Holy Spirit - Trinity?
Is the Holy Spirit a seperate person from the Father and the Son?
DOES THE HOLY SPIRIT HAVE ARMS, A HEAD, EYES, EARS, MOUTH AND OTHER BODILY PARTS? by Keith Hunt The main proof given to demonstrate that the Holy Spirit is a PERSON (much like Christ) is that the words 'he' and 'him' are used in the New Testament when referring to (i.e. John 16:7- 15). Is this proof? Let's not assume, but investigate. The Greek word used for 'he' and 'him' is "owtos" (autos). Here is what STRONG'S EXHAUSTIVE CONCORDANCE OF THE BIBLE has to say on this Greek word: ".....from the particle au [perh. akin to the base of 109 through the idea of a baffling wind] [backward]; the reflex pron. self, used ..... of the third person; and .....of the other persons her, it [self] one, the other, [mine] own, said .....same [him, my, thy] self, ...... that......them ......at, by, in, into, of, on, with, they ...... things..... this......" Notice that this Greek word can be, and is, rendered 'IT' in dozens of verses (see the Appendix p.1270 in Strong's Concordance of the Bible) The Holy Spirit is referred to as 'it' in Acts 2: 2-3, 16, 17. Now notice Act 12:10. Peter is being released from jail by God's angel, they pass the second ward and come to the iron gate which opened of "HIS own accord." A gate made of iron (certainly not a living person) is referred to as "his." The Greek word used in this verse is "howtoo" [aautou] akin to "owtos" (see Strong's Con.). Translating "he" or "him" for the Holy Spirit is purely a human grammar tool (we shall discuss in detail later). "It" could be just as correct, if not using a grammar tool. The PROOF that the Holy Spirit is NOT a personal being is found in Mat. 1:20. If the Holy Spirit is a living bodily being, then Christ talked and prayed to the WRONG FATHER! The HOLY SPIRIT is: Power (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8; 8:17-19). Guidance (Mat.4:1; 10:20; Luke 12:12; Acts 10:19-20). Miracle Worker (Mat.12:28; Acts 2:4; 19:6). Revealer (Luke 2:25-27; John 14:26; 16:13-14). Eternal Life (John 4:14,63; 7:38-39; Rom.8:11). Truth (John 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:13). Comforter (John 14:26; 15:26; Acts 19:31). Reprover (John 16:7-11). Holiness (Rom.1:4). Love of God (Rom.5:5; 15:30). Sonship (Rom.8:15). **Intercessor** (Rom.8:26-27). Gift Giver (1 Cor.12:4-11). **The Lord** (2 Cor.3:6-8, 17; Gal.4:6) The Holy Spirit is INTERCESSOR !! So is Christ !!(see Heb. 7: 22-25). Can there be TWO intercessors? Was the Holy Spirit made into flesh to dwell among us? Was the Holy Spirit tempted as we are? Did the Holy Spirit have to overcome sin and die for us? Did the Holy Spirit become our high priest? Was it not Christ? (see Heb. 4:14-16). There is only ONE mediator between man and God - Christ ! (I Tim. 2:5) The Holy Spirit is CHRIST (The Lord). If the Holy Spirit is a third bodily being, separate from Christ and the Father, how can he be the Lord or Christ at the same time? (see 2 Cor. 3:6-8, 17). THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE INVISIBLE POWER ESSENCE THAT COMES FROM GOD THE FATHER AND THE SON - CHRIST. IT CAN BE LIKENED TO ELECTRICITY, FLOWING FROM THE GENERATOR (GOD THE FATHER) TO THE LIGHT BULB (CHRIST) AND OUT INTO ALL WHO COME WITHIN ITS LIGHT. THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD CAN BE IN EVERYONE AT THE SAME TIME...... (see Act 2:2-4, 33; 4:31; 5:32; 8:15-19; 11:15). If the Holy Spirit is a third literal being, how can he be EVERYWHERE at the SAME time? If the Holy Spirit is a person and is IN us (Rom. 8:11), then he (this third person) is then in us, and NOT Christ. But it is Christ IN US that is the HOPE of glory (Col. 1:27). It is Christ's MIND that must be in us (Phil.2:5), not some other mind of another individual. The disciples asked Christ to shew them the FATHER. The Israelites knew from their history and the Old Testament that there was a Father (John 14:7-9); but you try to find where they asked to be shown this other supposedly THIRD individual. Why, Christ even had to tell them about the Spirit He would send them! (see John 16:15-26). If this third person of the Godhead had always been around and was an established doctrine of the Old Testament, those disciples would have known all about him. The truth is that there is no such doctrine of God in the Old Testament text: the Jews did not believe in a TRINITY. The doctrine of "the trinity" is a PAGAN IDEA, derived from Babylon under the