Understanding The Truth About God Is Made Difficult Because Of The Various Interpretations That Exist.

The following is a two part presentation. Steve Owen's point of view is stated first. This is followed by that of yours truly. 

Steve Owen states:

The scriptures were not intended to be confusing; there is no great mystery - certainly not about Jesus. Unfortunately (and expectedly), since the Apostles died, there have been many imaginative ideas that have introduced mystery and confusion about God and His Son, and invented a different Jesus to the one Scripture presents unequivocally.

We must let scripture interpret scripture and dismiss the proof-text threeology insisted on by the traditional church - reading and trusting what the Bible actually says, not what we have been told it says or means!

Only by putting creedal theory first and reading-in these ideas to a handful of verses (mostly by taking them out of context or choosing biased, interpretive translations) does this have any plausible Biblical support.

Just as the adversary interfered and deceived in the Garden, so he interfered with the church to its detriment and deception via a mysterious tripart God which the Bible readily refutes for those willing and able to see.

What is the difference between God and the spirit of God?

Steve Owen answers this question thus:

We'll see that the 'spirit of God' is the same as the 'Holy Spirit'. The terms are interchangeable.

• God is the creator. The HS is not, but is prominent in God's creation process.
• We see from John that the logos is also prominent in creation, but God is still the creator.
• God alone is immortal, He is holy, He is spirit and invisible.
• God expresses Himself in word and deed by His logos and spirit.

Jesus' disciples left a clear message about what they understood about God and the Holy Spirit. These are the true Church Fathers who learnt everything from Jesus.

For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say (Luke 12:12). For it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you (Matthew 10:20)

We can see that they knew the Holy Spirit to be the same as God. So that removes the need for a lot of speculation and imaginative theology.

The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for that reason also the holy child will be called the son of God. (Luke 1:35)

Here we see that the child is God's, but the HS is the power of God making it happen. Is the HS the father? No, God is. It is His spirit acting according to His will and purpose to make Mary pregnant.

We also see several verses regarding Jesus being raised from the dead. None show Jesus raising himself (well, he was dead!). There are about 30 - most say God, a few say the Father, and one I could find, 'the spirit of Him'.

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Rom 8:11)

The spirit isn't doing the raising independently, except as God directs and empowers things to happen by His spirit. Again, there is this firm connection in the holy text that the HS and God (or the Father) have that makes them the same. It is the spirit OF the Father, or the spirit OF God - just as the disciples have expressed.

To add to the points made earlier.

• the HS has no name - God has plenty.
• in every vision of heaven, we see Jesus at God's right side but no HS anywhere. Of course God is spirit and invisible, yet visions make God apparent with His son and no one else except perhaps other heavenly beings.

There is no doubt the HS is an important part of the spiritual reality - yet it is always an expression of God, the Father, and now Jesus who is ascended and exalted to eternal life.

Gal 4:6 ‘God has sent forth the spirit of His son into your hearts’.

Luke 10:22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the son, and anyone to whom the son wills to reveal Him.

Jesus ruling out a third entity here without any ambiguity. The HS, if a separate entity/identity would, must, know who Jesus is if the Father does. Of course there is no need for silly arguments about others who know Jesus. The devil knows who Jesus is, but not like the heavenly Father does and the HS would too if 'he' existed separately to the Father if God was a tripart God.

That we have 'he' and 'him' sprinkled throughout the word when 'it' and 'which' are more responsible translations, makes the whole process of seeing truth more difficult.

Briefly, what is meant by-

For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 1 Cor 2:10

This makes perfect sense if it IS God... why is it searching the depths of God?

God places His spirit in us to join with our spirit - Rom 8:9, Acts 2:38, Rom 8:16

The essence or spirit of God reaching into our lives and showing us the things we need. It is not searching out God, as if God's spirit needs to do anything in God.

It is searching out the 'things OF God' and revealing them into our minds, into our spirit - transforming our old life with the new life through the 'deposit' of God's spirit in us. (2 Cor 1:22)

This is analogous to the logos in action-

For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

God's word and spirit are simply the outward expression and influence of God in all creation - no separate entities or convoluted theories needed. In fact, the inspired text consistently refutes such ideas.

Response by Dr. Happy Riches B.A. (Min./B.S.); M.A. (Theol./Dev. Psych.); D. Min.

The Lord God created the Universe. But the question is: Where did the Infinite One create it? 

When reading the the book of Isaiah, we learn that God exists and besides Him there is none other.

• I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness; (Isaiah 45:5-7a) 

God is Infinite; there is no other. Not only does this mean that their is no other god or being, it also means nothing else exists outside of the Infinite One (space, nothingness, or anything at all).

Understanding what "infinite" means is the beginning to understanding God, the I AM (cf. Exodus 3:14). For in the I AM, we live and move and exist ourselves (cf. Acts 17:28). We are finite. God is Infinite. The I AM has no boundaries, except when making them Himself.

God is One.

 

The book of James informs us that even in the spiritual realm the beings that have been cast out of the heavenly presence of the Lord God believe that God is One, not two, not three, just One.

• You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! (James 2:19)

The Apostle Paul says that even though there is the implication that God is more than one, we are to understand that God is one. There is no other.

• Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. (Galatians 3:20) 

Moses was on the Mountain of God and he was told that God is One.

• Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. (Deuteronomy 6:4)

When asked what is the greatest commandment, the Son of God said:

•  The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.' (Mark 12:29)

The Infinite One alone exists outside of all that has created within the Universe. There is no other being that possesses infinity. The Infinite One is the Lord God Almighty. People may talk about the Infinite One being eternal and possessing omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, but this really goes without saying. Being infinite means that there are no boundaries, except those which are self-imposed.

