Eternal generation of the Son

The eternal generation of the Son is a Trinitarian doctrine, which is defined as a necessary and eternal act of God the Father, in which he generates (or begets) God the Son through communicating the whole divine essence to the Son. Generation is not defined as an act of the will, but is by necessity of nature. To avoid anthropomorphistic understandings of the doctrine, theologians have defined it as timeless, non-bodily, incomprehensible and not as a communication without but within the Godhead. The view is affirmed by the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism as is evident in the Westminster Confession the London Baptist Confession and by Lutheran confessions among others.

God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father. — Nicene Creed

The doctrine has been an important part of Nicene Trinitarianism, however some modern theologians have proposed different models of the Trinity, wherein eternal generation is no longer seen as necessary and thus rejected.

History

The doctrine of eternal generation has been affirmed by the Athanasian creed, the Nicene creed and by church fathers such as Athanasius of Alexandria, Augustine, Basil of Caesarea being mentioned explicitly first by Origen of Alexandria.

The doctrine was often disputed by the Socinians, arguing that the sonship of Christ is not derived from his eternal begetting. The view has also been disputed by some modern theologians, including some Social Trinitarians, such as William Lane Craig. Other trinitarian theologians to have criticized the view include Charles Ryrie, John MacArthur (although later recanting of his position) and J. Oliver Buswell among others. The doctrine was also disputed by the popular Evangelical theologian Wayne Grudem, arguing that the doctrine is derived from a misunderstanding of the Greek word monogenes ('μονογενής'). However, he later recanted of his opposition to the doctrine of eternal generation.

Scripture

Those who teach the traditional doctrine of eternal generation have often used texts such as Proverbs 8:23, Psalm 2:7, Micah 5:2, John 5:26, John 1:18, 3:16, Colossians 1:15 and Hebrews 1:3. The ideas of 'image' and 'radiance' expressed in these texts have been argued to imply the idea of generation. Additionally, the idea of being 'begotten' in Psalm 2:7 and John 3:16 has been applied by theologians to support eternal begetting or generation. The text of John 5:26 is one of the most central texts used to defend the idea of eternal generation, which references the Son being granted to have 'life in himself' by the Father. However, the idea that these texts teach the doctrine of eternal generation has been disputed by its critics. The critics of the theory such as William Lane Craig have argued that it introduces subordinationism into the Godhead. A major issue in the debate is the translation of the Greek term monogenes, translated as 'only begotten'. Those who hold to eternal generation generally argue the word to involve an idea of derivation or begetting, while its critics have denied that the word has such connotations.

Characteristics

In his Reformed Dogmatics, 19th-century Dutch Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck presages an enumeration of the characteristics of the eternal generation of the Son by emphasising the classical attribution of 'life' to God, stating that he is not an 'abstract, fixed, monadic, solitary substance, but a plenitude of life'.

The special qualification of the second person in the Trinity is filiation. In Scripture he bears several names that denote his relation to the Father, such as word, wisdom, logos, son, the firstborn, only-begotten and only son, the image of God, image ('εἱκων'), substance ('ὑποστασις'), stamp ('χαρακτηρ') [cf. Hebrews 1:3]. The doctrine of eternal generation ('αἰωνος γεννησις'), so called for the first time by Origen, was based on these names and a few texts cited above. In using these terms we are of course speaking in a human and hence an imperfect language, a fact that makes us cautious. Yet we have the right to speak this language. For just as the Bible speaks analogically of God's ear, eye, and mouth, so human generation is an analogy and image of the divine deed by which the Father gives the Son 'to have life in himself' (John 5:26). But when we resort to this imagery, we must be careful to remove all associations with imperfection and sensuality from it. The generation of a human being is imperfect and flawed. A husband needs a wife to bring forth a son. No man can ever fully impart his image, his whole nature, to a child or even to many children. A man becomes a father only in the course of time and then stops being a father, and a child soon becomes wholly independent from and self-reliant vis-à-vis his or her father. But it is not so with God. Generation occurs also in the divine being. God's fecundity is a beautiful theme, one that frequently recurs in the church fathers. God is no abstract, fixed, monadic, solitary substance, but a plenitude of life. It is his nature (οὐσια) to be generative (γεννητικη) and fruitful (καρπογονος). It is capable of expansion, unfolding, and communication. Those who deny this fecund productivity fail to take seriously the fact that God is an infinite fullness of blessed life. All such people have left is an abstract deistic concept of God, or to compensate for this sterility, in pantheistic fashion they include the life of the world in the divine being. Apart from the Trinity even the act of creation becomes inconceivable. For if God cannot communicate himself, he is a darkened light, a dry spring, unable to exert himself outward to communicate himself to creatures.

Given this emphasis on the 'life' of God, Bavinck enumerates three major characteristics of the eternal generation while establishing Nicene orthodoxy against Arianism.

1. The generation of the Son is spiritual. That is, it is simple, without division, separation or flux. God expresses himself completely in the person of the Logos, the express image of his person (Hebrews 1:3). A common analogy of eternal generation is human speech; as human thought is expressed in speech, so God expresses his being in the Logos (which means 'speech', 'word' or 'reason'). Yet it is an imperfect analogy, since the expression of God's being in the Son is total and indivisible, For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself (John 5:26). The Arians, in contrast, alleged that generation necessitates separation, division and passion, such that the Son cannot be consubstantial with the Father.
2. The Father generates the Son out of the very same being of the Father. As it states in the Nicene Creed, 'God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father.' The Son was not created by the Father, rather he was generated out of the Father's being in eternity. Generation is thus not so much a work of the Father, but the very nature of the Father, which occurs in harmony with his knowledge, will and power as a perfection expression of his being. In this sense it can be said that Christ is over all, God blessed for ever (Romans 9:5). In Arianism, the Son is not generated but created by the Father out of nothing, which means that he is a creature.
3. The generation is eternal. If the Son does not possess his sonship or generation of the Father eternally, than neither is the Father eternal. In other words, the very fact that the Father is eternally the Father necessitates that the Son is eternally the Son. Indeed, to deny the eternal generation of the Son would rob the Father of his eternal nature as the Father, since there would have been a prior time in which the Father was not the Father but something else, only later generating the son and thus becoming the Father. Generation is an everlasting act of God, eternally occurring as an aspect of the eternally generative nature of the Father. The Son is therefore everlastingly begotten. In Arianism, the Son is said to not have existed at some point, and further was brought about or created at some point.