Chapter
5
"THE
POWER OF THE MOST HIGH" (1)
The
Nature and Role of the Holy Spirit Proposition:
The Holy Spirit is the Father's mind and power, and not a
separate person.
With the sobering words of Jesus very much in mind: "... whoever
speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either
in this age or in the age to come" (Matthew 12:32), we approach
this subject with all reverence. We are nevertheless confident
that a humble and honest searching of God's Word to ascertain
what it does say on this very important matter will receive
commendation and not disapproval.
We will consider this topic within four main sections:
Section
1. The Trinitarian position.
Section
2. Scriptural use of "Spirit" and "Holy Spirit".
Section
3. Is the Holy Spirit a person?
Section
4. Spirit gifts Past and present.
SECTION
1. THE TRINITARIAN POSITION
By
the fourth century A.D. most of Christendom had reached the
conclusion that the Holy Spirit was the "third person" of
a trinity. The Athanasian Creed sets out this concept in laborious
detail (see chapter 8 for an historical sketch of the development
of trinitarian doctrine). For our present purpose it will
be sufficient to quote item five of the Church of England's
"Articles of Religion", first adopted in 1562:
"The
Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of
one substance, majesty, and glory, with the Father and the
Son, very and eternal God."
Other definitions are considerably more complicated, but even
this brief one poses several problems of comprehension to
anyone not familiar with the theological terms "Ghost", "proceeding",
"substance" and "very". We have shown in chapter 1 (p.14)
that it is not valid to claim that the whole subject is a
"mystery"; the Scriptures themselves present a simple and
straightforward concept, as the proposition at the head of
this chapter indicates.
REFERENCE
1.
Luke 1:35
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