Life

The Anglican  Church, also known in America as the Protestant Episcopal Church, have their 39 Articles of Religion or Articles of Faith. Article number 6 talks of the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for salvation. It reads, inter alia : “Holy Scriptures containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not therein, nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.”

I have cited this article to show my readers that whatever cannot be found in, or proved from, the Holy Scriptures must be rejected by every true Christian.

Let us apply this rule to the Nicaean Creed of 381 AD where the Holy Spirit is called “the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets”.

According to the Trinitarian doctrine, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. “He” is said to be God, separate and distinct from the Father and the Son. These “three persons” are said to be coequal and coeternal Gods. Each of them is said to be Lord, Almighty, incomprehensible, God.

Line 25 of the Athanasian Creed defines the coequality and coeternity of the “three persons” or “Gods” by saying, “And in this Trinity none is afore [before] or after another; none is greater or less than another”.

I have searched the Bible and found that the Father is the only God (John 5:44). He is the only true God (John 17:3). He is called the Father of all being (Eph. 4:6) because all beings derived their lives from the life which is in Him (John 5:26). He is therefore the sole giver of life. He gave life to all others through His only begotten Son (John 1: 1-3; 1 Cor. 8:6; Heb. 1:2; Col. 1: 15-18; 1 Cor. 15:45). This means that the Father made His only begotten Son a secondary giver of Life. See also Gen. 2:7; Psalm 104: 24-30; Acts 17: 24-25. Nowhere has the Bible mentioned a “third” giver of life to creation.

So, we ask, where did Emperor Theodosius I and his 150 servile bishops get the idea that the holy Spirit of God is a “third” God or a “giver of life”?

I suppose it came from their lack of insight into the scriptures. I believe the men who gathered at the First Council of Constantinople in AD 381 were swept off course by the rhetorical speeches made by three of the delegates now known as the Three Cappadocian Fathers. The submission made by the three men deified the Holy Spirit. Their elevation of the Spirit of God to the pedestal of a third God was viewed by some 36 delegates from Armenia Minor as unbiblical and false.  The 36 bishops who knew the truth argued against the Cappadocian rhetorical conjecture but  they were overruled by the presiding Emperor Theodosius I and the other bishops. These 36 bishops whom they maligned by calling them the Pneumatomachi [ or opposers of the Spirit] were left with no option but to stage a walk out in the early days of the First Council of Constantinople. That was the Ecumenical Council in which the greatest and most popular dogma in Christendom was birthed.

Misunderstood Scriptures

Most false doctrines come from scriptures which men have misinterpreted because they did not understand them. Men have twisted many scriptures to make them say things that are quite different from their true meaning (2 Peter 3:15-16). The men who postulated the Trinitarian doctrine cannot be exonerated of the distortion of scriptures.

There are two scriptures which the Trinitarians possibly misunderstood and made them say that their third person of the Trinity “is a Giver of life”. They are Job 33:4 and 2 Corinthians 3:6; But none of these verses say that there is a “third person” or “third God” who is a giver of life. In fact, the Bible has not taught the false doctrine of the holy Spirit of God being another God, separate and distinct from God and His Son.

In Job 33:4, Elihu said, “the spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”

The Book of Job is one in which Hebraic parallelisms are so much used. By Hebraic parallelism we mean the style of poetry in the ancient Hebrew language where words are repeated by the use of similar words or synonyms in order to achieve emphasis. An example is the use of “God” and “Almighty” – which occurred 31 times in Job. In this verse, “Spirit of God” and “breath of the Almighty” are parallelism used by Elihu to mean the same thing. He was evidently making allusion in this verse to the way man was created by God, when God breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living being (Gen. 2:7).

The KJV’s literal translation of Job 27:3,4 reads: “All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; my lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.” The Hebrew word ruakh was correctly translated as “spirit” in the KJV. We therefore see part of the verse saying “the spirit of God is in my nostrils”. Without doubt, we know that the breath of God is what flows in our nostrils and that is what is interchangeably called “breath” (Heb: neshamah) and “spirit” (Heb: ruakh)  in Job 27:3.

If you check up the NKJV, GWT and HCSB, for example, you will observe that the word “breath” is used twice in that verse. It means that we are physically alive as long as the breath which God put in us is still flowing through our nostrils.

In a nutshell, the “Spirit of God” and the “breath of the Almighty” are interchangeably used in Job 27:3 and 33:4 to refer to the breath which God puts in man. When God takes away this breath from anyone, he dies (Ps. 104:29).

