Not even close!
Let's start with what Jesus taught:
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
No entity called "the holy spirit" is called or listed as "God". A following verse makes it clear who "God" is:
Joh 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Father and son.
Let's look at the words of Jesus:
Joh 10:30 I and My Father are one."
Here was a prime opportunity to teach. Yet Jesus failed to mention that an entity called "the holy spirit" was one with them also.
Mat 11:27 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Wait...wouldn't that "person" named "the holy spirit" KNOW the son and the father also? Again, why does Jesus NOT mention this "person"?
Joh_20:17 Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.' "
No mention of the holy spirit being another part of "God".
Rev_3:5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
What? He will confess our names before the FATHER and his ANGELS but NOT a person called "the holy spirit". What gives?? The angels are more important than this supposed 3rd person in the Godhead? Amazing.
There are DOZENS of more scriptures where Jesus describes the relationship, in heaven, between he and the father. But in all those he never mentions the same type of relationship with a person named "the holy spirit".
Mat 10:32 "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
Mat 10:33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
Whoops...Jesus forgot to tell us about the "person" named the holy spirit in heaven again!
How about John?
2Jn 1:3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
No greetings from the holy spirit??
How about Paul? In every letter that Paul wrote he acknowledged two persons, the father and Christ:
Rom_1:7 To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1Co_1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Co_1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Eph_1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Php_1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Col_1:2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1Th_1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Th_1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2Th_1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1Ti_1:2 To Timothy, a true son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
Phm_1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
IF the holy spirit is a co-equal member of the Godhead then why does Paul not show the proper respect and include it in his greetings?
Well all these people are rude. I'm sure that if we can look into the Godhead in heaven we'll see this person called "the holy spirit"...right?
Dan 7:13 "I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him.
Dan 7:14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.
Silly Daniel... he doesn't mention the holy spirit being up there in heaven with the father and son.
Well let's look at the Godhead again:
Rev_22:1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb
Wait...no throne for the person "holy spirit"...the separate and co-equal "holy spirit" gets NO THRONE???? How can that be?
Rev_22:3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.
There it is again..stupid bible forgot to give a throne to the separate and co-equal holy spirit person.
No, scriptural evidence is clear. The holy spirit is never given the status of the father or the son, not even by the father or the son. I've literally only scratched the surface of the scriptures that show this time after time after time.
And that's not to mention the physical evidence:
Rom 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
What "things made" could show the structure of Godhead?
How about...people? After all we're made in the image of God...right?
Two sexes, man and woman.
We all have: 2 eyes. 2 ears. 2 hands. 2 ears. 2 lungs. 2 breasts. 2 testicles (men). 2 ovaries (women). 2 kidneys. 2 legs. 2 arms. 2 legs. 2 brain halves. 2 nostrils. 2 lips. Our bodies SCREAM two.
Two are joined in marriage. Two become one:
Mat_19:5 and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH' ?
Mat_19:6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."
No, it's overwhelmingly, absolutely two, not three.
Perhaps try looking at it this way,sear friend
As the late Bishop Sheen Wrote about love being Triune
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2463497/posts
Excerpts... The love of husband and wife is perfected as it becomes triune; now there is the lover, the beloved, and love--the love being something distinct from both, and yet in both. If there is only the mine and thine, there is impenetrability and separateness. Not until there is a third acting element, as the soil in which the two vines intertwine, is there oneness. Then is the impotence of the I to completely possess the Thou overcome in the realization that there is a bond outside pulling them together, hovering over them as the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, turning the I and Thou into a We. It is this that lovers mean when, without knowing it, they speak of "our love" as something distinct from each.
Without a sense of Absolute Love, which is stronger than the independent love of each for the other, there is a false duality which ends in the absorption of the I into the Thou or the Thou into the I. In divorce cases, this is called "mental torture" or "domination." Really, it is egocentricity, in which one ego loves itself in the other ego. The I is projected into the Thou and is loved in the Thou. The Thou is not really loved as a person; it is only used as a means to the pleasure of the I. As soon as the other ceases to exhilarate, the so-called love ceases. There is nothing left to hold such a couple together, because there is no third term. There may be idolatry when there are only two, but after a while the "goddess" or the "god" turns out to be of tin. There is a world of difference between loving self in another self, and giving both self and the other self to the Third Who will keep both in undying love. Without the Love of God, there is danger of love dying of its own too-much; but when each loves the Flame of Love--over and above their two individual sparks which have come from the Flame--then there is not absorption but communion. Then the love of the other becomes a proof that he loves God, for the other is seen in God and cannot be loved apart from Him.
It takes three to make love. What binds lover and beloved together on earth is an ideal outside both. As it is impossible to have rain without the clouds, so it is impossible to understand love without God. In the Old Testament, God is defined as a Being Whose Nature it is to exist: "I am Who am." In the New Testament, God is defined as Love: "God is Love." That is why the basis of all Philosophy is Existence, and the basis of all Theology is Charity, or love.
If we would seek out the mystery of why love has a triune character and implies lover, beloved, and love, we must mount to God Himself. Love is Triune in God because in Him there are three Persons and in the one Divine Nature! Love has this triple character because it is a reflection of the Love of God, in Whom there are three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is the answer to the questions of Plato. If there is only one God, what does He think about? He thinks an eternal thought: His Eternal Word, or Son. If there is only one God, whom does He love? He loves His Son, and that mutual love is the Holy Spirit. The great philosopher was fumbling about for the mystery of the Trinity, for his noble mind seemed in some small way to suspect that an infinite being must have relations of thought and love, and that God cannot be conceived without thought and love. But it was not until the Word became Incarnate that man knew the secret of those relations and the inner life of God, for it was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who revealed to us the inmost life of God.
