The Law of Liberty

“Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.”
[Romans 14:1, Bible, NKJV]

0. Introduction

The foundation of the theology of this site comes mainly from the Nicaean Creed and the Reformed Theology denomination of Christianity.  Reformed Theologists, like Catholics and many other contemporary Christian denominations and churches, advocate Trinitarianism for good and very well documented reasons.  Trinitarianism is a point of great contention among heretics mainly who intend to attack or question mainstream Christianity. For examples:

https://www.gotquestions.org/trinitarianism.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Trinitarianism

https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/whats-wrong-picture-need-nicaea-trinitarianism/

https://probe.org/scriptures-that-prove-trinitarians-wrong/

https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-magazine/gods-challenge-to-trinitarianism

Is Person Synonymous with “Being”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpu1nGLiAVo

The Godhead vs The “Trinity”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh3n1Y_J_ak

The Godhead Doctrine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjrIYyZISmM

Our own initial naivety about this issue has in the past has caused contention within ministry ranks, because members misinterpreted the requirements of our Member Agreement, Form #01.001, as requiring a belief in Trinitarianism.  See, for instance, the following dialog from a Pastor who was/is a member:

https://sedm.org/forums/topic/false-statement-your-materials-compel-me-to-violate-the-bible/

We may be a non-denominational Christian ministry, but there is only one Christian faith consistent with the Bible.  We follow Jesus, who said the following in reference to dysfunctional forms of Christian community within any bible following church:

“Christ Brings Division

³⁴ “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to ‘set^[j] a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; ³⁶ and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ ³⁷ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁸ And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁹ He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”

[Matt. 10:34, Bible, NKJV]

Mainstream Christianity’s adoption of and belief in Trinitarianism needs no defense, because it is already so widely believed and adopted.  Hundreds of books have been written about it that are pointless to readdress here.   We don’t want to make belief in Trinitarianism a precondition of membership, but we include this article as a starting point to learn some arguments on both sides of the dispute over this subject so that you may research it further.  Some of the content of this article was produced during debates between us and other Members on this subject, in fact.  See, for instance, Section 7 later. Far be it from us to censor either side of this argument, or to condition membership on taking sides.  Informed debate and understanding on both sides is the main purpose of this exposition.

Contention over this issue seems a natural consequence of this website and our materials, given our excessive focus on franchises, definitions, and civil status as the cause of loss of rights.   The purpose of this website is not to “unify” all denominations or to settle all disputes on theology. We are not an ecumenical council like the Council of Nicaea, for instance.  The purpose of our ministry is much narrower.   We do not seek to be “an expert” on all things Christian.  We are not experts on Greek, Hebrew, and Hermaneutics.

For the first 17 years of this ministry, no one EVER raised the issue so we never had an occasion to study it in detail.  During that period, we deferred to the judgement of Pastor Brook Stockton of Nike Insights (http://nikeinsights.famguardian.org) on this issue.  Given that he is a Southern Baptist and a Trinitarian, then he approached it from the classical Trinitarian position.  We still defer to him on this subject.  He has a PhD in Theology while we have no formal education on that subject, after all.  His suggestion regarding this article was to dismiss attacks on Trinitarianism as heretical, a waste of time, and not write this article at all so that we can stick to what we do best, which is to provide tools for freedom fighters to protect their God given rights in court and to learn and teach the only real Law, being God’s Law, and how to apply it to the practical affairs of life. His article on Trinitiarianism is referenced at the end of this article, in fact.

Historically, Trinitarianism became mainstream and universal at the Council of Nicaea in ancient Turkey on AD 325:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea

That fact that all the bishops from everywhere had to get together and harmonize the entire Christian community on this issue is a testament to its complexity.  The answer to this issue was clearly not obvious to them at the time and needed divine influence of the Holy Spirit and a lot of brain power to solve.  Thus, our inability or failure to confront this issue in the absence of a full theological understanding early in the life of this ministry should be understandable.  The First Nicaean council was also the point at which in essence the Bible was codified and the books currently in it were selected while also rejecting the apocryphal literature of that time as heretical.

As the reader digests this article, please be tolerant of us, given the fact that Trinitarianism is complex and takes years of study to fully grasp.  It is the product of literally thousands of years of development and the subject of hundreds of books.  We cannot do it full justice here, so don’t expect to learn even a fraction of what you need to learn here to digest it fully.

