Dr. Terry Wiles: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Truly Distinct—Never Separate—Fully Divine (Part 2)

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II. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

The Father is revealed as God

Jesus expressly speaks of “God the Father” (John 6:27). Paul confesses “one God, the Father” and attributes all things to Him (1 Corinthians 8:6). Ephesians 4:6 and 1 Peter 1:2 likewise identify the Father as God.

In many New Testament passages, God particularly designates the Father, while Lord designates Jesus Christ. We should not assume that this pattern means only the Father possesses deity. Context must determine the referent, and the wider testimony concerning the Son must also be heard.

The Father is fully God. This does not mean that He alone is divine, nor that He is the Son or the Holy Spirit. Fullness of deity does not erase distinction.

The Son is revealed as God

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” —
John 1:1, KJV

John holds distinction and deity together. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He does not say that the Word first became divine at Bethlehem. The Word who already was
became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

John 1:3 places every created thing in relation to the Word’s creative agency. Colossians 1:16–
17 likewise attributes the creation and continuing coherence of all things to the Son. These
claims distinguish Him from the created order.

Thomas addresses the risen Jesus as “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Hebrews addresses the Son as God and applies to Him language from Psalm 102 concerning the enduring Creator (Hebrews 1:8–12). Colossians 2:9 declares that the entire fullness of deity dwells in Christ bodily.

The Son also receives divine honor. Jesus requires that all honor the Son as they honor the
Father (John 5:23). Philippians 2:10–11 applies the universal homage of Isaiah 45:23 to the confession of Jesus as Lord, to the Father’s glory. The Son’s honor does not establish a rival divine glory.

These passages form a cumulative case. We do not rest it on an ambiguous title or assume that every statement about Jesus is equally explicit. The conclusion defended here is that the Son is eternal and fully divine, truly distinct from the Father, but not a second God beside Him.

The Holy Spirit is revealed as God

Peter describes Ananias’s deception first as a lie to the Holy Spirit and then as a lie to God (Acts 5:3–4). A lie can be directed against the Spirit; this does not mean that God can successfully be deceived.

The Spirit speaks and calls workers to His own work (Acts 13:2–4). He distributes gifts
according to His will (1 Corinthians 12:11), teaches (John 14:26), intercedes (Romans 8:26–27), and can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30). This combined testimony does not describe an impersonal energy.

The Spirit knows the depths of God (1 Corinthians 2:10–11). Paul’s analogy with a human spirit illustrates intimate knowledge; it must not be turned into a complete model that reduces the

Spirit to one faculty or component of God.

Believers are God’s temple because God’s Spirit dwells in them (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). The Spirit gives new life and renews God’s people (John 3:5–8; Titus 3:5–6). Read together, these passages identify His indwelling as God’s presence, not merely the arrival of a created representative.

The Spirit is distinguished from Father and Son. Jesus asks the Father to give another Comforter (John 14:16–17); the Spirit bears witness to Jesus and glorifies Him (John 15:26; 16:14). Yet the discourse also promises the presence of Jesus and the Father with believers (John 14:18, 23).

Distinction does not become separate deity.

Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit in the KJV refer to the same Spirit. The corresponding Spanish expression is Espíritu Santo. Neither grammatical gender nor the pronouns selected by a translation should carry the burden of proving His deity or genuine agency.

The Three are revealed together

Matthew 28:19 names Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the singular name into which disciples are baptized. The singular supports a unified confession, but grammar alone does not prove the complete doctrine. The verse belongs with the wider evidence already examined.

Paul describes access to the Father through Christ by one Spirit (Ephesians 2:18), and joins Christ’s grace, God’s love, and the Spirit’s communion in his benediction (2 Corinthians 13:14). Christian prayer, baptism, and fellowship thus have a threefold pattern within faith in the one God.

These passages do not portray three divine jurisdictions through which believers must pass.
They reveal the related action of Father, Son, and Spirit in the one saving work of God.

III. Truly Distinct—Never Separate—Fully Divine

Distinction without division

The Father sends the Son; the Son prays to the Father; the Spirit bears witness to the Son. These relationships are genuine. They cannot be reduced to temporary names or changing appearances.

Jesus also says that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him (John 14:10–11). This mutual indwelling does not identify Him as the Father. Nor does it describe physical objects contained inside each other. It directs us toward a relationship that created spatial arrangements cannot adequately represent.

John 17:21–23 compares the unity of believers with that of Father and Son. Believers do not thereby become one divine being. Neither should the analogy be reversed to reduce Father and Son to separate beings who merely cooperate. The comparison is genuine without making the two forms of unity identical in every respect.

