Continued from Part 33
Leaving out reference to the holy sprit
In the opening salutation of Paul’s letters to various churches (Romans through Thessalonians) he sends personal greetings from “God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” If “the Holy Spirit” were an integral and personal part of a triune deity, then why does He not send His personal greetings as well?
Obviously, Paul never contemplated that there was such a person. If there were a third person involved, would not the supposedly divinely inspired Paul have known about it and included Him in his greetings to the churches? When Paul does include additional persons in his greetings, salutations and adjurations, he names “the elect angels,” not “the Holy Spirit” (1 Timothy 5:21; cf. Luke 9:26 and Revelation 3:5). It is ludicrous to think that Paul would consistently omit mention of the third person of the Trinity, if he believed him to exist.
In the other New Testament letters, every one of the authors identifies himself with “God the Father” and “the Lord Jesus Christ,” but not one does so with “the Holy Spirit.” But, if they were ignorant of the existence of the doctrine of a triune deity then their apostleship was faulty at best, and at worst they were teaching heresy. No; their failure to clearly teach the existence of a triune deity shows that the doctrine of the Trinity was not a belief of the early church. 1 John 1:3 says that for followers of Jesus fellowship is with “the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.” Why is the Holy Spirit left out?
In the eternal city of Revelation 21 and 22, both God and Jesus are presented as a featured fantasy. Each is pictured as sitting on his throne (Revelation 22:1). If “the Holy Spirit” is a “coeternal” member of a triune deity, why does it have no seat of authority on the final throne? This is consistent with the New Testament belief that there is one God, “the Father,” and one “Lord, Jesus Christ.” There is no such separate person known as “the Holy Spirit.” In point of fact, the notion of the Holy Spirit never appears in the Book of Revelation.
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