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WCF 2 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - As creatures, we do not give God glory, but we ascribe glory to him. (VD 34)
      - As the fountain of all being, it is a reminder of mankind's complete dependence upon him for their very being. (VD 35)
      - Just short of a 100 years prior to the Westminster Confession being written, the Belgic confession used this exact language of referring to God as "the overflowing fountain of all good" in Article 1. (Beeke 6)
  - - - This also impacts election. God has sovereign dominion over who will be included in his family, and who will not, and it is the result the pleasure of his perfect will (Romans 9:15), so that can, as the confession states, do all that pleases him.
- - - - Rather there is a shared substance, power, and eternity.
      - All three are referred to as God (John 1:1, Acts 5:3-4, Matthew 28:19-20, 2 Cor. 13:14)
  - - - When the confession speaks of substance, it is saying that the Godhead shares the same essence (homoousios). When it speaks of the persons, it is communicating that there is a subsistence among the members of the Godhead. The Second Helvetic Confession speaks directly in this manner stating: "We believe and teach that God is one in essence or nature, subsisting by Himself." (Beeke 6)
        
        Distinction (relations of origins): this speaks to the personal properties of each person, and not to their ontology. (Sproul 67). The Belgic Confession speaks of their relations of origins in Article 8 as the incommunicable properties of the persons. (Beeke 20)
        
        The Father
        
        "Of none", meaning that he is not begotten.
        
        But he does eternally beget the Son from eternity. He is not sent, nor does he proceed from anyone, as the confession makes clear the distinction between the Father and the other two persons of the Trinity.
        
        Order
        
        The Father is considered first in taxis. Meaning, there is a numerical rank in order, but not in value. The Father eternally begets the Son, and he sends the Son. Thus he is mentioned first. The Son is mentioned second, and the Spirit is mentioned third, because the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son, and is sent by the Son. This relationship of order is never reversed.
        
        The Second Helvetic Confession helpfully words it this way: "in order, one going before another, yet without any inequality." (Beeke 20)
        
        The Belgic Confession states in Article 8 that there is "neither first nor last" in speaking of importance. (Beeke 22)
        
        The distinctions guard against heresies such as Modalism/Sabellianism which claim that God is one but takes on different forms at different times. The account of Jesus' baptism in Matthew's Gospel shows Modalism to be a false teaching.
        
        The Son
        
        Eternally begotten of the Father, and with the Father, the Spirit proceeds.
        
        The Holy Spirit
        
        Eternally proceeds from both Father and Son.
  - - - In addition, Vos points out that unitarians flat out reject the Trinity, which is why it is so important that Reformed Christians, as well as all Christians, hold fast to confessing this foundational truth. (Vos 26)
        
        Concerning the doctrine of the Trinity, Vos wisely articulates that Christianity stands of falls on this doctrine because the Bible represents the plan of salvation as a covenant among the persons of the Trinity. (Vos 27)
- - - - The Confession of Faith is a summary of the truths of Scripture in the Reformed tradition.
        
        Chapter 2 is on theology proper and is only placed after Scripture due to the conviction that we can only know the truths found in the confession about God because he has revealed those truths to us through Scripture.
        
        R.C. Sproul says that the most distinctive characteristic of Reformed theology is its doctrine of God because of how Reformed theology connects all other doctrines to this foundational starting point making everything theocentric. (Sproul 32)
        
        While there are many excellent Reformed Confessions, many consider the Westminster Confession of Faith to be the gold standard.
        
        There are 2,500 Scripture citations found in the document (VD xx)
- - - - Unlike humans, God is not contained to a physical body for he is spirit. (John 4:24) Since he does not have a corporeal body, he is not comprised of parts. He is a simple being in that sense.
        
        The Belgic Confession compliments confessing the simplicity of God as well as his spiritual nature by stating in Article 1 that "there is one only simple, and spiritual Being, which we call God. (Beeke 6)
        
        Vos points out in his commentary on the catechism that this is an important distinction to remember because Mormons teach that God has a material body. (Vos 20)
        
        He therefore, is not the sum of all of his attributes. For instance, instead of thinking he is part holy, part immutable, and part eternal, it is better to understand these all three in perfect harmony together so that his holiness is also immutable and eternal. (Sproul 35)
        
        Implications = no idolatry (Nothing can do him justice)
      - He is immutable (Heb. 13:8, James 1:17, Mal 3:6). According to Aristotelian categories, God is pure being, whereas humans are a mixture of being and becoming. Instead of being like humans who are both actuality and potentiality, God is only pure actuality. (Sproul 37)
        
        Implications = we can always trust his Word
      - He is incomprehensible: this does not mean that he is not knowable, but rather that our knowledge of him is ectypal and not archetypal. It is only a revealed knowledge which is limited. This is why the Psalmist states that his greatness is unsearchable (Psalm 145;3, Deut. 29:29)
        
        Implications = we should strive after knowing him because he has revealed himself. Jonathan Edwards says we can only begin to understand ourselves when we truly behold who God is and his majesty like Isaiah experienced in chapter 6 (Sproul 41).
        
