It has already been established that Jesus is the Father in his divine indwelling nature. It remains to be discovered if the scriptures identify Him as the Holy Spirit; what Trinitarians call the "third person of the Godhead."
Neo-Trinitarians have all but yielded this point to us "en toto." For in their theology there is only one divine Spirit. The idea of "three omnipresent divine Spirits" is classified by Boyd as "a very mistaken view of the Trinity." Each "person" of the Trinity is said to be:
This being true then, the Son of God, being Jesus Christ, is the exact same Spirit as the Holy Spirit. The Son and the Holy Spirit are the same Spirit! Neither can this conclusion be escape by claiming they have "separate minds" or "consciousnesses" or even "wills", for that is denounced also as incorrect and labeled as a...
What a dilemma! Jesus and the Holy Spirit are supposed to be distinct Persons, yet they are the same Spirit, the same mind and the same consciousness! This alone collapses the Trinity! It would be easier to raise the Titanic, then to get this thing floating again!
And yet after all that Dr. Boyd says the Oneness identification of Jesus with the Spirit is...
Yet, amazingly enough, as if to confirm this "suspicion" we read:
How can one "distinct person" be the presence of another "distinct person?" Can you be my presence? Can I be yours? Of course not! The presence of a Person indicates exactly that - the person is present, not a substitute. And why would the Holy Spirit have to be "the presence of Jesus"? According to their Perichoresis doctrine, wherever one person of the Trinity is, the other two are also "fully present". No need for a "substitute" presence if Christ Himself is present! Dr. Boyd now resorts to "transient illusion" for which he so often condemns Oneness advocates. Commenting on a discussion where Jesus plainly states he will be the Holy Spirit Comforter, (I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you - John 14:18), he writes:
Are we seriously asked to swallow this? I leave the room and say, "I'll be right back!" This is more than "transient illusion". This is maniacal delusion. What could be further from what Christ meant? We are being asked to believe that "I will come to you" really means "someone else will come to you."
It must be borne in mind that when Jesus says: "I will come to you" He is using the personal pronoun "I" to identify Himself with the Holy Spirit Comforter, thereby eliminating the possibility of any "personal" distinction between Himself and the Spirit. It is the equivalent of saying "I am the Holy Spirit." And yet we are accused of teaching a "secret identity". Where is the Secret?
Christ further identified Himself as the Holy Spirit Comforter in John 14:17.
The Spirit of Truth is a "he"; he is already "known" by the disciples, and "seen" by them; he is "dwelling" or living along with them at the time. Who else is this but Jesus Himself, whom they knew, saw, and with whom they dwelt? To forestall any misunderstanding the next statement is added:
Yet we are told it is:
No exegesis is necessary, "forced" or otherwise. All one has to do is read the passage. Its self evident!
Dr. Boyd says Christ and the Holy Spirit are not "one and the same" in every respect. Really? Then why does He teach that Christ and the Holy Spirit are the same Spirit, the same mind, the same consciousness, the same will, and the same presence, and completely indivisible, being the same substance!? Where are they distinct? The only thing that he seems to come up with is that the Holy Spirit is God existing in a "personally distinct way" whatever that is supposed to mean. It is never explained.
Again, demands are put on us, that the Trinitarians will not meet for themselves. For we are asked, by implication, to show where the Bible says "Jesus is the Holy Spirit" (Boyd, 125). I would like to be shown where the Bible says "The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead" or even "a personally distinct way in which God exists" or at least where he is called an "aspect", "fashion", or "mode of being". Like the Pharisees of old, "They laden men with burdens" and "touch not the burdens themselves" not even with a "finger" (Luke 11:46).
Just as in their request for a verse calling Jesus the Father (to which we happily consented), we also have what they demand in this case. Because when it comes to proving Jesus is the Holy Spirit, our "burden is light."
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:17:
What could possibly be more direct? Is there more than One Lord? Someone other than Christ? Of course not! ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM (Eph. 4:5). And if they are wondering who this Lord is referred to in 2 Corinthians 3:17, Paul clarifies it beyond dispute in the next chapter:
Now they have what they demanded of us: Jesus Christ is that Spirit! The Trinity has collapsed at this point, and they should admit it. But no, instead furious efforts get underway to divert the bulldozer effect of this verse on their shaky theory. The first thing they start with is a massive contradiction:
The only way this can be so is to deny that Jesus is Lord! And this he starts to do, as unbelievable as it sounds! He states:
We are now guilty of assuming that Jesus Christ is Lord! To this we gladly plea "guilty" as charged!
