Sergio,dear Sergio. This information brings tears. I have been confused about the Holy Spirit and many things like the meaning of, "be holy as I am holy" and the vision of dry bones for...well, all my life. I was in junior high when the Jesus movement and Jesus Music transformed Christianity regarding the Holy Spirit, not Jesus really. My grandma was pentacostal. My mother could never speak in tongues and didn't like feeling second rate at church so she left and eventually became Baptist. That is how I grew up. I went to a Bible college in Montana fashioned after Moody. I was a double Bible and music major. I craved not only the ability to rightly divide God's word but also good judgement and the understanding and power to live uprightly and to be merciful to others. I never became a member of any church because I wanted the recognition to be mutual and practical. Because of this, I have brothers and sisters in the Lord from almost every walk and tradition. They are my real church community around the world and nearby. This fact also paints me into a corner of suspicion when I say or do things that surprise someone who thought they knew me pretty well.
Two years ago, I was asked by my church women's ministry to write two studies and participate with a season of studying the Holy Spirit. It did not end well. The more I studied, the less I knew about The Holy Spirit. I was utterly awed but utterly confused as well. In the Psalms and Old Testament, I saw what you are describing, the breath of God like the strong arm of God. The confusion affected a long held problem with dispensationalism which I had rejected long ago without even realizing how I'd outgrown that unbiblical interpretation. Anyway, I (my husband an I) attend an evangelical Presbyterian church and have for most of our marriage.
That participation in the Holy Spirit Bible study ruined my reputation there and created an awkwardness that has not yet been healed, especially during weekly communion, as Imy pastor's wife is very powerful in the church and was the one who rewrote both of my studies and asked me to leave the study. All of this, and I was no closer to reconstructing who the Holy Spirit is in my own beliefs! This deconstruction of such a power point of the Faith has been resting quietly in shambles until this article. All I can say is thank you from the core of my being for helping me know who I worship.
hey Laura, thank you for sharing! i'm quite sure many others have been in, or are still in, very similar situations. it helps when we find that others struggle in similar ways as us, not because “misery loves company”, but because we are reminded by a real world situation that we are not alone in the way we struggle against the spiritual realm.
i pray that God will strengthen you to not let any awkwardness you feel among your congregation negatively affect your spirit. my wife often reminds me that one of satan’s goals is to “persecute” or “wear down/out” the patience of the saints (Daniel 7:25).
i understand God’s Holy Spirit as being the vessel or mechanism — the Spirit and power of both YHWH the Father & YHWH the Son — through which They make Their abode within and write Their laws into our hearts/minds/souls.
that i have this understanding and mainstream Christians believe all Three are one being living within our hearts/minds/souls is not really worlds apart.
unfortunately, it seems (in my experience anyway) that too many believers make doctrines other than Christ salvation dependent, or “salvational issues”. such is why there are so many denominations. denominations/congregations sometimes split over minute differences of doctrine.
for example among the Sabbatarian congregations/denominations i’ve been in for ~30 years now, i’ve witnessed several splits over how & when to observe both the Old & New Covenant memorials of Passover.
why? in my view, they make such matters salvation dependent, in the same manner as did the mainstream Christian who told me nearly 30 years ago that i am not saved and/or a true Christian unless i believed in the trinitarian Godhead.
keep shining the Light within you to those who might not yet understand that we are not saved by the degree of knowledge we have of God’s truths. “kill them with kindness”. continue practicing yielding the fruit of God’s Spirit which is inside of you (Galatians 5:22-23).
i also find it helpful to try and remember that all these battles we have among the flesh, are truly spiritual battles. so behind every negativity of the flesh we accurately discern, there is an unclean spirit of some kind. this helps me redirect any fleshly thoughts i might have in my own weakness toward that spirit, rather than that person.
i hope you don’t mind my sharing these thoughts which came to me upon reading your heartfelt comment. Godbless… 🙏🏼😎❤️♾️
Oh, thank you for taking the time to share these things. I appreciate your prayer as I am learning a lot which puts me into no-man’s-land, but your perspective is mine also. Unless it is a matter of salvation, or to me, a matter of disparaging God himself, then It is not worth disfellowshipping over. I love these provoking discussions and even believe that days of rest should be full of them because they are delightful and energizing and corrective.
Wow, Laura, I don't even know how to respond to this. I am so sorry that you went through that. It's amazing to me how people will defend ideologies. I am so thankful that this resonated with you. That makes my time and efforts a hundred percent worth every pen stroke. Good luck. I pray that you feel better now, and maybe sharing this with some people might help.
Can you speak to the helper given to believers by Jesus at his ascension and address the passages that the Church uses to personalize and differentiate the Holy Spirit from Jesus and the Father, please?
