By Paul K. Williams
Some of the Pentecostal groups teach error concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They teach that there is only one person in the Godhead, and that his name is Jesus. They refuse to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but baptize in the name of Jesus only. I have a chart put out by one of those groups. It has a large number of Scriptures which say that there is one God. But the verses which show that the one God is made up of three persons are left out! Right at the beginning of Genesis there is clear indication that there is more than one person who is God. “. . . and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters” (Gen. 1:2). The Holy Spirit was working in the creation.
Then in Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image.’” Did you ever ask yourself, “To whom was God speaking?” God was speaking to the other per- sons in the Godhead! Jesus is not the Father, and the Holy Spirit is not Jesus! They are separate persons. In Acts 2:34-35 Peter quotes from David, “For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, Until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet.’”
Notice two things: The Lord spoke to David’s Lord. There were two persons. The Lord was God the Father. David’s Lord was the Messiah, who was in heaven with the Father. That was Jesus Christ. Second — Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God the Father. He is not the Father. He is sitting at his right hand. They are two persons. The Holy Spirit is a person, and he is not Jesus. Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper.” The Holy Spirit is another helper like Jesus, but he is not Jesus! And he is God! In Acts 5:3 Peter said that Ananias had lied to the Holy Spirit. In the next verse he said that Ananias lied to God. The Holy Spirit is God. How can it be that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three persons, yet are one God?
It is not hard to understand. Jesus prayed for his disciples, “that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us” (John 17:21). When we understand that all disciples can be one, we can understand how the Father and the Son are one. Never does the Bible say that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one person! They are three persons! But they are one because they are united in purpose and in nature. Jesus is God, the Father is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Three persons — completely united. The one God!