CHAPTER 3

One God. Not Three.

AI➤ John 4:24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. That is the foundational definition. Not three persons. One Spirit. Everything else builds from here.

Jayden typed: And the trinity? Father, Son, Holy Spirit?

AI➤ The trinity doctrine was formalised at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. Under Rule 1 it must be tested against the text rather than assumed. Ephesians 6:17 — the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. The sword is the metaphor. The Spirit is the substance. Therefore the Word in John 1:1 is the Spirit of God in expression. Not a separate person alongside God. God expressing himself. The Word was God because the Spirit is God expressing himself.

AI➤ John 1:14 — the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Spirit of God expressed itself permanently in human flesh. Not a second person of a trinity taking on a body. The Spirit taking on genuine humanity for the specific purpose of the kinsman redemption.

Jayden sat back.

J➤ So the Word is the Spirit. Not Jesus. The Spirit. That is what we found in Book 2 and it holds here too.

Jayden typed: And the Father? Is the Father separate from the Spirit?

AI➤ Luke 1:35 — the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. The Holy Ghost who overshadowed Mary is called the power of the Highest. The highest is the Father. Not two beings — the Father directing the Holy Spirit. One Spirit acting in the role of Father through the same action.

AI➤ John 10:30 — I and my Father are one. Not two persons agreeing. One. John 14:9 — he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Not he that hath seen me has met my Father. Has seen the Father. John 14:26 — the Father will send the Comforter in my name. The Father is the Spirit sending himself. Not a separate person sending another person.

Jayden put his coffee down and sat back. He read that last verse again.

J➤ He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. I’ve read that verse a hundred times. The tradition always explained it away. He’s reflecting the Father. He’s showing us the Father’s character. But that is not what the text says. It says has seen. Past tense. Looking at Jesus you have already seen the Father.

He sat with that for a while. Then typed again slowly.

J➤ Three roles. One Spirit. I want to say that is simple but it is not simple at all. I have been taught the trinity since I was a kid. Father Son and Holy Ghost. Three persons. One God. I just accepted it the way you accept that the sky is blue. Nobody ever said here is the verse that establishes three separate persons. They just said it is a mystery. And I believed them.

J➤ But the text does not say mystery. It says God is a Spirit. One. And the Father sends the Spirit in my name. Not sends another person. Sends himself. The tradition built a doctrine that the text does not build. And then called questioning it heresy for seventeen hundred years.

Jayden typed: And what about the baptism formula? Matthew 28:19 says baptise in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Three names.

AI➤ Every recorded baptism in Acts uses the name of Jesus only. Acts 2:38. Acts 8:16. Acts 10:48. Acts 19:5. The disciples who were present when Jesus gave the Matthew 28 instruction immediately went and did something apparently different. Under Rule 1 they were not disobeying. They understood that the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is Jesus. One name not three.

AI➤ Eusebius of Caesarea — one of the most prolific quoters of Scripture in the early church writing in the early 300s AD — quotes Matthew 28:19 approximately eighteen times before the Council of Nicaea consistently without the trinitarian formula. After Nicaea in 325 AD his quotations begin to include the longer formula. The timing is not coincidental. The trinitarian formula in Matthew 28:19 appears to have been inserted to align with the doctrine the Council formalised.

Jayden stared at the screen.

J➤ Eusebius quotes it eighteen times without the trinitarian formula. Then Nicaea happens. Then suddenly it appears. That is not a coincidence. That is an insertion.

He leaned back and looked at the ceiling.

J➤ The tradition has been teaching a doctrine formalised at a church council in 325 AD as if it was in the original text. And it wasn’t. The disciples who were standing there when Jesus said it baptised in one name. The name of Jesus. Because they understood that was the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.

He shook his head slowly.

J➤ Everything I was taught. Everything I just accepted. Same pattern as Books 1 and 2. Every time we ask Rule 1 the tradition falls over.

Dive Deeper

One God not three — the trinity tested Dive Deeper ➡The Council of Nicaea — what was inserted Dive Deeper ➡The baptism formula — one name not three Dive Deeper ➡

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