Each believer must decide for himself what he will believe, based upon his own study of Scripture with prayer. The writings, questions or commentary of other Christians should be valued as stimulating thought and growth. No human being should set himself up as the expositor of absolute truth in the things of God, and it is not my intent to do so in this study. We all “see though a glass darkly.” I offer my opinion, with supporting arguments - nothing more.
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I want to make it very clear that I believe Christ our Lord is a divine being, worthy of worship. He is not a created being. He was “begotten” - not created. I do believe that Christ had a beginning, meaning that He has not always existed. He was begotten as a being with an identity or self, separate from that of His Father.
A human son is of human nature, and is of the same DNA substance as his human parents. So before His incarnation, Christ was of the same nature (divine) and substance as His Father. As such, Christ could then, and can now, be called God (meaning divine being).
“Who has ascended into heaven, or descended?
Who has gathered the wind in His fists?
Who has bound the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, if you know?”
Proverbs 30:4 NKJV
4. I have found no command in Scripture that we are to glorify, give thanks to, pray to, or exalt the Holy Spirit. There is no account of any created being offering worship to the Holy Spirit by name. Christ came to teach us the truth about God, yet He never taught that we are to worship the Holy Spirit.
5. Christ prayed only to His Father, and never spoke to another divine being by name. He instructed His disciples to pray to the Father, in the name of the Son (Matthew 6:10, John 15:16, John 16:23).
6. We are to pray for the spirit, never to the spirit. The Holy Spirit is the gift.
7. Singular pronouns indicating possession, source, or relation, are used extensively with the word spirit throughout Scripture. The Holy Spirit is called “His spirit,” “My spirit,” “the spirit of the Lord,” “the spirit of God,” “the spirit of Him” or “Your spirit.” This suggests that the Holy Spirit is the omnipresence and power of the Father and/or of Christ. In Matthew 12:18, Luke 4:18, and Romans 8:11, the Spirit is “the Spirit of the Father.” 1Peter 1:10-11 refers to the “Spirit of Christ” as the inspiration of Old Testament prophets.
8. Jesus called His Father “the only true God” (John 17:3).
9. Paul said, “There is One God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and One Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom are all things” (1Corinthians 8:6). He also wrote, “one God and Father of all, Who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:6).
10.We were created by the Father, through the Son (1Cor.8:6, Eph.3:9, Col.1:12-16, Heb.1:1-3).
11.In Scripture, God is referred to using singular pronouns such as He, His or Him. “Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come” (Revelation 14:7).
12.The Father is the God of Christ (John 20:17, Rom. 15:6, 1Cor. 11:3, 2Cor. 1:3, 2Cor. 11:31, Eph. 1:3, Eph. 1:17, Col. 1:3, Heb. 1:9, 1Pet 1:3, Rev. 1:6). The following statement was made by Christ to John, many years after Pentecost 31AD.
13.“There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy” (James 4:12).
14.Christ will be subordinate to the Father for all eternity (1Corinthians 15:24-28). The kingdom of heaven, was called by Christ, “My Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29). There is no mention of “the Spirit’s kingdom.”
15.We are reconciled to the Father through the Son (Col 1:19-20).
16.He said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:8-9). He did not say, “You have also seen the Spirit.”
17.Christ was “sent by the Father” (John 5:23, 5:30, 5:36, 5:37, 6:39, 6:44, 6:57, 8:16, 8:29, 8:42, 10:36, 12:49, 17:21, 20:21, 1John 4:14). Never did Christ say that He was sent by the Spirit.
18.“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” (John 3:16).
19.There is strong indication in Proverbs 8:22-30 that this passage is Christ Himself speaking of His preincarnate existence with His Father. The passage is a corollary on wisdom, but in 1Corinthians 1:24 and 30, Christ is called “the wisdom of God.” The “word” of God in John 1:1-3 is the same concept to a Hebrew as “the wisdom” of God. This is the revelation of Himself, which God has sent. The speaker of Proverbs 8 says, “I was brought forth.” This the same expression used to say “I was born.” (Also see: Job 15:7-8.)
20.“The covenant of peace shall be between them both” (Zechariah 6:12). Both is two.
21.“There is only one mediator between God and men” (1Timothy 2:5).
22.“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ?Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:10).
23.We “abide in the Son and in the Father” (1John 2:24).
24.“Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son” (1John 1:3).
25.The Father forgives (Matt 6:12,14,15). Christ also forgives sin, because He received all authority from His Father, (John 5:22, 27; Matt 28:18) but nowhere in Scripture do we read that we are forgiven by the Spirit.
26.“Jesus spoke these words lifted His eyes to heaven, and said: 'Father [first person] the hour is come. Glorify Your Son [second person] that Your Son also may glorify You [first person], . . . And this is eternal life, that they may know You [first person], the only true God, and Jesus Christ [second person] Whom You [first person] have sent’” (John 17:1,3).
27. If Christ was not a separate being from His Father, then He prayed to Himself to be delivered from death (Luke 22:42). When He said, “Not my will but Thine be done” does this not signify that there were two individual wills, and therefore two separate beings. He said, “I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me” (John 6:38).
28.All of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in the Father and the Son (Colossians 2:2-3).
29.Ten times in the New Testament, Paul wrote “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” It is hard to believe that it was an oversight on his part, not to have mentioned the Spirit also in these passages.
30.Christ stated that no one, not even the Son Himself, knew the day or the hour of His return to earth, but the “Father only” (Matt. 24:36).
The Holy Spirit did not know the day and hour?
The Holy Spirit did not know the Son?
31.The doctrine of the Trinity teaches that we worship one God. The Father is God. The Son is equally God. The Spirit also is equally God. Yet we do not worship three Gods. This seems confusing.
Perhaps no one section of this study, by itself, would convince the reader that God is or is not a Trinity. It is the cumulative weight of all the arguments together, which I believe urges the view.
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Trinity Part 2