Inseparable work, distinguishable missions

John 5:19–23 links the Father’s action with the Son’s action, including giving life and receiving honor. Historically, Trinitarian theology describes God’s work toward creation as inseparable: not three independent divine projects. Gregory of Nyssa explicitly appeals to undivided divine operation in his argument against three Gods.1

Inseparable does not mean interchangeable. The Son—not the Father or the Spirit—became incarnate. The Son suffered and died in His assumed humanity; this does not mean that the Father was crucified. The incarnation is the work of the triune God, but its personal subject is
the Son.

Scripture reveals sending, obedience, authority, and subjection. These relations must be honored without turning them into degrees of deity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equally and fully divine; no hierarchy of divine nature, worth, or deity is affirmed or implied. The biblical order

of mission and, in the incarnation, the Son’s genuine human obedience should therefore be described as relationship and mission, not as unequal Godhood.

Full deity without portions or copies

Fully divine means eternal and uncreated, not merely godlike. The Father is not one-third of
God, the Son another third, and the Spirit the remainder. God is not assembled from them.

Nor do they possess three separate instances of a common kind of nature, as three human beings possess humanity. Their divine being and nature are one and undivided. When we say that they share deity, we do not mean division of property or possession of separate copies.

1 Gregory of Nyssa, On “Not Three Gods,” addressed to Ablabius, especially the argument from inseparable divine operation. English translation: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2905.htm

The Son’s genuine human will and obedience must also be preserved. Divine unity does not make His human struggle unreal, and His human obedience does not establish a conflict between separate divine beings. The distinction between Trinity and incarnation is essential: one divine nature is confessed in the Trinity; divine and human natures are confessed in the one incarnate Son.2

IV. Naming the Divine Reality in English and Spanish

Godhead: lexical meaning and theological use

Godhead is an older English word meaning deity, Godhood, or divine nature. Its ending is historically related to -hood; it does not mean a chairman or head presiding over others. The lexical meaning must be distinguished from the fuller doctrinal explanation supplied in this
study.3

The KJV uses Godhead for three related Greek expressions: to theion in Acts 17:29, theiotēs in Romans 1:20, and theotēs in Colossians 2:9. They concern the divine being, divine nature, or deity. Theotēs in Colossians 2:9 supports the confession of Christ’s full deity. We should not turn differences of lexical emphasis into an absolute separation of God’s nature from His attributes.4

The New Testament does not employ Godhead as an English technical label containing a fully developed Trinitarian definition. Our controlled theological use is: the one undivided divine being and nature of God. This explanation joins the word’s meaning to the wider scriptural confession of one God.

Godhead does not name a fourth reality above Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a container holding them, or a collection assembled from them. To reduce spatial misunderstanding, the preferred wording is: “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are truly distinct; their divine being and nature are one and undivided.”

Spanish equivalents and cautions

Deidad is a suitable principal Spanish equivalent; Divinidad is also established. Neither is immune from ambiguity. Spanish dictionaries recognize meanings referring to divine essence or

2 Council of Chalcedon (451), Definition of Faith: one and the same Son, truly divine and truly human, with the distinction of natures preserved. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3811.htm. See also John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith III.14, on divine and human willing: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/33043.htm

3 Merriam-Webster, “godhead,” Word History: Middle English godhed, from god and -hed, related to -hood. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/godhead. The expanded Trinitarian definition here is the study’s theological use, not a verbatim dictionary definition.

4 Greek forms and lexical entries: to theion (Acts 17:29), https://biblehub.com/greek/2304.htm; theiotēs (Romans 1:20), https://biblehub.com/greek/2305.htm; theotēs (Colossians 2:9), https://biblehub.com/greek/2320.htm. See the reproduced Strong, NAS, and Thayer lexical sections; distinctions of emphasis should not be overstated.

nature and meanings referring to an individual deity. Context and explanation matter more than capitalization or an article by itself.5

The preferred explanatory phrase is la única e indivisible naturaleza divina de Dios. The adjective divino also has broader uses, so plenamente divinos must be understood here as plenamente Dios, not merely possessing godlike qualities.

The full English formulation remains fixed. The following is an explanatory Spanish rendering, not a claim that every English word has a single exact counterpart:

Dios es uno: Padre, Hijo y Espíritu Santo. El Padre, el Hijo y el Espíritu Santo son

eternamente y verdaderamente distintos, nunca separados, y cada uno es plenamente Dios. No son tres dioses ni tres partes de Dios. Su ser y naturaleza divina son uno e indivisibles. En

este estudio, «Deidad» se refiere al único ser de Dios y a su naturaleza divina indivisible, no a
un conjunto de seres divinos separados.

The English and Spanish explanations must reject both separate divine beings and merely temporary divine roles. Neither language should force a word-for-word correspondence at the expense of meaning.