Christians Beliefs

Category: "Holy Spirit"

The Holy Spirit is a Person

Posted by on Mar 11, 2022 in God, Holy Spirit

There are two basic issues to address concerning the nature and identity of the Holy Spirit: The first is His personality which is the subject of this writing, and the second is His divinity, which is addressed in another post.

Many people have questioned the personality of the Holy Spirit, claiming the He is an "it", being merely a force, or an influence, or merely the power of God, etc. Actually, it is not unexpected that the opponents of the truth of the Trinity would raise this issue. While they may conveniently categorise God the Son as "man", such is not possible with the Holy Spirit. At the same time, it is also not possible to successfully classify Him as angel. Yet they cannot deny His existence. So they came up with the idea that He is an "it" - a non-living entity! (otherwise, they won't have a choice than to accept that He is indeed God.)

As with all genuine teachings of the Christian faith, the personlity of the Holy Spirit is not the personal invention of Christians but the summary of the pertinent revelation found in the Bible. These revelations fall into four basic groups which we shall now take a look at:

(It will be beneficial for the reader to be adequately acquainted with the concept of "personality" and I suggest this resource for anyone in such a need.)

Personal designations are given to Him

He is called “He” and “Him” (John 14:16) and referenced with the word "who" (Ephesians 1:14). Some critics have opined that the Biblical verses which imply personality simply contain personifications. This is an erroneous view which cannot stand. Apart from personifications being uncommon in the none-poetic writings of the scripture, they can always easily be identified as such. For instance, the personification of wisdom in Proverbs 8 and, to an extent, of love in 1 Corinthians 13 are quite clear and incomparable to the personal references to the Holy Spirit which are direct to Him. Voewing them as personifications well even destroy the sense of some of these passages. For example, John 16:7-11 says:Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
Obviously, these verses are not about a "personification" of any concept ot other being but a reference to the being Himself - Holy Spirit the Comforter! This, in fact, brings us to the next point and its group of verses.

The characteristics of a person are ascribed to Him

Throughout the Scripture, we see numerous places showing us the Holy Spirit exhibiting attributes of personhood. Only a person can do this. A non-person cannot be said to possess intelligence, will and affection. Moreover, He also performs actions that pertain only to persons. The Bible says He searches, speaks, testifies, commands, reveals, strives, creates, makes intercession, raises the dead, etc.

I implore the reader to check the following texts: John 14:26; 16:7-11; Romans 8:26; Isaiah 63:10; Acts 8:29; Romans 8:11; Ephesians 4:30; 1 Corinthians 2:10-11; Luke 12:12 among so many others. Then, we can see for ourselves whether the scripture regards Him as a person or a thing.

He stands in direct person-to-person relationships

The Holy Spirit is placed in direct personal relationship, proximity and operation with the apostles in Acts 15:28, with Jesus Christ in John 16:14, and with the Father and the Son in Matthew 28:19; 2Corinthians 13:14; 1 Peter 1:1-2; Jude 20-21. These show that the Bible regards the Holy Spirit as a person, just as the persons He stands in the special relationships with.

The Holy Spirit is distinguished from His Power

Finally, and of very great significance, the Holy Spirit is clearly distinguished from His power or the power of any other person. This very clearly shows the error of those who immagine that the Holy Spirit is just an appellation for God's power. He is a person who also has the personhood attribute of having His own power.

For example, when we look at such passages as Luke 4:14; Romans 15:13; 1Corinthians 2:4, they become tautological, meaningless, and even absurd, if they were interpreted on the principle that the Holy Spirit is merely a power. This can be shown by substituting for the name "Holy Spirit" such a word as "power" or "influence". Luke 4:14 would suffice here as an example:

"Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about."

If the Holy Spirit were His power, this becomes:

"Then Jesus returned in the power of the power to Galilee, ..."

Which, of course, is nonsense.

Conclusion

In closing, there is no doubt of the biblical revelation of the personhood of the Holy Spirit. If anyone does not believe, it will not be for lack of evidence but a failure, whether willful or negligent, to come to the knowledge of this truth. As revealled, the Holy Spirit is not just a living being, He is also a person.

Inspiration and the Scriptures

Posted by on Feb 07, 2022 in First Things, Scriptures, Holy Spirit, Reposted

We have, no doubt, all heard that the Bible is the word of God. It is God's Book given to man to serve as the User Manual for our temporal existence. However, some other books also claim to be God's word - even going to the extent of saying that God either personally (or through an angel) wrote such a book (e.g. the Book of Mormons) or that God dictated the contents of an "original" copy in heaven to the human writer (e.g. the Qu'ran).

One of the purposes of this article is to declare emphatically that the Bible has nothing to do with such ideas. There is no Bible in heaven. (And it is not necessary for it to be there since Jesus Christ, the eternal Word Himself, who the Bible points to, is already there. It is true that a few portions of the Bible were actually dictated by God and written down verbatim by the human writers - but these are very few indeed, and were so rendered by God for specific and special reasons. Such portions are always clearly stated by the writer.

