Name: Sean K
comments: Hi Pastor John:
I had read some of your teachings on your website about the Holy Spirit and about Jesus, and had a few questions:
1) If I understand your teachings correctly, you do not believe that the Holy Spirit has a personality as the Father and Jesus do, but that it is a force or power. How do you view Matthew 28:19, 2Corinthians 13:14 and Rev. 1:4-5, where the Spirit is placed prominently alongside the Father and Jesus (in fact, in Rev. 1:4-5, the Spirit, described as the “seven spirits” or the “sevenfold spirit,” is place BETWEEN the Father and Jesus)? It seems the Spirit is treated as equal with the Father and Son in these verses.
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In my study, “The Influence of Trinitarian Doctrine on Translations of the Bible”, I point out that “power” could be taught as a fourth Person of the Godhead, using the same logic that is used to teach that the Spirit is a third person of the Godhead. If God has a spirit, we would expect it to be referred to as having personality — God’s! The same can be said about His power. Below is an excerpt from that study:
The Power of God: A Secret Fourth Person?
Trinitarians see as evidence of personhood the Scriptures in which God’s Spirit is said to have spoken, or to have felt something, or to have done a deed. But Trinitarians see this in the Scriptures not simply because of what those verses state but because they have been taught to see it there. Consider the power of God, by way of illustration. There have been no voices raised to promote a doctrine which states that the power of God is a person; yet, “spirit and power” are frequently used in identical ways. Jesus is said to be sitting beside power in heaven (or should it be “Power”? Mk. 14:62), and we are told that power (Power) will come back with him when he returns (Lk. 21:27). It was God’s power, along with God’s Spirit, that overshadowed the virgin Mary (Lk. 1:35). That being true, is Jesus then the Son of God’s Power or the Son of God’s Spirit? According to Peter, Jesus was anointed by God with both “holy spirit and power” (Acts 10:38). It was power that raised up Jesus from the dead (Rom. 1:4), and power will also raise us from the grave (1Cor. 6:14). In short, the power of God is said to have done many of the same things the Spirit of God is said to have done. Does that mean that God’s power is a person? Of course not. Still, were we to capitalize Power and (since power is a feminine Greek word) refer to it as She, and then teach naive souls that She is a fourth Person of a quadripartite God, some people would no doubt point to the verses in which activity associated with personality is attributed to God’s Power and “see” the evidence of personhood for themselves. Doubtless, some would become indignant and angrily condemn as heretical (dunamamachianism?) all who would not believe that God’s Power is a fourth Person of the Godhead, equal in all respects to and “consubstantial with” the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And would there then be another group of persecuted martyrs, burned at the stake for denying the Holy Quadrinity by denying the personhood of the Power of God? The blood of many saints who refused to submit to the Trinitarian faith over the centuries bears witness that this question is not as far-fetched as would first appear.
There is no “seven-fold Spirit” mentioned in the Scriptures. The seven spirits of God mentioned in Revelation are seven heavenly beings, perhaps angels, that stand before the Father’s throne.
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2) You also teach that the Father created Jesus as an equal God, since the Father has the power to do this. What about Isaiah 43:10: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he; before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me” (RV). Thank you once again for taking time to answer my questions.
In Jesus,
Sean K
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I think you must have misunderstood something I have written. If you would show me what I wrote that led you to believe that I teach the Son is equal to the Father, I might need to change that! The Son himself said that the Father is greater than he, and I believe what he said. So, if I wrote anything that led you to think differently, I will change it.
If you have done the amount of Bible study I think you have done, you know that the word “god” has many applications. The rulers of Israel were called “gods” by God Himself at Mt Sinai and other places; demons were sometimes called “gods”; and Jesus quoted the verse in Psalms where God referred to people to whom He sent His word “gods”. Surely, then, if the Son was God’s agent in creation, the title “God” applies to him (Heb. 3:4)!
The word “God” in Isaiah 43:10, the verse you quoted, was being used by God to try to persuade His people Israel to stop trusting in and worshiping foreign deities. He was not denying that the Son existed as God, or that there were no “gods” among the people Israel, to whom God’s word had come.
If that does not answer your question, feel free to write again. God bless you and those with you.
Pastor John