The Holy Spirit in the Trinity You won’t find the actual word “Trinity” in the Bible . Saying the Holy Spirit is God is confusing to my mind at least. You cannot lie to a "force". You can not possibly overcome sin without His power. The Spirit in this passage is not an impersonal force like electricity, but a divine person like Jesus. He is considered to be the third member of the Godhead. Romans 8:16 – “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” Hebrews 10:15 – “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,” 1 John 5:6-8 – “This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. However, this idea needs to be related in some way to the Watchtower’s doctrine that Jehovah God is not omnipresent being but rather has a spirit body and is located somewhere. It is created to help you know Jesus and get a great eternal reward from God Almighty. 1:24). Rather, it indicates that he is more than personal; in some ways he transcends personhood as we observe and experience it in the natural realm. Put simply, the holy spirit is God’s applied power, or his active force.-Jehovah’s Witnesses We believe the Father and the Son are separate beings with separate consciousnesses and that the Holy Spirit is not a conscious being but instead the power of God. These things are mere forces. 5. Anti-Trinitarians not only reject the Holy Spirit is one of three members of the Godhead, (Trinity) they reject that the Holy Spirit even exists as a person at all! The Holy Spirit is not a force to wield or a mystery to be dissected, but a person to be received, known, and enjoyed. Especially noteworthy here is that the Spirit speaks in the first person when he says, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (13:2; see also 10:20). Copyright (C) 2000-2018 Michael Fackerell. The Holy Spirit has a mind. When the Jewish authorities challenged Peter for preaching about Jesus, Peter told them, “And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit that God has given to those who obey him” (5:32). All Rights Reserved. The vast majority of places where the word “spirit” is used it is portrayed as simply a force, God’s power. So who are you really honestly referring to when you say the Holy Spirit is God, are you saying the Holy Spirit is the same as the Father or Jesus. A: The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit has all the attributes of personality and is not merely an impersonal force. In this sense, there is no such thing as the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is not a thing at all, but the very presence of the personal God himself—with us, in us, and around us. The Holy Spirit is a Person. Does it go back when its function is complete? Antony Billington, Tony Lane, and Max Turner (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1995), 90–115; Tricia Gates Brown, Spirit in the Writings of John: Johannine Pneumatology in Social-scientific Perspective, JSNTSup 253 (London:  T&T Clark International, 2003), 23–61. In the case of Deuteronomy, Moses named Joshua as his successor (see especially Deut. The Spirit is a person and not merely a force. Like most critics of the doctrine of the Trinity, Jehovah’s Witnesses frequently employ arguments from silence against the idea of the Holy Spirit as a divine person. The holy spirit is the means by which Jehovah exerts his power. We see Jesus’ teaching about the coming of the Holy Spirit fulfilled in the Book of Acts. Your Financial Gifts will really Make a Difference. Unknown to most, due to the spiritual blindness inflicted upon most of humanity, there is actually a great and ambitious invisible spirit-being who always wanted to be also “god” and to reign as co-equal with God and the Son. First of all, the Holy Spirit isn’t an it. Arguments from silence are unreliable foundations for doctrine.13. The word spirit (from the Latin spiritus meaning "breath") appears either alone or with other words in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament.Combinations include expressions such as the "Holy Spirit", "Spirit of God", and in Christianity, "Spirit of Christ".. The Son “taught” the disciples (6:59; 7:14, 28); the Spirit “will teach” them (14:26). 32:15; 44:3; Ezek. “The Holy Spirit—Third Person of Trinity or God’s Active Force?” Watchtower, July 15, 1957, 433. (John 16:7, 8.) Rather, the point is to show Jehovah’s Witnesses that all doctrines of the Holy Spirit are going to have some rational difficulties. The Holy Spirit also came to give us power. 10. Summary: The Watchtower Society teaches that the Holy Spirit is not a divine person existing eternally with the Father and the Son but is instead an impersonal, active force emanating from Jehovah God when he employs his power or energy toward the world. #1 The Holy Spirit is Not Sporadic. He is God, we are His temple, and we ought to give ourselves to Him because Christ has purchased us with His blood for that purpose. “Holy Spirit—Third Person of Trinity or God’s Active Force,” 431–32. The Holy Spirit is not a vague, ethereal life force. He is giving us himself. Some churches say "Don't worry about the Holy Spirit. Summary: The Watchtower Society teaches that the Holy Spirit is not a divine person existing eternally with the Father and the Son but is instead an impersonal, active force emanating from Jehovah God when he employs his power or energy toward the world. He is not impersonal or unthinking. These are attributes of a person (in this case, a divine Person), not of a mere force. The following verses demonstrate that the Holy Spirit is indeed personal –after all, he knows, wills, speaks, teaches, intercedes, and has a mind. He is the One through Him God is now with us. The Holy Spirit does give us many marvellous experiences, but He Himself is not merely an experience. Intellect3. Holy Spirit, in Christian belief, the third person of the Trinity. The personhood of the Spirit is also established by the fact that you can treat the Spirit as a person (pray to him, quench the Spirit, bless the Spirit), and the Spirit performs acts proper to personality—He speaks, commands, strives, to name a few examples. 157-158). Before we compare the Holy Spirit and the Force, we need need address four thing. In the final analysis, our doctrine of the Holy Spirit must be based on what the Bible says, not on what it does not say. Who Is the Holy Spirit? Yes, there are some apparent philosophical difficulties in the traditional Christian view of the Holy Spirit: How can he be the Spirit of God, be God himself, and yet be personally distinct from the Father? How do we know? Ephesians says that Christians should be “filled with the Spirit” (Eph. True Stories, Christian Testimonies of Jesus Christ, How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit and Pray in Tongues, Prayers and Confessions based on the Word, A Simple Way to Share the Gospel! When God gives us his Spirit, he is not just giving us a helper and a comforter. In its opening words, the Bible speaks of the holy spirit —also rendered “God’s active force”— as “moving to and fro over the surface of the waters.” ( Genesis 1:2 ) In the account of Jesus’ baptism, while God is described as being in “the heavens,” the holy spirit appears “descending like a dove” upon Jesus. In certain respects it can also be likened to electricity. And what is the Holy Spirit’s role in the believer’s life? 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