If therefore, the inventors of the Trinitarian theology understood the phrase “the Spirit of God has made me” in Job 33:4 to mean that there is a third giver of life beside God and His Son, they were and remain wrong.

The second passage that possibly gave the fourth century church fathers the notion of the Spirit of God being a giver of life is 2 Corinthians 3:6. Verses 5 and 6 reads: “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life” (ESV, emphases added throughout).

Is the spirit which gives life in this passage the “third person of the Holy Trinity”? The truth is that, as far as the Bible has revealed, there is no third divine person. The holy Spirit of God is the Spirit of God. It is a part of God and it is the means through which God does all His divine works in all of His creation. That is why it is variously  called “power from on high,” the “finger of God,” the “hand of God,” “the eyes of the LORD”, etc. and that is why no one in the Bible ever thanked, praised or worshipped the holy Spirit of God or, for short, the Holy Spirit.

Christians should not forget that God is a Spirit Being (John 4:24). His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ was also a Spirit Being before His incarnation (John 3:6) but He became flesh so as to redeem mankind back to God (John 1:14; Heb. 2:14-17).

What Apostle Paul referred to as “the letter” in the passage under reference is the Old Testament law which does not impart life. But “the spirit” is the Lord, Jesus Christ and He is the one who imparts life to those who are in religion. He is the one called “the Spirit” in 2 Cor. 3:6. Apostle Paul made this clear in verse 17 when he wrote, “Now, the Lord [that is, Jesus Christ] is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord [that is, the Holy Spirit] is, there is liberty (NKJV).

For the avoidance of doubt, 1 Cor. 15:45 says, “The scriptures tell us, ‘The first’ man, Adam, became a living person. But the last Adam – that is, Christ – is a life giving spirit.” (NLT).

Conclusively, we say that the teaching of the Trinitarians that God’s holy Spirit [which is within God and forms a part of Him (1 Cor. 2:11)] is another God, distinct from, and coequal with, God has no foundation in the Holy Scriptures. The postulators of the Trinitarian doctrine did nothing good in Constantinople except that they tried to make the Christian faith conform to the pagan triune beliefs of ancient Egypt, Babylon and others. History, logic and the Bible have, in many ways flawed their theology which they imported from other polytheistic religions and Neoplatonic philosophy.  

There Are Only Two Divine Persons

It is evidently clear form the Bible that there are only two divine Persons – God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Here, I cite a few passages which affirm this fact:

• Only the two of them are called God (Ps. 45:6,7; Heb. 1:8,9; Isa. 9:6; John 20:17; 1 Cor. 8:6). Nowhere is the Holy Spirit called God.
• God has granted some people the privilege of having theophanies of the Throne Room in heaven:
• Daniel saw the Ancient of Days [God] and the Son of Man [Jesus Christ] (Dan. 7:9-14).
• Stephen saw God and the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 7:55-56).
• The writer of the Book of Hebrews saw angels, saints, God and Jesus Christ ( Heb. 12:22-24).
• Apostle John saw the one who sits on the throne (God),  the Lamb (Jesus Christ), the 24 elders and the four living beings (Rev. 4:1-5:10).

In all of these visions, the third person of the Trinity is not seen.

• The kingdom of God will be owned and ruled by only God and His Son (Eph. 5:5; Rev. 3:12; 11:15; 21:22, 23).
• God and His Son are the only ones who can give life to others because they have life in themselves (John 5:21,25,26).
• Only God and Christ have been worshipped in the Bible (Heb. 1:6; Rev. 4:8-11; 5:8-14; 7:11,12; 11:15-18; 19:4). There is no single record found in the Bible where the Holy Spirit has been thanked, praised or worshipped.
• Salvation is gained by believing in or knowing the Father and the Son (John 14:1; 17:3).
• We are to honour only the Father and the Son (John 5:23).
• We have fellowship with only the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3). We do not have fellowship with the Holy Spirit because it is not a literal, separate person from God. See my article on 2 Corinthians 13:14.
• No record is seen in the Bible of Jesus Christ, while on the earth, ever communicating with the Holy Spirit. But He was found talking with the Father.
• In all the epistles of the apostles, they always conveyed to their audience grace and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:1,7; 1 Cor. 1:1-3; 2 Cor. 1:1-3; Gal. 1:1-3; 2 Pet. 1:1-2; Jam. 1:1; 2 John 1:1-3; etc.).  There is no single instance they pronounced grace and peace in the name of the Holy Spirit.
• The Holy Spirit has been called the hand or finger of God (1 King 18:46; 2 King 3:15; Ezra 7:28; Ps. 139:7,10; Ezek. 1:3; 3:14, 22; 8:1; 37:1 (compare Acts 8:39); Luke 11:20 ( compare Matt. 12:28); Exod. 8:19; 31:18). In all these and many other places the Spirit of God is anthropomorphically called the hand or finger of God because the Almighty God, being a non-physical Being, uses His divine and invisible breath also known as the Holy Spirit to do all His divine works – healing, delivering, tugging, empowering, sanctifying, dividing the Red sea, fighting His battles, raising the dead, etc. The fact that the Holy Spirit is a part of God is the principal reason no one thanked or worshipped the Holy Spirit in the Bible. No one gives thanks to a man’s hand no matter what is done with the hand; the thanks go to the owner of the hand. This is the truth about God’s Holy Spirit. It is a part of God. But the Son of God is a separate and distinct person from God. He is the only begotten Son of God. He inherited the God nature of the Father out of whom He came into being before the beginning.

