The Biblical Basis for Principle Three in the 2026 Proposed Declaration of Principles
This is a humble attempt to demonstrate the Biblical basis for the third affirmation and denial in the proposed 2026 Declaration of Principles. What this affirmation and denial does is give an interpretive summary of these various texts listed below. There certainly is more that can be said and written. The subject is both essential and substantive and by no means have I done it justice. I pray that it will at least encourage further prayerful and thoughtful reflection as we head toward August’s Triennial Convention. Soli Deo Gloria!
Principle Three
We affirm that God is one in being and three in person, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that these three persons are fully divine and co-equal, of one substance, power and eternity, and with one will; and that the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son.
We deny that these persons are three gods; that these persons are only three different manifestations of God; or that any of the persons are eternally subordinate to each other.
We affirm that God is one in being
This means that there is only one transcendent and infinite divine being. This reflects a host of Biblical texts that claim that there is only one God. For example the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4, reads: “Hear, O Israel: the LORD (Yahweh) our God is one.” The one and only God is Yahweh, who delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage and established his covenant with them. Isaiah affirms the same reality of Yahweh as the only divine being. “Thus says Yahweh, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last; beside me there is no God.’” (Is. 44:6). The God of Israel is the one and only God. He is to be exclusively worshiped for He alone is God and all the gods of the nations are mere idols and in reality do not exist. (Is. 44:6; 45:5-6; 1Tim. 1:17).
That God is one in being and three in persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
While the Old Testament indicates that there is a diversity within the being of God (Gen. 1:26; 3:22; 16:7-13; 19:21-23; Ex. 3:2-6; 23:20-23; Josh. 5:14-15; Judg.2:1-4; 13:9-23; Is. 48:12-16; 63:9-10), it is not until the revelation of God's Son in human flesh in the fullness of time that this diversity is seen to be fully personal in nature. In the New Testament Scriptures we encounter the persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. What we learn both directly and indirectly is that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are declared to share fully in that one divine being.
First, we see that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are persons, in that each possess personal characteristics. The names of Father and Son certainly imply this reality. The Father is recorded as declaring that the Son is his beloved Son (Mt. 3:17; 17:5; Mk. 1:11; 9:7; Lk. 3:22; 2 Pe. 1:17). The Father loves the Son and that love is reciprocated (Jn.3:35; 5:20; 10:17; 14:31; 15:10; 17:24). The Father and the Son have had a personal relationship from all eternity. It is not something that started when Jesus was born of Mary for before his miraculous and supernatural conception the Son was always the Son of the Father. This one was his Son, whom the Father sent into this world to accomplish salvation (Jn. 1:1; 18; 17:5; 5:23; 10:36; 3:16; Rom 1:3-4; 8:3; 32; Gal. 4:4; Col. 1:13; 1Th. 1:10; Heb. 1:2, 5, 8; 1 Jn. 4:9-10; 4:14).
The Holy Spirit is also revealed to be a person, in that he is described as having personal characteristics. He is not merely an inanimate force like electricity or the felt influence of God. Some will object by saying that the term spirit is not personal in the original languages but rather neuter in gender, so the spirit must be impersonal. While grammatically the Greek word for spirit is neuter, that does not mean that the Holy Spirit is impersonal. For he is presented as a personal being in a variety of New Testament passages. The Holy Spirit is, like Jesus, called Helper or Advocate. The idea of the Holy Spirit being another advocate, whom the Father will give to be with us forever, underscores the Spirit’s full personality (Jn. 14:16). As the promised Paraclete, the Holy Spirit functions in very personal ways: the Holy Spirit teaches (Jn.14:26), bears witness (Jn.15:26), convicts of sin (Jn. 16:8), he guides us into truth (Jn. 16:13), he hears and he speaks (Jn. 16:13), he glorifies Jesus and takes what is Jesus’ and declares it to his disciples (Jn. 16:14). Further, the Holy Spirit as a person is seen in the fact that people can lie to him (Acts 5:3); one cannot lie to an inanimate object. This is also the case in that the Holy Spirit can be grieved (Eph. 4:30). The Holy Spirit helps us in prayer (Rom. 8:26) and intercedes for us (Rom. 8:27). He bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16) and leads us to live as children of God (Rom. 8:14). While there is no exact sentence in the Bible that states that the Holy Spirit is a person, Scripture clearly teaches that he is indeed a person for he is described as possessing personal attributes.
