Body: | Personality of the Holy Spirit:
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Quotes by Scholars
Anti-Trinitarians will misquote scholars so frequently, that they effectively projecting the false idea that these scholars actually reject that the Bible teaches the personality of the Holy Spirit and the trinity!
The personality of the Holy Spirit is a knock out against all
anti-Trinitarians and automatically proves that the trinity doctrine of
three persons in the one Godhead is true!
Discussion:
Deceptive Quoting only a Partial etymological definition of "spirit":
There are no places in the Bible where the Holy Spirit is called an
"it" or a "thing".
When Jehovah's Witnesses tell you the word spirit, as used in the
Bible, means wind or breath, tell them they are full of hot air!
The scriptures use the word "spirit" in a wide a range of meaning
from "wind" to "intelligent personal beings" including: Man, Devil, demons,
angels, the Holy Spirit and even God the Father Himself!
The word spirit means breath in some places, but not always. The
Holy Spirit is associated with God's power, but is often attributed clear
personality in both the Old and New Testament.
To prove the Holy Spirit is not a person, Jehovah's Witnesses and
all Anti-Trinitarians deal with the subject of spirit by picking one of
many definitions from a Greek dictionary while ignoring the rest. Then they
say, "See spirit is nothing more than wind, the Holy Spirit is not a
person." Using their same logic, that makes angels, the devil and demons
even God Himself nothing more than hot air or some nebulous non-personal
energy force.
They likewise "prove" man has no conscious existence after death, by
quoting a tiny section of a Greek dictionary that states, "spirit means
wind, breath" then they proceed to ignore the rest of what the dictionary
says and dishonestly apply this single definition to every passage that
says man has a spirit that consciously survives dead.
But in utter hypocrisy they then add another definition found in the
same dictionary when they refer to God the Father's spirit, namely:
intelligent conscious life and being. (God is a Spirit = God is a breath,
doesn't work) Jw's are hot air not God!
The Watchtower booklet, "Should you believe in the trinity?", said
of Mt 28:19: "Do those verses say that God, Christ, and the holy spirit
constitute a Trinitarian Godhead, that the three are equal in substance,
power, and eternity? No, they do not, no more than listing three people,
such as Tom, Dick, and Harry, means that they are three in one". Virtually
every Trinitarian would agree with this for it is absolutely true! The
deception is that listing three people, such as Tom, Dick, and Harry,
doesn't tell us anything about them being three in one but it always tells
us they are people and not things! So no, Mt 28:19 doesn't tell us how
three are one God, but it does clearly attribute personality to the Holy
Spirit. Game over! They are proven wrong! Trinity is true! (Unless they are
willing to say that Tom, Dick are persons and Harry is electricity!)
Quotes by scholars on the personality of the Holy Spirit:
If the New Testament writers nowhere explicitly call the Holy Spirit
God and do not explicitly ascribe to Him the divine functions of creation,
salvation and judgment, still they do at times put the Holy Spirit on the
same divine level as the Father and the Son, and ascribe to Him the divine
functions of vivification, justification, and sanctification. (The Triune
God, Edmund Fortman)
The Spirit of God.-On the whole, the New Testament, like the Old,
speaks of the Spirit as a divine energy or power particularly in the heart
of man. ... This divine Spirit is clearly distinguished from the Spirit or
conscience of man (Rom. viii 16), and the authority of the Spirit is
identified with that of God Himself (Mt. xii. 31 ; Acts v. 3, 9 ; I Cor. U
16 ; but of. Exod. xvi 8 ; 1 Thess. iv. 8). But is a personal existence
clearly attributed to the Spirit? No doubt, all through the N.T. his action
is described as personal. He speaks (Mk. xiii 11 ; Acts viii. 29), bears
witness (Rom. viii. 16; 1 Jn. v. 6), searches (I Cor. ii. 10), decides
(Acts xv. 28), helps and intercedes (Rom. viii. 26), apportions the gifts
of grace (1 Cor. xii. 11). Most of these places furnish no cogent proof of
personality. ... In the fourth Gospel, however, this personal existence is
stated more fully and plainly ... I will ask the Father and He will give
you another advocate, that Her may be with you for ever, the Spirit of
truth. I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you " (v. 16-18).
"Advocate " is the same name given in 1 Jn- to Christ Himself, our advocate
with the Father, and in each case the name is a personal one. ...