Yeshua says the Father will send “another Helper.” Then three verses later He says, “I will not leave you as orphans — I will come to you.” Then a few verses after that: “We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” The Helper is not a third party arriving while God stays behind. It is how they are present after Yeshua’s physical departure. Same God. Still breathing.
Sha'ul is quoting Isaiah 63:10 — one of only three times Ruach HaKodesh appears in the entire Tanakh. Look at the grammar: they grieved HIS set-apart breath. The grief belongs to HaShem. The Ruach is how He is present. Rejecting it is rejecting Him.
You can grieve someone's heart. That does not make the heart a separate person.
A valued article that brings hunger to the soul. Thank you for sharing your studies. It brings great hunger to dig deeper than I ever had before into His word. Your writings help me to live and learn beyond tradition that has permeated the church of today.
What can I say Sergio. In the past year, you have been one of the few who have opened my eyes and allowed my heart to receive literally something new and refreshing.
I've been convicted to the core and a slow subtle transformation is taking place not just within me but within my household.
This piece simply overwhelmed me. Images crashed my mind and I was left standing in awe!
Hello Brother Sergio, I wanted to take a moment to wish you a Blessed Passover and thank you for your incredible writing and dedication. I just started following you recently and I have already received so much. Last year it was revealed to me through my reading, study and prayer that Jesus did not come to invent a new religion. Your work and words have reinforced this understanding and for this I am grateful.
Bro, I wanted to further express my thoughts on this magnificent body of work and apologize for my brief acknowledgment late last evening.
Sergio, this is a weighty and arresting piece of work. You have done what far too few are willing to do: you have forced the reader back through the fog of inherited terminology and into the fierce, clean air of the Hebrew text. That is no small labor. It is scholarship with a pulse, grammar with the gravity of Kavod; an exegesis that dares to make men tremble again before our God who breathes.
As I read your article, my spirit came to rest in the blazing center of all biblical revelation, namely this, that whatever must be said about the breath of God, the presence of God, the self-disclosure of God, or the acting power of God, the apostolic witness drives all roads toward one majestic and unrepeatable conclusion: “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Not partially, not symbolically, not by borrowed measure, but bodily, fully, finally, and without rival, in Jesus Christ alone.
That is why the ancient confession still thunders across the centuries: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד, Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. And that oneness is not diminished in Christ; it is unveiled in Him. Jesus is not a fracture of the Divine identity, nor a secondary emanation standing adjacent to God. He is the embodied self-revelation of the one true God, the Ruach HaKodesh (Spirit, breathe, fullness) made flesh, the Holy One walking among us, the eternal God brought near enough to behold, hear, touch, and worship.
I deeply appreciate the rigor of your study presented in this article, as it brings clarity to the reality of God's majestic headship within the full context of His Godhead. It does not lessen Christ Jesus or His Spirit; it magnifies Him. It clears away the haze. It strips the scaffolding. It leaves us staring again at the awful and glorious splendor of the One in whom all divine fullness dwells. And when all the parsing is done, all the councils revisited, all the categories tested, the Church must still fall at the feet of Jesus and say, with trembling certainty, Here is the fullness. Here is the divine life unveiled in flesh. Here is the Last Adam. Here is the One. -- WEHII
What you’ve described captures the miracle at the very center of salvation: God Himself breathing His own Life into dust. And for the authentic believer, that breath doesn’t just begin the story—it sustains it. The same Spirit who raised Yeshua from the dead now lives within us, not as an abstract force but as the very breath of God continually animating our inner being. Salvation isn’t merely the moment He breathes; discipleship is learning to breathe with Him.
The indwelling Life of Christ is that ongoing Genesis 2:7 reality—God breathing from within the believer, not merely upon them. It is Ezekiel 37 happening in the present tense: dead places rising, dry bones strengthening, hearts awakening. It is Joel 2 fulfilled in the quiet chambers of the soul: restoration, renewal, and the Spirit poured out not around us but through us.
Receiving the Spirit is not acquiring a spiritual accessory. It is receiving the very Life of Yeshua, who now expresses Himself through our thoughts, desires, words, and actions. We don’t carry Him like a possession; He carries us like a living temple. And every act of obedience, every moment of clarity, every surge of courage is the evidence of His breath moving through our lungs.
He breathed—and we stood.
He indwells—and we live.
He fills—and we become vessels of His own Life poured out to the world.
That is salvation. That is the Spirit. That is the miracle of Christ in you.
Sergio, I've been lurking for awhile now... Certainly interesting and seemed in alignment with us, but wasn't sure where you were coming from exactly, or why I would want to pay for a subscription... and now this article. WOW. This type of Root study is exactly what my husband and I are looking for, subject upon subject, trying to understand and reconcile the the Brit Hadashah with the Tanakh, while not being Hebrew or Greek scholars.
