Eternal Generation of the Son
Trinitarian christological doctrine / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Eternal Generation of the Son is a trinitarian doctrine, which is defined as a necessary and as an eternal act of God the Father, where he generates (or begets) God the Son through communicating the whole divine essence to the Son. Generation is not not defined as an act of the will, but is by necessity of nature.[1][2] To avoid anthropomorphistic understandings of the doctrine, theologians have defined it as timeless, non bodily, incomprehensible and not as a communication without but within the Godhead.[3][4][5] The view is affirmed by the Catholic church,[6] Eastern Orthodoxy,[7] the Westminister confession[8] the London Baptist confession,[9] by Lutheran confessions[10] among others.
The doctrine has been an important part of Nicene trinitarianism, however some modern theologians have proposed different models of the trinity, wherein eternal generation is no longer seen as necessary and thus rejected.[11]