Trinitarian formulae occur throughout the N.T. books. ... The persons of
the Trinity are further mentioned together by St. Paul (2 Cor. 13:13) and
by St. Peter (I Ep. i. 1-2). Considering the strict Monotheism of the
NT.,-such language implies the divinity, as well as the personality, of
Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and they are sufficient warrant for refusing to
believe that N.T. writers did not know the doctrine, because they did not,
like St. John, state it explicitly. ... The true divinity of the third
Person was asserted at a Council of Alexandria in 362, by two. synods at
Rome under Pope Damasus, and finally by the Council of Constantinople of
381, in a decree accepted by the whole Church. (A Catholic Dictionary,
William E. Addis & Thomas Arnold, 1960, p 822-830)
Although this spirit is often described in personal terms, it seems
quite clear that the [Old Testament] sacred writers never conceived or
presented this spirit as a distinct person. ... Perhaps it can be said that
some of these writings about word and wisdom and spirit did provide a
climate in which plurality within the Godhead was conceivable to Jews.
However, these writers definitely do give us the words that the New
Testament uses to express the trinity of persons, Father, Son, Word,
Wisdom, Spirit. And their way of understanding these words helps us to see
how the revelation of God in the New Testament goes beyond the revelation
of God in the Old Testament. (The Triune God, Edmund Fortman, p8-9)
Besides these passages there are many others in the Gospels which
refer to one or other of the Three Persons in particular, and clearly
express the separate - personality and Divinity of each. (The Catholic
Encyclopedia, 1912, Vol. 15, p 47-49)
In certain texts the coordination of Father, Son, and Spirit leaves
no possible doubt as to the meaning of the writer. Thus in II Cor, xiii,
13, St. Paul writes: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity
of God and the communication of the Holy Ghost be with you all." Here the
construction shows that the Apostle is speaking of three distinct Persons.
Moreover, since the names God and Holy Ghost are alike Divine names, it
follows that Jesus Christ is also regarded as a Divine Person. (The
Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912, Vol. 15, p 47-49)
In regard to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the passages
which can be cited from the Synoptists as attesting His distinct
personality are few. ... But in Luke, 12:12 "The Holy Ghost shall teach you
in the same our what you must say" (Matt. 10:20, and Luke, 24:49), His
personality is clearly implied.(The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912, Vol. 15, p
47-49)
It is evident that, were the Spirit not a Person, Christ could not
have spoken of His presence with the Apostles as comparable to His own
presence with them (xiv, 16, 17). Again, were He not a Divine Person it
could not have been expedient for the Apostles that Christ should leave
them, and the Paraclete take His place (xvi, 7). (The Catholic
Encyclopedia, 1912, Vol. 15, p 47-49)
It is incredible that the phrase "in the name" should be here
employed, were not all the Persons mentioned equally Divine. More over, the
use of the singular, "name", and not the plural, shows that these Three
Persons are that One Omnipotent God in whom the Apostles believed. (The
Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912, Vol. 15, p 47-49)
Ruah can exhibit a range of meaning. The "breath" of God may be a
strong wind (Isa 40:7; 59:19; cf. Num 11:31). His "spirit" may indicate no
more than active power or mood Isa 40:13, "Who hath directed the spirit
[intention] of the Lord?" or, "who has known the mind [intention] of the
Lord," SO Lxx and I Cor 2:16). At most points, however, context approves
and the analogy of the NT strongly suggests that the ruah YHWH is the Holy
Spirit, "in the fullest Christian sense" (Theological Workbook of the Old
Testament, R. Laird Harris, Vol 2, page 836-7)
The apostolic conception of the Holy Ghost and of His relation to
the Father and the Son is clear from Acts. Peter, in explaining the
phenomenon of Pentecost, represents it as the activity of the Trinity.
'This Jesus ... being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which
ye now see and hear' (Acts ii. 32, 33). It is not too much to say that the
apostolic Church was built upon faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost. (New Bible Dictionary, J. D. Douglas & F. F. Bruce, Trinity, p 1298)
The doctrine as to the Holy Spirit is equally clear. That His
distinct personality was fully recognized is shown by many passages. Thus
He reveals His commands to the Church's ministers: " As they were
ministering to the Lord and fasting the Holy Ghost said to them: Separate
me Saul and Barnabas" (Acts, xiii, 2). He directs the missionary journey of
the Apostles: "They attempt to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus
suffered them not" (Acts, xvi, 7; of. Acts, v, 3; xv, 28; Rom., xv, 30).