worship of father, mother and child Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz. (see "The Two Babylons" by Hislop). The disciples that Paul encountered at Ephesus in Act 19: 1, had not only NOT been taught any "trinity doctrine" but had not even had it mentioned to them that there was even a Holy Spirit, let alone that it was a third person to believe in. But they had been told about Christ (v.4). John the Baptist did not preach any "trinity" doctrine to them. The "trinity doctrine" was not adopted into the professing Christian church until 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicene, and that after many years of confused debates; as we shall can see from Church History and the Catholic Encyclopedia. TRINITY IN THE BIBLE? Those who teach the doctrine of the trinity say that it is taught in the Bible. They say that such verses as Matt. 28:19 teach the idea that the Godhead is made up of three separate literal beings. Let's prove all things (I Thes. 5:21), let us not assume anything. Matt. 28:19 does not use the word trinity. In fact, nowhere in the Bible is it used. We can show from dozens of scriptures that God the Father is a literal being. He has a body, eyes, face, feet, etc. Christ in His glorified form today has a body, face, feet. He is a literal being (Rev. l:13-18; 21:3: 22:3,4). BUT, you try to find the scripture that talks about the face, hands, eyes, legs, feet of the Holy Spirit. If he is a bodily person then surely somewhere in all those verses in the Bible you'll be able to find ONE verse that shows the Holy Spirit has a face or legs or hands. See if you can find it. Matt. 28:19 and other similar verses DO NOT prove the Holy Spirit has a body, head, chest or any other parts. This verse, or ones like it, do not even prove that Christ or the Father have bodies. You must prove THAT from other scriptures. GRIEVE NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT? There are many verses in which "Grieve not the Holy Spirit" is used, such as in Eph. 4:30, where people say it must mean a person because it can be grieved. The Holy Spirit teaches (John. 14:26), reproves (John. 16:8), can be lied to (Act 5:3), and can be tempted (Act 5:9). Yes, all that is true? If only people would put scripture with scripture they could come to the truth. Now, compare I Tim. 4:1 and Rom 8:26, 27, WITH I Tim 2:5 and II Cor 3:6,17. Christ is that spirit? The power essence of the Holy Spirit emanates from Christ and the Father. COMMUNION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT? The verse in 2 Cor. 13:14 is used to say we may have communion with him. I presume by this that these people mean we may talk to him. But Christ Himself said no such thing. He taught His followers to pray to the FATHER (Luke 11:2). Christ never once prayed to or had communion with the Holy Spirit - and He set us an example to follow Him (I Pet 2:21). Notice! This verse in 2 Cor. 13 says "communion OF the holy spirit" - not WITH the Holy Spirit; and there is a vast difference between the two. So what DOES this verse mean? The Greek word used here for 'communion' is koinonia, which is from koinonos and means: partnership, a sharer, associate, partaker (see Strong's Con. of the Bible). Paul is saying to all Christians to let the partnership (all God's children have the Holy Spirit in them, Rom. 8:9-11, being partakers of God's Spirit) be (remain) with all of us. This verse has nothing to do with praying to, or trying to talk or communicate with the Holy Spirit. The "Interlinear Greek - English New Testament" by Berry, translates this as: " ....and the fellowship of the holy spirit [be] with all of you. Amen." The writers of the Amplified Bible put it this way: "The grace (favor and spiritual blessing) of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the PRESENCE and FELLOWSHIP (the communion and sharing together, and participation) IN the holy spirit be with you all. Amen - So be it." THE HOLY SPIRIT TALKS? In Matt 3:16, 17 we read, ".....the spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him. And lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." Some say that it was the Spirit - the third person of the Godhead that actually spoke, proving the Spirit is a literal being. Let us assume that view is correct. Do you see what it would mean? The Holy Spirit would then be the literal FATHER of Christ (see also ch. 1:20), and all through His ministry He then talked and prayed to the WRONG Father! Read