is the holy spirit a person

Science fiction stories are filled with strange beings, in solid, gas, and even a few liquid forms of sentient beings. A person is a living, intelligent being, with a mind, feelings, and emotions. These and other Bible passages have led some to conclude that the holy spirit is a person, just as God, Jesus, and the angels are individual spirit persons. The Spirit is a person and not merely a force. Probably the most conclusive passage on this point is Ephesians 4:30. THE holy spirit can be grieved and can speak, teach, bear witness, act as a remembrancer and serve as a helper. Nor is the Spirit of God a different person from the Father. This Doctrinal Report concerns the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit - A Person or Power? "The Holy Spirit is a person, for He beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. 4:30). It took hundreds of years for this doctrine to develop!) Yet He is also distinct from them. and one Lord Jesus Christ," without mentioning the Holy Spirit as a divine person. Jesus also spoke of the Spirit as the Helper in John 14 and introduced Him as “the Spirit of truth” (14:17; 16:13). Peter obeyed the Holy Spirit when he was commanded to go to Cornelius’s household (Acts 10:19). We believe that the Holy Spirit is co-equal with God the Father and God the Son and is of the same essence. Invisible, perhaps, but real. . During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, there was no consensus among church fathers, called “apologists,” about the constitution of the Holy Spirit. Capitalization of Holy Spirit. Philip followed the leading of the Holy Spirit in his ministry also (Acts 8:39). According to the cults, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Holy Ghost is simply God’s “active force,” not God Himself. As a person the Holy Spirit has a will, emotion, and intelligence. Consider the following descriptions of the Holy Spirit. In fact, for centuries some of the most influential religions of Christendom have attributed personality to the holy spirit. Yet some other things attributed to God’s spirit … When this witness is borne, it carries with it its own evidence. This passage only makes sense if the Holy Spirit is a person. Many places in Scripture the holy spirit is referred to as “God’s spirit” – the apostrophe “s” denoting ownership, meaning that the spirit belongs to God. He is confused with the manifestations themselves, and has even been presented as an incidental figure that appears momentarily. When a person becomes born again by believing and receiving Jesus Christ 4, God resides in that person through the Holy Spirit. This one God exists as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit. This is why Paul states in 1 Corinthians 8:6 that "there is one God, the Father . The marks of a genuine person are knowledge, feeling, and will. A mere force could not possess all of these attributes, but the Holy Spirit does. Each person is not the same person as the other, yet there are not three gods, but one. He can be angered, frustrated, grieved (Eph. Because we are well used to the idea of the Trinity being a group of three persons, many people come to the texts of scripture with an a priori assumption that the Holy Spirit is person, and that wherever the Spirit of God is mentioned, that is understood to refer to a distinct person from the Father and the Son. First, we need to notice that the Holy Spirit is a unique person and not simply a power or an influence. 6 A primary role of the Holy Spirit is that He bears "witness" of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has emotions. And if we refer to the Holy Spirit as the third “person,” several Scriptures negate its “personhood” because of non-person qualities such as being: “poured out”; “quenched”; a need for “renewal”, etc. There is good reason to believe that the 'trinity' was fundamentally a pagan idea imported into Christianity - hence the word does not occur in the Bible. The Holy Spirit is referred to as a Person in the Bible, and as a “He”, and also as God. The personhood of the Holy Spirit is something many Christians assume. The Greek New Testament, however, was written in all capital letters without punctuation and spacing between words. . “The Holy Spirit is a person, for He beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.” (Ev 616) “Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead” (DA 671) But, when we start on page one of the Bible, before creation ever even began, we see a depiction of the spirit of God hovering over the dark, disordered waters of … Son, and the Holy Spirit. But these are not the marks of a person. The same people claim that God is not a person, and yet they say that the Holy Spirit is; there is a flat contradiction here. Would the following things properly be said of a mere characteristic or attitude? The Holy Spirit Is a Person