Bible Question:
Bern, "Holy Spirit is constantly shown to be a power or force that the Father controls." If that is so, why is the Holy Spirit referred to as "he" and "him" in John 16:7-8 and 16:13-14? How could he, if merely an impersonal active force, bear witness John 15:26; feel hurt Isaiah 63:10; be blasphemed against Mark 3:29; say things Ezek 3:24, Acts 8:29, 10:19, 11:12, 21:11, Heb 10:15-17, Rev 2:7; desire Gal 5;17; be outraged Heb 10:29; search 1Cor 2:10; comfort Acts 9:31; love Rom 15:30; refer to himself as "me" Acts 13:2; be lied to and be God Acts 5:3-4? By the way, the Trinity is not a "triad" of three gods, but a Tri-unity of one God. Emmaus |
Bible Answer: Dear Emmaus First I would like to express my disapointment to date, everyone keeps throwing verses at me yet no one has yet explained how 1 Cor 8:6 and 1 Tim 2:5 fit in with the trinity. Many Christians seem to just read the verses that fit their beliefs and quietly ignore the difficult ones. I’ve been accused of not researching my facts and yet someone quotes 1 John 5:7!!!!! On to your post, I wish it all was that simple but there are other verses that need to be considered, at least for starters,…. Luke 1 35The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[1] the Son of God.(NIV) Matt 1 18This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.(NIV) 2 John 3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, will be with us in truth and love. (NIV) It seems clear, to me anyway, from these two verses that the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and she was with child. Luke 1:35 also discribes this as ‘the power of the Most High’ that overshadows Mary – the ‘Most High’ would be ‘Yahweh’ of the OT. Luke 1 relates ‘The Holy Spirit’ with ‘the power of the Most High’, this is a common Biblical practice of saying the same thing twice but using a different phrase – I can’t remember the technical term for this. Reading Matt 1 on its own makes the ‘person’ the Holy Spirit the Father of Jesus – it is clear – ‘she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit’. 2 John 3 tells us God the Father is the Father. ;-) With Luke 1, we see the power of the Most High (Yahweh/God the Father) overshadowed her, the Holy Spirits is God’s power, call it impersonal if you will, but because the Holy Spirit is God the Father’s power then he is the Father of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is not some entity wandering about on its own, it is the ‘power of the Most High’, it is the Fathers power. When the Holy Spirit does something it is the Father who is controling the Holyt Spirit – hence he gave it to Jesus at his Baptism, and gave it to John the Baptist from conception! Were they given the ‘person’ of the Holy Spirit. It seems simple to me, am I missing something? Matt 3:16-17 16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."(NIV) What is the ‘Spirit of God’? Is it different to the ‘Holy Spirit’? Did the ‘person’ Holy Spirit come upon Jesus or did the ‘power of the Most High’ come upon Jesus. I makes much more sense if it was the ‘power of the Most High’. In answer to all your quotes, the Holy Spirit is God the Fathers, when the Holy Spirit acts it is the Father acting – as Luke 1:35 demonstrates. Is there a problem with the Father giving support by a power that is His, in the Father giving encouragment by his Spirit,… Refering to the Holy Spirit as ‘He’ is only refering back to the Father – it is the Fathers Spirit. Regards Bern. |