verse 17 again. It says, "A voice," not "THE voice of the spirit" or "THE voice of the Father." It was "A voice from heaven" that spoke. To say it was the voice of the Holy Spirit is just an assumption by men; this verse cannot prove such a claim. You try to find the verse that says the Holy Spirit has a mouth or literally talks. Was it the Father speaking these words? No! Not even the Father, because Christ Himself said, ".....You have neither heard His voice at ANY time, nor seen His shape" (John 5:37). There is not one verse in the entire Bible that shows God the Father has ever spoken or showed Himself to mankind. Someone will say, but this voice spoke in the first-person tense. It must have been the Father or Spirit. Not necessarily! In John 12:28 we read: "Father, glorify your name (Christ talking to the Father). Then came there A voice from heaven (notice, A voice, not THE voice of God) saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." This voice spoke in the first-person tense. Now, did the people say, "That was God speaking" or "That was the voice of the Holy Spirit"? No! Read verse 29. "The people, therefore, that stood by and heard it said that it thundered. Others said, an angel spoke to him." It is possible to speak on behalf of someone else and speak in the first-person tense. Someone representing a higher authority can speak on behalf of that authority in the first-person tense. In passing, notice in Matt. 3:16 the shape of the spirit of God was like a dove. The shape of a dove is a long, long way from being the shape of a man. THREE THAT BEAR RECORD? I John. 5:7 is a favourite text that is often quoted by Trinitarians. It reads, "For there are three that bear record in heaven - the Father, the word, and the holy spirit: and these three are one." That's it, shout the Trinitarians, we got it. Proof that the Godhead is three persons. The Amplified Bible renders verses 6-8 like this: "This is he who came by (with) water and blood (his baptism and his death), Jesus Christ, the Messiah; not by (in) the water only but by (in) the water and the blood.And it is the (holy) spirit who bears witness, because the (holy) spirit is the truth. So there are three witnesses in heaven - the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are One; and there are three witnesses on the earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree (are in unison; their testimony coincides)." Part of these verses is put in ITALICS in the Amplified Bible. What do italics mean? Let the compilers of the Amplified Bible tell you. Under "explanation of arbitrary punctuation" at the beginning of their translation, we read: Italics point out certain familiar passages now recognized as not adequately supported by the original manuscripts. Verse 7 of the King James version was not in the original Greek manuscripts. It was ADDED later to deliberately give proof to the pagan Trinity idea of God, that cannot be found anywhere in the Bible. Commenting on this verse, The Interpreter's Bible says: "This verse in the KJV is to be rejected (with RSV). It appears in no ancient Greek manuscript, nor is it cited by any Greek father; of all the versions, only the Latin contained it, and even this in none of its most ancient sources. The most earliest of the Vulg. do not have it. As Dodd (Johannine Epistles p.127n) remind us 'it is first quoted as a part of I John by Priscillian, the Spanish heretic, who died in 385, and it gradually made its way into manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate until it was accepted as part of the authorized Latin text.' ...... The mention in the true text (vs.8) of the three witnesses which agree naturally led to an interpretation along trinitarian lines, and this occasioned the present transcriptions which appear in various forms in manuscripts and quotations from the fifth century on." A deliberate insertion into the original, to try to substantiate the trinity doctrine that had become accepted by the Catholic church in 325 AD. THE APOSTLES REJECT THE TRINITY! If the "trinity of God" has always been and if the Old Testament church was taught it and believed it - if it was a New Testament doctrine and truth - if the apostles believed and taught it - if they knew that God was composed of three equal and united beings, bodily beings, then they surely didn't respect the third one. Look at the way Paul introduced his epistles: "To all that be in Rome ..... grace to you and peace