Holy Spirit: Force, Impersonal Power, or God?" /> Holy Spirit: Force, Impersonal Power, or God?" /> Holy Spirit: Force, Impersonal Power, or God?" />

The Holy Spirit.  Is He a Divine Person, an impersonal Force, a Created being, or God's power?

 

What we believe about the Holy Spirit has far reaching implications. If our view is guided by popular thinking (like the influence of the "force" in Star Wars), we could fall into various unscriptural errors already rebutted in Christian history. It is important that we understand God rightly.

 

The Bible is our teacher, and it speaks of Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Scripture reveals that the Holy Spirit is the same essence as the Father and the Son, with the same attributes, and works. In short, our understanding of the Trinity is only complete when we see that this Person is Deity in the same way that the Father and the Son are Deity.  Regarding the Holy Spirit:

  1. He is a Person with a mind, He searches all things and teaches people (Rom 8:27) (1 Cor 2:13)
  2. He is a Person Who can be grieved and insulted (Eph 4:30, Heb 10:29)
  3. He is a Person giving gifts, and direction (1 Cor 12:11, Acts 16:6-11)
  4. He is a Person just as the Son is a Person, In John 14:6, the Lord Jesus said He would give "another" Comforter/Helper. The Greek word here is "allos" meaning another of the same kind-as Himself.  
  5. He is a Person Who is intelligent (1 Cor 2:11, Acts 15:28)
  6. He is called Holy almost 100 times and He can be Blasphemed (Matt. 12:32)
  7. He is eternal (Heb 9:14, John 14:16)
  8. He can be lied to and is called God (Acts 5:3-4)
  9. He is equated with the God of Israel (Heb. 10:15-16) 
  10. He did the works of Creator, and giving life (Job 33:4)
  11. He is omniscient (all knowing), searching all things-yea the deep things of God (1 Cor 2:10)
  12. He begot the Son of God (Matt 1:20, Luke 1:35)
  13. He makes people holy, setting them apart (1 Pet 1:2)
  14. His ministry includes glorifying Christ and draw attention to Him (and not to Himself) (John 16:13-15)

While this is far from an exhaustive study, it illustrates that the Holy Spirit is a Person who does the works that only God can do. He is God in the same sense as Jesus is, and is Omniscient, Eternal, and Holy (attributes of God). He speaks and acts as only God acts. He is God in the same sense as the Father is God. He is not a mere force or impersonal power.

 

In the early centuries believers were compelled by growing error to codify certain doctrines. For example, in the 4th century some taught the Spirit was a creature or merely a force/power. We also see this today in sects such as the Jehovah Witnesses. We are also confronted with other abuses such as in charismatic circles which seek to wield the "spirit" as if he is a mere power/force, and they dishonor Him thereby. In these and other prominent errors, the bottom line is always a denial of His deity or an irreverence concerning Him who is called the "third person of the Trinity" (Matt 28:19).

 

Though the word "Trinity" does not appear in our bible, the evidence of scripture compelled the first Christians to identify the Holy Spirit as God, of the same substance as the Father and the Son, and so must we.

 

The Bible demands and we affirm the absolute Deity of the Holy Spirit.

 

 

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The doctrine of the Trinity:  There is one God existing eternally as three distinct Persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is one in essence and triune in person. This definition expresses three crucial truths:

  1. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons
  2. Each Person is fully God
  3. There is only one God.

What this does not mean:

  1. ...that there are three Gods (tritheism)
  2. ...that these are three modes or manifestations of one God (modalism)
  3. ...that the Spirit/Son are subordinate to the Father in nature/being (subordinationism)
  4. ...that the Father alone is God, and that the Son and Spirit are creations of God (arianism)
  5. ...that God is one in person, not three persons (one-ness pentecostalism), ie, Jesus is not the Father.