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why not? I thought they were all one and they all have the same diety, not one godhead more than the other.
Well, yes. God is one in essence but three separate persons. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are three different persons who all have the same identical essence. The three together form the Godhead or trinity. Each one is God in and of Himself and the three together are God. Just one God,not three Gods.
Through out the Bible you will find Jesus Christ being referred to in a specific passage without the other two being mentioned. And then there are also passages that will refer to all three together. The fact that they are all separate persons allows for any one of them to be referred to without mentioning the other two in the same verse.
That they all have the same essence means that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all have the very same Sovereignty, Righteousness, Justice, Love, Eternal Life, Omniscience, Omnipresence, Omnipotence, Immutability, and Veracity.
Of course God is one. Yet it requires three beings to = One God.
And that is why we see God sayng in the first book of the Bible. Let (US) make man in (OUR) image and in (OUR) likness. Only God was involoved in creation, yet it was the other members of the Godhead that God was speaking to here. And that is why the Old Testament tells us the God of the Old Testament made all things, and yet we read in the New Testament that Jesus Christ made all things. And that is why we read in 1 John 5:7 There are three that bear witiness in heaven, the Father, the Word(Jesus) and the Holy Ghost, and these three (ARE ONE).
IMMEDIATE DISCLAIMER: ~~June truly is the last person to know the answer to this one! Take whatever comes out of her mouth with a grain of salt, and let it suffice to say that she is STILL in the process of breaking down that first sentence ever since Alpha's "John Thread!"
P.S. ^^ "Grrrrrr....!"
June's take: June couldn't help but wonder whether John wasn't outrageously brilliant in writing (what is perhaps) one of the most superb opening statements/lines in history. June figured that in it's being a parallel to the opening lines in Genesis, that John was essentially establishing and relating the sovereignty of Jesus up front. In that respect, it more or less speaks to the fact that the God of the OT, and the heralding in of Jesus as presented in John's gospel are in fact, the same ones. So John, (to June's ignorant way of thinking) was setting that precedent right off the bat.
As far as the absence of the Holy Spirit in that first line, June always thought that it wasn't until the the death of Jesus that the Holy Spirit was introduced, "sent" and as such, John's initial focus was on setting the stage for the inter-relationship of the three. In other words, while the three are One, the Father (in loving the Son) sent Jesus. Jesus, in turn, (in His love for all mankind) sent the Holy Spirit in the aftermath of his death as a means by which the 'comforter' could better enable mankind to remain in relationship with Him.
Thus, the Trinity is One via their being relational. Jesus's sending of the Holy Spirit, in turn, makes God relational, as well (through love) for mankind.
It's also an incredibly effective means by which to inter-connect the OT and John's gospel, thereby making it more credible to his readers.
--Is June making any sense here? (I'm tellin' ya, nonbeliever's really shouldn't try and take on these sort of things, at least not this early in the morning!!!)
Oh well. At least she tried...
Take gentle care.
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