Does the Oneness belief and the events of the baptism of Jesus by John reconcilable? Matthew 3:16-17 16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Here we have the Son in the water, the Father's voice from heaven, and the Holy Ghost in the bodily shape of a dove. It would appear we have three separate and distinct manifestations. But would you dare call them separate and distinct persons? Was the dove a person? Was the heavenly voice a person? The only divine person present was Jesus Christ. If God is not omnipresent (present in all places at all times, Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary), he is not God. If He is omnipresent, then He is everywhere at the some time and could have spoken from a thousand different places. Jesus asserts His omnipresence in John 3:13, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven even the Son of man which is in heaven." He left no doubt that He could be on earth and in heaven at the same time. Unless Christ claimed omnipresence falsely, there should be no problem accepting Him bodily being baptized and at the same time speaking from heaven. The invisible God, made visible by the image of the person Jesus, was being baptized, while the invisible but audible voice of this Great Omnipresent God spoke out of heaven saying, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." The only bodily form ascribed the Holy Ghost in the Bible is a dove. I know of no Bible scholar who believes that the Holy Spirit is a bird. The dove form was used by God to accommodate the human mind and to compliment this sacred occasion. The Holy Ghost has been represented by a bird, by a rushing mighty wind, tongues of fire, and the agent of God used to overshadow the Virgin Mary and father the Christ Child. So it should be quite clear that the baptism of Jesus presents no problem to the belief in the oneness of the Godhead. On the other hand; the Trinitarian finds himself in the unenviable position of explaining how the third person of the Godhead is a bird.