The doctrine of the Trinity is the glory of the Christian faith. It is drawn entirely from revelation. It depends on the absolute truth of the sentences through which the Scriptures teach us about God and his nature, his character, his purposes, his actions and promises. The doctrine depends, for example, on the infallibility and inerrancy of the teaching in St John's Gospel, or the Epistle to the Ephesians or the last paragraph of St Matthew's Gospel, because the doctrine of the Trinity is not enunciated fully in any one passage but is gathered from many statements of the Scriptures. If we cannot rely on the verbal inspiration of Scripture, the doctrine of the Trinity has no basis.
-"The Implications of the Doctrine of the Trinity for Theology and for Ordinary Life", Appendix B, The Everlasting God (Selected Works, Vol I) p. 153
Broughton insists here on both the infallibility and the inerrancy of Scripture, neither confounding their meanings nor dividing their substance.
2 comments:
Great quote, Gordon. I don't think I actually agree with it, but what I like about it is it takes seriously the fact that there are different voices and theologies in the New Testament.
Often you get the impression that systematic theologians in particular, and Christians in general, believe the NT speaks with one voice and one testimony. It simply does not, and the position you quoted attempts to honour that.
It's a powerful non sequitur.
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