As I was reading through the article, I was hoping to ask you for your sources and then BOOM, you listed Dig Deeper sources!
Today I finally read your About page and your FAQs, and I found that you are about as close to us as possible in the way you approach and search the scriptures and make choices in how to live. We could have written your "What's Your Theological Background" verbatim for ourselves. This article, plus the FAQs, plus the non-profit you've created... SUBSCRIPTION PAID!
I look forward to the studies! My husband is going to LOVE the Root studies with bibliographies. Thank you! -Kimberly Carlson
Kimberly, this genuinely made my day. The fact that you and your husband are doing this work together — wrestling with the text, holding the tension between the two testaments, refusing to settle for easy answers — that's exactly who this table is set for. Welcome! Tell your husband the bibliography only gets longer from here. 🙂
Shalom Sergio. A great article. Would you mind if I read it in my assembly? I think that would help some people. Because there is much question about the nature of God.
The triune God is certainly a mystery, and I think any analogy that we come up with fails, in some way. I may have thoughts, words, and a breath that carries them, but I surely don’t have conversations with myself, unless of course, I’m mentally ill. I think this is where the “mode” analogy breaks down. I can’t see any option that is more accurate than persons, given the fact that it’s a mystery that can’t be fully understood. I did read the link btw, thank you!
So is your argument that the Son mode simply pretended to communicate with the Father mode (both in private prayer and verbal communication), simply as an example for us?
But “persons” isn’t a Bible word. It’s a council word. Nicaea, 325 AD. The guys who wrote the New Testament didn’t use it. They were Jewish. They read the Shema every day. One God.
Yeshua prays in Gethsemane because he’s genuinely human. Real flesh, real will, real struggle. That’s the whole point of him becoming one of us. The prayer is real. But a real prayer doesn’t automatically mean two separate Gods having a conversation.
You’re asking me to explain a Hebrew mystery using Greek philosophy’s vocabulary. I’m not sure that’s the right tool for the job.
I’ve never argued for two separate Gods. But if we use the mode analogy, communication is absolutely pointless. I understand you don’t like the term persons, but however we define it, the Scriptures are clear that something is going on between the Father and the Son that can’t be explained by the idea of a mode. How could the Father forsake the Son, for instance?
The forsaking question is the best one you’ve asked. But here’s what always gets missed. Yeshua isn’t having a conversation. He’s praying a psalm. Word for word. Psalm 22, first line. Every Jewish person in earshot knew exactly what he was doing – you quote the opening, you invoke the whole text. That psalm begins in desolation and ends in vindication and praise. Both. Same poem.
There’s no reply from the Father. No dialogue. One voice. Crying out. That’s not two persons talking – that’s a man dying, praying the most honest lament in the Hebrew library, which happens to contain the rescue inside the same breath as the abandonment.
But this brings me back to the original problem, that of Jesus simply talking to himself. Also, what would be the point of Jesus pleading with himself (on three separate occasions) to let the cup pass from him? Jesus had a will that wanted to avoid the brutal death that was coming, but he submitted himself to the Father’s will. Why would there be any communication whatsoever, let alone a hope for a different outcome, if the Son and Father are simply modes?
I guess my question, in more detail, would be, how do you define the obvious distinction of three somethings? You don’t see it as persons, so what do you see it as?
The Hebrew Scriptures describe one God who acts in multiple modes. Father is the source. Son is that same God embodied in Yeshua. Spirit is that same God’s breath and presence reaching into creation. Not three beings coordinating. One God expressing Himself in three distinct ways.
When you speak, you have a thought, a word, and the breath that carries it.
Nobody calls those three separate persons. Same person, three inseparable modes.
The Greek councils took those modes and assigned each one a separate ontological category. That framework does not come from the Hebrew Scriptures. It comes from Greek philosophy. Wear those glasses long enough and 28:19 looks like a Trinitarian proof-text.
Read it in its Jewish context and you see one God, three descriptions of the same reality. Not a committee.
Short answer: with the Greek in one hand and Acts in the other.
The standard reading treats 28:19 as a Trinitarian formula delivered to eleven eyewitnesses. If that’s true, Acts has a problem. Every baptism on record afterward uses in the name of Yeshua only. Acts 2:38. 8:16. 10:48. 19:5. Either the apostles unanimously ignored explicit post-resurrection instructions, or we’re reading 28:19 through a lens it was never written to carry.
The Eusebius data adds weight. He quotes this verse eighteen times before Nicaea, consistently rendering it “in my name” — then the formula shifts after the council.
