This is an excerpt from the book “Questions Pentecostals Ask, Volume 1” pages 16-19 that was written by David F. Gray. This book contains letters that were written to David F. Gray and then documents his reply to the letter.

Question:
How can you say there is only one person in God, when Revelation 5:1-7 tells us that the Lamb (Jesus) took the book out of the hand of Him that sat on the throne (God the Father)? In John 17:11 Jesus prayed to the Father “that they (His disciples) may be one as we are.” When a man and a woman get married they become one, but they are still two persons. Jesus and God are one, but two persons, God and the Son of god, which together with the Holy Spirit make up the Holy Trinity.

Answer:

I do not think you realize how full of contradictions your letter is. For instance, you say that Jesus (the Son of God) and God are two person in a trinity of divine persons making up the Godhead. The Trinity doctrine states that these three are “co-equal, co-existent, and co-eternal.” Yet in the Scripture you quoted (John 17:11), we have (according to your teaching) one divine person or God praying to another divine person or God. Why would He have to pray to another God if He were God in His own right? The one praying must certainly be less powerful than the one prayed to, so evidently you believe you have a little God and a big God; yet Jesus said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). Therefore He must be the only God that has any power!

Now, what did Jesus mean when He prayed in John 17:11, “That they may be one, as we are?” He explained it in verses 21 and 23: “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us…I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.” The way we are made one is for us to partake of the same Spirit by Jesus coming into us, “I in them.” This is what happens when we receive the Holy Ghost.

Jesus said in John 14:16: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.” Immediately Jesus explained who this Comforter is by saying that He is “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17). It can be none other than the Spirit of Jesus Himself, for He said in verse 6 that He was the truth! So that none could mistake that He was speaking of Himself coming back to dwell in them when the Holy Ghost came, He said, “I will not leave you comfortless [mg. ‘orphans’]; I will come to you” (verse 18). And finally He declared in verse 20: “at that day [when the Holy Ghost comes in] ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”

That is the oneness that Jesus prayed for in John 17! We are made one by the same Spirit, Christ Himself filling us and making us one in Him.

“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body…” (I Corinthians 12:12-13)

You may ask why Jesus then described the Spirit as “another Comforter” in John 14:15, if it was Christ Himself who was to come into them. Simply because when He came back at Pentecost He did not want them to expect to see Him as they saw Him then – in a body of flesh – yet He wanted them to know that the Spirit they were to receive was truly Himself, come in another form, in Spirit-form.

It is true that husband and wife are one, but no husband can say, “He that hath seen me that see the Father” (John 14:9). So the oneness of God in Christ, is certainly not the same as that of a husband and wife.

Now let us look at Revelation 5. The key to the understanding of this account is to discover who the One on the throne is. There was only One on the throne (Revelation 4:2), who is identified as “the Lord God Almighty which was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8). That this is Jesus cannot be denied: “Behold he cometh with clouds…I am Alpha and Omega…saith the Lord, which is, and which was was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:7-9); “I am Alpha and Omega…I Jesus…” (Revelation 22:13, 16). Therefore the One on the throne is none other than Jesus in His deity, which is the Almighty.

Since the One on the throne is Jesus, then who is the Lamb? Notice the Lamb came from the midst of the throne (Revelation 5:6), a perfect example of God leaving His glory and being made flesh. “He who sat upon the throne” was our Lord Jesus Christ as the Almighty God, while the Lamb is Jesus the Son of God who was slain. This then is a graphic picture of both the deity and the humanity of Christ.

Undoubtedly objections will be raised that Jesus could not be both the One on the throne and the Lamb who came out of the midst of the throne. Why not? in the very same context He is both the Lion and the Lamb. In John 10 Jesus is both the Shepherd, the Door to the sheepfold, and the Lamb. When He went to Calvary He became both the Lamb that was offered and the High Priest that offered the sacrifice. He is both the scapegoat of Leviticus 16 and the goat that was sacrificed. He is both the root (Creator) and offspring (Son) of David (Revelation 22:16); both the bright and morning Star and the sun of righteousness; both the Child born and the Son given, and the mighty God and the everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6). He is both the author and the finisher of our faith, and the First and the Last (and everything between), the Almighty (Revelation 1:8, 11).

Yes, my friend, He is everything we need, and we are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10). A person who tries to rob Him of His exalted position of being “far above all principality, and power” (Ephesians 1:21) does so at his own peril, for every knee shall one day bow to Him and every tongue will “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11).

This is an excerpt from the book “Questions Pentecostals Ask” Vol 1 pages 16-19 written by David F. Gray.