1. Logical Conflicts within Trinitarianism

Throughout this site, we tell people that the Truth cannot conflict with itself or it isn’t truth, but a logical fallacy.

The belief that God is a trinity of three persons in one being is presently the hallmark of modern Christian Orthodoxy. But have you really examined the claim? It may shock you to learn that the so-called hallmark of Orthodoxy, Trinitarianism, is still disputed by many theologians and churches even to this day!  We identify those disputing Trinitarianism as “Anti-trinitarians” in this article.  Such parties claim that Trinitiarianism is Satan’s greatest deception.  The greatest Satanic deception, however, is of course that found in Psalm 91:

https://sedm.org/satanic-exposition/

Why would anti-trinitarians claim that Trinitarianism is Satan’s greatest deception? Simply stated, it is because they insist that classical Trinitarianism obscures the purpose of human existence and what human beings were created to become in the Kingdom of God.

Trinitarians insist that all three separate and distinct persons originate from the same spirit source, “the Word” but are different and separate manifestations of it.  Anti-trinitarians, on the other hand, insist that if these distinct persons fully participate in the being of each other in any way, that means that God the Father died with Jesus the Son!  But this is an oversimplification that defies what the scriptures actually say on the subject.  Below is how Trinitarians approach this issue:

Carrying this concept over to the Trinity, it is not a contradiction for God to be both three and one because he is not three and one in the same way. He is three in a different way than he is one. Thus, we are not speaking with a forked tongue — we are not saying that God is one and then denying that he is one by saying that he is three. This is very important: God is one and three at the same time, but not in the same way.

How is God one? He is one in essence. How is God three? He is three in Person. Essence and person are not the same thing. God is one in a certain way (essence) and three in a different way (person). Since God is one in a different way than he is three, the Trinity is not a contradiction. There would only be a contradiction if we said that God is three in the same way that he is one.

So a closer look at the fact that God is one in essence but three in person has helped to show why the Trinity is not a contradiction. But how does it show us why there is only one God instead of three? It is very simple: All three Persons are one God because, as we saw above, they are all the same essence. “Essence” means the same thing as “being.” Thus, since God is only one essence; he is only one being, not three. This should make it clear why it is so important to understand that all three Persons are the same essence. For if we deny this, we have denied God’s unity and affirmed that there is more than one being of God (i.e., that there is more than one God).

[What is the Doctrine of the Trinity?; SOURCE: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-is-the-doctrine-of-the-trinity]

The very first article of faith is to believe that God exists:

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him”(Hebrews 11:6).

In other words, a person must believe that God exists and that He always has our best interests at heart.

There are, of course, skeptics who don’t believe in the existence of God, but most people in the Western world profess some kind of belief in the God of the Christian Bible. God is said to be uncreated, eternal and invisible. Jesus states in John 4:24 that God is spirit.

But what about the origin of Jesus, the Son of God? How did He come into existence? Classical Trinitarianism holds that God the Father is “the Creator” of all things and that Paul also describes Jesus as the Creator as well in Colossians 1:16-19:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.  And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
[Col. 1:16-19, Bible, NKJV]

Anti-trinitiarians ignore Jesus as the Creator in Colossians 1:16-19 and PRESUME that God is Creator and that He created Jesus, and that the Father and Son together eternally generate the Holy Spirit. Anti-trinitarians say that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost form a closed system as the triune God—“triune” meaning “consisting of three distinct Persons manifested as one being or from one spirit source.” Trinitiarians, however, claim that  all three—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—are different and separate manifestations or characters of the same underlying singular source, being logos or “the Word”.  See the video below as an example of the Reformed Theology approach to Trinitarianism, cited in our About Us Page, Section 4:

https://sedm.org/overcoming-the-world-2014-conference-against-the-world/

Anti-trinitarians insist that the triune Godhead is a closed system—no one can enter into that “eternal model.” (To clarify, the word “Godhead” means Godhood—existence as God with divine nature—and has nothing to do with the modern word “head.”) If the Godhead is closed, how can human beings become children of God and members of His family, as stated in 2 Corinthians 6:18 ? And what about the incarnation of “the Word”—the Son of God being born in the flesh?

To anti-trinitarians, the incarnation and resurrection shatters the Trinitarian paradigm. One can readily see the dilemma this poses. How can there be a Son in heaven and one on the earth? How is the “essential nature” of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit preserved when “the Word” is made flesh? They say that if any of the divine persons is altered or taken out of the model, the whole paradigm is shattered.