The real question the text answers is whose authority backs this commission? Verse 18 gives you that. Daniel 7:13-14. All authority given to the Son of Man. That’s the anchor — not a three-part phrase attached to a water rite.
The deeper issue is the framework underneath the standard reading which is built in Greek philosophy, not the Hebrew Scriptures.
Excellent work you may be familiar with my Holy Spirit encounter guides and Holy Spirit encounter Bible as well as experiencing the Holy Spirit reach out to me. I’d love to connect with you. Dr. Larry Keefauver.
excellent study Sergio! upon reading over some of the comments, i’m so glad it has served to help other believers who have understandably struggled with this topic.
my study into the Godhead subject became pertinent when someone told me “you cannot be a Christian unless you adopt the trinitarian formula”. that said, i’ve heard likewise from fellow Sabbatarians regarding observing the weekly Sabbath & appointed times.
without even going into Hebrew or Greek, one major clue about the Godhead is the fact that much of the NT letters begin with some form of the phrase, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” having no mention of God’s Holy Spirit. if God was a “trinitarian hypostasis”, then why isn’t the “third part” mentioned in these greetings of the NT letters?
but what really put this entire “trinity” matter to rest for me is found within Christ’s prayer to the Father on the night of His betrayal.
John 17:
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
21 “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
22 “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:
23 “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
i believe many often forget that the phrase “being one” can have meanings other than “one being”. when Jesus says, “that they may be one just as We are one,” trinitarians seem to miss questioning just how the disciples were Biblically exemplified as “being one”.
certainly, they did not morph into one massive “hypostatic entity”, and Messiah certainly could not haver meant such an absurdity.
rather, He must have been praying for their “being one” in mind and spirit — as both the Father and Son are.
at this point and from my experience, i have to wonder if that prayer can ever fully be answered until Yahshua returns and all those in Christ (dead or alive) are transformed into spirit.
why might i think this? because it’s been ~2000 years since and believers cannot agree upon so many points of Biblical doctrine (failure of “being one” in mind), and then most often condemn one another as “heretics/heathens” for holding a different Biblical perspective (failure of “being one” in spirit).
yet, while i honestly long to give up trying to help fellow believers find ways of “being one” in spirit even if we are unable to “be one” in mind, i remain convinced that i have no other choice except to keep trying… even thought that too appears to be futile.
but i guess it’s sort of like spreading the gospel… or Jesus “patiently knocking at the door of our hearts” — we know that not everyone is going to answer the call in this present life, but it’s what God has commanded us to do.
so we must keep striving to help our flocks improve at “being one”, paramountly in spirit, and however we can in mind.
while knowing not everyone will accept the call of Jesus, i thankfully don’t wind up in despair for those loved ones whom i might wonder about whether or not they ever truly believed and accepted YHWH as their Savior, as i remain convinced that the “fair chance” doctrine is true — the belief that repentance is not prohibited in the second resurrection.
my current study on this topic comes from a different angle, but dovetails nicely with yours, which is certainly more detailed in comparing linguistic nuances between Hebrew & Greek. if you get a chance, perhaps you might check it out & provide feedback, both positive and negative.
Fascinating article. Much to contemplate. The Substack post grad reader will follow and appreciate this. I can’t help thinking though that somewhere some toothless hillbilly is living this daily in ways most of us should have been doing for years!
Sergio, you study correctly; you study from an Old Testament Christological framework, which opens the aperture of revelation to its widest, most brilliant revelatory view!
Sergio,dear Sergio. This information brings tears. I have been confused about the Holy Spirit and many things like the meaning of, "be holy as I am holy" and the vision of dry bones for...well, all my life. I was in junior high when the Jesus movement and Jesus Music transformed Christianity regarding the Holy Spirit, not Jesus really. My grandma was pentacostal. My mother could never speak in tongues and didn't like feeling second rate at church so she left and eventually became Baptist. That is how I grew up. I went to a Bible college in Montana fashioned after Moody. I was a double Bible and music major. I craved not only the ability to rightly divide God's word but also good judgement and the understanding and power to live uprightly and to be merciful to others. I never became a member of any church because I wanted the recognition to be mutual and practical. Because of this, I have brothers and sisters in the Lord from almost every walk and tradition. They are my real church community around the world and nearby. This fact also paints me into a corner of suspicion when I say or do things that surprise someone who thought they knew me pretty well.
Two years ago, I was asked by my church women's ministry to write two studies and participate with a season of studying the Holy Spirit. It did not end well. The more I studied, the less I knew about The Holy Spirit. I was utterly awed but utterly confused as well. In the Psalms and Old Testament, I saw what you are describing, the breath of God like the strong arm of God. The confusion affected a long held problem with dispensationalism which I had rejected long ago without even realizing how I'd outgrown that unbiblical interpretation. Anyway, I (my husband an I) attend an evangelical Presbyterian church and have for most of our marriage.
