Is the Holy Spirit a person?

[vern_humphrey]

For those of you who say that the Holy Spirit is not a person, by what authority do you claim this? How do you know that this interpretation of Scripture is true? Your idea that the Spirit is not a person is nothing more than a human interpretation of Scripture. Why is your interpretation true? How do you know it’s true? Only the Church has the authority to declare whether or not the Spirit is indeed a person, and the Church proclaims that He is. The Church in her authority gave you the Scriptures, and now you are trying to use that gift to prove her teachings wrong. That makes no sense. It is like looking at an egg and using it to prove that the chicken who laid it does not exist.

I think the claim that the Holy Spirit is not a person is a good example of what I call “Garage Sale Theology” – Biblical exegesis based on the assumption that the Bible was just discovered (found at a garage sale, perhaps) and no one has ever read or interpreted it before.

 

[BobP123]

Why not Holy Ghost, who would be more of a Person than Spirit?

Think about it.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Why not Holy Ghost, who would be more of a Person than Spirit?

Think about it.

Abraham Lincoln asked, “If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?”

The answer is, four. It doesn’t matter what you call it, a tail is not a leg.

Similarly, it doesn’t matter what you call Him, the Third Person of the Trinity is a Person.

And there are no degrees of personhood (as pro-abortionists would have us believe.) The Holy Spirit is a Person. That’s dogma.

 

[BobP123]

The Holy Spirit is a Person. That’s dogma.

Spiritus Sanctus is the dogma. All’s I’m saying is the Holy Ghost is a better translation of Spiritus since our language is of Germanic descent and the their word for Spiritus was/is geist.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Spiritus Sanctus is the dogma. All’s I’m saying is the Holy Ghost is a better translation of Spiritus since our language is of Germanic descent and the their word for Spiritus was/is geist.

Living languages (like English) change with time. “Silly” at one time meant “wise.” And English has many Latin words, perhaps as many Latin words as German ones. “Spirit” is a perfectly good English word, with its roots in the Latin “spiritus.” Today, if you ask any English-speaking Latin scholar to translate “spiritus” into English, he will tell you “spiritus” is correct.

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

I think the claim that the Holy Spirit is not a person is a good example of what I call “Garage Sale Theology” – Biblical exegesis based on the assumption that the Bible was just discovered (found at a garage sale, perhaps) and no one has ever read or interpreted it before.

It is also spectacularly ignorant.
The word “person”, from “persona” or “mask” was coined precisely to describe the members of the Trinity. It only later became extended to all humans.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

Acts 13:2 (New International Version)

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

The Holy Spirit speaks, applies ego to himself, and has a will.

Yes, the Holy Spirit has characteristics of being a spirit, but also has characteristics of being a person. So, simply listing his characterists that prove that he is a spirit while ignoring those that prove that he is a person will not impress us. Also, displaying your poor greek language skills does not impress us either.

spotlightministries.org.uk/bowmanonthetrinity.htm
google.com/search?hl=en&q=personhood+Holy+Spirit

 

[toaslan]

Spiritus Sanctus is the dogma. All’s I’m saying is the Holy Ghost is a better translation of Spiritus since our language is of Germanic descent and the their word for Spiritus was/is geist.

(Not being expert in linguistics, I can only opine that English is influenced as much by Latin as by German; and “Spiritus” is Latin for which the obvious English is “Spirit”. Further, “Ghost”, while once it seems to have been indeed a proper and full translation of “Spiritus”, is now in popular English given occultish meanings. We English-speakers just don’t use that word the way we used to–language does shift, and flexibility is appropriate.)

What happened to the OP? Is Postwriter satisfied now that the Holy Spirit is indeed a person as proved by the flood of Bible references?

And I also have this question for the OP:

verbum:

I don’t quite understand your reasoning. Do you mean that a spirit cannot be a person?

 

[drafdog]

The Holy Bible refers to The Holy Spirit as a He. The Holy Spirit is a He simply because The Holy Spirit is masculine spirit.

Catagorically false. The Spirit is referred to in the feminine in the Wisdom of Solomon. Read especially chapters six through 8.
Further, it is heretical to limit God in any way. To ascribe only masculinity to God without also ascribing femininity is to err by omission.

Matthew

 

[JimG]

the trinity collaborates, but the Holy Spirit indeed is a person making his own decisions and acting on his own authority, though every act of God is shared in some way by all three persons, one cannot act without the others, but that does not mean that one is lesser than the others.

The Persons of the Trinity are distinct in person. However, there is but one divine will, which is a faculty of the one divine Being. Each person of the trinity possesses that one divine nature in its totality.

(I do not speak here of Jesus in his human nature. He did have a human intellect and will. But in his divine nature, he possessed the one divine will.)

 

[Grace_Seeker]

Hi
Holy Spirit or angels do what they are asked to do by GodAllahYHWH, not a vice versa.

The Holy Spirit is most definitely NOT an angel. The Holy Spirit is himself God.

Those who are objecting to the concept of person would be correct in objecting to the idea of individuality. The Holy Spirit is not a seperate individual anymore than the Father and the Son are separate individuals. They are not; they are one being. But the Holy Spirit is a different persona if you will of that one being.

 

[Grace_Seeker]

Paarsurrey (the HS is not an angel, but that’s not my point), why do you say that an angel has no will of his own??? Did you notice the example given by a prior poster of an angel making a choice?

Does your faith and the Christian faith have a common source that we can both agree upon for this question? Do you accept the Jewish Old Testament as true?

thanks, it is interesting…but can anything be debated if there isn’t enough common source? It’s hard to know how to come to grips with your statements.

