the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. The Trinitarian view is quite extensive in scripture as I indicated, Matt 3:16-17: And Jesus being baptized, forthwith came out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened to him: and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him. [17] And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
This clearly indicates distinct yet of the same identical essence or nature perfectly united in purpose and will.
God is one, yet these are not modes -- as then the baptism scene would negate the divinity of two
More human philosophy, eh???
If the essence was identical it couldn't be distinct...
If what you say is true, people would have witnessed Jesus, in the image of Jesus descending upon the same Jesus that was standing in the water...
And if the verse you quoted was the only account that was recorded, that could be true, since it said the Spirit of God descended, like a dove that is descending...However, there are other verses that say the Spirit looked appeard to be a dove...
ESSENCE
1. The intrinsic or indispensable properties that serve to characterize or identify something.
If the Spirit and Jesus did not look identical, their essence was not identical...
God is one, yet these are not modes -- as then the baptism scene would negate the divinity of two
Not at all...The word mode seems to have a lot of definitions...So what is the Catholic definition of mode as used in modalism???