¶1There is a doctrine that has become a part of the famous Nicene Creed that says that the Son of God >> [music] >> is begotten from the Father not in his human nature but in his divine nature. That somehow from eternity past even prior to the incarnation and his virginal conception the Son of God is begotten from God the Father in his divinity. New Testament scholars seem to have reached something of a consensus that this is not a doctrine to be found in the New Testament. When John talks about Christ as the only begotten Son of God he's not talking about him being begotten in his divine nature. Certainly uh Christ is begotten in his human nature in being born of Mary but I don't think you're going to find very good proof texts in the New Testament that Christ was eternally begotten in his divine nature.
¶2Rather the origin of this doctrine stems from what is called Logos Christology. This is the Christology or doctrine of Christ that was enunciated by the early Greek apologists. People like um Athenagoras, Tatian, [laughter] and Justin Martyr uh in the late 2nd century after Christ. From the Gospel of John's description of the Logos who in the beginning was with God and was God they imagined that initially there was just God the Father. And that somehow the mind of the Father proceeded and came forth from him as a second person.
¶3Um and this was then the Son of God who became incarnate in Christ. So, the idea was that the second person of the Trinity proceeds out of or emanates out of the first person of the Trinity, the Father. And this Logos Christology became extremely influential in the early church, and it eventually gets um ecclesiastical status as authoritative in the Nicene Creed and then the uh Council of Chalcedon later on. I am skeptical of this doctrine. I don't want to deny outright a doctrine that has such a strong ecclesiastical tradition.
¶4Um but I I refrain from affirming it. I I do not confess it. Um so, my attitude toward this doctrine would be much like my attitude toward the question of whether there is gold on Mars. I don't believe that there's gold on Mars, but I don't disbelieve that there's gold on Mars, either. I just don't have a belief in that regard.
¶5And so, similarly, I um I do not believe or confess that the Son is eternally begotten from the Father in his divine nature. And I think in so saying, I am being faithful to the New Testament.