The Third Person of the Godhead: The Holy Spirit
One of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted doctrines of the Bible is the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit. This doctrine is also called “Pneumatology”. Cults such as the so-called ‘Jehovah Witnesses’ teach that the Holy Spirit is a power and not a Person.
This continues section A., points 1-5 of “Personality of the Holy Spirit” from our printed notes of the course, “Bible Doctrines 1”. There are 10 titles of the Holy Spirit in our Bible school course that demand the Personality of the Holy Spirit. (We only cover 5 in this brief introduction). The course is offered in our audio MP3 CDs. Go to Bible School courses to see the complete study.
A. Titles indicate Personality.
- The Holy Spirit.
“Holy” and “Holiness” are not only references to His own nature, but also to the operation of holiness which He imparts to men. Only a Person can impart holiness and effect sanctification in men.
- “thy holy spirit”, Psalm 51: 11.
- “the Spirit of Holiness”, Romans 1: 4.
- “the Holy Spirit”, Luke 11: 13.
- The Good Spirit.
- “thy spirit is good”, Psalm 143: 10.
- “thy good spirit”, Nehemiah 9: 20.
Notice the Holy Spirit has the quality of “good” as well as the ability to be “good”. This indicates personality.
- The Spirit of God.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2).
16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
The same Person who immediately “moved upon the face of the waters” after the universal water judgment of the heaven and the earth in Genesis 1:2 is the same Person who dwells within a saved sinner. Notice in I Corinthians 3: 16 “the temple of God” can become defiled but it is never said to lose that position. Even though the temple can become defiled, it is still the temple of God. Our house is of flesh, blood, and bones, but it is called the temple of God.
The same thing happens with regard to the house of stones in John 2:13-17. Although that house was defiled by money changers, it was still called “my Father’s house” by Jesus, (John 2: 16). In a temple built for the future tribulation period, although the “man of sin”, or the Antichrist, sits in it, nevertheless, it is called “the temple of God”, (II Thessalonians 2: 3-4). So in Genesis 1: 2, although sin had entered the heaven and earth as a result of Lucifer’s rebellion, (Ezekiel 28: 14-17), the Spirit of God did not forsake His creation. The saved person in this age may defile the temple of God and be chastened for it. He remains the temple of God. (I Corinthians 11: 31-32).
- The Spirit of Grace.
The Hebrews were given much grace. But they, like many, scorned God’s provisions. Remember grace is when God gives to us that which we do not deserve. God made the covenants with the Hebrew nation and gave them great advantages over all Gentiles. However, Israel rejected God. For Israel, their “days of grace” ran out. In Acts Seven Stephen pronounced their judgment. “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.” (Acts 7:51-53). “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29).
- The Spirit of Truth.
The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of truth” because:
1. He is the Author of Truth.
2. He is Truth.
He is absolute Truth and therefore, the Author of truth.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (John 14: 17).
Modern education teaches that all things are relative and changing so that no absolute truth exists. In other words, “The only thing we know for certain is that we know nothing for certain.” Such is the insanity of the man who says there is no God. The “world” thinks no absolute truth exists because it cannot receive, see or know the Spirit of truth. The Christian knows Truth because He dwells in us. “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Romans 8: 9).