That these three persons are fully divine and co-equal, of one substance, power, and eternity and with one will
God, the one transcendent and infinite being, is not uni-personal, like human beings but is tri-personal. The three persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit share fully in that one being or in that one divine nature. What is meant by “these three persons are fully divine and co-equal” is that each is fully God or each participates fully and equally in the one divine being.
Scripture teaches that the Father is God (Jn. 6:27, 44-46; 13:3; 17:1-3; 20:17; Rom. 15:16; 1 Cor. 1:3; 8:6; 15:24; 1Tim. 1:2; Titus 1:4). He is the Father of his eternal and beloved Son (Mt. 10:32-33; 11:27; 16:17; Lk. 29:49; Jn. 5:17; 10:29). Through the saving work of his incarnate Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, he becomes, by the grace of regeneration and adoption, the Father of all believers (Mt. 6:9; Jn 1:12-13; 3:1-8; Tit. 3:5; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2Th. 2:16-17; Gal. 3:2). Further, the blessing of adoption is confirmed by the Holy Spirit, who is called the Spirit of adoption or Sonship and is the one who seals believers and guarantees our inheritance as children of the Father. (Rom. 8:10,11;14-17; Gal. 4:6-7; Eph. 1:13-14).
Scripture teaches that the Son, who became incarnate and received the name Jesus at his birth, as the promised and long awaited Christ, is God. This means that Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, is fully God and not some lesser deity. (Jn. 1:1; 18; 8:58; Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:3; Titus 2:13; Rom. 9:5; 1 Jn 5:20). Christ receives worship as God (Luke 24:52; Jn. 20:28; Mat. 14:23). Christ was charged with blasphemy because he claimed to be God and to do the works of God (Jn. 10:33; Mk. 2:7). Christ, as the Son, possesses the attributes of deity: He is the creator (Jn. 1:3; Col 1:16-17; Heb. 1:2, 10); governs by his providence (Heb 1:3; Col. 1:17; Jn. 5:17); he does miracles (Jn. 5:21; 6:40; Mk.4:37-41); he forgives sins (Mk. 2:5-10).
Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit is God. When Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, Peter declared that he did not lie to man but to God (Acts 5:3-4). The greatest of all sins is to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and blasphemy is always an offense against God (Mark 3:28-30). The Holy Spirit along with the Father and the Son participates in the work of salvation. The Holy Spirit was at work in the incarnation of the Son in the womb of the virgin Mary (Lk. 1:35). The Holy Spirit was intimately involved with Christ in his public ministry (Mk. 1:10-11; Lk. 4:1; Mt. 12:28). The Holy Spirit historically comes upon the church at Pentecost, sent by the Father and the Son, to equip God’s people for Gospel ministry (Jn 14:26; Acts 1:8; 2:1-8). The Holy Spirit regenerates the sinner (Jn. 3:5-6; Titus 3:5). The Holy Spirit is both the seal and the One who seals believers and keeps us in Christ (1 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 3:13-14; 4:30). The Holy Spirit sanctifies the believer (Rom. 1:4; 2:29; 7:6; 8:2-15; 15:16; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:11,19; Gal, 5:15-18; 1Pe. 1:2; 1 Cor. 6:19; Titus 3:5). Without the ministry of the Holy Spirit there would be no salvation.
There are several New Testament texts that underscore the personal plurality within God of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Mat. 28:19; 1 Cor. 12:4-6; 1 Pe. 1:1-3; 2 Cor, 13:14; Eph. 4:4-6). The baptismal formula of Matthew 28:19 is very clear on both the unity of the one Name and the plurality of the persons. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” The unity is seen in the phrase “baptizing them in the Name.” This is not three names but only one name and this underscores the unity of the one God. “Name” is another Hebraic way of speaking of the one being of God. This is seen in Leviticus 24:11 where the Israelite woman’s son is said to have blasphemed the Name. He specifically blasphemed Yahweh. To be baptized in the Name is to be baptized into the One true God, who exists in this personal diversity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Christian Baptism is an ordinance or sacrament that is a category of ecclesiastical worship. When the local church baptizes new converts it is an act of worship. This is a high and holy event and it simply means that the new believer is united by faith to the one God, who is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Every believer bears the surname of the tri-personal God.
