Is God a Trinity - Herbert W. Armstrong Library and Archives

More documents

Recommendations

Info

32 Is God a Trinity? Karl Barth, one of the most noted theologians of the 20th century, admits that the church has gone beyond the Bible to arrive at its doctrine of the Trinity. “The Bible lacks the express declaration that the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are of equal essence and therefore in an equal sense God Himself. And the other express declaration is also lacking that God is God thus and only thus, i.e., as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These two express declarations which go beyond the witness of the Bible are the twofold content of the church doctrine of the Trinity” (Doctrine of the Word of God, p. 437). Since, as theologians recognize, the Bible is not the source of the Trinity doctrine, how can they square it with the Bible teaching that inspired Scripture should be the source of doctrine? (I1 Tim. 3:16). The answer is, they can’t. They must freely admit the painful facts. The Spirit of God in the Bible The personality of Jesus Christ is thoroughly provable from the Bible, but there is no such proof for a personality of the Holy Spirit. “The OT [Old Testament] clearly does not envisage God’s spirit as a person, neither in the strictly philosophical sense, nor in the Semitic sense. God’s spirit is simply God’s Power. If it is sometimes represented as being distinct from God, it is because the breath of Yahweh acts exteriorly (Isa. 48:16; 63:ll; 32:15).” So say the authors of the New Catholic Encyclopedia. But let them continue: “Very rarely do the OT writers attribute to God’s spirit emotions or intellectual activity (Isa. 63:lO; Wis. 1:3-7). When such expressions are used, they are mere figures of speech that are explained by the fact that the riiah was regarded also as the seat of intellectual acts and feeling (Gen. 41:8). Neither is there found in the OT or in rabbinical literature the notion that God’s spirit is an intermediary being between God and the world. This activity is proper to the angels, although to them is
Is the Holy Spirit a Person? 33 ascribed some of the activity that elsewhere is ascribed to the spirit of God” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XIII, p. 574). In the Old Testament, God’s Spirit is pictured as His power. The power by which the One who became Jesus Christ, as Executive for the Father, created the entirety of the universe. These theologians also recognize that when the Spirit is spoken of as a person or in a personal way, the Bible writer is merely personifying the Spirit, as he would wisdom or any other attribute. Now what about the New Testament? They say: “Although the NT [New Testament] concepts of the Spirit of God are largely a continuation of those of the OT, in the NT there is a gradual revelation that the Spirit of God is a person.” But this would seem true only if you are armed with a preconceived notion that God is a Trinity. We will see there are only a few scriptures that can even remotely be construed as presenting the Spirit as a person, and in each case only as the result of a grammatical misunderstanding. But again let’s let the New Catholic Encyclopedia continue. “‘The majority of NT texts reveal God‘s spirit as something, not someone; this is especially seen in the parallelism between the spirit and the power of God.” Though theologians would like for the Bible to say that the Spirit is a person, they must admit that the majority of the scriptures connected with it show that it is not someone, but something. Even the personification of the Spirit is no proof of its personality. “When a quasi-personal activity is ascribed to God’s spirit, e.g., speaking, hindering, desiring, dwelling (Acts 8:29; 16:7; Rom. 8:9), one is not justified in concluding immediately that in these passages God’s spirit is regarded as a Person; the same expressions are used in regard to rhetorically personified things or abstract ideas (see Rom. 6:6; 7:17). Thus the context of the phrase ‘blasphemy against the spirit’ (Mt. 12:31; cf. Mt. 12:28; Lk. 11:20) shows that reference is being made to the power of
Page 1 and 2: Is God a 1 TRINITY? An Ambassador C
Page 3 and 4: This booklet is not to be sold. It
Page 5 and 6: Is the Trinity CHAPTER ONE id? HE b
Page 7 and 8: Is the Trinity Biblical? 9 expresse
Page 9 and 10: Is the Tlinity Biblical? 11 Bear Re
Page 11 and 12: 4 Ghost" - is quite nebulous at bes
Page 13: Is the Trinity Biblical? 15 I i e *
Page 16 and 17: 18 Is God a Trinity? Platonic reali
Page 18 and 19: 20 Is God a Trinity? that if a syno
Page 20 and 21: 22 Is God a Trinity? believe in a m
Page 22 and 23: Many ancient peoples have preserved
Page 24 and 25: 26 Is God a Trinity? I Christ. Paul
Page 26 and 27: 28 Is God a Trinity? directly with
Page 28 and 29: 30 Is God a Trinity? a little clear
Page 32 and 33: RII.. . Y 5. - I.I"UL "I yl"tGaDlIl
Page 34 and 35: Is the Holy Spirit a person, just l
Page 36 and 37: 38 Is God a Trinity? word for “sp
Page 38 and 39: 40 Is God a Trinity? of all things
Page 40 and 41: 42 Is God a Trinity? It was God who
Page 42 and 43: 44 Is God a Trinity? Why the Decept
Page 44 and 45: ELIEVE it or not, the Bible was wri
Page 46: MAILING ADDRESSES WORLDWIDE: IN THE

Is God a Trinity - Herbert W. Armstrong Library and Archives

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?