In the English language, the word “God” is customarily used for Deity. Is.43:10 “Declares YHVH, ‘Before Me there was no God formed, neither will there be after Me.” Only the true God is Divine.
The true God is a uniplural Being. Yet the God-kind is one/unified (echád Strongs h259, Hebrew). De.6:4 “YHVH our God, YHVH is one [echad h259].” However, Adam & Eve were to be one in Ge.2:24. “A man shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one [echad h259] flesh.” The two of them were one, echad! Ezr.2:64 “The whole assembly united as one [echad h259] man was 42,360.” In this verse, 42,360 souls were as one! So we see the term echad/one is numerically plural in these verses.
The Hebrew term yachíd (h3173) meant absolute oneness, sole, or the one and only. In the Old Testament (OT), yachid is never used in reference to God. Jdg.11:34 “She was his only [yachid] child.” The LXX Greek equivalent term monogenés (g3439) refers to Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, in Jn.1:14, 18.
God, as the God Family, consists of the Father, Holy Spirit (HS) and Jesus the Son. The Word/Logos from eternity past later became the human Jesus, Jn.1:1-5, 14. (see the topic “Godhead in Prehistory”.) Ge.1:1-3 reflects the Father, HS, and the Word/Light who would become Jesus. The first “Us” verse in Genesis, where the “Us” refers to the uniplural God, is Ge.1:26-27. “God said, ‘Let Us make mankind in our image, according to our likeness. In the image of God, male and female.” (not in the image of angels.) Other such “Us” verses in Genesis are Ge.3:22, 11:7, LXX 2:18. Also Is.6:1, 8 “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Who shall go for Us?”. And Ge.19:24 reflects plural YHVHs. “YHVH rained on Sodom & Gomorrah fire from YHVH out of heaven.” YHVH (h3068 Hebrew) is the Lord.
God as a Father in the OT: Moses said in De.32:6, “The Lord, is not He your Father?” Also see Is.64:8, 63:16. Mal.2:10 “Do we not all have one Father? Has not one [echad] God created us?”
God the Father is supreme in the Godhead (as we’ll see). Father God is the Source of all life (even of Jesus, Jn.5:26 & 6:57). The Father chooses the time of calling His elect, Ep.1:3-5 & Jn.6:44.
Jesus the Son in the OT: Ps.2:7, 12 “YHVH said to Me, You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Do homage to the Son.” (YHVH isn’t referring to David. Jesse, not God, begat David.) Pr.30:4 “Who has ascended up to heaven and descended? What is His name or His Son’s name?” Jn.6:62 Jesus said, “What if you should see the Son of Man ascending where He was before?” Jn.1:18 Jesus said no one has seen Father God at any time. In the OT Péntateuch, the God seen was the Word/Rock/Son/Angel, the Messenger of YHVH. ref Ge.31:11-13, 18:1, Ex.24:10, Is.6:1 & Jn.12:41-44. De.32:18 & 1Co.10:4 according to the apostle Paul, “That Rock was Christ”. (see “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)
The primordial Word of God, the Messenger of the Lord, took on flesh as Jesus/Yeshúa (Hebrew). Neither the Father nor the HS took on flesh. As human, Jesus could bridge the gap between Creator and creation. 1Ti.2:5 “There is one Mediator between God and men, the human Jesus Christ.” He.4:14-15 Jesus as such is High Priest. In Je.23:5-6, the Messiah would be both a human descendant of David, and YHVH! Harvard’s Jacob Neusner Judaisms and Their Messiahs, p.275 “An early Judaism myth portrayed a supernatural God-Man King Messiah as Savior and Redeemer of Israel.” He is Jesus.
The Holy Spirit in the OT: Is.48:16 “The Lord God and His Spirit have sent Me.” Job.33:4 “The Spirit of God has made me.” Pr.1:20-23 “Wisdom lifts her voice, ‘I will pour out My Spirit on you.”
Father God is in heaven. God has operated through the HS and Jesus. Ac.2:34 Jesus ascended into heaven and now sits there at Father’s right hand (and Jesus lives mystically in Christians, Jn.17:21-23 & Col.1:27). The human Jesus wasn’t omnipresent. The HS is on earth…omnipresent. David wrote in Ps.139:7-10, “Where can I go from Your Spirit, where can I flee from Your Presence?” Nowhere.
Although the Godhead is tripartite, a common trinitarian view is partly incorrect. That is, the Bible doesn’t reflect the three in the Godhead as equal in authority. Father God has the greatest authority! Jesus said in Jn.14:28, “The Father is greater than I”. 1Co.15:27-28 Jesus is forever subject to Him.