        John Calvin stated "the finite cannot contain (or grasp) the infinite." (Sproul 40)
        
        Luther helps bring these two thinsg together by stating that God is both the hidden God, in that his greatness in unsearchable, but he is also the revealed God, in that he makes himself known. (Sproul 40).
      - Without Passions - no force outside of himself acts upon him to sway his will.
        
        Clarification: He does not have human passions. R.C Sproul helpfully puts it as "he does not have mood swings or become depressed." (Sproul 36)
        
        Scripture does in fact speak of an emotive side of God (Ephesians 4:30), precisely because he is not an impersonal being or abstract force (Sproul 36)
        
        To better understand it might be helpful to consider jealousy. When we say God is without passions, we mean that he is not subject to human emotions. Meaning that when Scripture says that God is a jealous God, it does not mean that he is jealous of us, but rather that he is jealous for us and his holiness (Sproul 36).
      - In a class unto himself: this first article uses the word "most" 8 times to drive home the point that there is none like God. He has no rival.
      - The last two sentences of this article can be traced to the famous self revelation given to Moses in the book of Exodus found in 34:6-7.
        
        The first sentence is what modern evangelical American Christians often make the mistake of solely focusing on. They want to focus on the more "positive" attributes, while ignoring his justice. The Westminster divines did not make that mistake and understand that even his being just is a positive attribute.
        
        Because of his goodness, this article concerning who God is must deal with his just nature which will punish sin.
      - Most loving: Chad Van Dixhoorn claims that the assembly's numerous references to the love and mercy of God "far outstrip any other adjectives or descriptions of God's character offered by these post-Reformation pastors and theologians." (VD 32)
        
        He loves his creation with a common love, and his loves his people with a special love.
        
        One of the greatest forms of his special love is the forgiveness of sins which is brought about through the sending of the Son.
      - The confession starts off by pointing out that God is a personal absolute. He is not some impersonal force or philosophical concept, but he is the one and only, living and true God.
        
        Right and Wrong / Morality
        
        Being one and only true God means that there is a truth, and all others are counterfeits. This is a dagger in the heart of a pluralistic society.
      - Working all things for his own glory. Not only does this tell us what all of the course of history is about, but it also gives us ultimate direction. If God is working all things for his glory, and he is most good, then there is no better purpose to achieve than God's glory.
        
        Implication: If we are doing anything other than striving to glorify God, we are in opposition to God, and therefore in sin. (WSC 1)
        
        Likewise, if he is working things to his glory, then he is working things to reveal the weightiness of his truthful characteristics and attributes. Therefore, we cannot present him as anything other than what he has revealed himself to be. We cannot mischaracterize him without being guilty of committing sin. We have to avoid the mistake of Romans 1.
      - He is infinite in being which means he is omnipresent. Therefore, there is not one maverick molecule in the universe that escapes God's control. As Kuyper states: There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!"
      - Most holy: this points to his transcendent nature, or his supreme greatness over all that he has created. (Sproul 35) he is truly most set apart.
      - God is eternal: nothing came before him (Psalm 90:2 from everlasting to everlasting). Each of the three Westminster Standards quotes Jermiah 10:10 in this regard. There is no cause that gave rise to God. The question that so many children often ask, "who created God?" is answered with the simple response, "no one." Nobody created God, because then there would be a being who was before and above God.
      - Most wise: Not only is God omniscient in that he knows all things, but he is all wise in that he knows how to use that wisdom to bring about his plans. We on the other hand are not only not all knowing, but we are not all wise. Even with the limited knowledge that we have, we don't always have the wisdom to exercise that knowledge correctly.
      - God is most free means that his freedom is not restricted by man's free will, rather human free will, though it is real, it is limited by God's sovereignty (Sproul 47)
        
        parental analogy
        
        God works all things according to the council of his will. (Romans 11:35)
        
        Implications: moralistic therapeutic deism
        
        There is a purpose to all things, because God's will is not arbitrary. (Rom 8;28)
        
        this includes election
      - most absolute: He is neither "ex lex" which is outside of the law, nor is he "sublego" which is under the law. Rather God is a law unto himself. His external righteousness flows from his internal righteous nature.Fwi