The Holy Spirit Misunderstood

The Trinitarian dogma has done so much damage to the Christian faith such that many biblical passages on the  Holy Spirit are completely misunderstood. Hence,  whenever the Holy Spirit is said to perform a quasi function such as speaking, electing or restraining ,most Christians assume the Holy Spirit is a separate, literal personality. This idea of the Holy Spirit is erroneous.

We must bear in mind that the Spirit of God in the New Testament is not different from God’s Spirit in the Old Testament. We must also note that prophecy did not end in the Old Testament. Many of Christ’s disciples, including Peter and Paul had the gift of prophecy. They were therefore prophets as well as being apostles. Many of the disciples had more than one gift of the Holy Spirit. See 1 Cor. 12:28; 14:29-37; Eph. 4:11-14.

In the New Testament, when God spoke directly from heaven, the message was attributed to no other being than God (Matt. 17:5, 2 Peter. 1:17). And when Jesus Christ spoke from heaven to Saul (Paul), He identified Himself as Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 9:4,5; 22:7.8). In these two cases, there was no doubt as to the personality that was giving the message.

However, whenever a message is sent to New Testament saints through the lips of a prophet(s), the message is often attributed to the Holy Spirit because it was delivered through the holy Spirit of God dwelling in the prophet. The use of phrases such as “the Holy Spirit said” does not mean there is a third literal person besides God or Christ doing the talking. Two examples are given below:

• In Acts 13:1-2, we read the following:

“Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’” (ESV).

The phrase, “the work to which I have called them” should be noted. Prior to this time, who was the one that called these men to the work of preaching the good news to the then world? It was none else but Jesus. Although the time when Barnabas was called is not recorded, that of Saul (Paul)  is clearly seen in Acts 9. There, Jesus Christ told Paul to “rise and enter the city [Damascus], and you will be told what you are to do” (Verse 6). The Lord Jesus Christ later instructed one of His disciples by name Ananias who was living in Damascus to lay his hands on Paul so that he might regain his sight. The Lord also commanded Ananias to “go, for he [Paul]  is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:12, 15, ESV).

These scriptures have clearly shown that the one who called Barnabas and Saul (Paul) to the apostolic ministry was Jesus Christ. Here in Acts 13:2, the call was attributed to the Holy Spirit because the declaration was made by Christ using His spirit of prophecy in one or more of the brethren that were having fellowship in the Antiochan church.

Apostle Paul himself later made many references to his call to the apostolic ministry. In almost all his epistles, he testified to the fact that he was called by Jesus Christ Himself. Here, I cite one of such testimonies.

“This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead” (Gal. 1:1, NLT) . See also Rom. 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; etc.

The allusion of the command in Acts 13:2 to the Holy Spirit does not necessarily ascribe literal and separate personality to God’s holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the spirit or breath of God which the Omnipotent and Omniscient God supernaturally transmits into the universe to do all His works. This same spirit is in Jesus Christ (Isa. 42:1-4; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:11). God’s Spirit is not a separate, literal, person from God (1 Cor. 2:11).

• The second example is found in Acts 20:28 which reads as follows:

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (ESV).

This verse forms part of Paul’s message to the elders of the church in Ephesus. His speech runs from verses 18 to 35. In verse 28, he reminded them that it was the Holy Spirit who appointed them as leaders to shepherd the flock in Ephesus. He also said that the Holy Spirit purchased the church, that is the saints, with His own blood.