On the contrary, when we declare that the Bible is the word of God we mean, firstly, that it is the sole written document which God has appended His name to - i.e. it is the Scriptures, and secondly, that its means of coming to man is by inspiration of God.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.2 Timothy 3:16

The basic question one may ask concerning this explicit verse is: what is meant by "inspiration of God"? From High School biology, most of us will remember the phrase "inspiration and expiration". I believe we can take a cue from that. By inspiration of God is meant a special in-breathing of God made available to a man by which such a man is able to supernaturally receive information from God, and thereafter relate the information to fellow men by whatever means God wants him to do it. Thus we sometimes hear such statements as "inspired message", inspired words", etc. If you'll forgive the expression, it is as if God became a form of spiritual "performance-enhancing" steroid gas that a man breaths in to operate at a divine level of information.

With respect to the Bible, God chose certain men according to His wisdom, and inspired them to "know" the precise information that He, God, wanted to put in the Scriptures (called prophecy). Thereafter, He also caused them to write the information down without error.

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 1:20-21

We note from the above verses that those who God chose to inspire were deemed "holy" (which means consecrated / separated unto God) and were privileged to receive the special information which they wrote down. Only God Himself knows what "qualified" these men for such honour that they may be called holy - but we know that no man can qualify for anything before God by his personal merit. It is always by the grace of God.

So, it was that God chose about forty men from numerous locations over a period of some 1,500 years to receive by inspiration and write down what He wanted to put in the Scriptures.

Only the information (message) is inspired

At this point, we must address our attention to a popular misunderstanding of people about the Scriptures. Contrary to common belief, only the information of the language is inspired, not the literary competence of the human writers. An inspired primary school child writing in the English language will not suddenly begin to write impeccable Queen's English; neither will he miraculously acquire the skills of a WS (whether this means William Shakespeare or Wole Soyinka is quite irrelevant) The boy will only write at his level as a primary school pupil.

Of course, we are not insinuating that God never "touches" the skills of His chosen vessels (He often does!) only that such a touch is another issue entirely different from, and secondary to the inspiration to write the Scripture. Therefore, it is very wrong to use the literary skills of a chosen vessel as a yardstick to measure the authenticity of inspiration.

The same Holy Spirit who inspired Paul to write such that his highly learned readers acknowledged his great skills, is the same Holy Spirit who inspired Peter and John to speak the divine words recorded in Acts chapter 4. Their level of delivery was so exalted that the Sanhedrin members could not but marvel at the wonder that unfolded before their very eyes because they knew that Peter and John were neducated and untrained. I can only imagine the bewilderment of these pompous scholars listening to the two stark illiterate fishermen in undignified attires preaching with boldness and accuracy the deep things of life and eternity - and doing it in their unpolished koine (i.e pidgin) Greek! My dear reader, that's inspiration for you!

Revelation

The question may be asked, "Where does revelation come in?" Why are the religions based on the Bible (Christianity and Judaism) referred to as revealed religions? All such questions are due to lack of a basic understanding of spiritual terms, which we shall now attempt to resolve.

Revelation simply means to "show" or to "make known". In the context of our current topic, it refers to the nature and content of the inspiration. Put explicitly, inspiration is the means, revelation is the product. Revelation is not defined by a mystical nature of the revealed thing, but by the fact that it is revealed and that the Person doing the revealing is God. So the message does not have to be mysterious at all. All that is necessary is that an inspired person receives knowledge by immediate impartation rather than by mediate efforts at deduction.

Such knowledge may even be about things already known or a "mere" noting (and documentation) of supposedly general knowledge. For example, all the so-called historical books of the Bible were about things of public knowledge - yet God inspired His servants to know to write them down. What is thus written is revelation of God. The revelation is the God-given knowledge of exactly "what to write" out of all possible things and occurrences, as well as the spiritual truth that God Himself makes known through the writing of what men thought was ordinary "story". The apostle Luke dutifully wrote down all that he was inspired to write of what he saw as the early believers were living out their lives. It was a kind of diary / journal, but it was God who was directing everything being penned! How would the practice of Christianity have been today if not for such revelations as the book we now call "The Acts of the Apostles"?.

Conclusion

Are you a Christian? If so, may I just exhort you that as you continue in your walk with the Lord, by studying His word, do not permit occasional literary weaknesses of the human writers to distract you from the eternal truth of the God's word. And certainly, do not at all be swayed by the attempts of unbelievers who try to equate such literary weakness as spiritual weakness, by which they mean that if it is God's word, then the language must be impeccable all round. We Christians never claimed that the Bible was physically penned by God. We only say what the Scripture itself says, that it was inspired by God.

God bless you.