Evangelical vs Progressive Christianity
What do they actually believe?
Part two: The Trinity
“I believe in one God, and no more.” Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
I need to interject here that I do not believe in the Trinity, nor do I believe that there is any basis for it in scripture. However, that is not relevant here. Since both these congregations do believe in the Trinity, we shall see how each responds to that belief.
As I said in my previous post, since both of these congregations are Christian, i.e., based on the Bible, I expected to find very few, if any, differences in their mission statements. I was wrong… very wrong. The differences were striking. The most notable being their view of God and how man relates with God.
I have divided the sections of their mission statements into areas of belief and compared them that way. There are nine and we shall compare one each week. This is part two.
The Trinity
Evangelical: We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three are identical in essence and equal in power and glory; they possess the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and are worthy of the same worship, confidence, and obedience.
Progressive: Our theological heart and soul has been formed by a Trinitarian understanding of God as Creator, Redeemer, and Spirit. We trust the flow of God’s love toward us and toward all people as it pours out endlessly from the relationships we discover within God’s very self: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We understand this relational aspect of the Trinity as a divine dance of love originating in God long before creation.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? It seems to me that although evangelicals know the different parts of the trinity, what role each part plays is not well articulated in their mission statement. But I have other concerns about how they explain the Trinity.
Evangelicals: These three are identical in essence and equal in power and glory; they possess the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and are worthy of the same worship, confidence, and obedience. “These three identities are worthy of our worship, our confidence and our obedience.”
So, if the three parts of the Trinity are identical in every way, why do we need the concept of the trinity? I’m just sayin’.
But more importantly, how do evangelicals respond to this Triune God? What seems clear (again) is that there are expectations for humans based on the nature of God. If God is perfect then we as humans are required to worship and obey God. It would appear that, for evangelicals, our relationship with God is not so much a result God’s attributes but rather through our actions or “works”.
One last point about the evangelical statement is that it’s merely a standard orthodox statement of faith, borrowed from several different sources. Nothing in their statement is either original or thoughtful. It is obvious that the authors of the evangelical’s mission statement simply copied and pasted ideas from other various evangelical sources.
The expression “in power and glory” comes from the last line in the Lord’s Prayer.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen
Nothing original there. Much of the later part of this statement originated with the Westminster Confession of Faith , which says…
He is completely holy in all his purposes, works, and commands. To him is due whatever worship, service, or obedience he is pleased to require from angels, human beings, and all other creatures. (1646 CE)
Not sure why the word “service” has been replaced with the word “confidence” in contemporary mission statements. It seems that “service” would be something the god of christianity would like to demand of “all creatures”.
I found several mission statements from other demoninations that say nearly the same thing. This one is from a Pentecostal Church. Note how similar these two statements are.
Pentecostal: We believe that there is only one true and living God, eternally existing in three Persons, namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe each is a distinct Person, but all of one essence and all having the same nature, perfections, and attributes, and each is worthy of precisely the same worship, confidence, and obedience.
Evangelical: We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three are identical in essence and equal in power and glory; they possess the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and are worthy of the same worship, confidence, and obedience.
Since the authors of the evangelical mission statement have not bothered to put any extra thought, (except to change the word order) into what the trinity really means, then neither will I.
Compare that with the progressive view of the Trinity.
Progressive: Our theological heart and soul has been formed by a Trinitarian understanding of God as Creator, Redeemer, and Spirit. We trust the flow of God’s love toward us and toward all people as it pours out endlessly from the relationships we discover within God’s very self: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We understand this relational aspect of the Trinity as a divine dance of love originating in God long before creation.
It appears that progressives do a better job of articulating the nature of the trinity by delineating its three separate parts: Creator, Redeemer, and Spirit.
“We trust the flow of God’s love toward us and toward all people as it pours out endlessly from the relationships we discover within God’s very self.”
Having grown up evangelical, I was intrigued by this expression. The idea that God’s love flows toward “all people” is definitely not an evangelical belief. We will explore this in more detail in the next installment of this series.
We understand this relational aspect of the Trinity as a divine dance of love originating in God long before creation.
I was so preplexed by this statement about the trinity, that I reached out to the progressive congregation for clarification. One of their pastors responded the next day. Here is his reply.
I certainly cannot answer “how exactly the Trinity represents a divine dance, etc.” because, obviously, it is a very mysterious if not mystical concept! But my best way of trying to grasp, in some way, how Trinity might be revealing God’s self as a community of three persons is that I believe God shows God’s self to be an eternally relational being. But there was a “time” when our relational God existed (for how many eons??) but without any created beings with whom to be in relationship. We teach that God has forever been in a loving relationship within God’s self, which in time, flowed into all that God created for God’s company and enjoyment.
Let’s see if I understand this right. God has always been about love, even before there were created beings with whom God could share that love. Yet “in time” God’s creations were able to enjoy the flow of God’s company and endless love.
I might not believe in the trinity or creation, but I like this view of a loving God. As a former evangelical this is really quite refreshing.
(For the record, The Westminister Confession of Faith is a 12,000 word document and the expression “the love of God” is only mentioned once and only once. The Progressive’s statement about the trinity has 82 words and mentions God’s love twice. You do the math.)
Therefore, I award another point for Progressives 2-0
Coming up next
We will look at how each congregation views God’s Relationship With Humanity.
Evangelical: We believe God wants to bring about a new humanity by redeeming every part of us and our stories. We believe that man was originally created in the image and after the likeness of God, free from sin. Humanity (Adam and Eve) sinned and consequently experienced not only physical death but also spiritual death (which is separation from God). The consequences of this sin affect the entire human race. All human beings are born with a sinful nature and are alienated from the life of God and incapable of remedying his lost and depraved condition apart from divine grace.
Progressive: We believe that… when God created the world, and human beings in particular, God said, “This is good.” Our origin story is one of goodness. We believe this goodness applies to all of humanity.
From Where I Stand
Dale Crum
mt.toll@comcast.net