FROM God our father, and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 1:7). Paul does not even MENTION the supposed THIRD PERSON of the Godhead. In fact, Paul never once in the introductions of ANY of his letters uses the trinity idea of God. Notice how James introduces his letter: "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ....." He forgot to mention the third individual of whom he was a servant. Peter, in his epistles, acknowledges God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, but did not acknowledge the third person. John talks about Christ and God, that they are literal beings; but never as much as once did he mention the Holy Spirit is a bodily person. His salutation in his second letter is void of any other beings except God the Father and Christ. Jude's salutation is from God the Father and Jesus Christ. The third person was again left out. Surely, John in Revelation, could have found room to mention this person that was left out by all others. John mentions Christ, the Father, and the seven spirits before His throne (Rev. 1:4-5), but does not even acknowledge the one who is doing so much work today - the third person of the trinity. Why all this lack of acknowledging the trinity? Why? Because the apostles and New Testament church DID NOT TEACH IT! The Trinity doctrine is PAGAN. It is another one of Satan's deceptions to deceive the whole world about why God created man. It is a doctrine that came by way of Satan's greatest false church. This is what history has to say (see "The Two Babylons" by Hislop). The history of Babylon, Egypt, Rome and other nations demonstrates that the doctrine of a TRINITY was a very important part of PAGAN worship. The history of Christianity shows clearly that the professing popular church for many years was in confusion and there was argument concerning it. As the church compromised more and more with the pagan religions round about to win converts and favour, so it looked for ways to MIX what the heathen believed with the Christianity it taught. The heathen believed in a NIMROD GOD, a SECOND GOD - Semiramis (mother wife to Nimrod) and a THIRD GOD - Tammuz, son of Nimrod and Semiramis. It was just a matter of time before the church claimed it, too, had a trinity. The pagan's Nimrod became God the Father. Semiramis, the queen of heaven, became the Holy Spirit. And Tammuz, the boy child god, became Christ. And so another pagan, false Satanic idea was added to a so-called Christianity. Just another one of Satan's false doctrines added officially to his instrument of deception in 325 A.D. God says this instrument of Satan has deceived the whole world. The whole world has been made drunk by her false ways and teachings. She is called in Rev. 17, Mystery, Babylon the Great. So drunk have people become by this church's teachings that FEW Christians really understand WHY God made mankind. You need to study my article called A CHRISTIAN'S DESTINY. HERE ARE MORE STUDIES ON THE HOLY SPIRIT: THE HOLY SPIRIT WORKS, SO IS IT A PERSON? Those who teach the Holy Spirit is a PERSON, separate from the Father and Son, say this is shown to be so because the Spirit WORKS, does things. Indeed the Holy Spirit works according to its will (1 Cor.12:11) . The Spirit raised Christ from the dead (Acts 2:24; 1 Pet.3:18; Heb. 13:20; Rom.1:4). The Spirit was used in creation (Gen.1:2, 26, 27 with Job 33:4). But does stating that something WORKS automatically mean that it is a PERSON ? If it does then WISDOM is also a person, for in Proverbs 8:12, 15, 16 and 9:1-3, we read: "I WISDOM.......By me kings reign.......By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.......Wisdom has built her house.......She has killed her beasts, she has mingled her wine, she has also furnished her table. She has sent forth her maidens......." Nobody really believes wisdom is a person, separate from the Lord, even if it is given human like qualities. The Holy Spirit, like wisdom, does indeed perform "works" - but teaching that it is a PERSON BECAUSE OF THIS is as fragile as believing that wisdom from the Lord is a person because it "works" also. WHAT THE NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA ADMITS "The OT (Old Testament) clearly does not envisage God's spirit as a person, neither in the strictly philosophical sense, nor in the Semitic sense. God's spirit is simply God's Power. If it is sometimes represented as being distinct from God, it is because the breath of Yahweh