That participation in the Holy Spirit Bible study ruined my reputation there and created an awkwardness that has not yet been healed, especially during weekly communion, as Imy pastor's wife is very powerful in the church and was the one who rewrote both of my studies and asked me to leave the study. All of this, and I was no closer to reconstructing who the Holy Spirit is in my own beliefs! This deconstruction of such a power point of the Faith has been resting quietly in shambles until this article. All I can say is thank you from the core of my being for helping me know who I worship.
hey Laura, thank you for sharing! i'm quite sure many others have been in, or are still in, very similar situations. it helps when we find that others struggle in similar ways as us, not because “misery loves company”, but because we are reminded by a real world situation that we are not alone in the way we struggle against the spiritual realm.
i pray that God will strengthen you to not let any awkwardness you feel among your congregation negatively affect your spirit. my wife often reminds me that one of satan’s goals is to “persecute” or “wear down/out” the patience of the saints (Daniel 7:25).
i understand God’s Holy Spirit as being the vessel or mechanism — the Spirit and power of both YHWH the Father & YHWH the Son — through which They make Their abode within and write Their laws into our hearts/minds/souls.
that i have this understanding and mainstream Christians believe all Three are one being living within our hearts/minds/souls is not really worlds apart.
unfortunately, it seems (in my experience anyway) that too many believers make doctrines other than Christ salvation dependent, or “salvational issues”. such is why there are so many denominations. denominations/congregations sometimes split over minute differences of doctrine.
for example among the Sabbatarian congregations/denominations i’ve been in for ~30 years now, i’ve witnessed several splits over how & when to observe both the Old & New Covenant memorials of Passover.
why? in my view, they make such matters salvation dependent, in the same manner as did the mainstream Christian who told me nearly 30 years ago that i am not saved and/or a true Christian unless i believed in the trinitarian Godhead.
keep shining the Light within you to those who might not yet understand that we are not saved by the degree of knowledge we have of God’s truths. “kill them with kindness”. continue practicing yielding the fruit of God’s Spirit which is inside of you (Galatians 5:22-23).
i also find it helpful to try and remember that all these battles we have among the flesh, are truly spiritual battles. so behind every negativity of the flesh we accurately discern, there is an unclean spirit of some kind. this helps me redirect any fleshly thoughts i might have in my own weakness toward that spirit, rather than that person.
i hope you don’t mind my sharing these thoughts which came to me upon reading your heartfelt comment. Godbless… 🙏🏼😎❤️♾️
Oh, thank you for taking the time to share these things. I appreciate your prayer as I am learning a lot which puts me into no-man’s-land, but your perspective is mine also. Unless it is a matter of salvation, or to me, a matter of disparaging God himself, then It is not worth disfellowshipping over. I love these provoking discussions and even believe that days of rest should be full of them because they are delightful and energizing and corrective.
Wow, Laura, I don't even know how to respond to this. I am so sorry that you went through that. It's amazing to me how people will defend ideologies. I am so thankful that this resonated with you. That makes my time and efforts a hundred percent worth every pen stroke. Good luck. I pray that you feel better now, and maybe sharing this with some people might help.
You made me smile today, Laura. Thank you. 🙏
Can you speak to the helper given to believers by Jesus at his ascension and address the passages that the Church uses to personalize and differentiate the Holy Spirit from Jesus and the Father, please?
Yeshua says the Father will send “another Helper.” Then three verses later He says, “I will not leave you as orphans — I will come to you.” Then a few verses after that: “We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” The Helper is not a third party arriving while God stays behind. It is how they are present after Yeshua’s physical departure. Same God. Still breathing.
More on the 28th. Stay close.
Yes, thank you, and “grieving the Holy Spirit.” That would only apply to a person.
Sha'ul is quoting Isaiah 63:10 — one of only three times Ruach HaKodesh appears in the entire Tanakh. Look at the grammar: they grieved HIS set-apart breath. The grief belongs to HaShem. The Ruach is how He is present. Rejecting it is rejecting Him.
You can grieve someone's heart. That does not make the heart a separate person.
https://laurabartnick.substack.com/p/psalm-12-those-who-split-the-truth?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=6r9wf
A valued article that brings hunger to the soul. Thank you for sharing your studies. It brings great hunger to dig deeper than I ever had before into His word. Your writings help me to live and learn beyond tradition that has permeated the church of today.
🙏 thank you for your kind words Dennis. Deeply appreciated!
What can I say Sergio. In the past year, you have been one of the few who have opened my eyes and allowed my heart to receive literally something new and refreshing.
