[OBW]

For me, one of the most misused arguments by Lee was that too much emphasis on the Three would risk becoming tritheist. The more I look at scripture and the more I consider what is actually believed by so many Christians, I do not believe that to be true. Instead I believe it to be a statement made for the purpose of driving a wedge between Lee and other teachers.

What I find in the New Testament is an almost constant evidence of the Three. Jesus is sent, as is the Spirit. Jesus refers to the Father as separate from himself. Saying that they are one does not cause the separateness to disappear. And God, the ultimate writer of the NT seems to go to great lengths to provide "jobs" for three "persons." And, as is so often admitted in the discussion of whether Jesus actually is God, Jesus definitely said it, but in an indirect manner. And it was the few while the references to the Father as being someone else are the many.

And Paul never said that Christ became the Holy Spirit. That is nonsense. An error of contextonomy.

I know that we argued with Justyn about the One God being a person because God is personal and non-persons just aren't personal. I do not disagree with that. But I find that the account of the NT, including all the things that Jesus said, mostly point me to see the Three in terms of relationship with man. It seems that it really is through the Three that God interacts with man. So focusing on the three almost seems to be the most important thing for us today. And arguing that they are simply one is to argue against the weight of evidence in the NT that the Three are almost more important to our daily living that the One.

I can hear it now. Mike has gone tritheist on us. Hogwash. I just acknowledge what is actually revealed without a need to rephrase it, repackage it, or deny it. And it is that there is a Father in heaven, a Son who came to live among us and be the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, and a Spirit that indwells us. This is the face of the One God that I believe and (hopefully) serve.