THE HOLY SPIRIT
Questions:
- Why do we see only two thrones in Heaven?
- Why are only the Father and Son mentioned as living among us in Heaven after Christ comes to take us home?
- Why does the Bible never call God a "Trinity"?
- Why are the pronouns "He" and "It" both used in Scripture when referring to the Holy Spirit?
- Why are only the Father and the Son to be worshiped?
These are some very important questions that we must answer in order to begin to understand the Holy Spirit. The Trinitarian view makes it difficult to answer these questions from the Scriptures. Remember, our own thinking is not what is important. We must see what the Scriptures actually say, and not try to philosophize away the meaning. Let's take a deeper look now.
Genesis 1:2 "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."
Question: Did a separate person called the Holy Spirit move on the face of the water or did God through His Spirit, His creative power and personal presence move upon the face of the water?
Before you answer that question let's look at some other verses.
John 1:1-3 "In the beginning was the Word… All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
All creation was done by Christ. We know that Christ did everything through the power of the Father didn't we? Now, notice what else the Scriptures say:
Jeremiah 10:12 "He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion."
Psalm 33:6 "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth."
In the first chapter of Genesis you can read that with each creation God spoke and it was done. Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26.
Job 26:13 "By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent."
Was there a third person involved in the creation or was it the power of God, His very personal presence—His Spirit—that was there to flow through His Son? If we insist on the thought that the Holy Spirit is a separate god in a Trinity, how do we then reconcile the clear statements that, first of all, say Christ created everything, and also that "His spirit garnished the Heavens?"
Perhaps we can bring some harmony to all of this. You remember that Christ's declaration about Himself :
And the Son of God declares concerning Himself: "The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting. . . . When He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him."Proverbs 8:22- 30.” {PP 34}
Proverbs 8:23 "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was."
The word "set up" is listed as number 5258 in Strong's concordance and means to "pour out" or "to anoint." The word "everlasting" is number 5769 and means "concealed," "vanishing point," or "time out of mind." This word most often refers to a time far distant in the past, before we ever began to keep a record of time. In other words, this verse is simply telling us that Christ was anointed somewhere in the far distant past before our world was ever created. It was so far back in time that you and I cannot even begin to conceive of it.
Psalm 2:6 "Yet have I set my king upon Zion, the hill of my holiness." Margin. (see also Psalm 3:4)
The word "set" in this verse is the same word used in Proverbs 8:23 (# 5258), which we have found to mean "anointed". So Christ, the Son of God, was anointed in heaven. (Note: this anointing took place in heaven, in the eons of time past)
The next logical question then is how was Christ anointed? What was He anointed with?
Hebrews 1:9 "Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
(Note: this anointing occurred after the ascension of Christ. But notice what was used for the anointing)
If we were to take the time to study the meaning of oil in the Scriptures we would readily find that the oil represented the Spirit of God. (Zechariah 4:12; Matthew 25:3, 4, 8) Jesus, God's only-begotten Son, was anointed with the oil (the Holy Spirit) of God from everlasting; in the eons of time past. To Christ (which means the anointed One) the Father gave of His Spirit, His very life and power. He did not give Him another person, He gave Christ the same life and power that existed in Himself. Christ received it by virtue of being the only Son of the living God. It is this very life, power, or personal presence of God that flows through Christ to you and me. We are not talking about merely a "force" here. We are dealing with the very life, personal presence, character or mind of God. Our God is a very personal being. What a thrilling thought that He desires to live within us.
John 5:26 "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself"
The Bible says there is only one Spirit:
Ephesians 4:4 "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling."
The Bible talks of God's Spirit, and of Christ's Spirit. How then is there only one Spirit?
John 15:26 "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me."
Galatians 4:6 "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."
It is the Spirit—the mind, power, character, personal presence, very life of God—that the Father sends through the Son to us. This is not a separate person of the Godhead who is being sent, it is the very life of God coming to us through Christ (the anointed One). There is only one Spirit the Scriptures say, and it proceeds from the Father.
Exodus: 17:6 "Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink..."
Where did the water come from? Yes, it came from the rock. It didn't come from the side of it, or under it, but out of it. That is a very interesting point. Who is represented by the rock? Christ is represented as the rock isn't He?
1 Corinthians 10:4 "And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and the Rock was Christ."
Please don't miss the point that the water flowed out of the rock just as the Spirit flows from the Father to the Son to us. You can also notice that in the Heavenly courts the water of life flows from the throne of God and the Lamb.
Revelation 22:1 "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb."
The river of water also represents the Spirit of God, and again it comes from the Father and the Son. This is what unites the two of them. This is why Jesus could make these statements:
John 10:30 "I and my Father are one."
John 17:21 "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me."
The Father and Son are one because they share the same Spirit; the Spirit which proceeds from the Father. It is this Spirit that we then receive from Christ!
Romans 8:9-11 "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.... But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."
It is easy to see here that the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are used interchangeably. That is because it is the same Spirit. Notice that the verse goes on to say that it was through the Spirit of God, His power, that Christ was raised from the dead. That same power and personal presence of God can live and dwell in us.
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