In Part 1 we explored the Historic Origins of the Trinity, as well as Pagan Triads & Trinities.  We welcome you to explore this further on your own, as there are lots of resources available.

Here, in Part 2, we will be getting into the Bible, focusing on:

• A Curious Omission
• The Truth of the Godhead

>> A Curious Omission

Here’s a revealing experiment you can do right now before reading further.  Pick any epistle you like: authored by Paul, James, Peter, John or Jude. Any random one.  Notice that each of them has an opening greeting addressed to the church or person (for example, 1 Timothy’s introduction includes: “Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.”).  If indeed the Holy Spirit was regarded by them as a person, is it not odd that the Holy Spirit does not appear in even one of the opening remarks?

Ask youself: does this make sense?  Some people will argue that you can not make an argument from silence.  In other words, just because the Holy Spirit is not referred to, it does not mean “he” is not a person as well as the Father and Son. Well in this case, the silence is deafening.  The apostles give greetings in the name or authority of the Godhead very, very consistently, yet it never includes the Holy Spirit.

Why would these men of God omit the Holy Spirit if ‘he’ is a person of the Godhead?  How do you account for this?  Ask someone you know or dive into it in more detail and see if you get a clear answer that is consistent with scripture.  Mostly all you will receive are weak arguments.

Instead, what do we find very consistently?  The reader is greeted in the name of the Father and the Son – the two entities of the Godhead.  Consider the words of Stephen as he was being stoned: he saw God the Father and Jesus at His right hand (Acts 7:55).  We know this was a vision, since God is a spirit (John 4:24), but where is the person of Holy Spirit in this vision?  Why is ‘he’ not at the left hand of God or at least included in this picture? It is a reminder of what we will see shortly in Revelation 21.

Getting back to the epistles…  In his letter to the Ephesians, as just one example among many, Paul opens in the 2nd and 3rd verses: ”Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ…”

Very simple.  Very clear.  This is the Godhead as believed and preached by the early church, on display in every epistle.  It is not the ‘unexplainable mystery’ that we’ve been made to believe in.

If this omission of the Holy Spirit occurred just once or was simply the style of only one of the authors, it might be overlooked.  But the startling consistency of this greeting throughout all the epistles cannot just be swept under the rug, even by the staunchest Trinitarian.  Again we must ask: Why, if the Holy Spirit, is a person of the Godhead, would ‘he’ not be included in the introduction when all the writers were careful to acknowledge the Father and Jesus Christ in their very first words?

These opening salutations give us a clear understanding as to how the apostles viewed the Godhead.  They are greeting the church through the authority of the Father and Son.

If this is not enough, then look at how Paul describes the following order:

“Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” (1 Cor 11:3).

Again, why would the Holy Spirit not be included in this hierarchy?  There is no evidence that the apostles of Jesus ever heard of a Trinity.

Or when the Kingdom of the Lord is finally established on the earth, why is the Holy Spirit not mentioned in the following?

“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” (Rev 21:22-23).

And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Rev 22:1)

And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it…  (Rev 22:3)

Three very clear scriptures outlining how the early church viewed the Godhead.  Some are so entrenched in the Trinity that they attempt to explain these scriptures away, but with little conviction and even less biblical proof.  When we are threatened with the truth, we have a tendency to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to the evidence before us.

>> The Truth of the Godhead

“Are you saying that there is no such thing as the Holy Spirit?  That’s heresy!”  No, that is not we are advocating at all.  In fact, in May 2009, we have a sermon entitled ‘The Genuine Baptism of the Holy Spirit‘.

Indeed, we believe in the necessity, power, baptism and presence of the Holy Spirit.  We covet the gifts of the Spirit and the deep inner workings that come with yielding more of our lives to God.  But the Holy Spirit is not a person – it is the Spirit of God.  It is what makes the Father and Son one.  It is what Christ promises to us as His people.  That’s what the early church understood and taught: that there are two separate entities in the Godhead – the Father and his begotten Son.

It’s clear that the Lord Jesus (Matt 4:4, 7, Luke 24:27), the Apostle Paul (Acts 17:2-3), and first-century believers used the Scriptures as the foundation for their teaching.  We ought to as well.  After all, this is what Paul said in Ephesians 2:

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone… (v.20)

Nowhere in the Epistles is the doctrine of the Trinity even mentioned, yet alone clearly explained.  Yet, there are hundreds of references to the deity of Christ and God the Father.  Colossians 1 would be a great example.

Those who hold to the position of the Trinity hold to the position that there are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  These three persons being distinct from each other; three Gods – but yet only one God, intrinsically connected.  The scriptures do not bear this out, as we have seen and shall see.

