If the Holy Spirit is not a person, how can he have authority?
I find it interresting that jesus is micheal the archangel to be an hangover from seventh day adventism and the christian connection movements.
Hi Steve, how do you know if Westcott and Hort got the greek manuscript correct? After all it is based on manuscripts put together by the catholic or orthodox churches? How do you know that they did not change the manuscripts even before Arius came into existence? I am just curious on this.
(Matthew 9:1-8) So, boarding the boat, he proceeded across and went into his own city. 2And, look! they were bringing him a paralyzed man lying on a bed. On seeing their faith Jesus said to the paralytic: “Take courage, child; your sins are forgiven.” 3And, look! certain of the scribes said to themselves: “This fellow is blaspheming.” 4And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said: “Why are YOU thinking wicked things in YOUR hearts? 5For instance, which is easier, to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and walk? 6However, in order for YOU to know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins—” then he said to the paralytic: “Get up, pick up your bed, and go to your home.” 7And he got up and went off to his home. 8*At the sight of this the crowds were struck with fear, and they glorified God, who gave such authority to men.
Please feel free to open another thread.
If you think about it, satan was an angel in heaven before his fall, and as such he would have seen or been aware of the tri-une God, that is why he created trinities in the false religions because frankly he would conterfiet the geniune.
I think I may have read somewhere that they did away with those report cards.
Personification does not prove personality. It is true that Jesus spoke of the holy spirit as a “helper” and spoke of such helper as ‘teaching,’ ‘bearing witness,’ ‘giving evidence,’ ‘guiding,’ ‘speaking,’ ‘hearing,’ and ‘receiving.’ In so doing, the original Greek shows Jesus at times applying the personal pronoun “he” to that “helper” (paraclete). (Compare Joh 14:16, 17,*26; 15:26; 16:7-15.) However, it is not unusual in the Scriptures for something that is not actually a person to be personalized or personified. Wisdom is personified in the book of Proverbs (1:20-33; 8:1-36); and feminine pronominal forms are used of it in the original Hebrew, as also in many English translations. (KJ, RS, JP, AT) Wisdom is also personified at Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:35, where it is depicted as having both “works” and “children.” The apostle Paul personalized sin and death and also undeserved kindness as “kings.” (Ro 5:14, 17,*21; 6:12) He speaks of sin as “receiving an inducement,” ‘working out covetousness,’ ‘seducing,’ and ‘killing.’ (Ro 7:8-11) Yet it is obvious that Paul did not mean that sin was actually a person.
Further evidence against the idea of personality as regards the holy spirit is the way it is used in association with other impersonal things, such as water and fire (Mt 3:11; Mr 1:8); and Christians are spoken of as being baptized “in holy spirit.” (Ac 1:5; 11:16) Persons are urged to become “filled with spirit” instead of with wine. (Eph 5:18) So, too, persons are spoken of as being ‘filled’ with it along with such qualities as wisdom and faith (Ac 6:3,5; 11:24) or joy (Ac 13:52); and holy spirit is inserted, or sandwiched in, with a number of such qualities at 2Corinthians 6:6. It is most unlikely that such expressions would be made if the holy spirit were a divine person. As to the spirit’s ‘bearing witness’ (Ac 5:32; 20:23), it may be noted that the same thing is said of the water and the blood at 1*John 5:6-8. While some texts refer to the spirit as ‘witnessing,’ ‘speaking,’ or ‘saying’ things, other texts make clear that it spoke through persons, having no personal voice of its own. (Compare Heb 3:7; 10:15-17; Ps 95:7; Jer 31:33,*34; Ac 19:2-6; 21:4; 28:25.) It may thus be compared to radio waves that can transmit a message from a person speaking into a microphone and cause his voice to be heard by persons a distance away, in effect, ‘speaking’ the message by a radio loudspeaker. God, by his spirit, transmits his messages and communicates his will to the minds and hearts of his servants on earth, who, in turn, may convey that message to yet others.
preemience
How does an “active force” pray for us?
Interesting hypothesis. Another one worthy of consideration is that he knew YHWH was not a Trinity, and wanted to derail the plain understanding that YHWH was “one”, by encouraging the disuse and removal of the divine name, and introducting the idea of a Trinity to get people to worship and pray to someone other than YHWH
I thought the argument about how the Bible used “First born of _______” was always consitently putting Firstborn into the group of __________ was a pretty good argument.
ah NO, Wisdom is a attribute of God and therefore always existed.
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Actually it does not. The Jews in the Talmud refer to God as “Bekorah Shelolam,” Literally the Firstborn of all creation.
Greek Scholar Marvin Vincent:
stopping at page 24 post 350
Let there be light' [Gen. 1:3], this is the perfect nativity of the Word, while he is proceeding from God. . . . Thus, the Father makes him equal to himself, and the Son, by proceeding from him, was made the first-begotten, since he was begotten before all things, and the only-begotten, because he alone was begotten of God, in a manner peculiar to himself, from the womb of his own heart, to which even the Father himself gives witness: My heart has poured forth my finest Word’ [Ps. 45:1-2]” (Against Praxeas 7:1 [ca. A.D. 220]).