Now Dr. Boyd starts to get into "lords many and gods many," when he says:
and again...
In short Paul is distinguishing between "Lord" and "Lord". If I may borrow a of Dr. Boyd's "all this language is not only 'illusory' it seems blatantly nonsensical." I would not want the task of proving my doctrine by having to establish the existence of two distinct Lords! But what other choice do they have? What follows next (and it is hard to follow) is a discussion by Boyd which involves the Law, the Old Covenant, Moses' face, veil, eyes of the Israelites, freedom, glory, external legal authority, the heart, Covenants, and symbols. Hoping, I guess, he winds up back where Paul started, and the very point we're trying to prove:
And who is that Lord, if it is not the Lord Jesus Christ "the same Spirit", even the Holy Spirit!? He's the Lord who gave Moses the Law, the "Rock" who followed them in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:4,9; Heb. 12:24-26), and "The Lord is that Spirit!"
We are glibly informed that ...
Again he makes us a two verse religion. I take it he must consider all the other passages where Christ is identified with the Spirit as beyond dispute, for he only mentions 2 Cor. 3:17 which we just considered and Romans 8:9-11, which we shall now consider.
How myopic must be the spiritual eyes that cannot see the Oneness in this passage! Its more than we could have hoped for if we were writing the Bible ourselves! Believers are "in the Spirit" the supposed "third Person." But this "Spirit" is defined as the "Spirit of God," the supposed "first person," and the supposed "second person!" Then Paul closes the circle tightly by defining "Christ" as the "Spirit". Thus "Spirit," "Spirit of God," "Spirit of Christ" and "Christ" are not only used interchangeably, but more importantly, and what Dr. Boyd failed to mention, are used to define each other! Seeing Paul taught there is just One Spirit (Eph. 4:4), to which Neo-Trinitarians agree, then where is any room for distinct identities here!? All terms refer to the same Spirit, who is Christ!
In Colossians 1:27 Paul speaks of "Christ in you, the hope of glory," equating it with the One Spirit in us, and that Spirit is called Christ, then Christ is the One Spirit in us; or in other words, Jesus is the Holy Spirit. If language means anything it means this, otherwise what good are words. Dr. Boyd doesn't even cite Col. 1:27 - "Christ in you" - though it is a main proof of Christ's identity as the Holy Spirit. The choice is simple, Christians either have three distinct divine Spirits in them, or Christ is the Holy Spirit. There is no other alternative.
The last "gasp" of Trinitarian rebuttal is breathed out for us in the following argument:
He implies we cannot legitimately use this verse of scripture, even though inspired by the Holy Spirit, because it was written before the "polemics" of Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, etc. Written before the screaming matches, fist fights and murders that "ironed out" the truth for us! We must not rush in and take the inspired Paul too seriously, at least not until the Cappodocian Fathers and Augustine have clarified all this for us. For these scriptures of Paul have "no more significance" than simple simply revealing "how closely Paul 'associated' the Spirit with Jesus." But isn't that the revelation we are seeking? Only by denying the divine inspiration of Paul's writings could this argument have any weight! Trinitarians are willing to teeter on the brink of that modernistic view of scripture in order to escape Paul's "close" association of Christ with the Spirit; and "association" that is so close that Christ is said to be that Spirit! It is not merely "association" - it is identification! I'm sure if Paul had referred to the Holy Spirit as one of "God's distinct Personal ways of existing", or as a "fashion," "aspect" or "third person" Trinitarians would find it quite "legitimate" to use polemics or pre-polemics notwithstanding!
The New Testament teems in references to Christ as the Holy Spirit, most of which Dr. Boyd has ignored.
Paul refers to Jesus as a "Life giving" or quickening Spirit in 1 Cor 15:45:
When did this occur? When he ascended:
The ascended Christ is the Holy Spirit who fills all things!
Jesus referred to this ascending and being made a "life giving Spirit" in John 14:28:
This would be a cause of rejoicing to the disciples,
Why? Because, ...
