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IS THE HOLY SPIRIT A PERSON?
(John14: 26)
The answer
of some creeds is, "Yes." But the answer of the Bible is,
"No." We say some creeds, because the so-called Apostles'
Creed does not say that the Holy Spirit is a person. The Nicene Creed, however
(A.D. 325),says, "I believe in the Holy Ghost, The Lord and Giver of Life,
who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son
together is worshipped and glorified." And the Athanasian Creed, a later production
of uncertain origin and date, says, "There is one Person of the Father,
another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost" ;The whole three Persons are co-eternal together and'
co-equal." So here at last is the Trinitarian doctrine fully developed.
GOD IS SPIRIT, and knows no co-equal, nor co-eternal. "Spirit", we may say, should always be read instead of "Ghost” in the Bible; and one of the greatest services of the Revised Version to the cause of divine truth is the indication of this fact in the margin of the New Testament. The revisers ought, however, to have altered "Ghost" to "Spirit" in the text; as the American Committee said, "For "Holy Ghost' adopt uniformly the rendering, 'Holy Spirit.' " It is the Lord Jesus who says "God is Spirit"(John 4: 24, R.V., marg.). And God Himself says, "I am God, and there is none else" (Isa. 46: 9); "1 am the Lord, and there is none else: there is no God beside me'" (Isa. 45: 5); "1 am the first and I am the last, and beside me there is no God" (Isa. 4-4: 6, 8). And Paul says, "There is but ONE GOD, the Father, of whom are all things" (I Cor. 8: 6); "One God and Father of all, who is above all"(Eph. 4: 6); "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2: 5). These sayings of God, by the Holy Spirit, preclude the possibility of the Holy Spirit's being a co-equal and co-eternal Person with the Father.
THE SPIRIT OF GOD: "Spirit" is a word of wide and elastic meaning, the radical idea being breath, from the Latin spiritus. And the same idea holds good in the Hebrew and Greek of the Scriptures. "Spirit,” as referred to the Father by the Lord Jesus, means the divine substance and nature as opposed to flesh and blood. And Jesus himself, when raised from the dead and glorified, is called "a quickening spirit" (1 Cor. 15: 45); that is, a "spiritual body," as the apostle here explains. And the angels likewise are all "ministering spirits" (Heb. I : 14), like Christ. But God speaks also of His "spirit" in the sense of His power breathed forth from His personal presence in heaven. "My spirits hall not always strive with man" (Gen. 6: 3). "Thou testifiedst against them by thy spirit in the prophets" (Neh. 9: 30). "Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created" (Psa. 104 : 30). "The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen. I : 2). "By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens" (job 26: 13). "The spirit of the Lord came mightily upon" Samson (Judges 14: 6), and made him stronger than alion. "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath ANOINTED ME" (Isa. 61 : 1). So said "the spirit of Christ IN “Isaiah (I Pet. 1 : 11). In all these places there is no question of a Person, but of the Power of God sent forth and bestowed for His, divine purposes.
Because God speaks by His spirit in the prophets, we have by metonymy the expression, "The Spirit speaketh," and it is a mistaken interpretation of such expressions that has. transformed "the Holy Spirit" into "the third Person of the Trinity". "The Spirit speaketh expressly" (I Tim. 4: 1);that is, God by His spirit in the prophets and apostles, speaketh. "The spirit of Christ in them (the prophets) . . . when IT testified beforehand" (1 Pet. 1 : 11). "Well spake the Holy Spirit by Isaiah the prophet" (Acts 28: 25). "It is not ye that speak, but the Holy Spirit"'(Mark 13: 11). "David himself said by the Holy Spirit" . . . (Mark 12:.36)."He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches" (Rev. 2: 7, 11, 17, 29; 3: 1, 6, 13, 22); that is, hear what Christ commanded John to write. The personification is natural and effective when the divine doctrine underlying it is understood. In Proverbs wisdom is personified for similar reasons (Prov. I : 20; 4: 6, 7, 13; 8: 1, 22,23).
JESUS CHRIST, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT: The Lord Jesus was begotten of the Holy Spirit as the creeds truly say; but the angel Gabriel explained beforehand to Mary, his mother how God was about to fulfill His covenant with David, saying" I WILL BE HIS FATHER" (2 Sam. 7: 14).The angel said to Mary, in answer to her inquiry how such a thing could be " The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God, (Luke 1 : 35). The power of the Highest had, ages before caused Abraham and Sarah, in their old age, to have a son (Isaac), who was in this respect so striking a type of the Christ that Paul does not scruple to say of him that he was born “after the spirit", and not "after the flesh" (Gal. 4 :29). Not only was Jesus begotten of the spirit, but "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit, and with power (Acts 10: 38). The idea of the "First Person"' of the Trinity anointing the "Second Person" with the “Third Person" is, of course, confusion. In this same chapter (vv. 44,45) read that "the Holy Spirit fell upon them which heard word”;” on the Gentiles was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit." "God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him" (Jesus) (John 3: 34). "Give me also this power," said Simon Magus (Acts 8: 19); but men cannot buy the Holy Spirit, as Peter told him.
THE PROMISE
OF "THE COMFORTER": In Christ's promises of the Comforter
(John14 : 16, 26; 15 : 26; 16:7) he uses the language of personification, as
illustrated above and it is only by literalizing the figurative that the Holy
Spirit is transformed into a real Person, like the Father and the Son. The word
for Comforter is Parakletos, and Christ himself is the Comforter. In 1
John 2: 1 we read, "If man sin,. We have an Advocate(or Comforter, or
Helper, Paraclete, R.V., Marg.) with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous." The word "advocate" exactly expresses meaning of the
Greek word: "One who is called or sent to assist another." , But see
what happens if we make this Comforter mean a "Third, co-equal, and co-
eternal Person with the Father and the Son." In the above-named passage
we must be guilty of "confounding the Persons", as the Athanasian
Creed puts it. Because it is written, "There is one God, and ONE MEDIATOR
between God and men, THE MAN, CHRIST JESUS"(1 Tim. 2: 5). The Holy Spirit,
therefore, is not separate personal Comforter, Advocate, or Mediator between God and
men.
THE NEW
TESTAMENT HISTORY: Happily we have the history of the fulfilment of Christ's promise
of "the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit" (John14: 26). After he
was raised from the dead he appeared to the disciples in a room in Jerusalem,
and having eaten with them and made them handle him, and see that he was really
and truly alive again, "he breathed on them and saith unto them, receive
ye the Holy Spirit' (John20: 22). On the day of Pentecost next following,
"They were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2: 4). This was not
the advent of a Person, but " a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty
wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared
unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them."
And they spoke with tongues and, wrought miracles; and so God bore them witness
with "gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will" (Heb. 2:
4). The Apostles were now in possession of the Comforter, as Jesus had promised,
and remembered all things infallibly (John 14: 26), and spoke and wrought
accordingly. Thus the Comforter testified of Christ (John15 : 26).
"God," said Peter to the chief priests, "hath exalted
(Jesus)with his right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance
to
FURTHERRECOMMENDED
Booklets:
A Declaration of the Truth Revealed in the Bible
The Eccelesial Guide
Who are
the Christadelphians?
Books:
Back to
the Bible (H. Tennant)
The Christadelphians:)What they Believe and Preach (H. Tennant)
Christendom Astray (R. Roberts)
Elpis
The Evangelical Revival - A Modem Challenge to Biblical Truth (A. H. Nicholls)
God's Way(J. Carter)
Studies in the Statement of Faith (various authors)
The Bible
Companion - A daily Bible reading calendar by means of which, during the year,
the Old Testament is read once and the New Testament twice.