Are you an atheist?

By calling Himself the Son of Man, Jesus was making a divine statement that set Him apart from His human flesh. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit in Virgin Mary’s womb. He was truly human as the rest of us. This is why, in the human form, He had body (Luke 24:39), He experienced hunger when He fasted (Matthew 4:2), was weary (John 4:6), had soul with human emotions – marvel and sorrow (Matthew 8:10 & Matt. 26:38), and bled when injured.

But the spirit with which He was conceived, was of God.

God is a spirit (John 4:24)

When we say that Jesus is man, we do not simply mean that he is partially man. We mean that he is fully human – everything that belongs to the essence of true humanity is true of him. So Jesus was hundred percent divine and hundred percent human, each nature is full and complete.

Evertime he says “Me/Mine”, He implies His earthly form. And when He says “My Father”, He implies the Spirit of God present in Him.

In Luke 18:18-19, as a man, He said that none is good except God. But as the Lord, He said “I am the good Shepherd” (John 10:11)

In Matthew 4:1-11, as a man, saw that the devil tempted Him. As the Lord, He did not fall into that temptation (James 1:13).

In John 8:28, as a man, the Father taught Him. As the Lord, He Himself is wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30)

In Matthew 24:36, as a man, He was ignorant of when He would return. As the Lord, He knows all things. (1 John 3:20)

The Father, The Son of God, The Holy Spirit – All these are one.

I and the Father are one. (John 10:30)

For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. (1 John 5:7)

Whenever a number is specifically attributed to God in the Bible, that number is always one.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord (Deuteronomy 6:4)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made, and without him not one thing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light for humankind. (John 1:1-4)

And the Word became flesh, and moved His tent in among us; and we beheld His glory, the glory as of an only begotten from a Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

And His name is called the Word of God. (Revelation 19:13)

For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God. For God does not give the Spirit by measure (to Him). The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. (John 3:34-35)

So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11)

but, just as the Father has commanded Me, this I do, so that the world may know that I love the Father. (John 14:31)

It is the Spirit that quickens. The flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak to you, are spirit and life. (John 6:63)

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, (Colossians 2:9)

Then said Mary to the angel, How will this be, seeing I do not know a man? And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you. Therefore also, that holy thing which will be born of you will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:34-35)

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world. (Matthew 28:18-20)

And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, so that He may be with you forever, which is the Spirit of Truth – whom the world cannot receive, because the world neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him. For he dwells with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, but will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see Me no more. But you will see Me. For I live, and you will live. That day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. (John 14:16-20)

This I have spoken to you being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit (whom my Father will send in My name), He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have told you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, and do not fear. You have heard how I said to you, I am going away, and coming again to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice that I said, ‘I am going to the Father;’ for my Father is greater than I. (John 14:25-28)

For if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He is come, He will rebuke the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you will see Me no more; and of judgment, because the chief ruler of this world is judged already. I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot receive them now. However, when He is come (I mean the Spirit of truth), He will lead you into all truth. He will not speak of Himself, but whatever He hears, that He will speak, and He will show you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will show it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said to you that He will take of Mine and show it to you. After a while you will not see Me, and again after a while you will see Me, because I go to the Father. (John 16: 7-16)

Simply, there is no verse that states that God is in three essence.

According to Swedenborg, this is precisely the case. There are three essential parts of a human being without which we would not be human:

Soul
Body
Actions
(“Actions” includes what we say or write as well.)

These are all common Biblical concepts.

This forms the basis for a simple, clear understanding of the Trinity in one divine Person of God:

The Father is the divine soul.
The Son is the divine body, or human manifestation.
The Holy Spirit is all of God’s words and actions flowing out from God.
We would never say that there are three “persons” in a human being because that human being has three essential parts: soul, body, and actions.

Similarly, if God has a divine soul, which is the Father, a divine body, which is the Son, and a divine proceeding or flowing outward, which is the Holy Spirit, we would never say that there are three “persons” of God. Rather, we would say that there is one God with three essential components.

Another way of formulating the Trinity in God is:

The Father is the divine love, which is the underlying substance or soul of God. (1 John 4:8 and 4:16 state that “God is love.”)
The Son is the divine wisdom, which is the expression or human presence of God. (John 1:14 states that “the Word became flesh and lived among us.”)
The Holy Spirit is the divine proceeding, which is God’s truth and power flowing out into the universe, and to humans and angels. (John 14:26 says, “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything.”)
If we think of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in this way, many otherwise confusing statements in the Bible make perfect sense.

For example, the highly philosophical opening statement in the Gospel of John (John 1:1-18) becomes a luminous poetic expression of God expressing himself through his eternal Word, which was made flesh (human) as Jesus Christ.

It also makes perfect sense that Jesus said “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), since Jesus is the human presence and expression of the Father, which is his inner divine soul. And of course, when Jesus says, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), that also makes perfect sense.

If any truth were to come to us direct from God, we wouldn’t be able to understand it. Pure truth as it exists in the mind of God is far beyond the capacity of our limited human minds to grasp. Much of the language applied to God in the Bible is poetic and symbolic rather than literal and technical. But the fact is, if God were to speak to us the way God actually thinks, we humans would not even be able to understand the words, let alone the ideas behind them. We would be like a kindergarten class attending a lecture by a nuclear physicist. That’s why the Bible uses metaphors such as “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” in describing God’s characteristics.

However, if we interpret these metaphors in the right way, with God’s wisdom, then everything that the Bible says about God, and about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, falls beautifully into place. God took the cultural history that we humans carved out, and wrote a divine message on it. The finger of God has inscribed deeper, spiritual and divine meanings into the stories, prophecy, and poetry of our Bible.

And yet, if we look deeper, and see what God’s finger has inscribed into the Bible narrative, we can see more and more clearly the message of love, wisdom, and compassion for our fellow human beings that God is continually offering to us within those sacred pages.

God’s eternal divine truth shines through the pages of the Bible in a form that we can see, understand, and take to heart. And that divine truth has the power to transform our lives.

This blog post, of course, may raise more questions than it answers. But I hope it is enough to show that there is a coherent, Bible-based rejection of the widely accepted brain-bending and logic-defying doctrine of a Trinity of persons in God.