Trinitarians believe that the Holy Spirit is a separate “being” of the triune God. I suggest this was not the message of scriptures. It is never mentioned of the Spirit as being the “third person of the trinity” anywhere in scriptures.
As Michael L. Brown says in Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus,” p. 53:
| Quote |
| …Is the “Spirit of God” the same as “God”? Yes and no. The Spirit clearly has personality, since the Holy Spirit instructs the people of Israel and can be grieved or angered. Yet the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God-i.e., God's very Spirit, he is both giving himself as well as giving of himself. The key is always this: God touches us, teaches us, interacts with us, and empowers us by his Spirit. |
With that understanding it is very easy to understand why the “Holy Spirit” is not mentioned along with the Father in these following verses since references speaking of the person of the Father would assume that the innermost part of the Father to obviously be included in His person. See below and you will find plenty of scriptures that you would think would mention all “three persons” of the trinity but doesn't:
Matt 24:36
36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
NASU
John 5:23
23 so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
NASU
John 5:26
26 “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;
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John 6:40
40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
NASU
John 6:46
46 “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.
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1 John 2:23-24
23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.
24 As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.
NASU
2 John 3
3 Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
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2 John 9
9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
NASU
Peace and love,
Kathi
