One thing that Jesus taught us was to address God as "Father." See, for example, the opening words of the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9). If we were to step away from this, as if we knew better, that would be for us to lose everything.

The church codified this teaching long ago in its recognition and affirmation that God is "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." This stands against the notion that there is no God. This stands against the idea that God, as radically one and distant, cannot draw near to us. And this stands against the teaching that Jesus is a wonderful human being, the most wonderful of all, but only a human being.

The church needs to affirm this teaching in every age, and we need to recover it today both for its positive content and also for its stand over and against these challenges to the faith.

One attempt within the church to deny to deny the content of this affirmation, even while pretending not to do so, is to speak of God as "Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer" (the word "Judge" almost never appears in such line ups!). But the speakers are fooling no one. They are strenuously avoiding saying "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," and thus they are abandoning the teaching of Jesus.

The formula of "Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer" also represents a significant departure from the confessional heritage of the church. All the documents in The Book of Confessions use language such as "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" to refer to the Trinity. None of them uses "Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer." But the problem runs deeper than non-traditional language.

There is a theological concern. The substituting of "Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer" for "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" does more than avoid male references. It substitutes an incomplete list of God's functions for the given naming of the persons and relations of the Trinity. This moves inexorably to Modalism, a form of thought about the Trinity which the church rejected as heretical about 1500 years ago.

Some forms of Modalism teach that God has existed in three different "modes," one at a time, as if God were first Creator, then Redeemer, and now Sustainer. This was rejected on the basis that God is all three of these all the time. Another form of Modalism is Monarchianism, which teaches that God the Father is the real God (the monarch), and that the Son and the Spirit are projections of the Father. Again, this was rejected on the basis that the distinctions of the persons of the Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are understood to be not merely the way that God presents himself to us but actually the way that God is, in God's inner being.

Against Modalism, the church affirmed the reality of the three persons as distinct but inseparable, so that while it is appropriate to associate some of the works of God more closely with one person than another (for example, redemption with the Son), nevertheless we understand all three persons of the Trinity to be present and active in all the works of God.

Cynthia M. Campbell has written of this as follows:

"Among feminist theologians, both within and outside the Reformed tradition, considerable discussion has been given to the status of the triune formula. Many argue that naming the triune God 'Father, Son, and Holy Spirit' (and using masculine pronouns for all three) reinforces the incorrect notion that God is male and that only masculine language is strictly appropriate when speaking about God. Various proposals for alternative formulae have been made, the most common being the identification of the Persons by their function: for example, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer; or Creator, Christ, and Spirit.

"While having the advantage of removing exclusively masculine terms, these alternatives raise another difficulty. Early church theologians argued that the Persons should not be distinguished by specific acts or functions, because this leads inevitably to a modalism (the threefold nature of God is found in the roles God plays toward us). In fact, they argued, the act of one is the act of all. Thus the Creed says that God the Father is 'Maker of heaven and earth,' God the Son is the One 'by whom all things were made,' and God the Spirit is 'the Lord and Giver of Life.'" ("Trinity," in Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1992, pp. 374-377)

Thus it is not only inadequate and inappropriate, but actually heretical, to refer to the Trinity merely as "Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer." There is little about this in The Book of Confessions, because this was settled doctrine a thousand years before the Reformation! The Reformers criticized medieval Roman Catholic views of grace and of the sacraments, but they accepted the classical teachings on the Trinity. And the Second Helvetic Confession does explicitly condemn the heresy of Sabellius, a Modalist Monarchian (5.015-.019).

These theological concerns also lead to practical concerns. If pastors are unwilling to use the word "Father," how are they going to lead congregations in the Lord's Prayer? How are they going to perform baptisms? How are they going to lead the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed?

The faith of the church of Jesus Christ faces tremendous challenges today. These include the notion that there is no God. These include the idea that God, as radically one and distant, cannot draw near to us. And these include the teaching that Jesus is a wonderful human being, the most wonderful of all, but only a human being.

People of various theistic faiths might be able to refer to God as "Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer," but only Christians believe that God the Father is eternally the Father of the Son, that God the Son is eternally the Son of the Father, and that God the Holy Spirit is eternally the Spirit of them both. This is distinctive Christian language, and as such it is necessary and irreplaceable Christian language.

Thus the use of "Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer" in the place of "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" is not a matter of alternative but acceptable language. It is, instead, a matter of ancient heresies finding their way back into the life and faith of the church, with our full and knowing approval. Of all the things we are free to do, we are not free to abandon the normative language of the church. Jesus taught us was to address God as "Father."