To whom was Paul speaking?.....to those with "the heavenly calling". IOW...the "elect".
If Jesus is God's equal, then how can he be a High Priest or an apostle? Each are servants of God. Is God his own servant?
As you know, Jesus took the nature of a servant when He became a man (Phil 2:7) and he learnt obedience (Heb 5:8) even to the point of death (Phil 2:8) and has not inherited the name above ALL names, (not all "other" names, as the NWT has altered to scriptures to read.) We even worship at the name of Jesus. (Phil 2:9-11)
Phil 2:9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
We worship Jesus at the mention of His name. The name above all names. The context shows that the Watchtower should have changed "Lord" in that last line to "Jehovah", but they did not.
Moses was an attendant in the house of God, but Christ was a faithful son over his Father's house. If he was God, then it was his house too....why did he never say that he was God's equal?
Saying that Jesus is a faithful son over His Father's house shows His equality with His Father, but also His being the Son. He is not the Father (as the Watchtower likes to say the trinitarians teach) but is the Son who has the same nature as His Father and does as His Father bids, but He was not a servant until He took that nature when He became a man. All these things have to be pieced together.
His Sonship is not that of a creature. We know He was not created unless He created Himself because of John 1:3 and the other places we are told of ALL THINGS being created through Him, and "through" does not mean that Jesus was a tradesman as there are a couple of places where it is God who has the honor of all things being "through" Him (eg Romans 11:36)
The holy spirit is not an entity, or third person of a trinity.....it is God's means of fulfilling his purpose to send his power to wherever, or to whomever, it is needed.
So, the Father speaks by means of his son and also by means of his holy spirit.....no trinity is ever mentioned.
At last you get to answering the post about the Holy Spirit.
2Cor 3:17,18 in the New World Translation says
17 Now Jehovah is the Spirit, and where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom.
18 And all of us, while we with unveiled faces reflect like mirrors the glory of Jehovah, are transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, exactly as it is done by Jehovah the Spirit.
Now that is interesting for an organisation that says the Holy Spirit is not a being. I guess it was preferable to change "Lord" to "Jehovah" here than for it to look like "the Lord is the Spirit".
But I guess lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God (Acts 5:4)
But of course there is only one Spirit (Eph 4:4-6) and so the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are the one Spirit, that one that the NWT calls Jehovah. The Father and Son come together in the one Spirit. The Father and Son come to live with ANYONE who loves them. This is when they receive the Holy Spirit. And notice it says "anyone", there is no special group of Christians who receive the Holy Spirit and who are in the New Covenant. That is the only way to be a Christian. NOTHING in the scriptures tells us otherwise,,,,,,,,,,,,but the Watchtower does when it builds it's man made group around their interpretation of the symbolic book of Revelation.
John 14:23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
But I digress.
The Spirit was with Israel in the wilderness and grieved their lack of faith and disobedience. (Isa 63:10)
We also can grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30)
The Spirit teaches us John 14:26) and is alive and witnesses to our spirit (Romans 8) and knows the mind of God just as our spirit knows our mind. (1Cor 2:11) (but you don't believe we have a spirit-----hmmmm it is interesting how doctrines overlap)
Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1Cor 6:19) (sounds as if the Holy Spirit is God living in His temple)
The Holy Spirit lives in Christians forever and is the "living water" that Jesus promised the woman at the well. (John 14:17, John 4:10)
There is certainly much evidence for the Spirit being God and being alive. It is certainly better to look at the scriptures than to listen to the words of men.
