The Holy Spirit's Conviction and Contridiction

[JustaServant]

Someone on the fundamentalist forum asked a question I think gets into the heart of the problem many evangelicals and Protestants have. I am going to cut and paste it here:

This is an issue on which I’ve been trying to find some resolution. My questions are these (and I’m sure they’ve already been both discussed and resolved on here): Would the Holy Spirit convict one believer in one manner and another believer in another? If sin has a resolute definition and doesn’t vary from individual to individual, why can one person engage in an action and not feel any conviction or remorse for doing so, yet another person cannot participate without feeling convicted?

Does the Holy Spirit’s conviction really vary from believer to believer? Or do we sometime misinterpret personal preference for conviction?

I think almost anything can suffice as an example. Drinking, going to the movies, music… Anything debated within Christian circles, really.

I found the bolded statement very interesting. I believe the problem evangelicals have is that they do not see true spiritual developement occurs when we realize God does not always agree with us. To understand evangelicals do not have a corner on the Holy Spirit can shatter thier world. But he asks an important question that our friends across the Tiber struggle with (as I did once).
To say the Holy Spirit is divided or the author of confusion should turn on a light in their brains. Why do you think they avoid this very real contridiction?

 

[NPC]

Interesting question… I don’t know what to say really, but the first thing is that the Holy Spirit is only capable of revealing Truth to us - indeed Christ called the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of Truth”. It does not deceive.

There are many Christian denominations today - I heard the figure of 37,000 different Protestant denominations, most of which developed in the 20th century. One must ask questions when all these churches claim to be “moved by the Holy Spirit”, yet teach radically different things: Jesus is God - Jesus is not God; homosexual behaviour is sinful - homosexual behaviour is not sinful; infants should be baptised - infants should not be baptised. The list goes on - but the number of differences must be at least 37,000!

You’re right, though - one would think that alarm bells would be ringing when such denominations all claim to be led by the Holy Spirit. One has to ask then, why would the Holy Spirit divide people, when Christ wanted us all to be one. The only logical explanation that one can come to is that the other 36,999 denominations have been mislead by their own interpretations of Scripture and that they aren’t being led by the Spirit at all. But I think it’s a case of humans being human - we all like to think that we are right and that everyone else is wrong - “I really feel the Holy Spirit is leading me to do X,Y,Z…therefore I can’t possibly be wrong”. The key, I think, is ones feelings.

Ultimately, I suppose each Protestant denomination cannot admit that alarm bells are ringing. To do so and to examine why the alarm bells are ringing would lead them to the Catholic Church! So many errors can be traced back to the simple rejection of the famous “Thou art Peter, and on this Rock I will build My Church” and the subsequent commissioning of the Apostles. As Karl Keating shows in Catholicism and Fundamentalism one cannot even prove that Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit without acknowledging that Christ founded His Church on Peter and that He promised that the Spirit would not allow it to teach error. If this fundamental aspect is not recognised, how can anyone be properly disposed to discern what is and what is not the work of the Holy Spirit?

 

[bpbasilphx]

\Or do we sometime misinterpret personal preference for conviction?\

Pop evangelicals do that all the time.

 

[JustaServant]

Interesting question… I don’t know what to say really, but the first thing is that the Holy Spirit is only capable of revealing Truth to us - indeed Christ called the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of Truth”. It does not deceive.

There are many Christian denominations today - I heard the figure of 37,000 different Protestant denominations, most of which developed in the 20th century. One must ask questions when all these churches claim to be “moved by the Holy Spirit”, yet teach radically different things: Jesus is God - Jesus is not God; homosexual behaviour is sinful - homosexual behaviour is not sinful; infants should be baptised - infants should not be baptised. The list goes on - but the number of differences must be at least 37,000!

You’re right, though - one would think that alarm bells would be ringing when such denominations all claim to be led by the Holy Spirit. One has to ask then, why would the Holy Spirit divide people, when Christ wanted us all to be one. The only logical explanation that one can come to is that the other 36,999 denominations have been mislead by their own interpretations of Scripture and that they aren’t being led by the Spirit at all. But I think it’s a case of humans being human - we all like to think that we are right and that everyone else is wrong - “I really feel the Holy Spirit is leading me to do X,Y,Z…therefore I can’t possibly be wrong”. The key, I think, is ones feelings.

Ultimately, I suppose each Protestant denomination cannot admit that alarm bells are ringing. To do so and to examine why the alarm bells are ringing would lead them to the Catholic Church! So many errors can be traced back to the simple rejection of the famous “Thou art Peter, and on this Rock I will build My Church” and the subsequent commissioning of the Apostles.** As Karl Keating shows in Catholicism and Fundamentalism** one cannot even prove that Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit without acknowledging that Christ founded His Church on Peter and that He promised that the Spirit would not allow it to teach error. If this fundamental aspect is not recognised, how can anyone be properly disposed to discern what is and what is not the work of the Holy Spirit?

The sad fact is, they cannot. Which is why they are left to ‘discerning’, a personal measurement leading to contridiction.