Who Should We Believe?
The last thing Jesus told his disciples to do was make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). Yet, within days, the Apostle Peter told listeners of his Pentecost sermon to be baptized in the name of Jesus (Acts 2:38). He repeated that directive in Acts 10:48. Paul also, had people baptized in the name of Jesus (Acts 19:5). So, who should we believe?
It Begins with the Holy Trinity
There is no mention of the Trinity in the Old or New Testaments. The Church had no formalized trinitarian doctrine before Emperor Constantine’s First Council of Nicaea in AD 325. That council met to discuss several issues confronting the Church. The first, Arianism, had to do with the nature of Jesus. Arius, a priest, attempted to argue Jesus, as God’s Son, was created, thereby having a definite beginning, 
which negated his deity.
The Council denounced Arianism as heresy.
In rejecting his doctrine, they decided Father and Son were of the “same substance” (homoousias), co-equal and co-eternal Persons. They made no such ruling regarding the Holy Spirit. Nicaea produced the first formal doctrine of the Holy Trinity. But it was not the first time the Persons of the Godhead had come before the Church.
Nearly a century before Arius, another priest, Sabellius, argued there were not three Persons in the Trinity. Instead, there were three manifestations of one God: one as Father, one as Son, and one as the Holy Spirit. We’ll never know how he supported his argument because none of his writings survived, which is often the case with doctrines the Roman Church rejected. Yet, Sabellianism did not completely fade away. “At the time of the Reformation, Sabellianism was reformulated by Michael Servetus, a Spanish theologian and physician. He argued that Christ and the Holy Spirit are merely representative forms of the one Godhead, the Father.”
Oneness or Jesus Name churches teach essentially the same thing as Servetus, except for them, Jesus possesses the fullness of the Godhead. Consequently, they baptize in the name of Jesus. While I am unsure of the Oneness doctrine on the Godhead, I believe Scripture supports their position on the baptismal formula. Admittedly, most Christian churches baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, likely resulting from the doctrines developed at Nicaea in 325 and 381, along with the instructions Jesus gave his disciples.
Let’s review what Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, . . .” (Matthew 28:19 | ESV) Jesus’s commission seems plain enough. So, how do we explain the fact all reported baptisms in the Book of Acts involved adults baptized in the name of Jesus? Did the apostles misunderstand? Or did they know something we haven’t bothered to consider since the fourth century?
Let’s begin with what Jesus said. Notice he used “name,” singular, not “names.” You could make the case that the Holy Spirit is a name, but not Father and Son. They are relationship titles and nouns, not names. A father might call his progeny “son,” but he certainly wouldn’t put “son” on the boy’s birth certificate as his name. If you accept that the Church began at Pentecost and those saved were filled with the Holy Spirit, it is helpful to see what the apostle Peter said about the process.
In his first sermon, he explained who Jesus is and how their sins separated them from God. When they asked what they needed to do, Luke recorded this. And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38 | ESV)
Did Peter’s first public sermon lack Holy Spirit anointing? That is probably not the case since it occurred immediately after the Spirit fell on him and his message brought 3000 men to faith and baptism in one day. (Acts 2:41) Did Peter ignore Jesus’s instructions? I don’t think the rock upon which the Church is built would do that. Perhaps the answer lies in the “name” of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
God Gave Jesus His Name
Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. (John 17:11 | NIV) “Jesus” means ‘Yahweh saves’ or ‘Yahweh is salvation.” Before his birth, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him this about Mary, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21 | NIV)
There is no better name than Jesus.Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11 | NIV)
Jesus is God
For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. (1 Corinthians 8:5-6 | NIV) This is one of several Scripture passages we will read that attribute actions or names to both Father and Son. God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14 | NIV) Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58 | ESV)
In apparent opposition to Genesis 1, Paul asserts Jesus is the agent of creation. 15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,(Colossians 1:15-16 and19 | NIV) And he repeated his point about the “fullness of god” in the next chapter For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,(Colossians 2:9 | ESV)
Philip was confused about the relationship between Jesus and the Father so he asked Jesus to show him the Father. Jesus asked him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:9 | ESV) And finally, John confirms the divinity of Jesus. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1 | ESV). If Jesus is God and the image of God in whom the fullness of God dwells, if God has a name, it is Jesus.
Baptism in Jesus’s Name
Jesus is the only name used in baptisms in the Book of Acts churches, and it always precedes receipt of the Holy Spirit. Peter told the Sanhedrin, “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12 | ESV)
The Samaritan believers had already been baptized in Jesus’s name, and Peter’s conditions for receipt (Acts 2:38) had already been met when they heard about the Holy Spirit. Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. (Acts 8:14-16 | ESV)
Perhaps you are wondering if it matters how one is baptized. The mode of baptism was addressed elsewhere, yet according to the ministry of Peter, John, and Paul, Jesus’s name baptism preceded receipt of the Holy Spirit. And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.”4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. (Acts 19:1-7 | ESV)
Apostle Paul’s conversion experience demonstrates the need for a profession of faith in baptism. “What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord.’” (Acts 22:16 | NLT) Jesus, the Lord, is the doorway to salvation, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”(Romans 10:13 | NIV) By now, it should be apparent that Jesus is the Lord’s name, and Jesus’s baptism and receipt of the Holy Spirit after such baptism were normative in the early Church. But that still doesn’t resolve the name of the Father and Holy Spirit.
The Spirit of God
And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22 | ESV) God sent the Spirit of his son to strengthen believers and make us his children. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6 | NIV)
Paul asserts the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jesus are the same. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (Romans 8:9 | ESV) God sent the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26 | ESV) If the Holy Spirit had a name, that name would be Jesus.
One Name
The time will come when Jesus ends his reign on earth. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. (1 Corinthians 15:24 | NIV) That reign will fulfill an Old Testament prophesy. And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one. (Zechariah 14:9 | ESV) I’d be willing to bet that name will be Jesus, the name above every name.