Who is the one referred to as the Holy Spirit is verse 28? Is it God, the Father of all beings? Or is it the one the Trinitarians call “the third person of the Trinity” or “God the Holy Spirit”? It cannot be. God is Spirit. So, He has no blood. Neither does His Spirit has any blood. Blood is found only in flesh (Lev. 17:10-14). Spirits do not have flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). Therefore, Spirits do not have blood, since blood is the life giving agent of the flesh.

Evidently, the one referred to as the Holy Spirit in Acts 20:28 is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the life-giving Spirit who became flesh in order to shed His blood to atone for the sins of mankind (John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45). Paul referred to Him as the Holy Spirit because all the elders were appointed by Christ through His Spirit that used the lips of prophets in the church to pronounce who and who were appointed  as elders.

In all the passages where the Holy Spirit is said to speak (e.g. Acts 20:23; 21:11; 28:25) or forbid the apostles from preaching in Asia (Acts 16:6), it is evident from many other passages that Luke was not writing that there is a third literal divine Person or God. The Holy Spirit is that divine breath of God that dwells inside of God’s children through which He empowers, guides, leads, sanctifies, heals, teaches, encourages, etc., them. It is by means of the Holy Spirit that God puts His holy character, presence and power in us. In most of the cases, it is that divine inspiration of God upon the prophet and the force that triggers his tongue to voice out the inspiration. We can liken the Holy Spirit to the electrical current that powers our electrical appliances. No one fools himself by saying that the electrical power is an Electric Power Plant or a Generator on its own. So too, the Holy Spirit is not a “third” person separate from God or Jesus Christ. God and Christ dwell in us by means of their one and the same Spirit living in us (John 14:17; Rom. 8:9-16; 1 Cor. 3:16).

On the face of the English versions of the Bible, it is easy to come to the erroneous conclusion that God’s holy Spirit is another literal being. The formulators of the Trinitarian doctrine fell into this pit. But if anyone has the grace of applying the  rules of Bible interpretation such as analogia scripturae [or analogy of scriptures] which entails comparing scripture with scripture in order to get the correct interpretation of scriptures, which are either unclear or ambiguous in some place, but are made clearer or explained in some other places, much of false interpretation of scriptures will be avoided by him.

Acts 5:3-4 Wrongly Interpreted

Acts 5:3-4 is the only passage of the Bible which Trinitarians always use to prove their erroneous belief that the Holy Spirit is God. The passage reads:

“But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?  And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God’ (ESV).

Their reasoning is that since Peter said Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit in verse 3 and then said he has not lied to man but to God in verse 4, it means the one called the Holy Spirit in verse 3 is God. This is nothing but eisegesis – the faulty interpretation process whereby we read our own preconceptions, biases, agendas or our lack of understanding into a text or portion of text to make it say what was not in the mind of the author.

Did Apostle Peter say in this passage that God’s holy Spirit is another literal and distinct person or God? Let us reason from the scriptures.

There are some passages in the Old and New Testaments that are analoguos to this Acts 5:3-4. Briefly, we examine some of them :

• In 1 Samuel 8, we read of how the Israelites rejected Samuel because his two sons, Joel and Abijah, were corrupt. They told Samuel to appoint for them a king to rule over them. Samuel was displeased by their request and he took their request to God in prayer. God told Samuel to “listen to the voice of the people… for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being King over them” (1 Sam. 8:7, NASB).

The Israelites rejected Samuel but God said that He [God] was the One rejected by the Israelites. We know that Samuel was appointed by God to judge [that means rule over] the Israelites. Therefore, whoever rejected Samuel indirectly rejected God. But that does not make Samuel God. He was God’s servant.

• We read also in Exodus 16 what happened in the wilderness of Siyn which is between Elim and Sinai. The whole community of the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron (verses 2-3). These two servants of God took the case to God in prayer and God gave solution to the problem they had. Thereafter, Moses and Aaron addressed the people. Their speech is recorded in verses 6-12. I call attention to some parts of their speech which are: “He [God]  has heard your grumbling against the LORD. For what are we that you grumble against us?” (verse 7, ESV).  “the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him -what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD” (verse 8,ESV)

We all know that Moses and Aaron did not mean that they were the LORD. Evidently they were saying that as messengers of the LORD, who would not do anything different from what the LORD had instructed them, any grumbling against them amounted to grumbling against  the LORD [God]. (Note that many English versions use “LORD” in places where the Hebrew “YHWH” is used.)

