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Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Holy Spirit. The 3rd Person?

In a previous post, I mentioned that I understood the holy spirit to be the force of God or God’s ability to enact his will and provide strength to others. I didn't provide any proofs to that effect and realized I was amiss in that regard. (The "proofs" provided here demonstrate omissions where one would expect to find mention if indeed the God's holy spirit were a unique individual in part of a trinity.)

  • Mark 13:32. Jesus indicated that not even he himself knew when the end was. The only one that knew was “the Father.” Why doesn't the Holy Spirit know? What is even more glaring is that Jesus mentioned the Father, the Son, and the angels but excludes the Holy Spirit.
  • If John 1 is a declaration of the Trinity, then why is there no mention of the Holy Spirit. In fact, search as they might, those believing in the Trinity can only identify two entities here, “God” and the “Word.”
  • John 14:16,26. Mentions that God would send a “helper,” identified as the holy spirit. If the Holy Spirit is the 3rd person of the Trinity, can’t he make his own choices? If he is equal to the Father and is himself God, then why would he need to be dispatched by God? Such a scenario simply does not make sense. What does make sense is that God would send his own strength/force to “help” people. Indeed, that is what happened. Consider the next bullet point:
  • (Consider each sub-point in the order listed. It will help you understand the point I’m making.)
    • God gave man free will. We can choose to obey or reject God’s direction. He is always pleased when we choose to obey but forcing us to obey goes against the very reason he gave free will to us--so we can demonstrate love for him as a personal choice. Doing so, he can tell who loves him and who doesn't. It is the only gift we can truly give to God--our willing obedience. Everything else, he already owns--including our bodies.
    • The demons are mentioned in scripture as “possessing” people. All hocus pocus aside, the dictionary definition of “possess” is to own and control. Indeed, those individuals whom the demons somehow lived inside, were controlled. But is that something God would do to us? We've already answered “no” to that question--why? Because of free will.
    • So how can we understand the phrase “filled with holy spirit” (Luke 1:41; Acts 2:4; 4:8; 9:17)? Surely a person named Holy Spirit didn't possess people, taking control of them, robbing them of their free will. No, instead, God’s force gave these individuals strength and powers beyond what was normal that they could handle their god-given assignment which they had already willingly accepted.
  • Matthew 11:27. No one fully knows father but son. If the Holy Spirit is a person, why doesn't he fully know the Father (not to mention the Son?)
  • John 10:38.The Father is in union with the Son but there is no mention of the Holy Spirit. The teaching of the Trinity is that the three are equal and one entity. If the Trinity were truly a Biblical teaching, why was the holy spirit slighted without any mention? We already considered that Jesus promised he would ask the Father to send the holy spirit, so there is no spat or disagreement among the three. So again, since they are all getting along, why was the Holy Spirit not mentioned?

So why do so many scriptures not mention the holy spirit when mentioning the Father and the Son together? Quite simply because the holy spirit is not a person, but a thing. It is the force God uses to accomplish his will. In fact, after a review of scriptures where the phrase "holy spirit" is used, I mentally tried replacing it with "force of God" and it made perfect contextual sense.

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