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SUMMER BIBLE SCHOOL |
Summer Bible School--2003
From the Ankerberg Theological Research
Institute
The
Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit
By Dr. John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon
Religious groups who deny the Trinity not only characteristically
deny the Person and work of Jesus Christ but also the personality
and deity of the Holy Spirit. Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that "the
holy spirit is the active force of God. It is not a person but is a
powerful force that God causes to emanate from himself to accomplish
his holy will." 1
Victor Paul Wierwille, founder of The Way International, declares,
"One of the most misunderstood fields among Christians today is that
of the Holy Spirit."2
Wierwille believes that the Holy Spirit is merely a synonym for the
one Person of the Godhead, the Father, who alone is God. Thus,
whenever Wierwille uses the term "Holy Spirit" in his writings (with
capital letters), he is merely using a synonym for God. Whenever
Wierwille uses small letters, "holy spirit," he means the spiritual
gilts given by God the Father. In Wierwille’s theology, the biblical
Holy Spirit does not exist.3
Wierwille, Jehovah’s Witnesses and many others claim the early
church never believed that the Holy Spirit was God.
Although the development of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit was
theologically less refined in the early church than that of the
doctrine of Jesus Christ, there was still recognition that the Holy
Spirit was both personal and God. Here are several sources:
Athenagoras (his chief work defending the Trinity, Embassy
for the Christians, is dated 176-180 AD) wrote that of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit Christians declared "both their power
in union and their distinction in order."4
According to noted theologian, Harold O. J. Brown, "Tertullian
(160-250 AD) was the first to speak plainly of the Holy Spirit as
God and to say that he is of one substance with the Father."5
Tertullian concluded, "Thus the connection of the Father and
the Son, and of the Son in the Paraclete [Holy Spirit], produces
three coherent Persons, who are yet distinct One from Another.
These three are one essence."6
Cyril of Jerusalem wrote that the "Holy Spirit is honored
together with the Father and the Son and is fully included
in the holy Trinity. We are not preaching three Gods, so let the
Marcionites hold their peace. We do not divide up the holy
Trinity, as some do, nor, like Sabellius, do we coalesce it into
one. Great indeed is the Holy Spirit, and in his gifts,
omnipotent and wonderful."7
Athanasius wrote that the "Holy Spirit cannot be a creature,
and it is impious to call him so."8
In speaking of the Holy Spirit as a gift to the church,
Augustine wrote. "And therefore the Holy Spirit, God though He
is, is most rightly called also the gift of God."9
Basil of Caesarea wrote. "The Lord has delivered to us as a
necessary and saving doctrine that the Holy Spirit is to be ranked
with the Father."10
Origen argued, "For if [He were not eternally as He is...] the
Holy Spirit would never be reckoned in the Unity of the Trinity,
i.e., along with the unchangeable Father and His Son, unless He
had always been the Holy Spirit."11
We emphasize again that the early Christians concluded that the
Holy Spirit was God for the same reason that they concluded that
Jesus was God: because this was the scriptural testimony and the
only option they had. Thus, if we examine what the Scripture teaches
about the Holy Spirit, we find that the traditional Trinitarian view
is clearly seen. For example, the Holy Spirit is distinguished from
both the Father and the
Son (Isaiah 48:16; Matthew 28:19; Luke 3:21; John 14:16, 17: Hebrews
9:8). Also, the Holy Spirit is clearly not an impersonal force, as
Jehovah’s Witnesses claim, but a real Person. For instance He loves
(Romans 15:30); convicts of sin (John 16:8): has a personal will (1
Corinthians 12:11): commands and forbids (Acts 8:29; 13:2; 16:6);
speaks messages (1 Timothy 4:1; Revelation 2:7); intercedes (Romans
8:26); comforts, teaches and guides into truth (John 14:26); and can
be grieved, blasphemed and insulted (Ephesians 4:30: Mark 3:29;
Hebrews 10:29). Once it is established that the Holy Spirit is a
Person, it is easy to see that the impersonal, or even inanimate,
terminology in Scripture that is used for Him. such as His "filling
us," "being poured out" and so on, is not meant to imply that the
Holy Spirit is impersonal, but rather it is illustrating the
intimacy of the believer’s relationship to Him.
The Holy Spirit is deity because He performs the functions of God
and because He is called God in Scripture. He has the attributes of
deity, such as omnipresence (Psalm 139:7, 8); omniscience (1
Corinthians 2:10-11); eternality (Hebrews 9:14); omnipotence (Job
33:4). And He gives eternal life (John 3:3-8). He is also the
Creator (Job 33:4; Genesis 1:2). It goes without saying that no
impersonal force (Jehovah’s Witnesses) or finite god (Mormonism) has
the personal and divine attributes that Scripture assigns to the
Holy Spirit.
