Some Fundamental Topics

The Father

When referring to the Father, the Bible—just to quote one of many examples—wonderfully calls Him, through poetry and beautiful words, the Ancient of Days, in Daniel 7:

9 “I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire; 10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.

Just as Isaiah’s vision, as recorded in chapter 6, when God made a calling to him. Isaiah did not proclaim himself a prophet of the Lord, but rather, it was the Lord who set him aside; it was God’s decision to place His words in Isaiah.

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” 4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”

This is God: The Lord is His name; the Lord of hosts; the Lord mighty in battle; the Rock; the sublime God; the only God and there is none other like Him—just as Isaiah states in chapter 44:

8 Do not fear, nor be afraid; have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.

The Son

The Son was with God the Father in the beginning, all throughout the creation of everything our eyes today can see. In Genesis 1 this is noticeable, when it refers to the Light in a spiritual sense, which would later become flesh, in the form of our Lord Jesus Christ by stating:

3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

It does not refer to a physical light, which at first comes to us from the sun, as referenced in verse 18 of this same chapter, as follows:

18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

This is corroborated when the Bible also states in John 1:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Therefore, this is a plan established by God since before the foundation of the world, when both the Father and the Son agreed on the role each One would play, a covenant to grant us access to salvation, to eternal life—according to the redeeming work of Christ on the cross of Calvary.

The entire chapter 53 from the book of Isaiah the prophet is dedicated to the redeeming work of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was announced to those who longed for it; it was carried out on those who feared the Lord, saw Him and believed in the mercy of the Most High by way of the Savior.

11 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked—but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

And also with Psalm 40 the written word of God thus confirms it:

77 Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me;

In spite of being the only begotten Son of God, He gave Himself for us to grant us access to this great salvation, just as the Gospel According to John in chapter 3 states:

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Nonetheless, salvation can be achieved through Him, as we have said. However, in order to reach such blessing from God, it is necessary to believe in Him, to believe Him—truly doing so, because although it might seem a simple thing to do, it is not. Hence, it cannot be assumed that just anyone will achieve salvation. If it were so, if the Almighty did not reject those who have done evil deeds, or if evil doers received the same reward—eternal life and not eternal condemnation—in spite of being rejected from the glory of God, the Bible would not state what was just quoted.

There is no doubt that God wants to give salvation to human beings. However, it will only be achieved by those who practice good deeds, those who become true children of God; those who depart from this world and are approved and confirmed as part of the Church of the Sovereign God, and become active partakers of the Weddings of the Lamb.

This said, the expectation of eternal condemnation cannot be discarded—the Scripture certainly does not do it, though there are people who mistakenly believe this. Eternal condemnation is not only meant for the devil, whose existence is also evident, but also for those who help him, and for all those who practice the fruitless works of darkness, since those who fear and love God must flee from said works.

Hence, the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 25 makes a clear distinction between sheep and goats, between those who are on His right hand and on His left hand, between those who will receive eternal punishment and those who will reach eternal life.

31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ 41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ 44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

The Holy Spirit

Our Lord Jesus Christ promised that the Holy Spirit would come, just as it is referenced in John 15:

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

Nonetheless, the Holy Spirit had already been included in God’s plans, meant for the New Covenant which would be fulfilled for the Church in our days, as promised through Joel the prophet in chapter 2:

28 “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. 29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

This came to pass during the Pentecost celebration, when the Lord fulfilled His word. Anytime God speaks, He fulfills His word. Therefore, the Holy Spirit came down with power in the midst of the 120 men and women that were gathered in the upper room, according to what the Scripture states in Acts of the Apostles chapter 2:

1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Ergo, the glorious work of the Holy Spirit becomes splendorous and evident. While God had take actions—as God Himself—in various moments throughout the history of mankind and the Church, but from that day on, His work amidst men acquired another connotation.

The Holy Spirit becomes evident in Church, mainly by guiding it because men are not the ones who lead the Church of the Lord, but He Himself with which He proves that it is the true Church of God, the Creator; not the Church of men.

Hence, Romans 8 specifically refers to God’s guidance.

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 

His presence is in our midst. His presence is in the midst of the Church. He Himself bears witness of the true work of our Lord Jesus Christ; consequently, of the existence of God Himself, because the Holy Spirit is one God along with the Father and the Son, as stated in 1 John 5.

6 This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.

Because the Church is guided, lead and ruled by God through His Holy Spirit, many of the duties that He performs today amongst us, become evident in many places around the world.

For example, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, which is at the same time the irrefutable evidence of the existence and the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, as stated by John the Baptist in Matthew 3:

11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

This blessing and reality of receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit, means that God, through His Holy Spirit, comes to dwell into our hearts. In addition, it means that we value the laying on of hands for this blessing to come to us given that it is a reality that we enjoy in the Church. Therefore, it is important to keep in mind what chapter 8 of Acts stats:

14 Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, 15 who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, refers to this beautiful reality in chapter 5, while using more poetic terms to highlight the same blessing that has been discussed thus far:

5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

In addition to dwelling within us, He allows us to experience being filled with Him, just as it happened to apostle Peter, once he had received the Holy Spirit—the Scripture states that he was “filled” at the specific moment when he needed it to address the rulers of the people who inquired of them, and to tell them about the wonders of the Lord, His plans and His intent. Thus says the book of Acts of the Apostles in its 4th chapter:

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: 9 If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, 10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.

The Holy Spirit is also in charge for making sure that the preaching the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in Church becomes evident, not just with words that can be uttered about it, whether from a pulpit or whether through the daily exemplary life of the children of God; but also such preaching is permanently supported by demonstration of Spirit and of power—as stated in 1 Thessalonians 1.

5 For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.

Also, 1 Corinthians 2 states the following:

4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

Once the baptism with the Holy Spirit comes upon a human being, it is the Holy Spirit Himself who awakens the spiritual gifts and who activates the gifts that He placed in each person. As well as speaking in tongues, which as we have said, it is the unequivocal sign to have received such blessing. Spiritual gifts, such as the gift of prophecy, could become evident at the same time when receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit—as shown in Acts 19—or this could also happen later on, at different moments in the life of believers.

5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. 7 Now the men were about twelve in all.

While what has been explained thus far regarding the Holy Spirit is a beautiful truth, it is still very little, because in the light of the Bible and the Doctrine, we can find countless examples.

Nonetheless, it is necessary to mention the importance of the glorious work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, who performs miracles to help us change our bad ways and transforms our hearts so that we may please God in everything, so that we may love Him with a sincere heart. Suffice it to mention what the Bible points out in Titus, chapter 3.

4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.