As we connect these three realities: (1) that there is only one transcendent and infinite divine being, (2) that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are persons and (3) that each of them are fully God then we are right to conclude that they share all that the divine nature is. All the characteristics and attributes that belong to the one true God are possessed equally by the three persons, such as eternity (Ps. 90:1-4; 102:12; 2Pe. 3:8; Jn. 1:1-2; 1 Jn 1:1; 8:58; Heb. 9:14; Gn. 1:2), omnipotence (Rev. 1:8; Jn. 5:19; Heb. 1:3; Lk. 1:35) and a shared will and purpose (Jn. 10:30; 16:13-15; 17:11, 21).
And that the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son.
While the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share equally in the one essential nature of God, they are nevertheless to be distinguished from one another. They each possess unique personal properties that are not shared with one another. The Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit. The Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son.
The Father is presented in Scripture as having no eternal origin. The Father is not described as of or from another as the Son and the Spirit are. The Son is described as being begotten of the Father (Jn. 1:14; 18; 3:16, 18; 1Jn.4:9). (I have written in detail concerning what is meant in those texts that describe Jesus as the only begotten of the Father. See the Advent Christian Voices post Of the Father's Love Begotten.) Some New Testament scholars believe that the Greek word mongenēs should be interpreted as “only” in “only Son,” rather than “begotten,” but that begs the question. In what way is the Son the only Son of the Father? In whatever way this is to be understood an eternal reality is being stressed. The Son is the eternal Son of the Father. He sustains an eternally filial relationship with the Father. John 1:1 describes him as being from the beginning with the Father. The Greek preposition “pros” (with) (the Word was with God) suggests, as the NET Bible notes indicate, an “intimate personal relationship.” This is brought out with even greater intimacy in John 1:18 where the begotten God (that is the Son, for the Father would be the unbegotten God) is described as being upon or at the Father’s breast or side. The NET Bible translates the Greek as “who is in closest fellowship with the Father.” The Son is not created but is the Son of the Father from all eternity. He is the Son whom the Father sends (Gal. 4:4; Jn. 1:14, 18) and gives to the world (Jn. 3:16). He does not become the Son with the supernatural conception of Mary. He is the Son who takes on human nature by being supernaturally conceived in the womb of the virgin by the Holy Spirit. So, the unique property that the Son has is that of being the Son of God the Father.
The Holy Spirit is described in John 15:26 as proceeding from the Father. "But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” Jesus has already spoken of the Helper, asking the Father to send (in time at Pentecost) the Holy Spirit into this world (Jn 14:16,26). Jesus also says that he will send the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Jn.16:7) and after his resurrection he breathes on his disciples and says “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn. 20:21-23). Yet in John 15:26 another word is used. The way Jesus states this is telling. He does not say, “who will proceed from the Father,” which would describe a temporal procession or sending but “who proceeds from the Father. The tense is present. This indicates an eternal procession. The Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father. The preposition “from” that is used here is also used regarding the Son who comes from the Father (Jn. 6:46; 16:27, 28). So, the temporal sending of the Holy Spirit by the Father and the Son reflects an eternal reality within the being of God; that is the eternal going forth of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son.
Granted this is a challenge to understand fully but because the Holy Spirit is a person there seems to be a kind of eternal origin and relation described that is similar to the eternal generation of the Son and his relation to the Father. Since Jesus also affirms that he and the Father are one (Jn. 10:30) and also speaks of himself sending the Holy Spirit then the procession or going forth of the Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son. Elsewhere the Spirit is said to be the Spirit of/from God, referring to the Father (Rom. 8:11,14; 1 Cor. 2:12,14) and the Spirit of Christ/Son (Rom. 8:9; Gal. 4:6). So, the unique property of the Holy Spirit is that he proceeds from the Father and the Son.
There is an intimate and eternal relationship among the persons who share in the fulness of the one divine being. What we see revealed in Scripture regarding the temporal/historic mission or sending of the Son and the Holy Spirit and how those relations are described as forged by love, honor and glory (Jn 3:35; 4:34; 5:20; 8:49,54; 14:31; 15:9; 16:13,14) reflects the eternal realities that exist within the tri-personal God. This is particularly underscored when John twice makes the declaration that God is love (1Jn. 4:8,16). John is describing something essential about the nature of God or what is true of God in the very being of God. For love to exist within God there must be at least a lover and a beloved. If God were uni-personal then he would have to create to have something to love. However, since God is not uni-personal but is the tri-personal eternal Father, Son and Holy Spirit, love has eternally existed within the very being of God. Out of the fulness of the love shared by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit this glorious God creates and governs the cosmos and redeems sinners and welcomes those who trust in the Son into an eternal fellowship of love and glory (Jn. 17:20-26).