acts exteriorly (Isa. 48:16; 63:11; 32:15).......Very rarely do the OT writers attribute to God's spirit emotions or intellectual activity (Isa. 63:10; Wis.1:3-7). When such expressions are used, THEY ARE MERE FIGURES OF SPEECH that are explained by the fact that the RUAH was regarded also as the seat of intellectual acts and feeling (Gen. 41:8). Neither is there found in the OT or in rabbinical literature the notion that God's spirit is an intermediary being between God and the world. This activity is proper to the angels, although to them is ascribed some of the activity that elsewhere is ascribed to the spirit of God" (New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 13, p. 574, emphasis theirs). THIS ENCYCLOPEDIA FURTHER STATES: ".......the NT (New Testament) concepts of the Spirit of God are largely a continuation of those of the OT.......The majority of NT texts reveal God s spirit as something, not someone; this is especially seen in the parallelism between the spirit and the power of God. When a quasi-personal activity is ascribed to God s spirit, e.g., speaking, hindering, desiring, dwelling (Acts 8:29; 16:7; Rom.8:9), one is NOT JUSTIFIED IN CONCLUDING immediately that in these passages God s spirit is regarded as a Person; the same expressions are used in regard to rhetorically personified things or abstract ideas (see Rom.6:6; 7:17). Thus the context of the phrase 'blasphemy against the spirit' (Mat.12:31; cf. Mat.12:28; Luke 11:20)shows that reference is being made to the power of God" (Vol.13, page 575). THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS PERSONALITY, IS IT A PERSON? We are told by those who teach that the Holy Spirit of God is a PERSON with a body and shape as of a man (although they have yet to find one single verse in the Bible that talks about the mouth, ears, head, hands, feet etc. of this so called third person of the Godhead) that the proof for such a belief is in the fact that the Holy Spirit is given a personality by the New Testament. One writer has listed many scriptures to show the personality of the Spirit. We should indeed be willing to read them as they are a part of the inspired word of God. "As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them " (Acts 13:2). "Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join yourself to this chariot" (Acts 8:29). "While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold three men seek you....." (Acts 10: 19). ".......and were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they were come to Mysia, they determined to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not" (Acts 16:6,7). This man continues to list other verses that he says show the personality of the Spirit and so make him a PERSON. He testifies of Christ and glorifies Him (John 15:26; 16:14). He has power of His own (Rom.15:13). He searches all things (Rom.11:33,34, with 1 Cor.2:10,11). He works according to His will (1 Cor.12:11). He dwells with real Christians (John 14:17). He spoke in and by the prophets (Acts 1:16; 1 Peter 1:11,12: 2 Peter 1:21). He strives with sinners (Gen.6:3). He reproves and guides (John 16:8,13). He comforts (Acts 9:31) and helps our infirmities (Rom.8:26). He teaches (John 14:26; 1 Cor.12:3). He sanctifies (Rom.15:16; 1 Cor.6:11). Some of the favourite scriptures used by those who teach the Holy Spirit must be a person because human like qualities are given it are these: "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God......" (Eph.4:30). Ahhh, see the Spirit can be grieved, so it must be a PERSON, many will insist. "You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did so do you " (Acts 7:51).. "Then Peter said unto her, How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord....... " (Acts 5:9). The Spirit can be resisted and tempted and so, claim our Trinitarians, he must be a PERSON! DOES GIVING HUMAN LIKE QUALITIES TO SOMETHING AUTOMATICALLY PROVE THAT THAT SOMETHING IS A PERSON ? Stop and think now. Have you ever called your CAR, your BOAT, your AIRPLANE by the word "she" ? Have you ever given your boat a NAME of a person and ever said something like this about it: "You have to be very careful when starting Molly, she is fussy about not having too much gas." Now, neither you or any of your friends actually believe or teach that your boat Molly is a human woman - a PERSON ! It has been customary for mankind to give PERSONAL QUALITIES to inanimate objects for centuries. Even God