THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT



BIBLE DOCTRINE II

LECTURE 40

PNEUMATOLOGY – THE HOLY GHOST IS A PERSON

The following are excerpts from Robert Sargeant’s ebook ‘Landmarks of Baptist Doctrine’.

Pastor Warner’s comments are in [brackets] unless otherwise designated.

THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is the subject of much confusion and controversy in Christendom today. A general ignorance concerning the third Person of the Holy Trinity has led to a number of extremes and errors — most notably evident in the so-called “Charismatic Movement” and Pentecostal denominations.

Three major problem areas connected with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit are: Holy Spirit Baptism; The Pentecost Birthday of “The Church” theory; and Spiritual Gifts. [One other problem area (though minor) is the ‘Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost’; this will be looked at also.]

Each of these topics will be fully expounded upon in this series of lectures. Another major (though not so prevalent) error has to do with the personality of the Holy Spirit. Antitrinitarian cults, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, teach that He is an “impersonal force,” rather than the third Person of the Godhead. This particular lecture deals with the Bible’s teaching on this matter.

To the casual reader of the Bible, the Holy Spirit at times may seem to be just an impersonal influence of grace and power. This is because the work of the Spirit is unseen (John 3:8) and unheralded (John 16:13e). In addition, some of the Biblical symbols of the Holy Spirit (e.g. “breath” — Job 33:4; John 20:22 “water” — John 7:38,3 “oil” — I Samuel

16:13 are themselves impersonal. It should be noted, however, that the Bible also uses impersonal symbols for both the Father (e.g.Ps l8:2— “rock,” “fortress,” “buckler,” “horn,” and “tower”) and the Son (e.g. l Pe 2:6-8—“cornerstone,” “stone,” and “rock”).

The Watchtower Society teaches Jehovah's Witnesses that the Holy Ghost is not a Person but rather "God's active force", and this ‘force’ is impersonal and somewhat like ‘electricity’.

"Consider the far-reaching effects of an electric power plant. A power plant has a certain location in or near a city. But its electricity is distributed over all that area, providing light and power. It is similar with God. He is in the heavens. Yet his holy spirit, which is his invisible active force, can be felt everywhere, over all the universe. By means of his holy spirit God created the heavens, the earth and all living things. ... He can send out his spirit, his active force, to do whatever he wants even though he is far away." (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, (1982), p. 37).

I. THE HOLY SPIRIT’S PERSONALITY IS IMPLIED THROUGH HIS NAMES AND TITLES

The Bible uses many personal names and titles for the Holy Spirit.

A. NAMES THAT ARE SELF-DESCRIPTIVE:

1. Spirit — I Corinthians 2:10

“But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”

The Greek word “pneuma” (pneuma), which is translated “Spirit” in our English Bible, literally means “breath.” The connotation is really that of “life” — in both the creative sense of everlasting existence (Genesis 2:7) and in the spiritual sense of eternal life (Jn 20:22).

[The word ‘Spirit’ appears 169 times in the Bible, of which 34 instances are in the O.T.]

2. Holy Spirit — Luke 11:l3

“lf ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”

[This is the only occurrence of this name title in the KJV Bible.]

3. Holy Ghost — Matthew 28:19.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”

The word “Ghost” has a definite personal implication.

[This name title appears 90 times in the Bible, all within the New Testament.]

[The word ghost means the soul of a man. The phrase “give up the ghost” means to die. The idea being that the soul of man continues to go on living after his body has died. Physical death is not the end. Man’s soul or ghost will exist forever. Thus, the term “Ghost” associated with “Holy” is very significant, in that it explains that this is not referring to a force or energy but an actual eternal Being! ]

[The term 'Holy Ghost' began to be universally replaced with 'Holy Spirit' in the Revised Version (of the Bible) of 1881. One of the members of the revision committee was, mystifyingly, a unitarian universalist by the name of Mr. Vance Smith. Vance, [who was ‘anti-Trinitarian’] campaigned loudly for the discarding of the word 'Ghost' in favor of 'Spirit'. Why? Because the word Ghost connotes a personal being, and no self-respecting heretic wants to confess and believe that the Holy Ghost is an actual personal being; the Third Person of the Trinity. Much better in their minds to use a word that is capable of "creative, flexible interpretation." That way when they use the term 'Holy Spirit' they can sound like Christians, but mean something completely different from what Christians mean by that term.

Think about it. We use the term 'spirit' in all kinds of impersonal ways. We talk of the 'American spirit', or, 'school spirit', by which we mean certain attitudes or dispositions. In an age that frequently thinks of God as "The Force", an impersonal influence or power, the term 'Holy Spirit' is easily misunderstood.]