I've been convicted to the core and a slow subtle transformation is taking place not just within me but within my household.
This piece simply overwhelmed me. Images crashed my mind and I was left standing in awe!
Thanks for being such a huge blessing in my walk!
Brother, you make it all worth it. Thank you.🙏
Hello Brother Sergio, I wanted to take a moment to wish you a Blessed Passover and thank you for your incredible writing and dedication. I just started following you recently and I have already received so much. Last year it was revealed to me through my reading, study and prayer that Jesus did not come to invent a new religion. Your work and words have reinforced this understanding and for this I am grateful.
Paul, I really appreciate it. Thank you very much, brother. I look forward to hearing your voice!
Bro, I wanted to further express my thoughts on this magnificent body of work and apologize for my brief acknowledgment late last evening.
Sergio, this is a weighty and arresting piece of work. You have done what far too few are willing to do: you have forced the reader back through the fog of inherited terminology and into the fierce, clean air of the Hebrew text. That is no small labor. It is scholarship with a pulse, grammar with the gravity of Kavod; an exegesis that dares to make men tremble again before our God who breathes.
As I read your article, my spirit came to rest in the blazing center of all biblical revelation, namely this, that whatever must be said about the breath of God, the presence of God, the self-disclosure of God, or the acting power of God, the apostolic witness drives all roads toward one majestic and unrepeatable conclusion: “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Not partially, not symbolically, not by borrowed measure, but bodily, fully, finally, and without rival, in Jesus Christ alone.
That is why the ancient confession still thunders across the centuries: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד, Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. And that oneness is not diminished in Christ; it is unveiled in Him. Jesus is not a fracture of the Divine identity, nor a secondary emanation standing adjacent to God. He is the embodied self-revelation of the one true God, the Ruach HaKodesh (Spirit, breathe, fullness) made flesh, the Holy One walking among us, the eternal God brought near enough to behold, hear, touch, and worship.
I deeply appreciate the rigor of your study presented in this article, as it brings clarity to the reality of God's majestic headship within the full context of His Godhead. It does not lessen Christ Jesus or His Spirit; it magnifies Him. It clears away the haze. It strips the scaffolding. It leaves us staring again at the awful and glorious splendor of the One in whom all divine fullness dwells. And when all the parsing is done, all the councils revisited, all the categories tested, the Church must still fall at the feet of Jesus and say, with trembling certainty, Here is the fullness. Here is the divine life unveiled in flesh. Here is the Last Adam. Here is the One. -- WEHII
That was so tender 😭 powerful and moving. Yes,Abba is a presence to soak into,learn from and love with all our 💕 hearts 💕
What you’ve described captures the miracle at the very center of salvation: God Himself breathing His own Life into dust. And for the authentic believer, that breath doesn’t just begin the story—it sustains it. The same Spirit who raised Yeshua from the dead now lives within us, not as an abstract force but as the very breath of God continually animating our inner being. Salvation isn’t merely the moment He breathes; discipleship is learning to breathe with Him.
The indwelling Life of Christ is that ongoing Genesis 2:7 reality—God breathing from within the believer, not merely upon them. It is Ezekiel 37 happening in the present tense: dead places rising, dry bones strengthening, hearts awakening. It is Joel 2 fulfilled in the quiet chambers of the soul: restoration, renewal, and the Spirit poured out not around us but through us.
Receiving the Spirit is not acquiring a spiritual accessory. It is receiving the very Life of Yeshua, who now expresses Himself through our thoughts, desires, words, and actions. We don’t carry Him like a possession; He carries us like a living temple. And every act of obedience, every moment of clarity, every surge of courage is the evidence of His breath moving through our lungs.
He breathed—and we stood.
He indwells—and we live.
He fills—and we become vessels of His own Life poured out to the world.
That is salvation. That is the Spirit. That is the miracle of Christ in you.
Jeremiah 31 in 3D.
Amen!
Sergio, I've been lurking for awhile now... Certainly interesting and seemed in alignment with us, but wasn't sure where you were coming from exactly, or why I would want to pay for a subscription... and now this article. WOW. This type of Root study is exactly what my husband and I are looking for, subject upon subject, trying to understand and reconcile the the Brit Hadashah with the Tanakh, while not being Hebrew or Greek scholars.
As I was reading through the article, I was hoping to ask you for your sources and then BOOM, you listed Dig Deeper sources!
Today I finally read your About page and your FAQs, and I found that you are about as close to us as possible in the way you approach and search the scriptures and make choices in how to live. We could have written your "What's Your Theological Background" verbatim for ourselves. This article, plus the FAQs, plus the non-profit you've created... SUBSCRIPTION PAID!