We deny that these persons are three gods
The persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit cannot be three gods. This would violate the clear Biblical teaching that there is only one true and eternal God. There is only one transcendent eternal divine being, not three. The persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share equally that single divine nature and this means that God is not uni-personal but tri-personal. There is indeed a distinction made between the concepts of nature/essence and person. For example, every human person possesses a human nature. Yet, we, as individual persons, share a generic nature with other human persons. Every human being is also uni-personal. Scripture teaches that there is only one God and thus the nature of God is numeric for only one being is God. When Scripture, as shown above, teaches that the persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are each God, what is meant is that each shares equally and fully in that one numeric divine nature. They are not three gods!
We deny that these persons are only different manifestations of God
It is also clear from Scripture that the names of Father, Son and Holy Spirit reference particular persons. These are not simply different titles that God assumes like different hats one might wear depending on the particular occasion. For example when Jesus says to his disciples in John 14:26, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,” there are three personal entities engaged here. Jesus, who is the incarnate Son and a person, will ask the Father, who is a person, to give to Jesus’ followers another Helper (Paraclete), who is also a person. The name Father stands for the distinct person of the Father. The name Son, who is the incarnate Christ, the Lord Jesus, stands for the distinct person of the Son. The name Holy Spirit stands for the person of the Holy Spirit, as has been demonstrated above possesses personal characteristics. While each person shares fully and equally the essence of the divine nature, they do not share their personal properties. This simply means that there is an eternal distinction and order within the eternal being of God. So, the persons are not different manifestations of God but distinct persons who share equally and fully the essence of deity.
Or that any of the persons are eternally subordinate to each other
The persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit share equally in the divine nature. There is no subordination in their nature or in their relations to each other. They mutually love and glorify one another (Jn 3:35; 4:34; 5:20; 8:49,54; 14:31; 15:9; 16:13,14; 17:4,5). There is an order of personal relations but there is no hint of subordination. While the Father sends the Son and not the Son the Father, the Father honors and loves the Son (Jn.13:32; 17:1,5) and the Son seeks to glorify his Father (Jn. 7:18;13:31; 17:4). While the Father and the Son send the Spirit, the Spirit glorifies the Son and hence glorifies the Father by declaring all that the Father has given the Son (Jn. 16:13-15; 5:23).
With those texts that seem to teach that the Son is inferior to the Father, they are to be understood in two ways. First, there are texts that describe the order of relations within the being of God like those passages that teach that the Son is begotten of the Father or is from the Father (Jn 1:14; 3:16, 18; 1Jn 4:9) or that the Father has granted the Son to have life in himself (Jn. 5:26), which reflects the Father’s generation of the Son. This is also the case when as the Son he is given the title “first born of all creation.” (Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:6). The word protόtokόs could refer to the first in order of time, like the first born child or the first in order or rank or preeminence. The Son whom the Father loves (Col.1:13), who is the protόtokόs, has this dignity and status not because he is the first created being but because all things were created by him, through him and for him (Col. 1:16). There are also texts that stress the intimate and inseparable operations of the Father and the Son as when Jesus declares that he works as his Father is working and that he can do nothing without his Father (Jn 5:17,19, 30; 8:28).
Second, there are texts that describe the Messianic state that the Son assumed in his incarnation, wherein he submits to his Father’s will and establishes the Messianic kingdom (Jn. 14:28, 31; Phil. 2:6-8; 1 Cor. 15:24-28). It is in this regard as the incarnate redeemer, the God-man, that Jesus is said to be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters and the firstborn of the dead (Rom.8:29; Heb. 2:11-12; Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5; 1 Cor. 15:20,23). Therefore, the historic sending of the Son by the Father and the historic sending of the Holy Spirit by the Father and the Son reflect an eternal divine order of relations but not any subordination. All three are co-equal, of one substance, power and eternity, sharing the same will and inseparable in their purpose and saving work (Eph. 1:3-14).
