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32 Is God a Trinity?Karl Barth, one of the most noted theologians of the20th century, admits that the church has gone beyond theBible to arrive at its doctrine of the Trinity."The Bible lacks the express declaration that theFather, Son, and the Holy Spirit are of equal essence andtherefore in an equal sense God Himself. And the otherexpress declaration is also lacking that God is God thusand only thus, i.e., as the Father, the Son and the HolySpirit. These two express declarations which go beyondthe witness of the Bible are the twofold content of thechurch doctrine of the Trinity" (Doctrine of the Word ofGod, p. 437).Since, as theologians recognize, the Bible is not thesource of the Trinity doctrine, how can they square it withthe Bible teaching that inspired Scripture should be thesource of doctrine? (II Tim. 3:16).The answer is, they can't. They must freely admit thepainful facts.The Spirit of God inthe BibleThe personality of Jesus Christ is thoroughly provablefrom the Bible, but there is no such proof for a personalityof the Holy Spirit."The OT [Old Testament] clearly does not envisageGod's spirit as a person, neither in the strictly philosophicalsense, nor in the Semitic sense. God's spirit is simplyGod's Power. If it is sometimes represented as being distinctfrom God, it is because the breath of Yahweh actsexteriorly (lsa. 48:16; 63:11; 32:15)." So say the authors ofthe New Catholic Encyclopedia. But let them continue:"Very rarely do the OT writers attribute to God'sspirit emotions or intellectual activity (lsa. 63:10; Wis.1:3-7). When such expressions are used, they are merefigures of speech that are explained by the fact that therUah was regarded also as the seat of intellectual acts andfeeling (Gen. 41:8). Neither is there found in the OT or inrabbinical literature the notion that God's spirit is anintermediary being between God and the world. Thisactivity is proper to the angels, although to them is
Is the Holy Spirit a Person?ascribed some of the activity that elsewhere is ascribed tothe spirit of God" (New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XIII,p. 574).In the Old Testament, God's Spirit is pictured as Hispower. The power by which the One who became JesusChrist, as Executive for the Father, created the entirety ofthe universe. These theologians also recognize that whenthe Spirit is spoken of as a person or in a personal way, theBible writer is merely personifying the Spirit, as he wouldwisdom or any other attribute.Now what about the New Testament? They say:"Although the NT [New Testament] concepts of theSpirit of God are largely a continuation of those of the OT,in the NT there is a gradual revelation that the Spirit ofGod is a person."But this would seem true only if you are armed with apreconceived notion that God is a Trinity. We will seethere are only a few scriptures that can even remotely beconstrued as presenting the Spirit as a person, and in eachcase only as the result of a grammatical misunderstanding.But again let's let the New Catholic Encyclopediacontinue."The majority of NT texts reveal God's spirit as something,not someone; this is especially seen in the parallelismbetween the spirit and the power of God."Though theologians would like for the Bible to saythat the Spirit is a person, they must admit that themajority of the scriptures connected with it show that it isnot someone, but something. Even the personification ofthe Spirit is no proof of its personality."When a quasi-personal activity is ascribed to God'sspirit, e.g., speaking, hindering, desiring, dwelling (Acts8:29; 16:7; Rom. 8:9), one is not justified in concludingimmediately that in these passages God's spirit isregarded as a Person; the same expressions are used inregard to rhetorically personified things or abstract ideas(see Rom. 6:6; 7:17). Thus the context of the phrase 'blasphemyagainst the spirit' (Mt. 12:31; cf. Mt. 12:28; Lk.11 :20) shows that reference is being made to the power of
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