Many versions of theological positions concerning the Father and Son and Holy Spirit have arisen over the centuries since the coming of Jesus Christ. I am now reaching a milestone in my own journey of discovery and study. I find a straightforward interpretation of the scriptures to be fully consistent with a view that only the Father is the Most High God, with Jesus as His subordinate Son and the Holy Spirit as His presence or power. At the same time I recognise that the Trinitarian view sees scriptures as indicating a shared divine essence among three co-equal persons. My current project is making progress in starting to get to the bottom of whether the core ideas of Trinitarianism came from scriptures or purely from Neoplatonist philosophies of the times of the Trinitarian church fathers such as Tertullian. Personally, I recognise in the Father and Son a distinct hierarchy, while maintaining monotheism with the Father as the sole supreme deity. My next project might be to dig to the bottom of why the Trinitarians did not come to this position exactly but used theological constructs to explain the biblical data, arriving at different conclusions about the nature of God and the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, insisting on a shared divine essence among three co-equal persons.