But this cannot be so according to Trinitarians, because the Father and the Son AS SPIRITS (and NOT as flesh) are both eternal, whether either one of them manifest themselves in flesh or not as Jesus did. By Trinitarian doctrine, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit originate from the same spirit source, being the logos or “the Word”, thus ensuring the oneness and indivisibility of the Godhead. Regardless of theologians’ attempts to get around this quandary by emphasizing distinctions in the Godhead, anti-trinitarians say they are hopelessly entangled in a series of contradictions.

The logical outcome of insisting that all three persons fully participate in the being of the other is what is labeled patripassianism—that is, the notion that God the Father suffered and died with Jesus the Son for the sins of the world.  This is what anti-trinitiarians think that trinitiarians believe, but this is simply NOT what they believe.

2.  How does Jesus’ resurrection fit the Trinitarian view of God?

The anti-trinitarians believe that the Trinitarian paradigm is further shattered by the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. They base this on the false notion that the Son is eternally generated by the father. However, the son is NOT eternally generated and existed at the beginning of all time:

Later, in Colossians 1:16-17, Paul makes it clear that Jesus is eternal, as part of the Godhead, and that He was involved in the creation of all things: “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” His intent was to provide clarity to the teaching that Jesus is eternal, is Creator, and is God, one with the Father and the Spirit (Genesis 1:1-2).
[Is Trinitarianism Biblical?  What exactly is Trinitarianism?; https://www.compellingtruth.org/trinitarianism.html]

Trinitarians insist on Christ’s resurrection as a life-giving spirit:

“And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual” (1 Corinthians 15:45-46 ).

They also insist that there is much confusion in terminology in the new Testament between “God the Father” and “Jesus the Son”:

One note that I should add, the term “God” is the usual New Testament term used of the Father. It is sometimes applied directly to Jesus (John 1:1, John 20:28, 2 Peter 1:1, Titus 2:13, Romans 9:5, Hebrews 1:6-8), but is most often applied to the Father. In the same way the term “Lord” is reserved mostly for Jesus in the New Testament although it can be used of the Father. Both terms can refer to people and things other than the one true God, but they are two of the primary titles for the one true God and when used in the New Testament are indications of Deity. I mention this here because many would look at the word “God” in this passage and assume it meant that only the Father was God, which is not the intention of anyone in the New Testament.
[The Trinity in the Resurrection, Theology on the Ground; SOURCE:  http://theologyontheground.com/the-trinity-in-the-resurrection/]

The Scriptures clearly reveal that the resurrected Christ is a separate and distinct entity from God the Father, as He now sits at the Father’s right hand. The apostle Peter said:

“Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul [His being] was not left in Hades [the grave], nor did His flesh see corruption.

“This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand . . .”’”
[Acts 2:29-34].

3.  Origin of “the Word”

What do the Scriptures reveal concerning the origin of the Son of God? Is the One who became the Son of God in the flesh a created being? If He is not a created being, how and when did He come into existence?

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostle John clearly explains the origin of “the Word” or, in Greek, “Logos”, the Being who became Jesus Christ. John 1:1  states,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

The three simple clauses here serve to illustrate the eternal existence of the Logos as opposed to a created being:

• In the first clause, “In the beginning was the Word,” the Greek term translated “was” is a “to be” verb having the sense of “existed.” The Logos existed “in the beginning,” an obvious allusion to Genesis 1:1. At the very beginning of creation, the Logos already existed.

• In the second clause, the same word for “was” is used to describe manner of existence in terms of a relationship. That is, the Logos was with God, showing Him to be distinct from God and at the same time in fellowship with God.

• The same verb for “was” is used in the third clause to help define the character or essence of the Logos—“and the Word [Logos] was God [Theos]” (Joel Green, Scot McKnight, Howard Marshall, editors, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, “Logos,” 1992, p. 483).

John clearly identifies two entities, the Word (Logos) and God (Theos). Furthermore, John forcefully proclaims that the Word was God (Theos). Moreover, he asserts that the Logos had a personal relationship with God. The chronology is emphasized in verses 1 and 2. That is, the Word who was “in the beginning” was also “with God.” The repetition in verse 2 of the fact that the Word, and none other, was with God in the beginning emphasizes His existence and relationship with God in eternity. Since God created all things through the Word, the Word did not come into existence as a creation of God. The Word already existed—He was already in existence at “the beginning” of creation.