Himself inspired Moses (who wrote the first five books of the Bible) to record that He (God) uses this type of language. This is found in the account of Cain killing Abel. "And Cain talked with Abel his brother.......when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know....... And He (God) said, What have you done? The VOICE of your brother s BLOOD CRIES unto me from the ground" (Gen.4:8-10). Notice how God Himself said Abel's BLOOD (an inanimate object) cried out with a voice to Him from the ground ! The Lord used PERSONAL QUALITIES for Abel's blood. But does anyone believe that Abel's blood was a separate PERSON with arms, hands, legs, head and body APART from Abel ? I think not ! In the time of David this common terminology of attributing human qualities to things that were not persons was still in use, as we see from Psalm 98: 8, "Let the FLOODS clap their hands : Let the HILLS be joyful together." Do floods of water have HANDS? Can hills be JOYFUL as humans can be joyful? Of course not! Now see how Solomon was inspired by God to talk about WISDOM. "Wisdom CRIES outside. SHE (wisdom is a woman?) utters her VOICE in the streets.......Because I have called, and you refused, I have STRETCHED OUT MY HAND, and no man regarded" (Prov.1:20,24). Here we see verses about wisdom having as it were BODILY PARTS and said to be a WOMAN. That's more like a PERSON to me than any of the scriptures that are used try and prove the Holy Spirit is a person. If only those Trinitarians could find such verses about the Spirit then maybe I'd take their teaching a little more serious. We are told more about this person, this woman called wisdom, "Does not wisdom CRY? and UNDERSTANDING put forth her VOICE?" Now we have another person, another woman, 'understanding' must be a person because she has a voice, "She stands in the top of the high places...." she must have legs then. ".......Hear.......the opening of my LIPS shall be right things. For my MOUTH shall speak truth....... I wisdom dwell with prudence......." We have a house full of gals here, wisdom, understanding, and now prudence. "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way....... When He prepared the heavens I was there......Then I was by Him.....and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him......." (Prov.8:1,2,6,12,22,27,30). It would seem that the Lord not only had the woman 'wisdom' with Him in heaven, but a few other women as well - 'understanding' and 'prudence.' Maybe the practice of Polygamy on earth was borrowed from heaven. Well as Paul said, I speak as a fool so some may come to the truth. Of course wisdom and the other two women are not REAL PERSONS, but qualities and attributes that come from the Lord (see Prov.2:6). YET THE LORD GIVES WISDOM THE PERSONALITY OF A WOMAN. GIVING SOMETHING A PERSONALITY DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MAKE IT A PERSON ! This use in language, of applying personality to inanimate things, was not confined just to the Old Testament period. We see the great apostle Paul using this idiom and figure of speech, in the book of Romans, when explaining what sin did to him after a full knowledge of the commandments came to his attention: "But SIN, finding opportunity in the commandment (to express itself) got a hold on me and aroused and stimulated all kinds of forbidden desires.......For SIN, seizing the opportunity and getting a hold on me (by taking its incentive) from the commandment, beguiled and entrapped and cheated me, and using it (as a weapon) killed me" (Rom.7:8,11 Amplified Bible, emphasis mine). Here, Paul gives personality to SIN - talks about sin as if it was a PERSON. He says sin got a hold of him, took the commandments of God as a weapon in its hands and using this weapon as a knife or sword, killed Paul. Now no one believes that SIN is a PERSON, yet Paul speaks of sin as if it was indeed a person! Giving inanimate things qualities of personality is known commonly as PERSONIFICATION. Take a few minutes and look that word up in your dictionary. I can show you verses in the Bible that plainly reveal God the Father and God the Son have a body, head, face, arms, hands, feet, etc. THEY are PERSONS. Unless you can show the same for the Holy Spirit, I submit you have no basis in fact for believing that the Spirit of God is a person. GIVING PERSONALITY TO THE HOLY SPIRIT ONLY PROVES THE USE OF PERSONIFICATION IN THE BIBLE. NOTHING MORE AND NOTHING LESS! THE HOLY SPIRIT, IS IT A