Paarsurrey is Ahmadi. This religion often claims to follow Muhammad and recites the Qur’an, but no Sunni nor Shia Muslim would recognize them as a follower of Islam anymore than a Catholic Christian would recognize Mormons to be Christian.

 

[present]

I became Catholic over a year ago. At Easter Vigil , the chrism oil anointing by the Priest took place after renunciation of the devil and his works (after my personal revealing and renunciation of sin in Confession). I received the Holy Spirit of the Trinity. To me ,
He is inseparable from God my Father and Jesus my Redeemer. This following is very simplistic, but like four sides to a tissue box, they are the Whole. I must however invite and experience him as the light, sound,taste and breath of my life for he has never forced Himself. In this respect, I speak to Him and worship him as a person. Just as one would daily entreat there most precious spouse.

 

[governorperez]

The Holy Bible refers to The Holy Spirit as a He. The Holy Spirit is a He simply because The Holy Spirit is masculine spirit. The Holy Spirit is, but not limited to, the following: a molder and sculpter into that which inherits eternal life…(a retainer of the saved)…a disciplinarian…a Divine Spirit that has a personality, however, The Holy Spirit is not a person.

 

[governorperez]

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Holy Trinity.

 

[Danno2281]

As long as you picture those ‘aspects’ as actual Persons, Three in One and One in Three.

Otherwise, it’s silly to say that “God is Love” all in Himself. You can’t have love without having someone around to love, and God is unchanging from eternity.

That is why God is Three Persons in One God and One God in Three Persons. Each of the Three Persons of the Trinity have always been. The Persons of the Trinity love each other, and so there never was a time when God was not Love.

Thinking of God’s Three Persons as just “aspects” or “roles” is the heresy of modalism.

Of course, I have probably explained this all wrong, so go with the Church’s explanation wherever mine is messed up.

If we look upon the Father’s position, almighty, omniscient, etc. we realize that He knows Himself perfectly, that His intellectual activity in knowing Himself (logos) corresponds perfectly to Who He is. Since there is no difference between the Knower and His Knowledge of Himself, He loves that Knowledge with the whole of His Being. That Knowledge, being identical in every way with the Knower, loves the Knower with the whole of His Being, a Love that is identical with the Love of the Knower for the Knowledge, a Love that is the whole essence and substance of the Divine Being, and this Mutual Love that procedes from the Father and from the Son IS the Holy Spirit, binding the three Persons in a unity that is greater than any we can imagine. This is why it can truly be said that “God is Love,” and why this statement so completely sums up the nature of the Godhead insofar as the human mind can comprehend that infinite love. This is no attempt to explain the Trinity, just a small meditation on what we know of this enormous mystery. I hope it proves useful to someone.

 

[goldenrule]

The Holy Spirit is a person, as it has a distinct personality of it’s own, as does Jesus and God (Our Heavenly Parent, the true definition of “ABBA” and the true meaning of “He” when used in the English translation to refer to Trinity or God).
For Abba is the name Jesus actually used for God, in his Aramaic language (one of the two times the original word in Jesus language was left in when N.T. Scriptures were first put together in 310 AD. Also is defined as Our Heavenly Parent(s) in the ancient Hebrew.What is Father without Mother! Scriptures tell us God has feminine as well as masculine qualities as do our bodies chemically can be scientifically proven to always have both male and female hormones, just in varying degrees or amounts, even at different times in each life!
The Hebrew word for Holy Spirit is “Yah Ruah”, which means Wind or Moving Spirit, and in that original language is a feminine word. Just translated later into English as “He”. “It is the originals that count”, and a Biblical curse on those who change or follow the changed. One more reason important to be led by The Holy Spirit of God into the fullness of Truth, those in earlier days were not always able to fully comprehend. Why this board and we here, who know so much more than most, have the added responsibility of those given more, in terms of knowledge or interest. Don’t you think?

God is Divine, unconditional Holy Love as I John 4:16 tells us “God is Love, when we Love, we live in God and God lives in us”. But like The Holy Spirit, chooses to have no human form, and so can be everywhere, at all times. Only the person Jesus seems to have chosen to have a single human form, that was, after the resurrection, translated back into Heaven as a Spiritual yet human looking form. A few claim to have seen since in visions and many of us daily know or experience this Christ spiritually when we take communion, the spiritual body and blood of Jesus, at our Lords Table and altar.

Blessings that come from Peace and Goodwill to all,
Betty C. Dudney
www.goldenrulefamily.org

 

[johnstown_johnn]

The Holy Bible refers to The Holy Spirit as a He. The Holy Spirit is a He simply because The Holy Spirit is masculine spirit. The Holy Spirit is, but not limited to, the following: a molder and sculpter into that which inherits eternal life…(a retainer of the saved)…a disciplinarian…a Divine Spirit that has a personality, however, The Holy Spirit is not a person.

The Holy Spirit is the Third Person in the Holy Trinity.

 

[Pani_Rose]

Though this doesn’t relate directly to the topic it does. Marian is in Romainia and he posted some pictures of his last trip. It is a slide show some of it is of family on the trip. But the big thing is an Romainian Orthodox Church that is being restored which is over 500 years old. There is a totally AWESOME icon of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You will see the Holy Spirit enthroned as a dove. picasaweb.google.com/marianst/TravelToBucovinaNorthernRomania/photo#s5077667588748967842

 

[JimG]

For Abba is the name Jesus actually used for God, in his Aramaic language (one of the two times the original word in Jesus language was left in when N.T. Scriptures were first put together in 310 AD. Also is defined as Our Heavenly Parent(s) in the ancient Hebrew.What is Father without Mother!

Our Heavenly Parent(s)? If I recall correctly, Abba is the Aramaic word for Father.