For it is not the prerogative of the church to define either its status or activity. It is Christ’s church, not humankind’s. It is Christ, therefore, who declares both that his church shall have a government and what the nature of that government will be. This he has done through the inspired Scriptures (“History and Character of Church Government” by Joseph H. Hall in Paradigms in Polity: Classic Readings in Reformed and Presbyterian Church Government, eds. David W. Hall & Joseph H. Hall, 4).

Beza is surely correct in his contention that laxity in applying biblical principles of church government leads eventually to erosion of doctrine in the church. Therefore, we ought ever to be assiduously conforming church polity to biblical norms (“History and Character of Church Government” by Joseph H. Hall in Paradigms in Polity: Classic Readings in Reformed and Presbyterian Church Government, eds. David W. Hall & Joseph H. Hall, 3).

The Trinity is not a mystery among others, but it constitutes the central mystery of Christian faith and should illumine the entirety of the Christian life. The Trinity is the mystery of salvation, as Karl Rahner vigorously reminded us: ‘The trinity is a mystery of salvation, otherwise it would never have been revealed’ (From “Introduction” by Gilles Emery and Matthew Levering in The Oxford Handbook of the Trinity, 1).