It is that mystery of the Trinity which gives the answer to those who have pictured God as an egotist God sitting in solitary splendor before the world began, for the Trinity is a revelation that before creation God enjoyed the infinite communion with Truth and the embrace of infinite Love, and hence had no need ever to go outside of Himself in search for happiness. The greatest wonder of all is that, being perfect and enjoying perfect happiness, He ever should have made a world. And if He did make a world, He could only have had one motive for making it. It could not add to His perfection; it could not add to His Truth; it could not increase His Happiness. He made a world only because He loved, and love tends to diffuse itself to others.
ACTS 5:
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have
What? Do you just ignore Acts 5:3-5?
How can you lie to an impersonal force like the wind?
Lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3) IS lying to God (Acts 5:5)
The Holy Spirit is Omniscient (1 Cor. 2:11);
He is eternal (Hebrews 9:14)
He is co-Creator (Psalm 104:30; Job 26:13; Gen. 1:2)
He is omnipresent (Ps. 139:7-10)
He is one Person within the divine Trinity (2 Cor. 13:14; Matt. 28:19-20)
And note that Jesus, when referencing baptizing in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- says NAME (singular)...not "names" (plural)...
He shares the same Name identity -- per Jesus.
(If you don't like that, take it up with THE Son of God)
How about...people? After all we're made in the image of God...right? Two sexes, man and woman. We all have: 2 eyes. 2 ears. 2 hands. 2 ears. 2 lungs. 2 breasts. 2 testicles (men). 2 ovaries (women). 2 kidneys. 2 legs. 2 arms. 2 legs. 2 brain halves. 2 nostrils. 2 lips. Our bodies SCREAM two. Two are joined in marriage.
Do you actually read what you cut & paste? (Perhaps you might want to re-peruse what you wrote, especially the portion I highlighted for you!!!)
Douglas I actually want to THANK YOU for citing the very passage that "makes this case!"
In marriage, two become one, right? (Or DO two remain two, per Jesus?) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Class," if I told you to pick a number between 0 and 6 as to what NUMBER Jesus would define a marital unit as, would you pick 5? (No) 4? (No) 3? (No) 2? (NO!!!!) 1? (Bingo!!!!)
Jesus then RE-EMPHASIZED that this marital entity-unity is "NO LONGER" two? (You don't have any trouble defining that phrase "no longer," do you Douglas???)
Then, for even ADDITIONAL ADDED emphasis, Jesus says don't separate what God has joined together, right?
Now Douglas...tell us, is God & Jesus more unified than any given husband & wife? (Yes or no will do fine here)
Therefore, if God/Jesus regards a married couple as "ONE" & doesn't regard them anymore as "two" & has joined them together & warned people NOT to divide this oneness...and IF God/Jesus are more unified than any given couple is...a couple made in God's image...then...
Who are YOU to come along and disregard God/Jesus' oneness?
Who are YOU to separate what is enjoined?
Who are YOU to disregard Jesus when He plainly said: 30 I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) ???
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (Jesus, Matthew 28:20)
What? Are you accusing Jesus here of being unnecessarily redundant? (Or Paul in 2 Cor. 13?)
Since I saw you make a big deal in another post about a reference to Jesus as "the firstborn," are you claiming that Jesus had a beginning? And if you're going to take that word literally as is, who was his Mom he was born to? (Are you going to pull a "Mormon mom" on us? ... somewhere hidden in the wings?)
And if you think the Spirit is an impersonal force who is no personality other than the extension of God in this world, AND if you think Jesus had a beginning, you are no better off than the Muslim who embraces a bare naked monotheism...with no love to exchange pre-creation of angels (or humans).
The Trinity was a self-existent, self-contained component unity well before any other being was created. He is a social unity -- a community-within-Himself!!!!
“Let’s start with what Jesus taught:”
We can be safely sure that Jesus is a monotheist, as He never claimed to be the “second and second to last, the almighty” or the “I ALSO Am” in the following scriptures:
God Speaking in the Old Testament:
Isa_41:4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.
Isa_44:6 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
Jesus Christ speaking in the new, calling Himself by the same name. Not two different gods who are made “one” by being in the same family, but One God:
Rev_1:17 ... Fear not; I am the first and the last:
Rev_22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Rev_1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Joh 8:57-59 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? (58) Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. (59) Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
Exo_3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
You can’t really have two different gods claiming to be the first and the last, or the Almighty, insomuch that you can’t be FIRST if someone was before you, and you can’t be Almighty if you aren’t all powerful over the other All-powerful guy.
When it comes down to it, your argument lives and dies on Monotheism, which is the one thing you’ve avoided like the plague so far. You have yet to show us how the very clear scriptures that say there is only one God, and no God beside Him, nor any God formed before or after Him, are compatible with your polytheism. In fact, you have yet to even acknowledge the teachings of the UCG on the matter, only dodging about it, hoping to tire the reader out out with long-winded replies that avoid the issue. If you cannot demonstrate how polytheism is true in the Bible, and how the Jews and Christians for thousands of years have been all wrong, then your argument is made on a sandy foundation. It simply has no proof or credibility without a logical position to launch an attack from.