IS THE HOLY SPIRIT A DISTINCT PERSON OF THE TRINITY?
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The cults insist that the Holy Spirit is just a mere impersonal force, but the Scriptural evidence shows us otherwise:
∑ ACT 13:2 - As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Impersonal forces do not have intelligence and do not speak. The Spirit intercedes for us according to His superior wisdom. Impersonal forces like the wind do not have wisdom:
∑ ROM 8:26 – Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.
To intercede, the Spirit must be a distinct Person. It doesn’t make any sense that God would intercede with Himself.
Jesus referred to the Spirit as ANOTHER Helper. That suggests that He is distinct from the Father and the Son:
∑ JOH 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever –
∑ JOH 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
“Spirit” (“pneuma” – Greek) is neuter, while “He” (referring to the Spirit) is clearly not. Of course, this is a masculine pronoun and, ordinarily, it is grammatically incorrect to be associated with a neuter noun. Instead, “pneuma” should take the neuter pronoun “it.” However, the writers of the NT opted to be theologically correct and grammatically incorrect to demonstrate that the Spirit is a Person and not an “it.”
The Spirit has His own authority. Impersonal forces do not:
∑ JOH 16:7 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you…16:13-14 “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.
∑ 1 Cor. 12:11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
This doctrine is not a NT invention. Instead, we find that the Spirit as a distinct Person even in the OT:
∑ Isaiah 63:9-11 In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, and He lifted them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit…Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moses. Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them,
∑ 2 Samuel 23:1-2 Now these are the last words of David: The oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel: “The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me; his word is on my tongue.”
∑ Ezekiel 11:5 And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and he said to me, “Say, Thus says the LORD: So you think, O house of Israel. For I know the things that come into your mind.
The Spirit sends, speaks, and is rebelled against. We cannot rebel against an impersonal force, as we cannot rebel against the wind:
∑ Ezekiel 2:1-3 And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.”
PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT
The Spirit has emotions. Impersonal forces do not:
∑ Ephes. 4:30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
The Spirit is vulnerable to offense. Impersonal forces are not
∑ Acts 5:3-4 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God [the Spirit]."
∑ Acts 7:51 "You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.
∑ Hebrews 10:29 How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
∑ Matthew 12:31-32 "Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”
Yet the cults call us “liars” and “deceivers” for maintaining this. They also claim that we have borrowed this doctrine from paganism. I hope that the above evidence will put such charges to rest.
New York School of the Bible: http://www.nysb.nyc/
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