Editorial – Gods Many and Lords Many

“The days are fast approaching when there will be great perplexity and confusion. Satan, clothed in angel robes, will deceive, if possible, the very elect. There will be gods many and lords many. Every wind of doctrine will be blowing. … Chaff like a cloud will be borne away on the wind. … Trees without fruit are cut down as cumberers of the ground.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 80, 81.

We are rapidly approaching the time predicted in these sentences. Notice one of the descriptions of that time is that there will be gods many and lords many. Maybe we are already in such a time. If you desire to profess yourself to be a Christian, then you will arrange to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (See Matthew 28:20; Mark 16:15, 16; Acts 2:38.)

The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all called God in the Bible. (See 1 Corinthians 8:6; Hebrews 1:8 and Acts 5:3, 4.)

The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are also all called Lord in the Bible. (See Psalm 110:1; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 3:17.)

Both the Father and the Son are referred to many times in Scripture as being our Savior. (See Titus 3:4–6 and Luke 2:11.)

Inspiration makes it clear that the Father and the Son are two distinct persons.

“From eternity there was a complete unity between the Father and the Son. They were two, yet little short of being identical; two in individuality, yet one in spirit, and heart, and character.” The Youth’s Instructor, December 16, 1897.

Jesus “existed from eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father. He was the surpassing glory of heaven.” The Review and Herald, April 5, 1906.

It requires, however, not only the Father and the Son for a human being to be saved but also the working of the Holy Spirit on the heart. This is what Jesus taught Nicodemus by night so long ago. (See John 3:5.)

“The Holy Spirit was the highest of all gifts that He could solicit from His Father for the exaltation of His people. The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agent, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of men to this satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power. It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world’s Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure.” The Desire of Ages, 671.