God is spirit (John 4:24) . 

God is one and God is spirit. The Infinite One is Spirit. The Spirit of the Infinite One is the Spirit of God. 

God is Holy (Leviticus 19:2).

God states, "I am Holy" (Leviticus 19:2). Understanding what holy means is difficult for humans, because we are classified as unholy creatures that do not possess the integrity of the Holy One. However, we learn that the righteousness God manifests provides us with the answer of what it means to be Holy.

• But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness. (Isaiah 5:16)

Righteousness, we can understand as meaning: "to have never broken faith with another"; that is to have never committed sin against another being. To be righteous means to be pure, spotless and complete, perfect in morality.

The picture that we should have of God is that everything exists because it was created by I AM, the Infinite One. This is the One whom we need to seek, to know and understand; for this is the Lord God, the Holy, the Righteous One. 

God is Spirit. The Spirit is equated to and analogous with the wind in the Bible. The wind is something we can feel but not something we can actually describe as a separate entity. For wind is like a movement of something which  (as far as we are concerned) doesn't exist unless we feel it or see the evidence of its effects, such as when it blows and paper flies in the air or the leaves in the trees move and we hear the sound of leaves rustling. The sound of the wind we can hear when it is forcefully moving past our hears or going through a tunnel or channeled through narrow confines, such as tall buildings found in a city that are merely 10 - 60 feet apart.

In the Bible, the word for "spirit" is used interchangeably for "wind" and "breath". How the word is to be understood depends upon the context. When referring to being holy, the context is a reference to Holy Spirit. Often the word does not have any reference to being holy, such as when Jesus spoke the following:

• It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 

The implicit understanding is that the Spirit is the Spirit of God, who is Holy, and the Holy Spirit is God Himself; just as much God as the Godhead is the I AM. The difference being that the Spirit of God is Infinite and the Godhead is limited in that this is the very bosom, the very heart of the Eternal One (cf. John 1:18), and the place in existence where God manifests His Presence.

No one has seen God. Yet God is light and there is no variation or shadow found because of this fact (cf. James 1:17).

The Godhead and the Spirit of God are different manifestations of The One Who Exists and there is no other.

God is Holy + God is Spirit = God is Holy Spirit.

When it comes to Jesus, the English Standard Version of the Bible (ESV) states that God raised Him from the dead in twenty-five places (Acts  2:24, 32; 3.15, 26; 4.10; 5:30; 10:40;  13:30, 33, 34, 37; 17:31; Romans 4:24, 25; 6:4; 8:11; 10:9; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 15:15; 2 Corinthians 4:14; Galatians 1:1; Ephesian 1:20; Colossians 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Peter 1:21). There are a number of Scriptures that do not state God raised Lord Jesus Christ, but which nevertheless suggest that this may be the case.

However, we also learn that the Spirit within Lord Jesus Christ was also capable of raising him from the dead, because Jesus of Nazareth was not just a man, but God Himself while living among us mere mortals (Matthew 1:23) and possessed the power to lay down His life and take it up again (John 10:18). This is implied in Jesus' comment about the grain of wheat (John 12:24) and asserted by the Apostle Paul when he states  that "He was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4). Even in the flesh, Jesus possessed the power of an indestructible life (Hebrews 7:16). Consequently, we read in  that if the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in us, He will also raise our own mortal bodies (Romans 8:11). As Jesus said, the Father was in Him (John 10:38). 

When God raised Jesus from the dead, this was the Father in Him, the Word of God Himself (John 1:1-3,14,18), the Word of Life (1 John 1:1). Jesus said that He and the Father were One (John 10:3) and to have seen Him was to have seen the Father (John 14:9). The Jews attempted to kill Him because they considered the Nazarene's claim blasphemy (John 10:33). Yet it was by means of the Eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14) that dwelled within the man Christ Jesus that He was able to offer Himself up as a sacrifice and know that He had the ability to rise from the dead, just as a seed falls into the ground and is buried only to rise again.

God places His spirit in us to join with our spirit and we become the temple of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; Rom 8:9,16,23,26; 2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:13; 4:30; 1 Cor. 6:19). For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God (1 Cor 2:10). Because of this, we who possess the Spirit can learn the thoughts of God.

Distinguishing between God raising Jesus, the Father raising the Son, and Jesus the Son of God having the power to raise Himself comes down to a matter of description rather than fact. To say that God raised Lord Jesus is in accord with Scripture, but to suggest that this was not the Spirit of God that existed within Him is to fall into error. 

The claim is that when the Son of God came to Earth, He emptied Himself of His Divinity and was therefore devoid of His Spirit and took on the dead spirit of a human. This leads to all manner of deviations that require explanation and enters a maze of useless speculations. This claim has caused many to deny the Son as being truly God. 

That the Son of God took on human form to live as a man, having divested Himself of the glory He possessed when residing in the bosom of the Father on the throne of God, does not mean that He somehow ceased to be Divine. All the indications are that Jesus the Nazarene taught that He was God even in the flesh. What the Son of God did not possess was a soul prior to becoming a human being. When the Word of God became flesh (John 1:14), the Spirit of Holiness united Himself with the soul of a human that came from a virgin. Hence we read that a body had been prepared for Him (Hebrews 10:5) to enter at birth. The Spirit of God may have intensified His presence over the virgin to effect the pregnancy, but not until the body of the baby was fully formed and outside the womb did the Word of God enter it (Luke 2:15).

Peace!