I look forward to the studies! My husband is going to LOVE the Root studies with bibliographies. Thank you! -Kimberly Carlson
Kimberly, this genuinely made my day. The fact that you and your husband are doing this work together — wrestling with the text, holding the tension between the two testaments, refusing to settle for easy answers — that's exactly who this table is set for. Welcome! Tell your husband the bibliography only gets longer from here. 🙂
Shalom!
So many books... so little time LOL. Can't wait!
Shalom Sergio. A great article. Would you mind if I read it in my assembly? I think that would help some people. Because there is much question about the nature of God.
I would be honored if you shared it. 🙏
What you say is true but Western Christian churches are totally indoctrinated
The triune God is certainly a mystery, and I think any analogy that we come up with fails, in some way. I may have thoughts, words, and a breath that carries them, but I surely don’t have conversations with myself, unless of course, I’m mentally ill. I think this is where the “mode” analogy breaks down. I can’t see any option that is more accurate than persons, given the fact that it’s a mystery that can’t be fully understood. I did read the link btw, thank you!
You mean, keeping Him a Jew instead of turning Him into a Gentile?
I mean adopting a system that tries to remove the most important event in the history of mankind.
Affirming Yeshua, crucified and risen, does not require Trinitarian metaphysics.
The earliest Jewish followers held both at once. Keeping Him Jewish does not subtract Him. It roots Him.
Fair catch on the analogy. I hear ya!
But consider this. You are one person. Body, mind, and spirit. Three distinct components, one being.
Nobody argues you are three persons. Yet Scripture describes you that way because that is how God made you.
In whose image?
Sit with that before landing on “persons.”
🙏
So is your argument that the Son mode simply pretended to communicate with the Father mode (both in private prayer and verbal communication), simply as an example for us?
No. Not pretending. Real prayer. Real tension.
But “persons” isn’t a Bible word. It’s a council word. Nicaea, 325 AD. The guys who wrote the New Testament didn’t use it. They were Jewish. They read the Shema every day. One God.
Yeshua prays in Gethsemane because he’s genuinely human. Real flesh, real will, real struggle. That’s the whole point of him becoming one of us. The prayer is real. But a real prayer doesn’t automatically mean two separate Gods having a conversation.
You’re asking me to explain a Hebrew mystery using Greek philosophy’s vocabulary. I’m not sure that’s the right tool for the job.
I’ve never argued for two separate Gods. But if we use the mode analogy, communication is absolutely pointless. I understand you don’t like the term persons, but however we define it, the Scriptures are clear that something is going on between the Father and the Son that can’t be explained by the idea of a mode. How could the Father forsake the Son, for instance?
How does one need to submit to himself?
But that still doesn’t answer the question of opposing wills…
And I’m not asking for Greek, I’m asking for English haha.
Fair. English it is.
The forsaking question is the best one you’ve asked. But here’s what always gets missed. Yeshua isn’t having a conversation. He’s praying a psalm. Word for word. Psalm 22, first line. Every Jewish person in earshot knew exactly what he was doing – you quote the opening, you invoke the whole text. That psalm begins in desolation and ends in vindication and praise. Both. Same poem.
There’s no reply from the Father. No dialogue. One voice. Crying out. That’s not two persons talking – that’s a man dying, praying the most honest lament in the Hebrew library, which happens to contain the rescue inside the same breath as the abandonment.
But this brings me back to the original problem, that of Jesus simply talking to himself. Also, what would be the point of Jesus pleading with himself (on three separate occasions) to let the cup pass from him? Jesus had a will that wanted to avoid the brutal death that was coming, but he submitted himself to the Father’s will. Why would there be any communication whatsoever, let alone a hope for a different outcome, if the Son and Father are simply modes?
How many times have you cried out loud and weren’t waiting for an answer?
I’m curious how you tackle Matt. 28:19?
I guess my question, in more detail, would be, how do you define the obvious distinction of three somethings? You don’t see it as persons, so what do you see it as?
The Hebrew Scriptures describe one God who acts in multiple modes. Father is the source. Son is that same God embodied in Yeshua. Spirit is that same God’s breath and presence reaching into creation. Not three beings coordinating. One God expressing Himself in three distinct ways.
When you speak, you have a thought, a word, and the breath that carries it.
Nobody calls those three separate persons. Same person, three inseparable modes.
The Greek councils took those modes and assigned each one a separate ontological category. That framework does not come from the Hebrew Scriptures. It comes from Greek philosophy. Wear those glasses long enough and 28:19 looks like a Trinitarian proof-text.
Read it in its Jewish context and you see one God, three descriptions of the same reality. Not a committee.
The post I linked goes deep on exactly this.