The Father sends Jesus. Jn.12:49 Jesus said, “The Father who sent Me has given Me commandment”. The two are distinct. The Father also sends the HS. Jn.14:26 “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send.” Jesus too sends the HS (Jn.16:7). All three are distinct! But neither Jesus nor the HS sends the Father! They differ in order and subordination. The human Jesus wasn’t omniscient. Mt.24:36 “Of that day and hour no one knows, not the Son, the Father only.” (see “Jesus Is God…Jesus Has A God”.)
Father God is so very great! Jn.6:46 & 5:37 no human has ever seen His form. They hadn’t heard His voice. Not before Jesus and John the Baptizer heard the voice of Father God formally testify of His Son at Jesus’ baptism. ref Jn.1:32-34 & Mk.1:9-11. The (OT) Voice heard by God’s people was that of the Word, the Lord Jesus, e.g. Ge.18:1, 13, Jn.8:56-58. Jesus said in Jn.10:27, “My sheep hear My voice”.
Ontology is the study of being. God, angels, humans are called personal beings. But God’s Being isn’t finite or limited, as we are limited. Scripture doesn’t define ‘person’ (the term we use in modern English), and doesn’t apply that term to the triune God. The Latin persona (or Greek prósopon) was a ‘face’ worn by Greek/Roman dramatic actors. Church fathers applied the Greek term hypostáses (subsistences or entities or individuals) to God.
Several verses in the New Testament (NT) reflect the tripartite Godhead. First, I should say, 1Jn.5:7 KJV is only in late manuscripts. And the Mt.28:19 phrase, “Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”, wasn’t in the text Eusebius quoted ca 300 AD. But there are many other verses….
2Co.13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the HS be with you all.” 2Co.1:21-22 “He who establishes us in Christ and anointed us is God, who also gave us the Spirit.” Ep.4:4-6 “There is one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all.” (That’s three!) Ac.7:55 “Being full of the HS, Stephen saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” He.9:14 “Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without blemish to God.” 1Co.12:4-6 “The same Spirit…the same Lord…the same God.” (Again, that’s three.) 1Pe.1:2 “Elect according to a foreknowledge of God the Father, sanctified by the Spirit, sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ.” All these verses indicate the three ‘Persons’ of the Godhead, the God Family.
As God, they are identical in essence, fully divine, a tri-unity of subsistences having self-awareness, sinless. It’s been said as an analogy that the Father is the wall outlet, the HS is the cord, Jesus is the lamp (Re.21:23). The tripartite Godhead is revealed to us by Jesus the Son’s coming in the flesh and His words in the NT, by other scriptures, and by the HS dwelling within us as Christians.
The terms for God as “Father” and “Holy Spirit” rarely occur as such in the OT. Very few men had the HS in OT times; and prior to the NT, Jesus hadn’t yet come to reveal the Father. (see “Life and Death – for Saints”.) Jesus said in Jn.4:24, “God is Spirit”. In Mt.10:20, Jesus spoke of Christians having “The Spirit of your Father who speaks in you”. The HS belongs to and was part of Father God, has personality, but isn’t the totality of God.
Every human has a spirit within. Jb.32:8 “There is a spirit in man.” Our human spirit gives biological life to our body of flesh (Ge.2:7). Ja.2:26 “The body without the spirit is dead.” Without our human spirit, we’re just a clod. Our spirit in God’s image imparts self-awareness and intellect to our brain. It’s a non-physical component which differentiates human mind from animal brain instinct. Our spirit gives us a moral sense of conscience, based upon the self and cultural customs & laws, not the HS. Yet the HS will join with our human spirit (1Co.6:17); we become linked to God, able to live God’s morality.
Mt.1:18 “Mary was found to be with Child by the HS.” The HS as God conceived Jesus in the womb of the surrogate mother Mary. Kind begets kind. So even as flesh, the Word/Jesus was of the Godkind.
The HS is very God, distinct from the Father. Jn.15:26 “The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father.” Orthodox Bible “The HS receives…eternal existence only from the Father.” 1Co.3:16 “Don’t you know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God lives in you?” The Father and Jesus are in heaven…Christians wouldn’t be God’s temple if God the HS didn’t dwell within. Lk.3:21-22 “Jesus was baptized. The HS descended upon Him in bodily form as a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in Thee I Am well-pleased.” The Father sent the HS as a dove upon Jesus the Son, then the Father’s voice spoke to Him from heaven. That’s three! Father God didn’t appear as the bird. And Jesus isn’t an angel’s son. 1Jn.5:10 “God [not an angel] has testified about His Son.”
The HS is a Who, not a what, not an impersonal power such as magnetism or centripetal force. The following verses reflect HS personality: Peter said to Ananias in Ac.5:3-4, “You lied to the HS. You weren’t lying to men but to God.” The person of the HS can be lied to and is God! 1Co.2:10-11 “Who knows the inner thoughts of a man, except the spirit of the man. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. The thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.” The HS has an intellect and knowledge, as does our human spirit. Ro.8:26-27 “The Spirit intercedes for us with deep groanings. And He who searches the hearts knows the mind of the Spirit.” The HS has a mind and prays for the saints, unlike an impersonal ‘force’, so-called. (see “Holy Spirit Personification”.)
