What is the Holy Spirit -2
The Spirit of God its
identity, its nature, its form and value - is simply not understood by most
people - even most sincere and professing Christians!
Many assume they know, but they are deceived! Earlier, in part one, we learned
that there is no biblical basis for the trinity doctrine - that the trinity
belief was synthesized from pagan and Jewish philosophy and thrust upon
Christianity in the fourth century by a council called at the direction of the
Roman emperor, who was not a Christian. We saw that the Bible itself shows the
Holy Spirit is not a person, and we discovered the astounding truth that God is
actually composed of, at present, God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son.
What About the Holy Spirit?
God's Spirit is the power that emanates from God - from the Father and the Son.
Look at John 4-24 and understand. Here it says, "God is Spirit." Compare this
with us humans. We are flesh, not spirit. And there is a vast difference between
flesh and spirit. In our case, our minds are fleshly and so are our bodies. We
are made from the dust of the earth (Genesis 3:19). We know the things flesh can
know. We have the powers flesh has. We operate within the limits of the flesh.
When we act, such as when we move an arm, we act with an arm of flesh and do the
things a fleshly arm can do.
But God is spirit. And spirit is superior to flesh. For one, God is holy (John
17:11, Revelation 3:7). God is also immortal. God thinks and operates on a
completely different level than we do. God, composed of spirit, can move in ways
our arms and bodies cannot move.
In talking to the Pharisee Nicodemus, Jesus compared spirit to the wind: "The
wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where
it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John
3:8). God can reach out and extend Himself in ways that we humans,
composed of flesh, are hard pressed to understand. How? Through His Holy Spirit,
the power by which He acts. God's Spirit responds to His will. It serves His
needs and desires, and so is like a remote arm or agent He uses. The Holy
Spirit, as God's means of thought and action, is His mind, His energy, His
motivation, His attitude, His power and His nature. God's Spirit works in the
human mind to produce conversion.
Science has determined that within the chromosomes of each cell of our bodies
are locked the key codes for all of our essential characteristics - eye color,
height, facial features. In short, if science knew how, it could construct a
twin of any person by looking at the code contained in one small cell. Each of
our cells carries all our characteristics.
In the same way, God's Spirit carries His qualities of power, character and mind
- His very nature! It is supremely important, then, to notice the sharp
differences between spirit on one hand and flesh on the other. It is the key to
understanding how and why the Bible speaks as it does of the Holy Spirit.
When the Bible mentions God's Spirit - the Holy Spirit - it usually does so to
emphasize some characteristic of God unique to Him.
God's power in action
The Holy Spirit is spoken of as the power or mind of God: "And the spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2).
Notice also II Timothy 1:7, which states that God's Spirit is not one of fear,
"but of power and of love and of a sound mind".
The Holy Spirit is the power or energy by which God creates, inspires His
servants, imparts His mind and attitude to His people and performs, in this
physical realm, works that would be physically impossible - even resurrection
from the dead!
When God acts, the power of the Holy Spirit carries out His desires. To be sure,
His Spirit is far -more powerful than the physical arms and strength we might
use, say, to build a bookcase. Some of God's powers defy our abilities to
understand or describe, yet all the actions He takes can be ascribed to His
Spirit. So, for example, the Bible tells us that "by His Spirit He adorned the
heavens" (Job 26-13).
In addition, God is able to take His Spirit and actually put it within us
humans. When He does so, He puts some of Himself, and thus some of His power ,
or mind. or character, or nature, into us.
God's Spirit, His power or nature, emanates from Him and can thus be said to be
"poured out" (Joel 2:28),"shed" (Titus 3:5-6) "breathed" (John 20-22) to "fill"
someone (Acts 2-4) and to "anoint" someone (Acts 10-38) or "proceed" from the
Father (John 15-26). None of these verbs in reference to the Holy Spirit could
describe a person. They are used to describe actions taken by God's Power!
Some people puzzle over verses that represent the Holy Spirit in symbol.
Believers in the trinity seem to think that God's Spirit would not be so
represented unless it were a person. Hence they view Matthew 3:13-17, where a
dove, as the symbol of the Holy Spirit, descends upon the baptized Christ and a
voice from heaven speaks, as proof that God is three persons. But
consider this: Spirit cannot be seen by humans unless it is given a physical
form or shape. God used a dove, a symbol of peace, to symbolize the Holy Spirit
at the baptism of the Prince of peace! Certainly, God's Spirit is not a dove.
