Required reading
Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge (Vol 2) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Chapter 3 (Person of Christ) by reading up to the heading '7. Lutheran Doctrine'.
My summary
Firstly, today, Hodge teaches us about erroneous and heretical doctrines on the person of Christ. We learn about:
(i) the Ebionites;
(ii) the Gnostics;
(iii) the Apollinarian doctrine;
(iv) Nestorianism;
(v) Eutychianism.
Secondly Hodge demonstrates that the Reformed churches held to the same doctrine as that accepted by the early church.
What grabbed me
I always love the Westminter Confession's succinct statements: 'The Reformed taught what the first six general councils taught, and what the Church universal received, — neither more nor less. With this agrees the beautifully clear and precise statement of the Westminster Confession : "The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance, and equal with the Father, did, when the fulness of time was come, take upon Him man's nature, and and all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin : being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance. So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man."'
Beautiful indeed!
Next week's reading
Continue Chapter 3 (Person of Christ) by reading up to the heading '8. Later forms of the doctrine'.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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