Two Persons, One Spirit

Just a few notes here today about God and his Son Jesus Christ, and about the Spirit that indwells them both. There are two places in the scriptures where Jesus said that he and his Father are “one” (Jn. 10:30:; Jn. 17:21,22). In neither of these places did he say anything about the holy Ghost, so that begs the question, Why not? In both of these references Jesus also stated that he is “in the Father,” and that the Father “is in him” (Jn. 10:38; Jn. 17:21,23). And in the case of John 17 where Jesus asked the Father to make believers “one,” EVEN AS he and the Father are one, he also said that he would be “in” those who truly believe on him; and that that would be the unifying element that would make believers one in the same way he and the Father are one (Jn. 17:23). In order to get sound scriptural understanding of exactly what he was talking about, we need only move back three chapters to John 14, which in fact was the same night as John 17. Jesus was speaking to his disciples about how he would send back the holy Ghost to them after he left this world, and in reference to the day that would take place he said this: “At that day ye shall know that I am IN my Father, and ye IN me, and I IN you” (Jn. 14:20). The he went on to explain that by the same means both he and his Father would “make [their] abode” with a believer (Jn. 14:23). So it is clear that the holy Ghost is the unifying element between the Father and the Son, and between believers in Christ as well. The reason that Jesus did not mention the holy Ghost when he said that he and the Father are one, is because the holy Ghost is NOT a third person; but rather it is the eternal life that indwells both persons, meaning the Father and the Son. Jesus made it clear that his Father had given him the same life that first dwelt in him, and that he had come to make the way for us to have that life as well (Jn. 5:26; Jn. 10:10). And the apostle Paul plainly told us that that life is the holy Ghost, and also that the holy Ghost can make us free from sin: “For the law of the Spirit of LIFE in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2). The scripture in 1 Jn. 5:7 that seems to indicate that the holy Ghost is one of three persons in the God family in heaven, was in fact inserted by the early Catholic Church in order to support its erroneously invented “trinity” doctrine, as was the third person references of “he” that are ascribed to the holy Ghost in the book of John. The Greek word “pneuma” is the word used for “spirit” and “ghost” in every mention of God’s Spirit in the new testament, and pneuma is what is called a neuter noun in the Greek language. What that means is that the word “pneuma” cannot be used with either a masculine or feminine reference. Greek words that are used for masculine or feminine references must be words that are called masculine or feminine nouns. The proper Greek word for “pneuma” is simply “it,” because the holy Spirit of God is substance, not a person. Matthew 28:19, which mentions “the Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost,” was also a Catholic insertion that does not exist in the earliest known Greek manuscripts of the new testament writings.

The Catholic Church, which for centuries did not even allow people to have Bibles, must have overlooked John 10:30,38, John 14:20, and John 17:21-23. What I have not mentioned here is that these same scriptural references also erase the common Pentecostal “oneness” teaching, which is also known as “Jesus Only.” That erroneous doctrine states that Jesus is the only bodily manifestation of God, and that he is one God who operates in three offices; Father, Son, and holy Ghost of course. We as believers could not possibly be “one” the SAME WAY that the Father and the Son are one, if Jesus is the only one with a body. Why? Because we all obviously have our own separate bodies from one another, which means that the Father and the Son also have two separate bodies, being two separate persons who have the same divine life in them both. And if we receive the Spirit of God, and are taught by the Spirit and led by the Spirit, we will be “one” exactly like the Father and the Son are one. The apostle Paul clarified the simplicity of the true “oneness” that is in the Spirit for those who follow after the Spirit: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the SAME thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly JOINED together in the SAME mind and in the same judgment” (I Cor. 1:10). The same apostle explained in very short order that this is the same way we can be “one” with Jesus, and subsequently with his Father: “But he that is joined unto the Lord is ONE spirit” (I Cor. 6:17). So again we see that it is indeed the Spirit of God that makes us one with the Father and the Son when we receive it, and the apostle Paul made it crystal clear how we DO receive the holy Ghost and thereby get into Christ and become one with he and the Father: “For by one SPIRIT are we all BAPTIZED into one body [of Christ]” (I Cor. 12:13). Yet again the scripture shows us that the true oneness of God is through the holy Ghost, which is the eternal life substance that is in the Father and the Son. Another important footnote that the early Catholics must have overlooked, which also spells doom to both the Trinity and the Jesus Only schools of thought, is the salutations of the apostles who wrote the new testament epistles. Every single time that any of the apostles used an opening salutation with their letters, they always expressed that what they were writing was from both God the Father, and from his Son Jesus Christ. John may have been the clearest of all about this truth with his salutation in his second letter: “Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, AND from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son OF the Father, in truth and love” (II Jn. 1:3). So we see again in these salutations of the apostles, no mention of the holy Ghost when they stated who the greetings and letters were from; but only the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Not only so, but all of these salutations clearly show that they were speaking of two separate God persons in heaven, one being the Son of the other. I would say that the truth of the matter is unmistakable, at least if we believe the scriptures. Amen.

Original Post at By One Spirit Ministries Facebook page March 19, 2013