It is also clear from Scripture that the Holy Spirit is God by
the divine functions that He performs and by the divine associations
that He has. He indwells all believers (John 14:23; 1 Corinthians
6:19 with 2 Corinthians 6:16); strives with all people and convicts
the whole world of their guilt and their need of faith in Jesus
(Genesis 6:3 with John 16:8; 1 Peter 3:20); divinely inspires (2
Peter 1:21 with Luke 1:68-70 with Acts 1:16; 28:25; Isaiah 6:1-13;
Hebrews 10:15-17 with Jeremiah 31:31-34); sanctifies (2
Thessalonians 2:13-14 with 1 Thessalonians 4:7). And in His divine
role He sends forth laborers (Matthew 9:38 with Acts 13:2-4; compare
Psalm 95:6-9 with Hebrews 3:7-9; Romans 5:5 with 1 Thessalonians
3:12-13 and 2 Thessalonians 3:5). The Holy Spirit is also called
God. In Acts 5:3-4, the one lied to is first said to be the Holy
Spirit, who is then immediately identified as God. He is called "the
Lord" in 2 Corinthians 3:18 and in Hebrews 10:15-16. In Isaiah 6:8-9
and Acts 28:25-26, one passage speaks of "the Lord" (God) speaking
to Isaiah, whereas the other passage declares the same message was
spoken by the Holy Spirit to Isaiah.
There is only one eternal sin spoken of in all the Bible, the
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:32). All sins
committed against God the Father and God the Son can be forgiven
(Matthew 12:32), but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit can never be
forgiven. How can this be if the Holy Spirit is merely a creature or
an impersonal force? What is the sin spoken of here? Unbelief to the
point of death is the only eternal sin: this is the blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit and against His testimony concerning Jesus
(John 16:8). Thus, persistent resistance of the Holy Spirit’s
conviction of one’s need to believe in Jesus Christ for forgiveness
of sins (John 16:8) can never be forgiven. Why? Because one thereby
refuses to place faith in Christ, which alone can bring redemption.
The Holy Spirit, then, must indeed be God because one can only
commit an eternal sin against an eternal God. Indeed, the scriptural
testimony to the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit is far
more abundant in Scripture than one might think. 12
The Holy Spirit, whose job it is to glorify Jesus Christ, has
been given His rightful place in the Trinity by the historic
Christian church. Sadly, other groups have not given Him the honor
due Him.
Notes:
1 Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Reasoning from the
Scriptures (Brooklyn, NY: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society,
1985), p. 381.
2 Victor Paul Wierwille, Jesus Christ Is Not God (New
Knoxville, OH: American Christian Press, 1975), p. 127.
3 Ibid., Appendix A; cf. Victor Paul Wierwille, Receiving
the Holy Spirit Today (New Knoxville, OH: American Christian
Press, 1976), Chapter 1.
4 E. Calvin Beisner, God in Three Persons (Wheaton, IL:
Tyndale, 1984), p. 53, citing Alexander Roberts and James
Donaldson (eds), The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the
Writings of the Fathers Down to AD 325, Vol. 2, p. 133, A
Plea for the Christians, X.
5 Harold O. J. Brown, Heresies (Garden City, NY:
Doubleday, 1984), pp. 140-141.
6 Tertullian, Against Praxeas, p. 25, cited in Brown,
Heresies, p. 145.
7 Cyril of Jerusalem, "Catechetical Lecture," 16, para. 4, in
Maurice Wiles and Mark Santer (eds.), Documents in Early
Christian Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1979), p. 82.
8 Athanasius, "Third Letter to Serapion," I, in Wiles and
Santer, p. 85.
9 Augustine, "On the Trinity," VX, xvii, 32, in Wiles and
Santer, p. 94.
10 Basil of Caesarea, "The Book of Saint Basil on the Spirit,"
Chapter X, para. 25 in Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, A Select
Library of Nicean and Post-Nicean Fathers of the Christian Church,
Second Series, Vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI" Eerdmans, 1975), p.
17.
11 In Beisner, God in Three Persons, p. 64, citing
Roberts and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 253;
de Principus I.iii.4.
12 See Edward Henry Beckersteth, The Holy Spirit: His Person
and Work (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1967) for an excellent
scriptural study on the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit.
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Copyright 2006, Ankerberg Theological Research Institute
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