Trinity and Creation

"""We live in a day when Christians tend to think of God as merely a bigger version of themselves. As a result, the Creator is not distinguished from the creature, and key attributes or perfections are either abandoned or significantly modified. Barcellos has issued a much-needed wake-up call, one that rightly distinguishes the Creator from the creature, refusing to compromise the Creator's simplicity, immutability, timeless eternality, aseity, and much more. Contrary to popular assumptions, apart from this classical view of God, creation itself has no adequate explanation. Every serious student of theology should read Barcellos and return to these ancient paths. Only then will we avoid the temptation that modern theology has fallen into, that is, the temptation to domesticate God.""
--Matthew Barrett, author of None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God

""Richard Barcellos offers a meticulous analysis of the Second London Confession of Faith's treatment of the doctrine of creation, carefully explaining how the concise statement unfolds into a robust and trinitarian systematic theology of creation. Along the way he is able to clearly identify the contours of historic Reformed orthodoxy on the doctrine of creation while identifying deviations from this tradition among certain contemporary Reformed evangelicals. The theological options are clearly outlined, and Barcellos makes a compelling case for historic orthodoxy, leaving no doubt as to the dogmatic issues at stake. This work will have considerable pedagogical and catechetical value in Reformed contexts.""
--Glenn Butner, author of The Son Who Learned Obedience: A Theological Case Against the Eternal Submission of the Son

""So much contemporary theology betrays a dangerous impatience with mystery and the limitations of creaturely knowledge of God. In a vain attempt to bring God into a closer relationship to creation, even some Reformed and evangelical theologians now are denying God's simplicity and immutability. They seem to think that they can change classical, Nicene, metaphysical doctrines, yet still somehow escape the pitfalls those doctrines were designed to avoid. But to say that God is both changing and unchanging is not a paradox, but a contradiction, and by introducing contradictions into our doctrine of God they destabilize it in dangerous ways. In this careful work, Richard Barcellos patiently explains, in a step-by-step way, the reasons why the metaphysical doctrines of classical theism are enshrined within the Reformed creeds of the seventeenth century and why it is folly to abandon this creedal wisdom for contemporary fads. This is an enlightening and clearly argued book, which contributes to the retrieval of classical orthodoxy in our day.""
--Craig A. Carter, author of Interpreting Scripture with the Great Tradition: Recovering the Genius of Premodern Exegesis

""Trinity and Creation: A Scriptural and Confessional Account is a stunningly rich and marvelously astute st...

Richard C. Barcellos is pastor of Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Palmdale, California. He is the author of The Lord's Supper as a Means of Grace (2013) and Getting the Garden Right (2017).