If no other scriptures were available, the simplicity and force of these words make it clear that the Word is uncreated—coeternal with God (Theos).

John repeats the Logos’ role in creation in John 1:10 by asserting, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him . . .” The Greek word translated “was made” is egeneto, from the primary verb ginomai, meaning “to become, i.e. to come into existence, begin to be, receive being” (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament). Thus it was through the Word that the world came into existence.

But the most dramatic proof of the preexistence of the Logos is the declaration that the Logos was made flesh and dwelt with humankind (John 1:14). If the Logos had no preexistence, then God the Father merely created a new being to become the only begotten Son of God to die for the sins of the world. But as noted above in John 1:1 , the Word who existed coeternally with the Father is the One who became flesh.

4. The Logos identified in the book of Revelation

The book of Revelation is declared in the first verse to be a revelation God the Father gave to Jesus Christ for His servants. Jesus then sent it by an angel to the apostle John (Revelation 1:1). John’s salutation that follows is from God the Father, who is and was and is to come, and from Jesus Christ, the firstborn from the dead (Revelation 1:4-5).

After the salutation, John is given a vision of the Son of Man walking among seven golden candlesticks. This One declares that He is “the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last” (verses 10-17). Thus Jesus Christ equates His eternity with that of God the Father. These passages clearly parallel the “I AM” declaration of Jesus in John 8:58, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” Jesus thus irrefutably proclaims co-eternity with the Father.

Moreover, John is given a vision of Jesus Christ coming in glory as King of Kings and Lord of Lords: “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God” (Revelation 19:11-13 ).

Here the Father reveals to all the world that Jesus Christ is “The Word of God,” the same Being who was with God the Father in eternity. He is the One who emptied Himself of His glory and took on the form of flesh as Immanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23)—the incarnate Word who died for the sins of the world and who is now alive forevermore.

5. The Logos empties Himself of glory

The Father and the Logos determined that “the Word” would give up His glory so He could reconcile sinful humanity to God the Father and begin a new order of beings—that is, spirit-born sons of God through a resurrection from the dead.

As the apostle Paul proclaims, this plan of salvation existed before God created humankind. He writes of God “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began” (2 Timothy 1:9).

Thus the Word had to empty Himself of His glory and take on the form of flesh so sinful humanity could be reconciled to the Father, the Word then being returned to glory as the firstborn from the dead (Hebrews 2:9-10; Revelation 1:5). His becoming the firstborn from the dead shows that others will obviously follow (see also Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:10).

Paul makes it very clear that the eternal Logos gave up His glory and took on the form of a servant to act as our Savior. Paul writes of Him, as translated in the New King James Version: “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:6-8). So it was through the Logos being willing to give up His glory that He could take on the form of a man.

But, the skeptic may ask, do the above verses prove that the Logos existed with the Father? The key word is found in verse 6: “. . . being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.” The Greek word translated “being” is a form of huparcho, which means “to begin, to come forth, hence to be there, be ready, be at hand” (Thayer’s). Thus the Word was already in the form of God before taking on the form of a man.

Now, how could the Word exist in the form of God and not be God? If one accepts Paul’s assertion that He took on the form of a man, one must also accept that He existed in the form of God.

Furthermore, where some versions translate that He “did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,” the Greek for “robbery” is a form of harpagmos, meaning “a thing seized or to be seized” or, as some render it, “something to cling to” (New Living Translation). What this means is that He did not consider equality with God something to hold on to, but instead let it go—voluntarily relinquished it—when He emptied Himself of His former glory.

Clearly this means that equality with God was something the Word already had. And His giving up of His glory is the greatest act of servant leadership the world has ever witnessed. Moreover, His willingness to give up the glory He shared with God the Father is one of the principal reasons the Father has exalted Him and placed Him over all things (Ephesians 1:20-22).

6. Christ’s testimony of glory He shared with the Father

Before giving His life for the sins of the world, He asked the Father to restore to Him the glory He had with the Father before the world existed (John 17:5). The force of this request in the Greek language is undeniable. Before the “world” (a form of the Greek kosmos, meaning the arrangement of the universe) “was” (Greek einai, referring to existence), Christ shared this glory with the Father. Any attempt to dismiss this as only prophetic as to what would happen after Jesus’ resurrection is not in keeping with Christ’s clear words.

