I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
I became a Christian in a church within the charismatic movement, which emphasises the continuing supernatural gifting of the Holy Spirit.
Who or what is the Holy Spirit?
Historically Christians have agreed that the Holy Spirit is God, namely, the third person of the Trinity, who proceeds eternally from the Father and who is sent to us by the Son (John 15.26).
This view of the Holy Spirit is contested by certain groups such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses who deny the divinity (and often the personality) of the Holy Spirit. One argument used in support of this view is that the words used for “Spirit” in Hebrew (ruach) and Greek (pneuma) can also mean “breath” or “wind” and thus indicate an impersonal force (albeit one used by God) rather than a person of the Godhead, as Christians have historically believed.
Since many of these groups cite Scripture in defence of their views, I too will seek to defend the historic Christian doctrine of the personality and divinity of the Spirit from Scripture.
The Holy Spirit is quite clearly portrayed by Scripture as a personal being. He can be lied to (Acts 5.3) and grieved (Ephesians 4.31). As J. I. Packer puts it, “Only of a personal being can such things be said.” (J. I. Packer, Concise Theology, p.144)
But, doesn’t the Greek text of Romans 8.16 refer to the Spirit as “it?”
Indeed it does, as the Greek word pneuma is grammatically neuter, however, there are places in the Gospel of John (14.16. 15.25, 16.18 and 16.13ff) where, contrary to normal grammatical rules, the masculine pronoun ekeinos is used to refer to the Spirit, thus indicating his personality.
The divinity of the Holy Spirit can also be seen in Scripture.
In the account of the sin of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5.3-4), lying to the Spirit is equated with lying to God. Likewise, the temple of the Holy Spirit is equated with the temple of God in 1 Corinthians 3.19, 1 Corinthians 6.16, Ephesians 3.19 and Ephesians 5.8. Acts 28.25-26 quotes the Holy Spirit speaking through Isaiah the prophet, however, in Isaiah 6.8-10 (the passage quoted) the prophecy is said to come from the “voice of the LORD – i.e. YHWH) thus these verses in Acts 28 equate YHWH and the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is spoken of in Scripture as possessing divine attributes such as omniscience (1 Corinthians 2.10 ff), omnipresence (Psalm 139, 7-10), eternity (Hebrews 9.14) and the ability to foretell the future (Acts 1.16, Acts 20.22ff, Acts 21.22). The Holy Spirit creates (Job 26.13) calls (Matthew 9.38, Acts 13.2, Acts 20.28), inspires (2 Timothy 3.16, 2 Peter 1.20ff, Revelation 1,1) and gives eternal life (1 John 5.11).
In John 14.16 Jesus promises that the Father will send the disciples “another Helper” (Greek: allon paraklēton). The word paraklētos indicates a Counsellor, Advocate or Helper, the reference to the Spirit being “another” Helper testifies to Jesus being the first, and thus indicates that the main role of the Spirit is to continue the work of Christ in the world, particularly in leading the Church into truth (John 16.13), saving and transforming those who believe in Christ (John 3.5, Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 3.18) and also (as indeed you might expect me to say) giving supernatural gifts to the church to equip her for service (1 Corinthians 12, 14).
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