Jonathan Edwards on the Trinity
One substance, three persons, co-equal and co-eternal
He is not an under God, as the Arians suppose, but, to all intents and purposes, supreme God.
THE POSITION
Christ is God by nature and not by delegation, equal to the Father in every perfection, and his generation from the Father is "natural and necessary, and not arbitrary" rather than a dependence on the Father's will. Edwards argues the same for the Spirit — that the Spirit of the supreme God could not be a creature put under the direction of another creature — and concludes from Deuteronomy 6:4 that Christ "is one God with the Father."
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.
17 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
New England pastor, revival theologian and philosopher of the First Great Awakening, dismissed from his Northampton pulpit in 1750 over who may come to the Lord's Table. This entry rests on Freedom of the Will (1754), Original Sin (1758), Religious Affections (1746), An Humble Inquiry (1749), Distinguishing Marks (1741), Some Thoughts on the Revival (1742), An Humble Attempt (1747) and A History of the Work of Redemption, read in the Hickman edition.
Cite this page
"Jonathan Edwards on the Trinity", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/edwards/trinity (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/edwards/trinity).