On this occasion God revealed His Spirit in symbol so people could see that God
was present in spirit and approved of His Son and His Son's baptism. The Holy
Spirit was here represented as a dove, and in other places as fire (Acts 2-3),
water (John 4-14), oil (Psalm 45-7), wind (John 3-8) and a seal (Ephesians
1-13), among other symbols.
But why does God represent His Spirit in symbol? Because these symbols
illustrate the attributes of God. God uses different symbols at different times
to convey different aspects of His character. Remember though that neither God
nor Christ used literal water, a dove, or fire or wind. These are mere symbols.
An extension of God
Look at Acts 13:2. It states, "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.'" If the Holy Spirit is not a separate person of God how can
this verse be understood? Such verses, in part, may be examples of a
figure of speech known as personification. Personification is the practice of
attributing human qualities to inanimate objects to add color or life to
description.
The Bible uses such a device from time to time, but consider also this: The Holy
Spirit is at times spoken of as if a person - because it is the extension of a
person - the person of God the Father or of the Son, but not of a separate
person or being from the two. When the Bible says the Holy Spirit spoke or moved
or remembered or in some other way acted like a being, it is telling us that
either the Father or the Son did something by means of their spiritual power - "
the Spirit of God.
Let us now see some places where God's Spirit is spoken of in a way that shows
other of God's qualities - that is, that illustrate the differences between
righteous spirit and carnal flesh.
Misunderstood verses
In some Bible verses, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are mentioned together
in one phrase, verse or closely related series of verses. Notice for instance,
Matthew 28:19, I Peter 1:2, II Corinthians 13:14, John 14:26 and I Corinthians
12:4-11.
Consider one of the scriptures most often quoted in support of the trinity,
Matthew 28:19. It says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in ["into" in the original Greek] the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Trinitarians say this verse proves God is a
trinity. If the Holy Spirit is not a being, why be baptized into it?
The answer is simple. When we are baptized, we are baptized into a relationship
with God in the name of or by the authority of Jesus Christ.
When we are baptized into this relationship, we are promised the Holy Spirit
ourselves. The Spirit of God is what adds us into that God relationship (I
Corinthians 12:13). Hence, by directing that we be baptized into that Spirit,
God calls attention to this important point.
Notice also Matthew 12:31 and Luke 12:10, where Christ says that blasphemy
against the Son will be forgiven, but not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Why
the distinction, if the Holy Spirit is not a person? Look at the context. The
Pharisees didn't want to believe that Christ was God, but they couldn't deny His
power. So it is today. When most people curse God or otherwise blaspheme, they
don't really know what they are doing, for they don't know the true God - they
have not been converted and begotten with God's Spirit. Therefore, if they
blaspheme, they do so against a false conception of God. The true God they do
not recognize. Hence they can be forgiven.
But the time comes when they learn of the true God. This occurs when they have
received the Holy Spirit through conversion, or have at least truly been touched
by its power through being called by God, or having God's truth clearly revealed
to them. If they then reject God, with full, willful knowledge of what they are
doing, they are indeed blaspheming.
Hence, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is mentioned because to blaspheme, one
must actually reject and fight against the true power of God, and not against a
mere mental image one holds based upon some deception.
John 14:15-21 deserves special comment. These verses speak of the "Comforter"
(AV) or "Helper" (Revised Authorized Version), which Christ promised to send the
apostles after His death. Plainly, that Comforter was to be the Holy Spirit
(verse 17). These verses seem to imply the Spirit is a being because 1) the
language in the English translation is language we would use to describe a
being, and 2) the Comforter is referred to with the pronouns "He" and "Him." But
again, the Trinitarians are in serious error.
Who is the Comforter?
The pronouns "He" and "Him" in John 14:15-21 refer to the word Comforter, a word
that in the Greek language demands a male pronoun regardless of what it refers
to. Some languages assign gender to all nouns, which must be referred to by
pronouns of matching gender.
