I don't discount those texts, but we must look at them not as stand-alone absolute truth declarations of the nature of God, but must include them along with other scriptures, equally authoritative and inspired that complement, (not contradict) the above...such as what APAK posts regarding God being the Father of Jesus, and even the Father being Jesus's God, (John 20:17; 2Cor11:31; Eph1:3) which brings another perspective entirely.
Which when taken as a whole, brings me to the conclusion that the Son of God, begotten way back in eternity past but of the same nature, and character of His Father and therefore of equal standing and worthiness as the Father and thus worthy of worship and adoration no less than His Father, is equal to the Father in all respects except in rank (the Son has always been and always will be in subjection to His Father as is common to all Father Son relationships...see 2Cor15:28) and longevity. While this is a denial of the trinity as taught by the creeds and today's churches, it is not a denial of Christ's divinity...it is not a denial of His Sonship...it is not a denial of His authority or worthiness of our worship and loyalty...it is not a denial of three Persons/personalities/beings whatever in the Godhead, but it is a denial, without apology, of man's attempts to formularise the nature of God and try to explain how, or the nature and means by which the one God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, are one. Jesus said He and the Father are one...He did not explain how. That they are distinct persons is clear . The Son is absolutely NOT the same person as His Father. But He IS of a similar nature...He was born of God, begotten, in a sense no-one else in all creation was...Jesus is a true literal Son of His Father, and has been such since the beginning before time was. The Sonship and Fatherhood of the relation between the two is not metaphorical as some teach, they were not roles that they chose to take on for our benefit. And the holy Spirit?
Again, all scriptures must be taken as a whole...complementary rather than in opposition to one another. (On a side note, so many of our discussions on anything of a theological nature becomes a to and from with scriptures as if one persons text disproves another...that is crazy...all scripture is given by inspiration of God ...nothing is to be discounted...nothing contradicts another...al scripture fits neatly into a nice whole that comprises Truth. The trick for us is to make the connections without doing damage to any of it.)
But back to the Spirit. God is Spirit. The Bible speaks of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Christ as being one and the same Spirit...as is the Spirit that works in us. It is the Spirit of God that filled Christ, and which He sent to fill us. One Spirit.
Ro 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. One Spirit. Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, in us, the hope of glory.
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you (already....Jesus) , and shall be in you.
18 ¶ I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
So while the Spirit is spoken of as being another person, it is not in the same sense as the Father and Son...for how can a person be "poured out", spoken of as belonging to Christ or the Father. So while there is much (most) we cannot understand (yet), about the nature of God, my objection to the trinity as such is not so much as in a denial of the Godhead, but rather in the manner and means by which the formula was put together, how it attempts to explain things God has not revealed, the assumptions drawn from those explanations, and then the extremely un-Christ-like manner in which it was imposed (and still is) upon the church.
PS BTW this was the stance taken by early Adventists , but which my church since the 1950s began to distance itself from in order to become more 'orthodox' and acceptable to the Christian broader community. The 'trinity' as such didn't actually appear in that list of 28 fundamentals until 1980. For the above reasons. I happen to disagree with it.