Worth the read.😊
Thank you for your response
Good question, Justin.
Short answer: with the Greek in one hand and Acts in the other.
The standard reading treats 28:19 as a Trinitarian formula delivered to eleven eyewitnesses. If that’s true, Acts has a problem. Every baptism on record afterward uses in the name of Yeshua only. Acts 2:38. 8:16. 10:48. 19:5. Either the apostles unanimously ignored explicit post-resurrection instructions, or we’re reading 28:19 through a lens it was never written to carry.
The Eusebius data adds weight. He quotes this verse eighteen times before Nicaea, consistently rendering it “in my name” — then the formula shifts after the council.
The real question the text answers is whose authority backs this commission? Verse 18 gives you that. Daniel 7:13-14. All authority given to the Son of Man. That’s the anchor — not a three-part phrase attached to a water rite.
The deeper issue is the framework underneath the standard reading which is built in Greek philosophy, not the Hebrew Scriptures.
I went after that directly here.
https://www.sergiodesoto.com/posts/unpacking-15-the-breath-you-were-never-taught-to-recognize
Hope that helps.
Excellent work you may be familiar with my Holy Spirit encounter guides and Holy Spirit encounter Bible as well as experiencing the Holy Spirit reach out to me. I’d love to connect with you. Dr. Larry Keefauver.
drlarrykeefauver@gmail.com
www.doctorlarry.com
I haven't seen those, Dr. Larry, and I tried to connect to your site. It wouldn't let me. It said "fail to open", my friend.
excellent study Sergio! upon reading over some of the comments, i’m so glad it has served to help other believers who have understandably struggled with this topic.
my study into the Godhead subject became pertinent when someone told me “you cannot be a Christian unless you adopt the trinitarian formula”. that said, i’ve heard likewise from fellow Sabbatarians regarding observing the weekly Sabbath & appointed times.
without even going into Hebrew or Greek, one major clue about the Godhead is the fact that much of the NT letters begin with some form of the phrase, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” having no mention of God’s Holy Spirit. if God was a “trinitarian hypostasis”, then why isn’t the “third part” mentioned in these greetings of the NT letters?
but what really put this entire “trinity” matter to rest for me is found within Christ’s prayer to the Father on the night of His betrayal.
John 17:
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
21 “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
22 “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:
23 “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
i believe many often forget that the phrase “being one” can have meanings other than “one being”. when Jesus says, “that they may be one just as We are one,” trinitarians seem to miss questioning just how the disciples were Biblically exemplified as “being one”.
certainly, they did not morph into one massive “hypostatic entity”, and Messiah certainly could not haver meant such an absurdity.
rather, He must have been praying for their “being one” in mind and spirit — as both the Father and Son are.
at this point and from my experience, i have to wonder if that prayer can ever fully be answered until Yahshua returns and all those in Christ (dead or alive) are transformed into spirit.
why might i think this? because it’s been ~2000 years since and believers cannot agree upon so many points of Biblical doctrine (failure of “being one” in mind), and then most often condemn one another as “heretics/heathens” for holding a different Biblical perspective (failure of “being one” in spirit).
yet, while i honestly long to give up trying to help fellow believers find ways of “being one” in spirit even if we are unable to “be one” in mind, i remain convinced that i have no other choice except to keep trying… even thought that too appears to be futile.
but i guess it’s sort of like spreading the gospel… or Jesus “patiently knocking at the door of our hearts” — we know that not everyone is going to answer the call in this present life, but it’s what God has commanded us to do.
so we must keep striving to help our flocks improve at “being one”, paramountly in spirit, and however we can in mind.
while knowing not everyone will accept the call of Jesus, i thankfully don’t wind up in despair for those loved ones whom i might wonder about whether or not they ever truly believed and accepted YHWH as their Savior, as i remain convinced that the “fair chance” doctrine is true — the belief that repentance is not prohibited in the second resurrection.
my current study on this topic comes from a different angle, but dovetails nicely with yours, which is certainly more detailed in comparing linguistic nuances between Hebrew & Greek. if you get a chance, perhaps you might check it out & provide feedback, both positive and negative.
YHWH ~ Breath/Spirit
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nmPxGtrrH1lJVwVGwTrZb2D8MEd5iel0/view?pli=1
Godbless… 🙏🏼😎❤️♾️
I LOVE HOW YOU DIG!! Keep digging 👊👊
likewise bro! 8-)
Fascinating article. Much to contemplate. The Substack post grad reader will follow and appreciate this. I can’t help thinking though that somewhere some toothless hillbilly is living this daily in ways most of us should have been doing for years!
Sergio, you study correctly; you study from an Old Testament Christological framework, which opens the aperture of revelation to its widest, most brilliant revelatory view!