Question:  Hi Greg,

            I have wanted to mail you about questions regarding the Holy Spirit: did the Triune God always exist?

            My thinking is that the Trinity could not have always existed because Jesus was born as a human being.  His physical body was born at a specific time and place on this earth.  From my understanding, the Holy Spirit always existed.  It says that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  Does that mean that when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in Matthew 3:13-15 and then the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles (at Pentecost) that these were actual events that symbolized the power of the Holy Spirit which always existed?

            Does my understanding suggest that God the Father and the Holy Spirit were two before Jesus, and then the mystery of the Trinity was revealed when Jesus was born and existed on earth?

            Thanks Greg.  Peace be with you.

            Robert

Answer:  Hello Robert,

            The fact that the Eternal Son of God, the second person of the triune Godhead became Jesus at a specific time in history does not mean that the Triune Godhead has not existed from eternity.  The incarnation of the Eternal Son of God, God the “One and Only” (John 1:18) simply means that he took a human body that he never had before and that he entered time and space, but it certainly does not invalidate his eternity.

            I would suggest you think of the mystery of the Trinity more this way: before the incarnation God was known as the one true God (Deuteronomy 6:44).  God is one, and this was the great challenge in the Old Testament—as the monotheistic people of God, the Jews, lived amongst polytheistic pagan cultures.  Idolatry is continually mentioned throughout the Old Testament as the great challenge and downfall of Israel.

            When God came to be one of us in the person of Jesus he came, as prophesied, as a Jew—to do what no human could do or ever had done: to fulfill the old covenant.  But there were specific obstacles that one might expect even if there was no knowledge of what actually did take place in Jesus’ life and ministry.  We would expect that the Jews, who had a long history of going after other gods, captivities, the Diaspora, etc., who had finally learned their lesson about one God, would have a problem with anyone who came claiming to be a “second” God.  Indeed, as we know, they did.  John 5:18 summarized, telling us that the Jews tried to kill Jesus because he (1) “broke” the Sabbath, and (2) called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

            Jesus was God in the flesh.  The early Christians in the book of Acts accepted, affirmed and believed this, as did the early church in its councils and creeds.  But the early church had another challenge—the third divine Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.  While the Spirit is talked about in the Old Testament and in the gospels, there is very little that would lead the Jews to think that the Spirit was an equal, co-essential Person of the Godhead.  But the book of Acts makes that clear, and it was another challenge, particularly for Jewish Christians, to accept the fact that God is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

            Hope this helps, Robert.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht