said of the alikeness of these holy and divine Personages of the trinity, it should be so understood as to allow of the thought of some difference in office; and of some one or more distinctions in their relations to each other, and in their relationship towards men; and even in their physical natures when compared one with another. I feel encouraged to make this avowal, unusual though it may be, because in nature we may observe both a unity and a diversity. Though a given species of grass may have general characteristics in which all the varieties of grasses are alike, yet men have not yet found two blades of grass precisely alike. In all the leaves of the forest, there have not yet been found two leaves exactly alike; among all the hordes of men—the millions living and the millions dead—no two have yet been found one of which is a precise counterpart of the other. It is so everywhere you look in nature; in animal or plant life; in mountains, rivers or valleys; in the sands or among the shells of the sea shore—everywhere unity of kind, of groups, but infinite variety of individuals. That being the general truth taught throughout nature, may it not hold in reference to Divine Personages as well? Without absolutely insisting upon it, I shall venture to say I think so; and that in some way—in office, in function, in appointment, in some respects even in physical nature also—there are distinctive characteristics in the three divine Personages of the Godhead.

Setting forth, and in profoundest reverence, the Personages of the Godhead with reference to their chief functions as each stands related to man, they appear as God, the Father; God, the Son, Redeemer of man; God, the Holy Ghost, Witness to man of truth, of all truth.

Let us consider each in these capacities respectively.

2. God, the Father: With this conception of God as "Father" there is associated the larger—but not higher—idea of "Creator."

There exists, I think, a real difference between the idea of "father" and "creator," and yet one feels, from our use of terms, and even from the terminology of holy scripture, that each idea may include the other. But first as to the distinctions between "father" and "creator." The term "father" carries with it the notion of generation, begetting from one's own person, springing from one's own nature, and partaking of one's own physical and mental qualities and perhaps likeness, but the term "creator" does not necessarily convey that notion, since a created thing may be external to the nature of the being who created it; as, for example, when God created the heaven and the earth.^[A] In this case the heaven and the earth did not bear the image of God; nor was it made in his likeness, as the result was when God said, "Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness." So in relation to man; he begets a son or a daughter by act of generation; he is a father; and also, in a sense, a creator.^[B]

[Footnote A: Gen. i.]

[Footnote B: Athanasius makes the following distinction between "begotten" and "created," which I believe to be true and of great importance as a truth. "Let it be repeated," he says, "that a created thing is external to the nature of the being who creates it; but a generation, (a begetting, as a father begets a son) is the proper off-spring of the nature." (Quoted in Shedd's Hist, of Christian Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 322.)]

He gathers materials and builds a house; or with various colored pigments, brushes, and stretched canvas he paints a landscape, or from some rude block of marble with mallet and chisel he hews out the image of a man; he is a creator. Creator of the house, the painted landscape, the statue; and also, in a certain sense, after our manner of speech, we could say the father of them. So that in the terms "father" and "creator" there is both a distinction and a sameness.