Why would Jesus Christ ask the Father to restore something He had with the Father before the world was if He never experienced it in the first place? If He had never experienced this glory, it seems He would have asked the Father to glorify Him with a different glory, rather than the glory He previously had with the Father.

Clearly the preexistence of Christ is affirmed in this verse. It is clear from the Scriptures that Christ came to the earth and gave up that glory He had with the Father. But following the end of His human life, Jesus, who died for the sins of the world, was raised from the dead—glorified—and now sits at the right hand of the Father, restored to His former glorious existence.

So the fact that Christ was glorified at the resurrection in no way contradicts the understanding that the Word previously existed in a glorious, divine state before He came to the earth. As Paul explained in Philippians 2, the Word had already existed in glory before He emptied himself of His glory and took on the form of a man.

In the flesh He was divine in the sense that He was the same One who had always existed before His incarnation, still having His divine identity as the Word. He was also the monogenes—the unique Son of God (John 1:14; John 1:18; John 3:16; John 3:18), begotten of the Father and filled with the Holy Spirit, having the same perfect righteous character of God. In His humility He took on the form of a man so He could die for the sins of the world and usher in a new order of beings through becoming the firstborn of the dead when the Father raised Him from the dead.

So we see that through God’s love, grace and mercy the Trinitarian model of a closed system is shattered by God’s great purpose for creating humankind. God the Father and Jesus Christ offer us eternal life in the glorious Kingdom of God. We can share in the glory of the Father and Son in the Kingdom of God, transformed into glorious radiant spirit beings like them—being now, in the words of Romans 8:17

7. Anti-Trinitarian definitions of GOD, SON, HOLY SPIRIT

[EDITORIAL NOTE:  This section was written by a member who is a Pastor more studied in theology than us.  We did not write this and do not take responsibility for what it says.]

I do not claim to be “anti-trinitarian”. Let the word speak for itself, which would most accurately be my “labeled” monotheist, even though this label is not in scripture.  The persons within the godhead are defined as follows:

1. God= The Father, The Holy Spirit, The Creator, Elohim, El Shaddai, Eternal One, “Commander in Chief” The Giver of His spirit gift, Jehovah __________
2. Jesus= The Christ, The Son of God, only begotten, Messiah, “the Word made flesh”, The Man, “second in command”, MEDIATOR (bridge) between God and Men, the head of the Body of Believers, The complete Passover, the Lamb of God, The Chief Cornerstone, the redeeming Seed of Abraham, the Red Thread throughout Scripture, My Lord and Saviour, of the tribe of Judah, my personal Master, seated at the right hand of God.
3. Holy Spirit= GREEK: (Pneuma Hagion), perhaps the most heavily tampered with words in our current translations. God is The Holy Spirit, He gave His gift OF holy spirit starting on the day of Pentecost with the apostles. The Holy Spirit gives His gift of holy spirit to all who confess and believe in His Son Jesus The Christ. The Holy Spirit is just another name for God, not a separate entity. God is Spirit, God is Holy, therefore God is Holy Spirit. Really one can not read more into it than that.

THAT IS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE BORN AGAIN!!!!!!!!!! BODY, SOUL, SPIRIT COMPLETE MAN A NEW CREATURE(CREATION)

There were no capitalization distinctions of the greek words PNEUMA HAGION therefore all translations of HOLY SPIRIT, HOLY GHOST, WIND etc.. whether capital or uncapital are PRIVATE INTERPRETATION. So in order to get the meaning of the usages of PNEUMA HAGION in the new testament, what does one do? RESEARCH CONTEXT and CRITICAL GREEK TEXTS to start. Just go through the book of Acts with this understanding and it should be easy to see just what the holy spirit is(God or gift). Acts shows the start of the “Body of Christ”.

Undoubtedly a requirement to believe in the three-in-one God personas will not change unless one believes why it would need to be changed. I do not believe in the three-in-one. This became clear to me by studying the greek words PNEUMA HAGION. I spent hours and hours researching the book of Acts, Romans, Pentecost, transition of John’s ministry, PNEUMA HAGION usages, V.P.W., E.W. Bullinger works, Eastern Orientalisms, to name a few. Right in the beginning of Acts it literally declares the transition.

Acts 1:5

For John truly baptized with water; BUT ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost (pneuma hagion-gift of holy spirit) not many days hence.

Acts 1:5

In Acts people were still baptized with water, but only because of their believing it was needed. Water baptism is not mandatory now that Christ Fulfilled the Law.