The HS speaks in 1st Person as “Me” and “I” in Ac.13:2. “The Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them to.” Also ref Ac.11:12, Jn.16:13, Mk.13:11, which indicate the HS is personal and speaks. 2Sm.23:2-3 “The Spirit of YHVH spoke by me. The God of Israel.” Again, the HS is YHVH/God.
Ro.15:30 “By our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit.” The HS is a ‘Person’ who can love! (1Jn.4:8 God is love.) 1Co.12:11 and Ac 20:28 the Person of the HS has a will and appoints overseers in the church. The Person of Jesus also has a will. Mt.11:27 “The Father, who the Son wills to reveal.”
The church is the metaphorical bride of Christ (e.g. Re.19:7-9). Christians (the “bride”) are persons. Re.22:17 “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.” The Spirit and the bride speak, as persons. Jesus is symbolically the Lion, Lamb, Word, arm (of the Lord, Is.53:1)…yet Jesus is a distinct person! Jesus is also referred to as, “The power of God and the wisdom of God” (1Co.1:24). Yet Jesus is clearly personal, as the four gospels reveal. The HS isn’t just the power (or force) of God.
Is.63:10 “They rebelled and vexed His HS.” Ep.4:30 “Don’t grieve God’s HS, by whom you are sealed.” The HS seals believers…and can be vexed or provoked, and grieved or made sorrowful. He.10:29 “Sorer punishment to he who has insulted the Spirit of grace.” The HS can be insulted. To think that an emotionless ‘force’ can be vexed, grieved and feel insulted…seems absurd! Jn.15:26 the HS testifies of Jesus. Any spirit who denies Jesus is false! Yet…Mt.12:31-32 “Blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.”
Forces such as magnetism and centripetal force don’t: have a mind, speak, pray, love, or hear and comprehend lies. Whereas the Bible says the HS does: have a mind, speak, pray, love, hear and comprehend lies. The HS can be vexed, grieved, insulted, blasphemed! To repeat, the HS is personal…not just a powerful but emotionless ‘force’ from God! (also see “Holy Spirit’s Identity”.)
Benny Hinn Welcome Holy Spirit, p.29 “There’s glory in grasping the Personhood of the Holy Spirit….your life will never be the same.” ibid, p.199 “The Spirit is the Author of the Book.”
A church denomination I won’t name published an article about the Holy Spirit. Their position is, “The HS is not God. It is the most powerful force in the universe. The HS can be poured out, an impersonal characteristic.” But we read verses above, such as Ac.5:3-4 and 1Co.3:16, which indicate the HS is God. Their article went on to say, “Only God can change hearts” (as if the HS isn’t God).
But the HS is God and does change hearts. Ro.5:5 “The love of God is poured out in our hearts by the HS.” 2Co.1:22 “He gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” Ro.15:30 it’s by “The love of the Spirit.” God’s love is “poured out” or shed abroad through the Person of the HS. The Holy Spirit personally loves as God. (And the HS is symbolically “poured out” as living water, Jn.7:38-39.)
Is.53:12 prophesied of Jesus, “He poured out Himself to death”. Jesus the “Person” also “poured out” Himself or His soul. 1Sm.1:15 Samuel’s wife Hannah describes her supplication to God. “I have poured out my soul before the Lord.” Jb.30:16 Job’s sore complaint, “My soul is poured out within me”. David said in Ps.62:8, “Pour out your heart before God”. In the Bible, the soul and even the heart of a person can be “poured out”! Hannah, Job, and David are persons. Jesus and the HS are divine Persons, in a manner “poured out”, so to speak.
Angels are also spirits, “ministering spirits” in He.1:14 (they aren’t the Holy Spirit). An angel is a spirit who, likewise, isn’t just an impersonal force (e.g. the angel Gabriel, Lk.1:19).
Ministering spirits (angels), the Holy Spirit, our human spirits…aren’t an impersonal Star Wars type force! Our human spirit is me, is you, within our flesh ‘suit’. Again, the HS is changing our hearts! We, as God’s temple of the HS, connect with God…the HS joined with our human spirit (1Co.6:17). God will be all-in-all, Ep.4:6!
Finally, the triune God is thrice holy. One Spirit…one Lord…one Father (Ep.4:4-6). Is.6:3 “Holy, Holy, Holy is YHVH of hosts.” A three-in-one Godhead. The heavenly worshipers in Re.4:8 “Do not cease to say, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty”. Yea, and Amen.
Bible Topic Exposition 