Something I’m seeing and hearing a lot lately is a resurgence of Modalism, which is the teaching that Yahweh, Yeshua and the Holy Spirit are all the same person/entity. The Trinity does not teach this. The Trinity is 3 as One. Most say three in one, which confuses. We should be saying AS ONE.

In Revelation 1:8 Yahweh says “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Almost everyone attributes this statement to Jesus. But in 1:4-5 we read “John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before His throne, 5 AND FROM JESUS(my emphasis)CHRIST the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings on Earth.” Here the One who is and who was and who is to come is clearly differentiated from Jesus. The One comes first, then the seven spirits which are the Holy Spirit, then Jesus. So if in this Scripture they are separate, they cannot be equated in 1:8. If we move past 1:8 to Revelation 9-11 we can see further evidence that this first voice is that of Yahweh and not Yeshua. In 9-11 we read “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the Kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. (Even here they are clearly separate persons) 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, ‘Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodecia.” And in 12 John turns to see the voice and sees that there is one like a son of man. So this voice is obviously Yeshua. And if they had been the same voice it seems clear that the writer would have specified this. Being that he is so specific in every aspect of this writing.

To add my own thoughts on this, in Revelation 1:17-18 Yeshua calls himself the first and the last, which is difficult for many to reconcile if Yeshua is not God Himself. Just as it is hard to understand what he meant when in the Gospels he says before Abraham was I AM. We are so far from God we struggle to understand the simple things of God. We can’t comprehend how they can be one but not the same. But in Genesis Yahweh says that man is to leave father and mother, cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This ONE is the very same term used when Yeshua says that he and his Father are one. Are we to understand that God calls us to literally become ONE person? Not at all. This word delineates UNITY. A state of mind that would not and can not go against itself. Two minds that are so closely aligned that there can be no division. This is the way that the Trinity can exist. The three persons will never disagree, because they are so unified in their mission that they understand that in order to succeed there can be no strife. No distraction of self. The are ONE.