I heavily exhort anyone who seeks to prove the trinity true/false to read the book of Acts with this understanding of the words PNEUMA HAGION, which almost always means GOD THE GIVER, or HIS GIFT OF HOLY SPIRIT. God is The Holy Spirit. God gives His gift of holy spirit. It really is so simple when you read it this way regardless of what pneuma hagion may be translated to in the English. Most people have received the gift of holy spirit only they don’t understand just what that means.

After Jesus Christ was raised and fulfilled the Law, being born-again of spirit within became available. All the prophets only had spirit upon conditioned. Then came John the Baptist.  John the Baptist was the only man ever born with spirit within at birth, and I believe this is because he was to baptize Jesus called Christ so that Christ may fulfill the Law for everyone else to have spirit within. John truly was a special Man of God. Well did Jesus Christ let the Baptist down? NAY. Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law!!!! WOOO HOOOOO!!!!!! Now, all who confess and believe on the name of Jesus Christ are baptized in holy spirit. A new creation. Sealed up until the Return. Body-Soul-Spirit. Formed-Made-Created.

Books of reference regarding Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost (gr. Pneuma Hagion) usages:

1. Jesus Christ is not God, Victor Paul Wierwille
2. Receiving the Holy Spirit Today, Victor Paul Wierwille
3. The Giver and His Gifts, E.W. Bullinger

I will state that E.W. Bullinger believed in the three persons of god doctrine, but it was told by his family that he renounced it close before dying. To be honest I do not believe his work would have even made it to print had he not been a “trinitarian”, in London he would have faced much persecution. That is my speculation, he was probably battling the same challenges of translation we face. Even Bullinger did not hide the truth about words/verses that were added in translation.. I truly believe the Christ denying religious leaders of the first century created the trinity doctrine to continue to reject the Messiah as they did when he was literally alive here on earth and they killed him. Make Jesus to be God means there is no doctrinal problem to believe in him because technically the Messiah has not come yet. It really is disheartening but these truths need to be addressed if we seek any hope for future biblical accuracy. I for one am tired of seeing endless translations of Gods Word open to endless speculation. If we believe it truly is Gods Word to mankind, then there can not be private interpretations. His Word is living and energetic. His Word is His Son. His Word is written in the stars. His Word is written on the hearts of those who believe it.

The word that speaks to me regarding God’s absolute oneness:

• Galatians 3:19-20
• 1 Timothy 2:5
• Hebrews 8:6
• 1 Peter 3:22

Perhaps most significant to establish God-head over all is:
1 Corinthians 15:28.

8.  Summary and Application

Let us quickly review what we have seen:

1. The Trinity is not belief in three gods. There is only one God, and we must never stray from this.
2. This one God exists as three Persons.
3. The three Persons are not each part of God, but are each fully God and equally God. Within God’s one undivided being there is an “unfolding” into three interpersonal relationships such that there are three Persons. The distinctions within the Godhead are not distinctions of his essence and neither are they something added onto his essence, but they are the unfolding of God’s one, undivided being into three interpersonal relationships such that there are three real Persons.
4. God is not one person who took three consecutive roles. That is the heresy of modalism. The Father did not become the Son and then the Holy Spirit. Instead, there have always been and always will be three distinct persons in the Godhead.
5. The Trinity is not a contradiction because God is not three in the same way that he is one. God is one in essence, three in Person.

The Trinity is first of all important because God is important. To understand more fully what God is like is a way of honoring God. Further, we should allow the fact that God is triune to deepen our worship. We exist to worship God. And God seeks people to worship him “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Therefore, we must always endeavor to deepen our worship of God — in truth as well as in our hearts.

9.  Further Reading

1. Is the Trinity a Contradiction?: Ultimately with R.C. Sproul (OFFSITE LINK)
2. Old Testament Theology, Form #17.006, Chapter 6,  Pastor Brook Stockton
   https://sedm.org/Forms/17-Theology/OldTestamentTheology.pdf
3. Wikipedia:  Trinity
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity
4. Wikipedia: First Council of Nicaea
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea
5. What is the Doctrine of the Trinity?-Desiring God
   https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-is-the-doctrine-of-the-trinity
6. Is Trinitarianism biblical?  What exactly is Trinitarianism?-Compelling Truth
   https://www.compellingtruth.org/trinitarianism.html