(Pastor William P. Terjesen)

4. Eternal Spirit — Hebrews 9:14

“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

B. NAMES THAT SHOW HIS RELATIONSHIP TO GOD THE FATHER:

1. The Spirit of God—I Corinthians 3:16

2. The Spirit of the LORD —Isaiah 11:2

3. The Spirit of the Lord GOD —Isaiah 61:1

4. The Spirit of the Living God—II Corinthians 3:3

2 Cor 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

C. NAMES THAT SHOW HIS RELATIONSHIP TO JESUS CHRIST:

1. The Spirit of Christ —Romans 8:9; I Peter 1:11

2. The Spirit of His Son —Galatians 4:6

3. The Spirit of Jesus Christ —Philippians 1:19

Phil 1:19 For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

[Some might say, “Which is He? The Spirit of God the Father, or the Spirit of Jesus Christ?” Well… both; but He is just ‘one’ in number; there aren’t two separate Spirits.

Also, Jesus had a ‘spirit’ (as do we) where the Holy Spirit resided and empowered Him; though, this was only temporary will He was on Earth, in a humbled state in His fleshly tabernacle.

Mark 2:8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?]

D. NAMES THAT SHOW HIS RELATIONSHIP TO MEN:

1. Holy Spirit of Promise —Ephesians 1:13

2. Spirit of Truth —John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; I John 5:6

3. Spirit of Life — Romans 8:2

4. Spirit of Grace—Hebrews 10:29

5. The Comforter—John 14:26; 16:7.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Note: The Holy Spirit associates Himself with men in their deliberations:

Acts 15:28 — “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.”

II. THE HOLY SPIRIT’S PERSONALITY IS SEEN THROUGH THE USE OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS

The Holy Spirit is not an “it”, but a ‘He’. And there are no mistakes in your KJV Bible concerning the blessed Holy Ghost.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

[There are some objections to this raised concerning certain instances in the Bible associating ‘Spirit’ with ‘it’.]

Rom 8:16,26 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

1 John 5:6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

John 1:32 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.

[In all these instances the pronoun ‘it’ is describing the ‘noun’ portion of Spirit (i.e. spirit) and not the ‘Title’. Thus, this usage is not necessarily connoting an impersonal entity. If the title noun that ‘it’ was being an antecedent to was ‘Jesus’, or ‘Abraham’, etc., then that would be very confusing; but, since the title noun of ‘Spirit’ is also known to be a general noun (spirit) then it is more reasonable (but, still nonetheless a bit difficult).]

‘The use of the neuter pronoun “it” is grammatically correct when speaking in the third person. e.g. A doctor speaking to a parent might say: “The child itself is not well.” The use of the neuter pronoun is also translationally correct, because the Greek “pneuma” is a neuter noun.’ (Robert Sargeant)

[The Bible nowhere uses this term again, nor does it ever use the phrase “The Spirit Himself”.]

[Another significant issue among the use of ‘modifiers’ (like ‘itself’) with ‘Spirit’ is the issue of ‘casing’.

What is the significance of the lower case ‘h’ and ‘s’ in the following?

1 Thessalonians 4:7,8 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

Ge 41:38 And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?

Ex 31:3 And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,

Ge 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

Here we will look at both of these concerns: the small “h” and the small “s”. The term “holy” associated with deity is simply focusing on the holiness aspect of God and is used as a non-formal adjective, and is not being used in the formal Title or Name (i.e. The Holy Ghost). The term “spirit” used in association with deity is focusing on the noun ‘spirit’, functioning as a thing; i.e. the aspect that all living beings have, a spirit. Whereas, when it is capitalized (Spirit) it is part of the formal Title or Name of God (The Spirit of the LORD). These different uses are both grammatically and Scripturally sound.

And, then there is the use of ‘holy spirit’…

Ps 51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

The terms are used not in a formal Title or Name, but as an adjective and a noun individually, as explained previously. David is focusing on God’s holiness and the spirit aspect of the Holy Spirit. It is used like this only once; this may be significant in that God is teaching us that it is ok to use the terms in lower case individually, but will only allow it once when placed together, so as not to potentially diminish from the deity of God the Holy Spirit.

The KJV has no errors my friend; there is always a clear explanation to an apparent discrepancy! ]

III. THE HOLY SPIRIT’S PERSONALITY IS SHOWN BECAUSE HE POSSESSES THE MARKS OF PERSONALITY

By this we mean the Holy Spirit has certain things that any personal being has. Personality has been defined as:

Intellect (I know), sensibility (I feel), and volition (I will).

The Holy Spirit has:

A. KNOWLEDGE — I Corinthians 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

B. A MIND — Rom 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

C. FEELINGS – Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

D. A WILL — I Corinthians 12:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

IV. THE HOLY SPIRIT’S PERSONALITY IS IMPLIED BECAUSE HE IS AFFECTED LIKE A PERSON

A. HE MAY BE BLASPHEMED — Matthew 12:31,32 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him.

B. HE MAY BE LIED TO — Acts 5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

C. HE MAY BE RESISTED — Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

E. HE MAYBE QUENCHED— I Thessalonians 5:19 Quench not the Spirit.

F. HE MAY BE VEXED — Isaiah 63:10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.

G. HE MAY BE TEMPTED — Acts 5:9 Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?

One cannot blaspheme, lie to, resist, vex, or tempt a brick wall (an ‘energy’, an impersonal ‘force’)!

[The blessed Holy Ghost is a Person; He is not some impersonal force or energy!

Next week we will learn that He is indeed God Almighty and is very active in our world today!]

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