Even in English we sometimes assign gender to objects, such as when we name a
hurricane after a man or woman and then refer to it as a "he" or "she." But some
a languages require such assignments for many nouns. Greek is one of these. The
use of "he" here instead of "it" is therefore an idiosyncrasy of grammar and
nothing else. The male person does not imply that the Comforter is actually a
person. (Note also that in Greek the original word for "Spirit" is neuter and
that the proper grammatical pronoun in reference to spirit is "it," a neuter
pronoun.) But consider these passages even further. Notice that in verse
18 Christ says, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." And also
verse 20, "At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and
I in you." Who, then, is the Comforter? By Christ's own statement,
He Himself lives in a person after that person has been begotten with the Spirit
by the Father.
That is why Christ said He could not come unto the disciples unless He went to
His Father - was resurrected as a spirit being with the power to live in a
person through the Holy Spirit (John 16:7). While He was flesh, He had no such
power. Even Paul stated clearly that it was Christ who lived in him (Galatians
2:20). But it was not the human Christ. It was the Christ who lived in his mind
and actions through the character changing power of the Holy Spirit!
Finally, many laymen will turn to I John 5:7-8 to try to document the trinity
argument. Theologians will not do so, however, for it is well established, even
by those who believe in the trinity, that much of these verses are spurious
additions and not of the inspired text. With the spurious parts removed, no such
proof of the trinity appears.
Why it all matters
In review, we have seen a wonderful and astounding truth. The Holy Spirit of God
is the mind, the power and the nature of God the Father and Jesus Christ. Isn't
that incredible!
Man is mortal and fleshly, and subject to death. God, who is spirit, is
immortal. Man has sinned and will therefore die, "for the wages of sin is death"
(Romans 6:23). Yet, for God to make a man live forever, He must make him
immortal. To do this He will add an important, immortal ingredient - His Holy
Spirit.
Notice, for example, Romans 8:9-11, which declares that the mortal, fleshly body
will, due to sin, inherit death, but that if the Spirit of God dwells in you,
"He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies
through His Spirit that dwells in you." That is, He will give you eternal life!
Or turn to I John 5:11-13, which states that if Christ lives in us by the power
of the Spirit, then we have eternal life dwelling within us, but if the Spirit
is not in us, we have no such life. See also I Peter 3:18.
Of course, the first question that pops into the minds of most is how one may
receive that Spirit. The answer is that we can only receive it as a gift from
God, but only if we are baptized properly after repentance from sin and belief
in the true God and the message He sent by Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38).
When we are baptized and have hands laid on us, we receive a small portion of
that Spirit. That Spirit is like a seed. It will grow, with our effort at
overcoming. The bit of Spirit we receive from God the Father at baptism is like
the physical sperm with which a physical father impregnates the mother's ovum.
And, like the fertilized egg, the begotten child of God must grow until birth.
The birth of the spiritual fetus (you and I after baptism) does not take place
until we are born anew at Christ's return, when mortality is swallowed up of
life - that is, when that begotten, faithful Christian, having overcome, is born
as an immortal son of God (II Corinthians 5:4).
We explained earlier how each cell of a person's body through the codes in the
chromosomes - carries all the characteristics of the person. In like manner,
when the Father puts His Spirit into us, His Spirit imparts to us all God's
characteristics, such as immortal life, His understanding and His character of
love, joy, peace and the other "fruits of His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). We
become part of the divine nature (II Peter 1:4).
Of course God's Spirit is not exactly like the sperm cell from a man's body.
This is an analogy.
Key to eternal life
The Holy Spirit of God is the key to eternal life! If you don't have it, then
you do not have eternal life dwelling within you. Most don't have it, because
they don't understand what it is. They believe that it is a part of a trinity -
a third person in a Godhead closed to entry by mankind. Belief in the trinity
hides from man the very power of God that can live within us and make us into
powerful spirit beings with eternal life and the character, nature, form and
shape of the living God. When we understand the truth, what a delight and a
supreme gift the Holy Spirit of God is!
God is not a trinity. God is, at present, two persons, who think and act with
the power of the Holy Spirit. When God begets us with that Spirit, we are
impregnated with eternal life, to grow in God's qualities of mind and power
until the Second Coming of Christ, when we shall receive the gift of eternal
life.
<PART ONE