As a man, Jesus of Nazareth recognized the importance of the Holy Spirit as is evidenced by a statement He made as recorded in Matthew 12:32: “And whosoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him ….”  He knew that in the eyes of the Father, the Holy Spirit held a special status.  But importance, even importance to God the Father, does not equate to godship.  One is either a God or one is not, regardless of one’s position.  The Apostle Paul understood this.

Paul, who received his gospel directly from Jesus Christ through revelation (Gal. 1:12), it seems strange that he did not mention the Holy Spirit in the salutations and greetings which were an important part of the letters he wrote to the churches, letters that became the New Testament.  In his letters to the Corinthians, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Hebrews, as well as his personal messages to Timothy, Titus and Philemon, not once did he mention the Holy Spirit.  He routinely mentioned God the Father and Christ the Son, but not the Holy Spirit.  In his first letter to Timothy (2:5) his omission of the Spirit is glaring: “For there is ONE GOD, and ONE mediator between (that ONE) God and men, the (ONE) MAN Jesus Christ.”  Note the absence of any mention of there being another member of the Godhead, though this would have been the ideal time to do so.  In Romans 8:17 he wrote: “And if (we are God’s) children, then (we are) heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him ….”  Again, no mention of the Holy Spirit.

As an aside, notice that if one is not suffering for one’s holiness, one is not an heir of salvation; one is not a joint-heir with Jesus Christ.  Recall Paul writing in 2 Timothy 3:12 that, “ALL who will LIVE GODLY in Christ Jesus WILL SUFFER PERSECUTION.”  “We MUST, THROUGH MUCH TRIBULATION, enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).  As the Lord reminds us many times in His Word, being hated and rejected by the religious establishment is one of the premiere signs that one is right with God.  The opposite is also true.

One of the most glaring omissions of the Holy Spirit is found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (11:3): “But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.”  Notice that the governmental hierarchal chain–God, Christ, man, woman–is missing one of its links.  If the trinitarians are right, one third of the Godhead–the Holy Spirit–has been left out.  Also, we know that Christ sits at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1/Rev. 3:21).  But we are not told where the Holy Spirit sits?

To “prove” that the Holy Spirit is more than God’s power and is in fact a co-equal deity along with God and Christ, Trinitarians point out the Apostle John’s use of the word “he” when referring to the Holy Spirit in chapters 14,15,16.  This is due to the fact that some languages, including Greek and Hebrew, genderize all nouns (persons, places and things).  The gender can be masculine, feminine or neuter.  Note that in Acts 2:2,3 the Holy Spirit is referred to as “it” (neuter).

Another “proof” that the Holy Spirit is a God is found situations in which it is said to have spoken.  In the Scriptures it is written that “the Spirit said,” “the Spirit bade me go,” etc.  As I have stated, I have heard the “voice” of the Holy Spirit many times.  Not once was the voice audible.  Nevertheless, I knew that I had heard God’s speak to me through the Holy Spirit, which is what is meant by being “led by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 8:14).  Admittedly, I have not always obeyed the “voice” of the Spirit, and always paid a price for my failure.   As Scripture writers so plainly tell us, only those who are led by the Holy Spirit AND OBEY IT are true children of God.  All others are false Christians.  Question: does the Holy Spirit tell us to reject God’s Sabbath and substitute another day as commanded in the Ten Commandment Law?–the same Law in which not one jot or tittle can be changed.  This is the same Law Jesus said He did not come to destroy (on his cross), but rather to fulfill.  False Christians reject the day God called “My holy day” and observe the day Pope Sylvester I decreed in 364 A.D. at the Council of Laodicea.  They also reject the Scriptures relative to the Holy Spirit being the power of God and not an equal member of a triune Godhead.  They also celebrate Christmas and Easter while rejecting God’s commanded Holy Days.  Use the key word “Holidays” to download the series relating to God’s commanded observances.

Those who believe that the Holy Spirit is a God often use 1 John 5:7,8 as “proof” of their contention: “For there are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one.  And there are three that bear witness in earth: the spirit and the water and the blood.  And these three agree in one.”  It certainly sounds like that there are three entities involved.  Notice that every word in the passage is written in italics.  The italicized words do not appear in ANY of the original Greek manuscripts.  Correctly translated from the Greek language, the statement reads: “For there are three that bear record: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree in one.”  The Revised Standard translation renders it correctly.  The change was made several hundred years after the letters were written in an attempt to “prove” the existence of a trinity in order to make it fit into Catholic theology.  The King James translators, who often became interpreters, were all Catholic.

Another “proof” of a trinity is found in Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy [Spirit].”  The fact that the Father and the Son are Gods does not make the Holy Spirit a God.  Let us remember that it is God Who grants us repentance (Rom. 2:4), and that it was the death of Christ that reconciled us to God (Rom. 5:10).  After baptism (Acts 2:38), it is the Holy Spirit entering into us that begets us as sons of God (Rom. 9,14,16,17).  As the begetting agent of the conversion process, the Holy Spirit is the earnest (down payment) for our eventual salvation (Eph. 1:14/ Rom. 8:16).  A God is not the earnest/partial payment on anything.

In summary, the Holy Spirit is the power of the Godhead consisting of Father and Son only.  Saints do not pray to the Holy Spirit or ask anything of it.  True converts receive the Spirit upon Christian baptism.  The purpose for receiving the Spirit will be covered in the next posting.  L.J.