Divine attributes are affirmed of Him. (The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912,
Vol. 15, p 47-49)
The Holy Spirit is usually presented in the Synoptics and in Acts as
a divine force or power. But in a few passages the sacred writers leave a
vivid impression that for them He was someone distinct from both Father and
Son with a distinct personal existence. In both Synoptics and Acts there
are traces of the triadic pattern of Father. Son, and Holy Spirit. The
clearest expression of this pattern is found in the baptismal formula where
Matthew presents the three together as at once a triad and a unity. But
nowhere do we find any trinitarian doctrine of three distinct subjects of
divine life and activity in the same Godhead. And when the three are
coordinated on the same divine level in a triadic pattern there seems to be
no realization of the problem of the relationship between the three and of
the three to the same Godhead. In both the Synoptics and Acts there is a
realization that Jesus' tremendous works-His salvific death, resurrection,
and exaltation -indicate that He was and always had been more than a mere
man and that only divine titles could properly describe Him. But is there
in them, any clear indication that a community in divine function meant a
community of nature between Father and Son, so that they could say
explicitly that Jesus is one same God with the Father? It seems not. (The
Triune God, Edmund Fortman, p15)
The Semi-Arians, who thought it enough to admit the Son's likeness
to the Father, but would not allow the second Person to be equal to or
consubstantial with the first, were driven by the force of logic, to make
the Holy Ghost a creature. (A Catholic Dictionary, William E. Addis &
Thomas Arnold, 1960, p 822-830)
The Spirit of God as a Person. Although the NT concepts of the
spirit of God are largely a continuation of those of the OT, in the NT
there is a gradual revelation that the Spirit of God's a Person. In the
Synoptic Gospels. The majority of NT texts reveal God's spirit as
something, not someone; this is especially seen in the parallelism between
the spirit and the power of God. ... The only passage in the Synoptic
Gospels that clearly speaks of the person of the Holy Spirit is the
Trinitarian formula in Mt 28.19. ... The statement in Acts 15.28, "the Holy
Spirit and we have decided," alone seems to imply full personality. ...
However, the Trinitarian formulas employed by St. Paul (e.g., 2 Cor 13.13),
indicate a real personality. ... So clearly does St. John see in the Spirit
a person who takes Christ's place in the Church, that he uses a masculine
pronoun (Greek) in reference to the Spirit even though [spirit] is neuter
in gender ( 16.8, 13-16). Consequently, it is evident that St. John thought
of the Holy Spirit as a Person, who is distinct from the Father and the
Son, and who, with the glorified Son and the Father, is present and active
in the faithful (14.16; 15.26; 16.7). (New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1965,
Spirit of God, Vol 13, p574-576)
The spirit of Yahweh was often described in personal terms. The
spirit was grieved, guided men, instructed them, caused them to rest (Ps
143.10; Neh 9.20; Is 63.10, 14). But it seems quite clear that the Jews
never regarded the spirit as a person; nor is there any solid evidence that
any Old Testament writer held this view. A few scholars today maintain,
however, that even though the spirit is usually presented as an impersonal
divine force, there is an under-lying assumption that the spirit was a
conscious agent, which 'provided a climate in which plurality within the
Godhead was conceivable." (The Triune God, Edmund Fortman, p6)
The supernatural appearance at the baptism of Christ is often cited
as an explicit revelation of Trinitarian doctrine, given at the very
commencement of the Ministry. This, it seems to us, is a mistake. The
Evangelists it is true, see in it a manifestation of the Three Divine
Persons. (The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912, Vol. 15, p 47-49)
This article treats the spirit of God as it is presented in the OT
and Judaism, and in the NT. Consideration is given in each of these
sections to the spirit of God as a power and as a Person. ... In other OT
passages, God's spirit is conceived more as a teacher or guide-the source
of all intellectual and spiritual gifts-than as an efficacious force [Ps
142(143).10; Neh 9.20; Dn 5.15]. God's Spirit Not Presented as a Person.