What the scriptures clearly show are the deity of God the Father and the Lord Jesus (Matthew 22:44).  They are the two entities of the eternal Godhead.  The Son is subject, not equal to, the Father and will be throughout eternity (1 Cor. 15:24). The Holy Spirit is the invisible active force of the Almighty God which moves his children to respond to his will.

Like the parable of the True Vine (John 15), we see God the Father and His Son.  The Holy Spirit is not an entity in itself, but is the sap that flows throughout the true vine.

Going back to 1 Corinthians 11, we see the order that flows from God to the woman.  All would acknowledge that Paul would have clearly understood the Godhead.  When we line things up, we see the woman with her head – the man.  We see the man with his head – Christ.  We see Christ with his head – God.  God the head of Christ, Christ the head of man, man the head of the woman.  If the Holy Spirit was a person, why was he left out?  This is the simplest explanation for the Godhead we have ever found.

Some may argue that we know the Holy Spirit is a person because Jesus said:

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth…” (John 16:13)

But there is no more logic in calling the Holy Spirit a person than there is in calling ‘Wisdom’ a person.  After all, Proverbs 9:1 tells us that “Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars.”  Does that mean wisdom is a person – namely a woman?  No.  It is a figure of speech.  The “Spirit of truth” – he – and Wisdom – she – are merely figures of speech and do not denote personages.  In John 16, the Counselor or Holy Spirit is referred to as ’he’, but like wisdom, that does not automatically convey personage. Again, the early church clearly understood this.

In fact, look what Jesus says in John 15:

“When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.” (v 26).

The Spirit comes from the Father or “goes out from the Father”.  It’s not a separate entity at all.

In Romans 8, Paul writes this:

“You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ…” (v 9).

Notice the Spirit is really the “Spirit of God” and the “Spirit of Christ”.  The word “of” means “from”.  He then continues,

“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” (v 11).

Notice the two references to “his Spirit”?  That’s God’s Spirit, not a separate personage or entity.  There is power and authority in the Spirit of God and it is the unifying ingredient that enables us to have fellowship with our Father through Christ.

It is imperative that Christians know who they are serving, worshiping and praying to.  It is sad commentary on the part of many that they really do not know who or what they are worshiping.  That’s not what God intended.  And that is really the purpose of this writing: that you might know what you worship, rather than falling in line with the traditions of men.

At this point, you may be asking about the Great Commission in which Jesus stated:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt 28:19-20).

We must not read this scripture in isolation and ignore everything else the Bible has to say on this issue.  In the case of this scripture, it is balanced by the rest of the New Testament, wherein not a single baptism was ever conducted in that way. Instead, you will find that all recorded baptisms in scripture were routinely done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (for example, Acts 2:38, 8:16, 10:48, 19:5).

Thus, we face two possibilities: either the disciples were disobeying a direct command from Jesus himself, or they had a correct understanding of what Jesus meant.  We must balance the scriptures and not attempt to build a doctrine – and such a foundational one at that – without consistent biblical support.  Especially a doctrine held up as the foundation of the Christian faith.

In the end, Trinitarians only use a handful of scriptures they use to prove the personage of the Holy Spirit (none from the Old Testament).  These are:

• Matthew 28:19-20 (in Acts every single person was baptized in the name of Jesus only)
• John 14:26 (a reference to ‘he’ is no more reflective of a person as referring to wisdom as ‘she’ is – Proverbs 9)
• 2 Cor 13:14 (no connotation of personage here; in fact, this bears out how our fellowship with God occurs – through His Spirit)
• 1 John 5:7 (already shown to be a fabrication)

Often, you will find staunch trinitarians searching the Bible and find scriptures that have references to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit within a close proximity and claim this bears out the personage of the Spirit (for example, Ephesians 4:4-6).  This argument simply does not carry much weight in the end – especially for what is held up as a ‘cardinal doctrine’.  The most ridiculous length people have gone to for evidence is Revelation 4:8, where the three mentions of “Holy, holy, holy” is made to insinuate a reference to the Trinity.

In closing, it is important to revisit the point that we should not feel threatened by the truth.  Truth is liberating and stabilizing.  Having the humility to consider truth rather than its outright rejection is a mark of maturity.  If nothing else, hopefully this writing has encouraged you to look more deeply into this teaching and others, to ensure that your faith is built on biblical foundations and not the traditions of men.  Like the saints in Berea, we must look more closely and prayerfully into the word of God, asking Him to reveal truth to us not so that we might acquire head-knowledge, but so that we may build our lives on a foundation of truth, walk in light and teach others faithfully.

Image attribution: Skybase

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