The fact that the Holy Spirit is a person can be observed in six ways. The Holy Spirit is a person. Thus, the decision to capitalize a word is taken from textual clues. The Holy Spirit possesses the characteristics and qualities of a living spirit Being. “When trials overshadow the soul, remember the words of CHRIST, remember that HE is an unseen presence in the PERSON of the Holy Spirit,” — (E.G. Would you not expect that to be said about a person, yes, about the “third person” of the Trinity? Is the Holy Spirit a Person of the Godhead? Along with God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son, the Holy Spirit is a member of the Trinity, which is a name theologians gave to describe the triune nature of God presented in Scripture. I think it best for me to simply say a number of things concerning the identity of this Helper with little embellishment. In fact, for centuries some of the most influential religions of Christendom have attributed personality to the holy spirit. Christians teach that the Holy Spirit is a person, but what is a person? Or does this language demonstrate that the Holy Spirit is a person who possesses personal characteristics and qualities? The Holy Spirit’s attributes also point to His personality. Some may still attempt to argue that the Holy Spirit is a person because the words holy and spirit are capitalized. The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Trinity. As we search the Bible, we will find that the Holy Spirit is the nature, power and essence of God. The fact that the Holy Spirit is a Person has very important implications. The Spirit of God is not a different person from the Father. In this verse Peter confronts Ananias as to why he lied to the Holy Spirit and tells him that he had “not lied to men but to God.” The answer cannot be categorically yes or no, but midway between yes and no. The church didn’t always believe this. The Holy Spirit has life (Romans 8:2), has a will (1 Corinthians 12:11), is omniscient (1 Corinthians 2:10–11), is eternal (Hebrews 9:14), and is omnipresent (Psalm 139:7). The New Testament clearly shows the early Christians recognized and affirmed the Holy Spirit as a Person. Most of them didn’t think it was important. If the holy spirit were an actual person why would Jesus refer to it as God’s finger? When we say that the Holy Spirit is a person some assume that He has eyes, feet, and hands. The spirit of Elijah (Luke 1:17) is not a different person from Elijah. No, because in some statements, the Holy Spirit speaks as a portion of the Heavenly Father, not necessarily a separate entity. At such times we believe and are sure that we are the children of God… We want to see what God’s Word says regarding the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, and not … The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force. by Ernest L. Martin, Ph.D., 1991. White, DG 185.2, 1897) Thus when Ellen White calls the Holy Spirit a “PERSON,” she is NOT referring to another “BEING.” She is referring to Christ by HIS Holy Spirit. The Spirit is, first and foremost, God’s personal presence. The Trinity is the doctrine that there is only one God in all creation, all time, and all places. And is the Holy Spirit a person—the third person of a trinitarian Godhead? The Holy Spirit as a distinct person, however, is again absent—another inexplicable oversight if this Spirit is the third person of a triune God. It is completely misleading to read into the Bible a third Person, the Holy Spirit. Among the myths and the mistaken concepts that are shared, He has been described as a force, a ghost, and a second-class or replacement god. Also, it would make the Holy Spirit the father of Jesus. He can also be pleased and satisfied (Acts 15:28–30). 5 The Holy Spirit has intellect, emotion, and will. Our difficulty in fully recognizing the Holy Spirit as a person is, perhaps, compounded by the many biblical symbols for the third person of the Trinity: water, anointing oil, fire, the cloud, the seal, and the dove (see this list in the catechism). For the large majority of Christians, the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost, from Old English gast, "spirit") is the third person of the Trinity: The "Triune God" manifested as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; each Person … The Holy Spirit is probably the least understood person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit was Addressed as a Person. In fact, it… (Hint: The early Church did not teach that the Holy Spirit is a person. Is the Holy Spirit Really a Person? The Bible also tells us that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, a being with a mind, emotions, and a will. The fact that the Holy Spirit is God is clearly seen in many Scriptures, including Acts 5:3-4. So, the Holy Spirit is deemed a full-fledged Person. 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