(...i.e. returning to unlimited and unrestricted Spirit, the Father's original essence is omnipresent Spirit John 4:24). For he says:
(...Jesus coming to dwell in them by Spirit, or the Father, is much greater than his physical presence with them in the flesh as Son).
This does not mean that Jesus has "no physical body" up in Heaven. Of course not! But the body he has now is a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44).
He has a body, but now has a spiritual body. Christ first had a natural body, but now has a spiritual body (1 Cor 15:46). The spiritual body does not limit, restrict, or hamper him in any way. His spiritual omnipresence is now unimpeded by the flesh, therefore he can say:
Or...
This is the glorious New testament Truth of Christ as Holy Spirit. This is the "other comforter" which would abide with us forever (John 14:16); not a different Person, but Christ in Spirit, rather than flesh, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" (John 14:18). This is the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father (Christ's divine nature), as to source, and is therefore truly the Spirit of the Father and the Son (John 15:26). The coming of the Spirit to dwelling the believers is called the manifestation of Christ in John 14:21,
...and yet it is also the coming of the Father and the Son to dwell and abide, as in John 14:23. No contradiction - The Spirit of the Son is the Father, who is also known as the Holy Spirit.
One must not think that because Christ is now a "life giving Spirit" (1 Corinthians 15:45) that we will never be able to see Him. The following extract from Clarence Larkin's book, "The Spirit World," explains beautifully the nature of the spiritual body Christ now has. It is free from all flesh limitations but still is capable of appearance.
Mr. Larkin writes:
Oral Roberts, leading Trinitarian Pentecostal Evangelist, and founder of Oral Roberts University, is a distinguished scholar in his own right. He has produced a definition of the Holy Spirit which is theologically light-years in advance of His fellow-Trinitarians' understanding. He is to be commended for his intellectual honesty in setting it down in print. Although Dr. Roberts considers himself a Trinitarian, he definition of the Holy Spirit is in perfect agreement with Oneness theology. He is another example of the many "Trinitarians" who define themselves by that label, but in their "heart of hearts" (to use one of Dr. Boyd's terms) they are Oneness. Dr. Roberts writes the following:
Some may challenge the statement that the Holy Spirit is the Father. But by doing so they challenge the Bible record, for the angel told Joseph:
Jesus was begotten by the Holy Ghost. This makes the Holy Spirit the Father of Christ. Hence the Holy Spirit is the Father. It is all one Spirit (John 4:24). The angel said the same thing to Mary:
Because of the Holy Ghost overshadowing Mary, Christ is the Son of God. The Holy Ghost is the Father of the "Holy Thing" - "Christ the Lord". The Spirit is the Father in Matthew 10:20 is the Holy Ghost in Mark 13:11.
In the Book of Revelation (a book which has already revealed Jesus to us as the Father) Christ asserts his identity with the Spirit seven times in two Chapters (Revelation 2:7,11,17,29 and Revelation 3:6,13,22). Christ is the speaker exclusively throughout these two chapters, yet he says: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches." He is the Spirit that is speaking to the churches.
Christ is said to provide believers with a mouth of wisdom in times of persecution (Luke 21:15);
... yet in the parallel passage in Mark 13:11 he says it is the Holy Ghost who will do it.
Christ is the Spirit, or else Christians will be provided with two "distinct" attorneys for their court! Why would two be needed?
Romans 8:26 shows us the Spirit is our Intercessor.
Yet Hebrews 7:25 says respecting Christ:
We need but one intercessor, and we have him in Christ, who has come to us in his Spirit nature to make intercession with "groanings which cannot be uttered."
The Bible says in John that Christ will be the one to resurrect believers:
Jesus also said:
No question He is the Resurrecting Power. Yet the Bible says it is the Holy Spirit who will "quicken" or make alive the body of believers:
Trinitarians are ever confused as to what "person" of the Godhead shall raise them from the dead, the Second of the Third? But the Bible teaches that Christ became the Holy Spirit when He ascended,
Thus it is Jesus Christ in His Spirit nature that will quicken us.
The same thing holds true for sanctification. The Bible says we are sanctified by the Holy Ghost (Romans 15:16).
And Jude addresses His letter to ...
