I was reading John Brown (1784–1858) today on Psalm 18. The subject was early addressed in the second lecture on the Psalm which today is extremely controversial. It is the subject of the economic relation of the Son to the Father in eternity. Owen Strachan calls this relationship “Eternal Roles of Authority and Relationship in the Trinity” (ERAS).

He has been accused of being an Arian, a subject which has Christmas implications; that is if you know anything about St. Nick.

Well, the purpose of my post is to demonstrate that ERAS was previous to Strachan and others, is found in the respected Scottish minister John Brown. I happened to be reading his work on Psalm 18 this morning, which is what inspired this post. After quoting from John 17:1–4 and Philippians 2:6–11 Brown says this,

“He who is essentially equal with his Father became officially inferior to Him, and this official inferiority is not confined to that state of humiliation which was necessary to gain the objects of his assumption of an official chartacter, but continues in that state of exaltation to which, in his assumed inferior nature and office, he has been raised. When all things were put under him, He, as a matter of course, was excepted who put all things under him; and even in his state of exaltation, “the Son is subject to the Father.”1 The principle which pervades the whole mediatorial econonomy is, “the Father is greater than the Son”—”God is all in all.”2

Now, all this is to point out that the whole idea of speaking of an economic relationship of the Christ to the Father in the Trinity as being heretical, is heretical itself. We could get into the origin of this debate instigated by a woman, denounced by a denomination, and perpetually festered by the woke, but the point here is that of stating the truth—the truth that is stronger still.