MAN OR A WOMAN? For centuries now (from about the 4th century.A. D.) nearly all Christendom has accepted and taught that the Holy Spirit is a PERSON, a masculine person, that is a MALE. The basic proof for this teaching has been, as one man says, "Language has no meaning if the Spirit is not a Person, seeing that Jesus repeatedly employed the masculine pronoun when speaking of him. Thirteen times over, in John 16 for example, He refers to the Spirit as HE, HIM, HIMSELF" (Dr. Herbert Lockyer, ALL THE DOCTRINES OF THE BIBLE, page 76). It is true, that in the Greek NT the masculine pronoun is used. But did Jesus actually say these words in Greek? It was probably in the common tongue of the people that Jesus spoke to His disciples and the multitudes, and that tongue was ARAMAIC not Greek. I bring this to the attention of the reader for a very important reason. There has risen in recent years a group of Christians who claim that the Holy Spirit is FEMALE, a WOMAN! They too use the basic language GENDER as a proof of their belief. And their proof is not without some validity if language gender is the criteria to use to support the teaching that the Spirit is a PERSON. In the Hebrew OT the word for Spirit is nearly always in the feminine gender, these individuals correctly point out to us. They also tell us, as does the Eastern Catholic Church (see the Holy Bible by Lamsa) that the NT was originally written in ARAMAIC and later translated into Greek (their arguments are really founded on very thin ice) and so again the word for Spirit would be in the feminine gender. The Greek itself is very interesting, for though the word Comforter is masculine gender in John 16, the word Spirit throughout the NT is in the neuter gender. Now, if we use language gender to try to prove our point that the Holy Spirit is a PERSON,it would truly leave us in a quandary and contradiction. Is the Spirit a WOMAN, a MAN or NEUTER? The truth is, the writers of the Bible never intended us to use language gender to prove whether the Holy Spirit was a man or a woman. A lesson in Greek grammar will explain: In the Greek language, like some others (Spanish, Italian, French, etc.) every noun has what is called gender; that is, it is either masculine, feminine or neuter. Grammatically, all pronouns in Greek must agree in gender with the word they refer to, or in other words, with the term that the pronoun replaces. The Greek word PARAKLETOS (comforter) has masculine gender, hence the translators use of the personal pronoun "he." For the pronouns EKEINOS and AUTOS "it" would have been a far better rendering into the English language, as in John 1:32 and 6:63; Romans 8:16. Let us further explain from the gender of the Spanish language. EL VASO is the Spanish for "the glass." The article "EL" and the "O" ending of the word VASO give the word "glass" a MASCULINE gender. But by no means could a glass be considered a MALE PERSON in the human sense. LA MESA in Spanish means "the table." It is feminine in gender. Yet it would be silly to consider a table as a FEMALE PERSON. The gender of a word has nothing whatever to do with whether the thing designated is REALLY masculine or feminine in the human sense. Gender in language is nothing more than a convenient grammatical tool. Personal note: I had been attending a Church school and Sunday school from the age of 7, I also had been faithfully reading my Bible from that early age. No one had ever taught me that the Holy Spirit was to be thought of as a literal personal bodily being, as the Father and Christ are. From the age of 7 until I was 19, I only thought of the Spirit of the Father and Christ as a part of their very NATURE, something that radiated out from their glorified bodies. It was not until I was 19 and attending a Baptist church that I encountered the teaching of the Trinity doctrine, and was told that the Holy Spirit was a personal being just like the Father and Son were personal beings. Then later I discovered that others teach the Godhead is ONE being manifested in THREE forms. And still later, found that some teach God is three in ONE but with no form or body...just a something who is a nothing. I laughed at all such ideas of men. Holy Spirit comes from the Father and Christ Jesus, their very nature. Yet that does not make the Holy Spitiy a separate bodily individual sitting maybe on the left hand of God the Father - Jesus is on His right hand.
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