The OT clearly does not envisage God's spirit as a person, neither in the
strictly philosophical sense, nor in the Semitic sense. God's spirit is
simply God's power. If it is sometimes represented as being distinct from
God, it is because the breath of Yahweh acts exteriorly (Is 48.16; 63.11;
32.15). Very rarely do the OT writers attribute to God's spirit emotions or
intellectual activity (Is 63.10; Wis 1.3-7). ... As a result of the
teaching of Christ, the definite personality of the Third Person of the
Trinity is clear. However, in most cases, the phrase "spirit of God"
reflects the OT notion of "the power of God." ... The Spirit of God as a
Person. Although the NT concepts of the spirit of God are largely a
continuation of those of the OT, in the NT there is a gradual revelation
that the Spirit of God's a Person. In the Synoptic Gospels. The majority of
NT texts reveal God's spirit as something, not someone; this is especially
seen in the parallelism between the spirit and the power of God. ... The
only passage in the Synoptic Gospels that clearly speaks of the person of
the Holy Spirit is the Trinitarian formula in Mt 28.19. ... The statement
in Acts 15.28, "the Holy Spirit and we have decided," alone seems to imply
full personality. ... However, the Trinitarian formulas employed by St.
Paul (e.g., 2 Cor 13.13), indicate a real personality. ... So clearly does
St. John see in the Spirit a person who takes Christ's place in the Church,
that he uses a masculine pronoun (Greek) in reference to the Spirit even
though [spirit] is neuter in gender ( 16.8, 13-16). Consequently, it is
evident that St. John thought of the Holy Spirit as a Person, who is
distinct from the Father and the Son, and who, with the glorified Son and
the Father, is present and active in the faithful (14.16; 15.26; 16.7).
(New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1965, Spirit of God, Vol 13, p574-576)
We have in these chapters the necessary preparation for the
baptismal commission. In them the Apostles are instructed not only as to
the personality of the Spirit, but as to His office towards the church.
(The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912, Vol. 15, p 47-49)
"Yet, as compared with their thought about the Logos, the Apologists
appear to have been extremely vague as to the exact status and role of the
Spirit. His essential function in their eyes would seem to have been the
inspiration of the prophets. Developing this, Justin interprets Is. 11, 2
('The Spirit of God shall rest upon him') as indicating that with the
coming of Christ prophecy would cease among the Jews; henceforth the Spirit
would be Christ's Spirit, and would bestow His gifts and graces upon
Christians. Hence it is He Who is the source of the illumination which
makes Christianity the supreme philosophy., There are passages, however,
where he attributes the inspiration of the prophets to the Logos; and
Theophilus, too, suggests that it was the Logos Who, being divine spirit,
illuminated their minds. There can be no doubt that the Apologists' thought
was highly confused; they were very far from having worked the threefold
pattern of the Church's faith into a coherent scheme. In this connection it
is noteworthy that Justin did not assign the Holy Spirit any role in the
incarnation. Like other pre-Nicene fathers, he understood the divine Spirit
and 'power of the Most High' mentioned in Luke 1, 3 5, not as the Holy
Spirit, but as the Logos, Whom he envisaged as entering the womb of the
Blessed Virgin and acting as the agent of His own incarnation. In spite of
incoherencies, however, the lineaments of a Trinitarian doctrine are
clearly discernible in the Apologists. The Spirit was for them the Spirit
of God; like the Word, He shared the divine nature, being (in Athenagoras's
words) an 'effluence' from the Deity. Although much of Justin's language
about Him has a sub-personal ring, it becomes more personal when he speaks
of 'the prophetic Spirit'; and there is no escaping the personal
implications contained in his pleas that Plato borrowed his conception of a
third One from Moses, and that the pagan custom of erecting statues of Kore
at springs was inspired by the Scriptural picture of the Spirit moving upon
the waters. As regards the relation of the Three, there is little to be
gleaned from Justin beyond his statement that Christians venerate Christ
and the Spirit in the second and the third ranks respectively. Athenagoras
echoes this idea when he inveighs [a verbal attack] against labeling as
atheists 'men who acknowledge God the Father, God the Son and the Holy
Spirit, and declare both Their power in union and Their distinction in
order'. This order, however, was not intended to suggest degrees of
subordination within the Godhead; it belonged to the Triad as manifested in
creation and revelation." (Early Christian Doctrines, J.N.D. Kelly, p 102)
The apostolic conception of the Holy Ghost and of His relation to
the Father and the Son is clear from Acts. Peter, in explaining the
phenomenon of Pentecost, represents it as the activity of the Trinity.
'This Jesus ... being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which
ye now see and hear' (Acts ii. 32, 33). It is not too much to say that the
apostolic Church was built upon faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost. (New Bible Dictionary, J. D. Douglas & F. F. Bruce, Trinity, p 1298)
Compiled by Steve Rudd
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