• Jesus Christ said, “whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me” (Matt. 10:40, ESV). See also John 13:20.

No one will dare interpret this verse and say that Christ’s disciples are Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ is the Father who sent Him. But whoever rejects the message faithfully and truthfully delivered by any messenger of Christ rejects Christ Himself. And whoever rejects Christ’s message is a rejecter of God who sent Him.

Apostle Paul wrote a similar thing in 1 Thes. 4:1-8. There, he wrote that anyone who rejects the instructions and warnings we have given you on the need of Christians to live holy lives rejects not human beings but God who has given us His holy Spirit.

All these passages are directly similar to Acts 5:3-4. God’s spirit dwells in the lives of His true children and it is by means of His spirit that He leads, tugs, alerts, guides, etc, them. It was God’s Spirit in Peter that alerted him of the lie Ananias was telling. Peter simply said that inasmuch as Ananias had lied to God’s Spirit (within Peter), he has lied to God Himself. It does not in any way mean that God’s holy Spirit is itself God. The Bible has made it explicitly clear that God’s holy Spirit is within God and, therefore is a part of God (Luke 11:20; 1Cor.2:11). Nowhere does the Bible teach that God’s spirit is a separate, literal person or God. The Holy Spirit is part of God and it carries the awesome power of God in it (Acts 1:8; 10:38).

The Personality or Godhood of the Holy Spirit is one of the most fatuous lies ever sold to Christendom. And permit me to say that its acceptance by a greater majority of Christians is one thing that shows most of us are uninformed, gullible, and irrational about their belief. In fact, it shows that most Christians don’t do diligent searches to confirm what men teach to them. If they do, they will not accept the unbiblical Trinitarian dogma. There are, however, those who do  thorough studies of the Scriptures but have been blinded by denominational indoctrinations during their childhood life such that the truth in the Bible is veiled from them. Many Christian there are who are suffering from denominational delusions. Their minds have been closed from seeing the real things in the Bible.

Trinitarians say that the Holy Spirit is God yet we have not seen a single biblical instance where “he” or “she” is thanked, praised or worshipped. They say “he” is God yet in all the theophanies of God, no one has seen “him”. They say “he” is God but Jesus Christ never at any time said so. We hear them say the Holy Spirit is God, but the Bible says that God and Christ are the only co-owners and co-rulers of God’s kingdom (Eph. 5:5. Rev. 3:12; 7:10; 11:15; 14:4; 21:22,23; 22:1,3).

The fourth century contrivers of the Trinitarian dogma say the Holy Spirit is Lord and Giver of life. Nowhere in the Bible is this conjectured statement found, nor can it be proved from the Bible.

There are many theories in the Trinitarian theology that are totally at variance with biblical truth. That is why anyone who believes that the Bible contains the true and inspired word of God cannot be left with any other option than to reject the Trinitarian “tares” which Satan used the fourth century theological speculators to sow into Christian teaching. Without their knowing it, they made Almighty God similar to the triune gods of ancient Egypt where the three gods are father, mother and son. They unwittingly made the Holy Spirit God’s wife. But the Almighty Father who is both God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has no wife. He does not need a wife to be the Father of all creation, both in heaven and on earth.

If anyone is not a rejecter of truth, the passages cited in this article are only a few of the numerous biblical hard facts that the holy Spirit of God is not another God. Neither is it a literal person, separate and distinct from God and Christ. God and His Christ are the only two literal beings. The Father is God and the Son is Lord. A man’s spirit is not another person from the man. So too, God’s spirit is not another person or God (1 Cor. 2:11).

The Bible does not contain any shred of teaching that the one God is made up of three persons or Gods. Trinity is a false doctrine which should be rejected by Christians who have the Spirit of truth in them and who understand the teachings of the Bible.

The numerous Scriptures cited in this article have proved beyond all doubt that the holy Spirit of God is not a literal persons or God. God and His only begotten Son have been shown in the Bible to be the only two God Beings. And since there are not three God Beings, the word “trinity” does not hold true as far as the Bible has revealed. It is a false doctrine.

It is distressing to note that many Christians who have taught or imbibed false doctrines, which are freely flowing in our churches today, find it very hard to admit the truth that they have believed in what is false. The biggest and the most popular of the false doctrines in Christianity is, perhaps, the Trinitarian dogma.