A Word About Biblical Language
I want to offer a word about Biblical language with respect to the being of God and the persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here the Bible’s language is analogical to human experience. This means the language the Bible uses expresses realities about God that bear similarities to our human experience but are not fully equivalent or identical. The being of the infinite and eternal God is ineffable. We only know God as he has revealed himself in the Scriptures. We understand from our experience what a father is and what a son is. The word spirit can also mean wind or breath and we have experience with both realities. Yet, there are differences between our experience with such matters and how the Bible’s language uses those very familiar words. The difference pertains to such language being used to reveal the truth about God, whom we can know truly but not exhaustively.
The deity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is revealed to us in Scripture. Each possesses personal properties and each shares fully in the nature or essence of the one eternal and infinite God. Thus, the Bible reveals that the LORD God is tri-personal. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are thus co-equal and co-eternal for each of them exhausts the divine nature or we can say the Father is fully God, the Son is fully God and the Holy Spirit is fully God.
Yet, in another sense they are not the same. They are not the same in their persons or personal characteristics. Staying very close to Biblical language, we can simply say that the Father is the Father of the Son or that the Son is begotten of the Father, or he is the only or unique Son of the Father. So, the Son is from the Father but since the Son is also declared to be God, he is from the Father in an eternal capacity. This means that he is not a creature but shares fully in the same divine essence or nature as the Father. So, a filial and paternal bond or relationship is revealed in Scripture to exist between the Father and the Son, like such relationships of love and care, which are found between parents and children among human beings. However, there is not an exact equivalency between human parents and children and the Father and the Son. The relationship of the Father and Son is divine and eternal. This is not the case with human paternal and filial relationships, which are finite and creaturely.
The same applies with the Holy Spirit’s relation with both the Father and the Son. As stated above the word spirit can also mean wind or breath. It is clear from the Bible that the Spirit also comes forth from the Father. The Biblical word is that the Spirit “proceeds” from the Father (Jn. 15:26) but what does this mean? Well, when we exhale breath leaves our throats and mouths. If the temperature is 32 degrees fahrenheit or below, we can actually see the breath come out of our mouths into the atmosphere. Of course this breath or carbon dioxide is not personal. However, the Holy Spirit, as we have seen above, is a person. He proceeds as the Spirit from the Father and in the same way (but only analogically) as breath proceeds from us on a winter day. Yet the Holy Spirit is not the inanimate breath of the Father but as shown above is a person. Since the Holy Spirit is also by nature God, this procession is eternal. He eternally proceeds personally from the Father. What this means, as the Scripture’s language reveals, is that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father. The Holy Spirit, while distinct from the Father, has his eternal origin and relationship from the Father. Also, because he is said to be the same Spirit of the Son, he comes from the Son. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son and thus proceeds from both but is not simply a faculty of either but a person.
All I have done above is seek to use Biblical language but of course I have also sought to interpret such language and expressions, keeping in mind that Biblical language used to reveal to us realities about the ineffable God and the persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is analogical. This means that while there are similarities between the Bible’s language about the being of God and the persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and what we know from human experience, there are no direct equivalences. Therefore, care needs to be taken when we seek to handle the Bible’s language in this regard; so we do not draw equivalencies from our human experiences and use them as a grid by which we interpret the Bible’s language on matters pertaining to God and the persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Eight Parameters
In the material presented above there are eight parameters laid out concerning the being of God and the persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit that I have sought to show are Biblical. They are like Biblical boundary markers within which one must remain when seeking to understand, interpret and explain the Bible’s teaching on the nature of God and the persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Those parameters are these:
The Bible teaches that there is one God
The Bible teaches that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are persons.
The Bible teaches that the Father is fully God.
The Bible teaches that the Son is fully God.
The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is fully God.
The Bible teaches that the Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit.
The Bible teaches that the Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit.
The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son.
I have endeavored to show that these declarations are what in fact the Bible teaches. More can be drawn from Scripture to be sure but whatever else we may think the Bible teaches about the being of God and the persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit our interpretations must remain within these eight parameters or they are simply not Biblical. It is my humble conviction that the third principle of the 2026 proposed Declaration of Principles is centered within these parameters and is therefore Biblical.