This is all reconciled when we realize that Christ's divine nature is the Holy Spirit, which is also called the Father. There is only One Spirit and it comes to us from the glorified Body of Christ in sanctification. Trinitarians teach that all "three divine persons" sanctify us. Why would it take three? Especially since sanctification means "set apart for God's use." Were we set apart, then reset apart, and then re-set apart? Besides Hebrews 2:11 knocks a hole in the "three sanctifiers theory" when it says:
What more is needed? It is the same over and over in the New Testament. the Holy Spirit is always traced back to Christ, even the Father, come to dwell in us as the Comforter. I don't think anyone could have expressed it better than William Phillips Hall did, a Trinitarian scholar, in his book Remarkable Biblical Discovery:
Contrast that beautiful and biblical description of the glorified Christ in His resurrection body, with the Holy Spirit emanating out from him, with this strange doctrine advanced by Barry Wood, a Trinitarian and graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Writing in his book, "Questions Non Christians Ask Today" he says on page 38 concerning the resurrection body of Christ:
To what lengths will men go - prehistoric, bodiless, absorbed Christ! All to avoid the Scriptural Oneness message, God was in Christ, and in All His Fullness ( 1 Timothy 3:16, Col. 2:9). And of the Fullness, we have all received (John 1:16). And that, dear reader, is the Holy Spirit!
How simpler and clear it is: the fullness of the Godhead (the Father) is in Christ (the Son) and of that fullness we have received (Holy Spirit). Jesus even gave a remarkable lesson after His resurrection to prove that not only was His Spirit the Holy Spirit, but he was the Only dispenser of it:
His breath is the Holy Spirit. Both in the Hebrew of the Old Testament (ruwach) and the Greek of the New Testament (pneuma) the word for "Spirit" is the same as "breath". Jesus' very breath, His Spirit, is the Holy Ghost. Will Trinitarians now attempt to prive a "personal distinction" between a man and his breath?! No wonder the Holy Spirit is called Christ (Col. 1:27), the Spirit of Christ (1 Pet 1:11), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), and the Spirit of the Son (Gal. 4:6).
We have now shown from the Bible that Jesus is the Father in his divine indwelling nature; the Son in his begotten manhood; and the Holy Spirit by emanation, or as Bishop S.C. Johnson of Philadelphia would say on the radio:
NEO-TRINITARIAN SURRENDER
John 14:18 JESUS IS THE SPIRIT - CAN WE PROVE IT?
2 CORINTHIANS 3:17
2 Cor 4:5
1 Cor 12:3ROMANS 8:9-11
COLOSSIANS 1:27
WAS PAUL CONFUSED?
NEW TESTAMENT REFERENCES
Eph. 4:10
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, ...
Acts 2:4
(Christ)that filleth all in all.
Eph. 1:23
John 14:28
1 Cor. 5:16
Matthew 18:20
Mat 28:20
SPIRIT BODY
"This is the only solution of the miraculous appearances of Jesus to His disciples during the 40 days that elapsed between his resurrection and Ascension. Take His fourth appearance, the one to Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus. Jesus assumed a physical body and walked with those two, and talked wit them, yet they did not know him because 'their eyes were holden,' but when He sat down to meat with them, they knew Him in the breaking of bread, that is they recognized His physical body, probably by the pierced hands or by the voice, and the next moment He VANISHED out of their sight. This is He changed His 'physical Body' back into His 'Spirit Body' and disappeared from human vision.
"Take Jesus' fifth appearance, when He entered the closed room in Jerusalem. He entered it in His 'Spirit Body.' That was why they were 'terrified and affrighted' and supposed that they saw a 'spirit.' Luke 24:37-43. But when He spoke and said unto them, 'Why are ye yet troubled?' He assumed His physical Body, and as proof called on them to behold His 'hands' and 'feet' (that had been pierced), and to 'handle Him,' for said He a 'spirit hath not REMARKABLE TESTIMONY FROM ORAL ROBERTS
THE HOLY GHOST IS THE FATHER ALSO
Matt. 1:20 Margin.
Luke 1:35.THE SPIRIT IN REVELATION
COMPARISONS PROVE CHRIST IS THE HOLY SPIRIT
Luke 21:15
Mark 13:11
John 5:25-28
John 11:25
Romans 8:11
1 Cor 15:45TWO TRINITARIANS SPEAK
SUMMARY
John 20:22.