Oneness Theology does not deny God’s plural manifestations as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit but we refuse to add to God’s Words by saying that these three manifestations of the one true God are three separate and distinct coequal and coeternal Divine Spirit Persons.
The scriptures state that Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God but nowhere does the scripture declare that these manifestations of the One True God are two other separate divine persons who share coequal power with God the Father.
The scriptures provide sufficient evidence to prove that Jesus is God the Father’s mode or manifestational existence as a man and the Holy Spirit is the manifestation of the One Divine Spirit of God the Father. Yahweh God says in Joel 2:17,28: “And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Yahweh your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed … And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh …” Notice that Yahweh our God is the speaker in verse 17. Then in verse 28 Yahweh God goes on to say, “I will pour out MY SPIRIT upon all flesh.”
Since God the Father is clearly the One who says that the Holy Spirit is “My Spirit” then how can we say that the Holy Spirit is a third divine person of a three person deity? Trinitarians who follow the Catholic Creeds are forced to add too and detract from the Word of God by declaring that the Spirit of God the Father is a third divine person of a three person deity rather than accepting the plain scriptural fact that the Holy Spirit is the One Spirit of God the Father. “And Yahweh said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man …” Genesis 6:3 The Bible never says that the Holy Spirit or Spirit of God is another divine person of a three person deity, nor does the Bible ever list any instances of an alleged third divine person called the Holy Spirit ever communicating with the Father or the Son.
If all three divine persons are coequal in power and authority one would think that Jesus would have commonly prayed to the alleged third divine person called the Holy Spirit rather than just praying to the Father alone. A Trinitarian can search the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation without finding a single verse of scripture showing God the Father and the Holy Spirit communicating with each other.
Nor can a Trinitarian point to a single verse of scripture where Jesus ever prayed, “O Heavenly Holy Spirit?” If all three alleged divine persons are really three coequal persons then why is it that Jesus always prayed to the Father? And if the Son of God has always existed as a separate and distinct divine person apart from the Father from eternity past then why do we not find the Father and Son ever communicating with each other prior to the Son’s birth?
Since Trinitarian language is completely absent from the Bible then why do most professing Christians and Christian denominations believe in such a doctrine? The Bible provides us with the answer: Revelation 12:9 states that Satan “deceives the whole world.” And 2 Corinthians 4:3 clearly states that Satan has power to blind people from seeing the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the very image of the invisible God: “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
The scriptures prove that the Holy Spirit of God is the same Spirit of the One Spirit of God the Father. Note that Ephesians 4:4 clearly states that there is only “ONE SPIRIT” of God the FATHER “WHO IS ABOVE ALL, AND THROUGH ALL, AND IN YOU ALL.”
“There is one body, and One Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Notice that the one Spirit of God is the one true Lord who is the One God and Father of us all. If therefore there is only One Spirit of God then how can there be two other divine persons who have no Spirits of their own?
The Bible plainly states that Jesus is the Holy Spirit of truth rather than a third divine spirit person: “Even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him; but you know him: for he dwells with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you as orphans: I will come to you.” John 14:17,18
2 Corinthians 3:17 further reveals that the Lord Jesus is that One Spirit of Yahweh: “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
In Romans 8:9 the apostle Paul spoke of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ interchangeably: “But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”
Paul calls the Spirit of God the Spirit of Christ. Can we really believe that the Spirit of God the Father is a separate and distinct Spirit from the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Christ? The Bible clearly teaches that there is only One Spirit who is the One God and Father, who is “above all, and through all, and in you all.”
THERE IS ONLY ONE SPIRIT OF GOD
Trinitarians cannot give us a single verse of scripture stating that there are two or three different Spirits of God. Can anyone provide a single verse of scripture stating, “There is One Lord, one faith, and three Spirits?” Can anyone find a single verse of scripture stating that our God is three Spirit persons of a trinity who share three coequal thrones? Jesus clearly stated in John 4:24: “God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.”
Since “God is a Spirit” and since Ephesians 4:4 proves that there is only “One Spirit” of the Lord we must believe that God is One Divine Spirit Person rather than three divine Spirit Persons of a trinity. If God was a trinity of three divine persons then each person must have his own individual Spirit. If not, then that alleged divine person could not be a separate and distinct person at all. For how can a person be a person without having his own spirit? Since the Bible is silent about three divine Spirits of God then we must also
be silent about the whole idea of three divine persons called God. If we insist on calling God three divine Spirit persons then we are adding to the Word of God. Proverb 30:6 commands us not to add unto God’s Words, lest we be found liars. Revelation chapter twenty one verse eight warns us that all liars shall go to the lake of fire.
Those who believe in a trinity of three divine persons are adding to God’s Word. When we add to God’s Word we are in reality saying that God did not do a sufficient job for us through His holy apostles and prophets. Therefore they feel compelled to add to God’s Word by putting words into God’s mouth that He never said in order to get the right doctrine. But if God really wanted us to believe that He was three coequal and coeternal divine spirit persons of a three person deity then He certainly would have clearly spelled it out for us in the Bible through His holy apostles and prophets. Since God never said he was a trinity of three divine spirit persons then we must not add to God’s Word by putting words into His mouth that He never said.
When God created man after His own spiritual image He proved the absolute Oneness of His Being! Genesis 1:27 proves that man is made after the spiritual image of God Himself: “So God created man in His own Image, in the image of God created He him: male and female created He them.” Since man is made after God’s own Spirit image and man is only one in his spiritual essence of being, so God has to be One in the Spiritual Essence of His Being. Adam was created with one spirit as one person.
Therefore God must be One Spirit as One Person. The difference between a human spirit and God’s Spirit is that the spirit of finite man is confined to live and speak in only one geographical locale at a time while the infinite Spirit of God can speak and act in many different places because He is everywhere present all at once.
Oneness Theologians understand that God’s omnipresence gives credence to God’s plural manifestations or plural modes of existence of Himself in different geographical localities all at the same time. Genesis 19:24 proves that Yahweh’s presence and power can operate both in heaven and on earth at once: “Then Yahweh rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven.”
Some Trinitarians might claim that we have two Yahweh God’s out of this scripture. But a proper understanding of Yahweh God’s omnipresence [God’s Spirit being everywhere present] helps us to understand how Yahweh can exist, speak, and act in more than one location at once. Yahweh God said in Jeremiah 23:24: “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Says Yahweh. Do not I fill heaven and earth?
Says Yahweh?” Since Yahweh God the Father’s Spirit fills heaven and earth as the One Spirit of God “who is above all, through all, and in” us all (Ephesians 4:4), He can manifest His power and presence whenever and wherever He wishes in manifold places all at once. Although God is One Spirit, He can become Emmanuel [God with us] as a man while continuing to fill heaven and earth as the divine Spirit of Yahweh. Therefore God can speak, move, and act in different manifestations simultaneously.
God clearly created the earth and every living thing all alone and by Himself through His own Spirit and through His own Word. Just as a man’s spirit and a man’s word could not be more than one individual person so God’s Spirit and His Word could not be more than ONE divine individual person. “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And THE SPIRITOF GOD moved upon the face of the waters. AND GOD SAID, Let there be light: and there was light.” Genesis
1:2-3 “By the Word of Yahweh were the heavens made: and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” Psalm 33:6 “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” John 1:1 “And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us …” John 1:14 Since Jesus is the word of God’s own mouth He could not be another separate and distinct divine person apart from God the Father. Therefore the Word of God and the Spirit of God belongs to God the Father just like the word and spirit of a man belongs to a man.