Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier?

It's only a footnote in his essay, "Longing for the Longest Creed," in the newest (Summer 2008) issue of Lutheran Forum on the Athanasian Creed, but there Robert Saler packs a whole lot of commentary into just one sentence:
This piece of modalism is all the more vexing since it completely obscures the fact that, according to both the Gospel of John and the Epistle to the Colossians, it is the second and not the first person of the Trinity who is the primary agent of creation.
The answer to the question in this post's title is, "No!"

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

2 comments:

Rev. Paul T. McCain said...

Thanks for this. I've been struggling to identify, precisely, why I am so uncomfortable with replacing Father, Son and Holy Spirit with, "Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier."

Bingo!!!

Modalism. Precisely.

Anonymous said...

Not to mention "Grace and peace from God our *Creator* and the Lord Jesus Christ", which I hear from the pulpit at least once a month.