In the Gospel of John it may seem that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three separate persons. But when you come to the book of Revelation, John mixes up the divine Three of the Godhead. Revelation 1:4 speaks of the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and 4:5 speaks of the seven Spirits of God. Revelation 5:6 says that the seven Spirits of God are the seven eyes of the Lamb. Of course, the Lamb is the Son, the Second of the Godhead. So in Revelation the Third of the Godhead is the eyes of the Second. Is this one person or two?
Furthermore, Revelation 21:23-24a says that the Lamb is the lamp. God the Son, the Second of the Trinity, is the lamp, and God the Father, the First of the Trinity, is the light, the glory, within the lamp. Are the lamp and the light two separate persons? Some teachers say that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three separate persons. But John in his Revelation says that the Third is the eyes of the Second, and that the Second is the lamp with the First within as the light. These teachers separate the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as three persons. But the Bible, in the book of Revelation, reveals that the divine Three are inseparable and not separate. The Third is the eyes of the Second, and the Second is the lamp to contain the First as the light. Furthermore, this third One is also seven lamps. The second One is the unique lamp to contain the First as the light, and the third One is the seven lamps to express the Second. The seven lamps are the seven eyes of the Second of the Trinity, who is the unique lamp. This is the way the last book of the Bible talks about the Trinity.
What does it mean that the Third is the seven lamps as the seven eyes of the Second, who is the unique lamp to contain the First? It means the Third expresses the Second and the Second expresses the First. We express ourselves very much by our eyes. Whether we like someone or not can be seen by the expression in the eyes. So the seven eyes of the Second mean the expression of the Second. The Third is the eyes of the Second, the Second is the lamp, the expression, of the First, and the Third is also the seven lamps, the expression, of the Second. The First is contained and expressed in the Second, and the Second is expressed in the Third.
Revelation continues the Gospel of John to show us that in the Divine Trinity the Third is the eyes of the Second and the Second is the lamp to contain the First as the light. Furthermore, the Third is the seven lamps to express the Second, and the Second is the unique lamp to express the First. The First is expressed through the Second, and the Second is expressed through the Third in a sevenfold way. So the Three are one, not three separate persons. This is for the consummation of the divine dispensation.
Today both the Catholic Church and some of the Protestant denominations appreciate the Nicene Creed. They say this is the base of their faith. But at the time the Nicene Council was held in A.D. 325, seven books of the New Testament, including Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation, were not recognized as books of the Holy Scripture. The Nicene Creed says nothing about the seven Spirits of God, so it is not complete. These seven books, including the book of Revelation, were recognized seventy-two years later, in A.D. 397 in the Council of Carthage in North Africa. So we cannot accept the Nicene Creed as a complete revelation of the Divine Trinity.
The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God, reaching His redeemed people and expressed in the lampstands, which signify the churches in this age (Rev. 1:11-12, 20; 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). The lampstand itself is the embodiment of the Divine Trinity dispensed into the members of Christ. What is the church? It is the expression of the Divine Trinity dispensed into God’s children. The definition of the church in Revelation is very high and deep. The church is not just a group of Christians, nor is it simply an organization of Christian believers, but it is the blending of the Divine Trinity who has been dispensed into all the believers.
In the lampstand you can see the Father, you can see the Son, and you can see the Spirit. The substance of the lampstand is gold. Gold in typology signifies the nature of God the Father. With the lampstand there is also a certain form. The lampstand is not just a piece of gold without a proper shape; it is a piece of gold shaped into a certain form. This means the gold is embodied into a shape, and the shape is God the Son. The substance is the Father, and the form is the Son. Furthermore, the lampstand has seven lamps for expression. The seven lamps are the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 4:5). So the substance is God the Father, the shape and form is God the Son, and the expression is God the Spirit. Such a lampstand is the church. This is not religion, nor is it any kind of “-anity.” This is not a matter of ethics or morality or natural thought or philosophy.
The church is the embodiment of the Triune God dispensed into us and blended within us. It is the Triune God dispensed into humanity and blended in humanity as one single entity (Rev. 22:17a). There is no separation. This is the Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God, reaching His redeemed, and this is the consummation of the divine dispensing in this age.