At the Baptism of Yahshua haMashiach (Jesus Christ), He was in the Jordan, the Father's voice was heard from heaven and the Holy Spirit descended on Him (Mark 1:9-11). Christ prayed to the Father, and promised that the Father would send the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). These passages prove that there are three distinct Persons in the Godhead, thus disqualifying the claims of Jehovah's Witnesses (who reject the Holy Spirit's personality), the United Pentecostal Church (which claims that God acts in three separate 'modes' but in never more than one at any time), and Unitarians.

At the same time that all Three are distinct, the presence of One means the presence of All. The Spirit of God in the heart means Christ in the heart (Romans 8:9-11). There is a wonderful sequence in John 14:16,18,23 where the coming of the Spirit is the coming of Christ Himself, and also is the coming of the Father to dwell with the believer. Therefore the Three Divine Persons of the Godhead may be said to be ONE.

Beyond this the Bible does not go. Classical Trinitarians go much further, though, in claiming that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are CO-EQUAL. And whilst there are many scriptures that support this conclusion in one sense, there are many others which indicate that they are not co-equal in another (e.g. John 14:28; 5:19; 20:17; 4:23-24; Philippians 2:5-8; 1 Corinthians 11:3; 15:28; 8:6; 1 Peter 1:3; Mark 15:34; Revelation 1:1; 3:12; Matthew 20:23; etc.).

The full co-equality doctrine of classical Triniatrianism was nearly entirely absent from the Christian Church in the first three centuries which taught a doctrine of SUBORDINATION. This doctrine about the Godhead teaches that the Son is subordinate to the Father, and/or the Holy Spirit is subordinate to both.

Controversy surrounded a final doctrine of the Holy Spirit for many centuries with many interpretations being offered. The Pneumatomachi, while maintainig the divinity of the Son, denied the full Godhead of the Holy Spirit and their teaching was condemned by the Catholic Pope Damasus in AD 347 and was anathematised at the Council of Constantinople in 381 and its adherants persecuted out of existence by 383 when its victims became the victims of the Theodosian anti-heresy laws.

Though New Covenant Christians are by no means Pneumatomachi, we do believe that they were right up to a point. For we teach that whilst the members of the Godhead are not co-equal in terms of authority and power of themselves, that they are co-equal by jurisdictional declaration of the Father. This means that both the classical Trinitarian and Pneumatomachi position are considered true by us. It is the only way to reconcile the two seemingly opposed sets of scriptures, the one teaching trinitarian co-equality and the other pneumatomachian subordinationalism.

This has necessarily been a long and rather technical look at the Holy Spirit because it is an area of disagreement between New Covenant Christian Proto-Trinitarianism and the "classical" Trinitarianism evolved by the Catholic Councils at Nicea (325) and Constantinople (381).

New Covenant Christians claim no ultimate solution to the Godhead Mystery. There is no, final NCCG dogma. We do, however, insist that all the Scriptures be taken into consideration.