HOLY SPIRIT AND THE TRINITY EXPLAINED

HOLY SPIRIT AND THE TRINITY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
First, look at the places in the Bible that refer to all three persons in the trinity
together.
(a) **And Jesus being baptized forthwith came out
of the water : and lo, the heavens were opened to Him ;
and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove,
and coming upon Him, and behold a Voice from hea-
ven (the Father) saying: This is my beloved Son in
whom I am well pleased'* (Matth. Ill, 16-17).
(b) **And as He unfolded the book. He found the
place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is
upon Me. Wherefore He hath anointed Me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He hath sent Me to heal the con-
trite of heart, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day
of reward'* (Luke IV, 18-19).
(c) **And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying:
All power is given Me in heaven and on earth; Going,
therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the

name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost" (Matth. XXVIII, 18-19).
(d) **The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the
charity of God and the communication of the Holy
Spirit be with you all. Amen" (II Cor. XIII, 13).
(e) **And there are three who give testimony in
heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And
these three are one** (I John V, 7).
(f) *Tor it is impossible for those who were once
illuminated, have tasted also of the heavenly gift, and
were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, have, more-
over, tasted the good work of God — to be renewed
again to penance, crucifying again to themselves the
Son of God, and making Him a mockery** (Hebrews
VI, 4-6).
(g) Discoursing after the Last Supper, Our Lord
said: **He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words.
And the word which you have heard is not Mine, but
the Father*s that sent Me. These things have I spoken
to you, abiding with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy
Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name. He will

teach you all things and bring all things to your mind,
whatsoever I shall have said to you'* (John XIV,
24-26).
(h) ". . . how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?"
—Hebrews 9:14
"The doctrine of the Trinity is not expressly taught in the Bible; it is the putting together of
truths that are taught. It is clearly taught in the Bible that there is but one God. It is also
clearly taught that there are three Divine Persons -- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."
CRISWELL
"I copied down some of these passages in the Bible where all three in the Godhead
are named. In the passage of our beginning text, “The grace of the Lord Jesus, the
love of God, the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” [2 Corinthians
13:14]. Now these are passages in the New Testament where all three are named:
Luke 1:35, John 14:26, John 15:26, Galatians 4:6, 1 Peter 1:2, Jude 20 and 21,
Revelation 1:4-6. And then I went through the Book of Ephesians, and in the Book
of Ephesians all three Persons of the Trinity are named in Ephesians 1:17, Ephesians
2:18, Ephesians 3:14 and 16, Ephesians 4:4-7, Ephesians 5:18-20, and Ephesians
6:17, 23. All three of them are named as Paul names them here, “The grace of the
Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you
all. Amen” [2 Corinthians 13:14]. God reveals Himself in His self-disclosure as a
tripersonality.
Now, in my studying I was overwhelmed by something I had never seen before.
Wherever in the Bible all three of Them are named, where They stand together,

without exception it is for a redemptive blessing. It is in comfort and mercy that
God thus reveals Himself.
Let me by contrast explain what I mean. Sometimes God the Father will reveal
Himself in awesome judgment as He did upon Mount Sinai. In thunder and in
lightning and in darkness God delivers His commandments [Exodus 19:16]: “This
do and live, Disobey and die” [Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 28:15-22]. The
presence of God is so awesome that even the animals that touched the mountain died
[Exodus 19:13], and the people said to Moses, “Let us not hear His voice, lest we
die” [Exodus 20:19]. That’s a revelation of God the Father.
In the Book of Matthew, Jesus says of Himself that “This is a stone, I, a stone of
stumbling to men who cannot believe; and on those whom the stone falls it shall
grind them to powder” [Matthew 21:44]: the Son of God. And in that same Book of
Matthew it speaks of the Holy Spirit: “Every sin shall be forgiven a man; if he
blasphemes the name of God, forgiven”—blaspheme the name of the Son, he can be
forgiven—“but whosoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit there is never forgiveness,
neither in this world nor in the world to come” [Matthew 12:31-32]. It is an
unpardonable sin. When you read in the Bible of each one of the members of the
Godhead individually, sometimes it is awesome in judgment. But whenever the
three are presented as standing together, it is always and without exception in
mercy, and in redemption, and in loving-kindness, and in infinite merciful
forgiveness.
I take just two passages. One will be in the sixty-third chapter of Isaiah. All three
persons of the Godhead are named in Isaiah 63:7-10. Now, you look how he will
speak: “I will mention the loving-kindness of the Lord…according to all that the
Lord hath bestowed upon us, and His great goodness toward us . . . For He said,
Surely they are My people . . . so He was their Savior,” capital “S.” “In all their
affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence”—didn’t I say all through
the Bible that Angel appears?—“in all their affliction He was afflicted, and the
Angel of His Presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them;
and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old” [Isaiah 63:7-9]. What a
beautiful revelation of God. All three of Them named here.
I choose just one other passage, the three of Them named together always in mercy
and redemption. The first chapter of the Revelation: “John to the seven churches
which are in Asia,” number one, “Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is,
and which was, and which is to come”: that’s God. Number two: “And from the
seven Spirits which are before His throne” [Revelation 1:4]—seven, there, is a
number of the fullness and plentitude, the overflowing presence of the Spirit of God.
That’s number two. And number three:

And from Jesus the Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead,
the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from
our sins in His own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God … to Him
be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
[Revelation 1:5-6]
Always when the three are presented together, it is in mercy and love and
redemption. That’s the revelation of God in the Bible; always as a tripersonality.
Now the second part of our message. We know God in human experience as a
tripersonality: God the Father transcendent above all, God the Son immanent
through all, and God the Holy Spirit inherent in all. We know God in human
experience as a tri-personality. We know Him that way in conversion, in salvation,
in regeneration. God, the great and holy, beyond and above all of the whole world,
the great holy God; and we, so sinful, a dying creature. How do we approach the
awesome holiness of God, we who are made out of dust and ashes, we who are so
sinful? How do we come into His presence?
We come in the redemptive love and mercy of Jesus our Lord [Ephesians 2:13]. He
bore our sins [1 Peter 2:24], and He washed away the stain in our souls [1
Corinthians 6:11], and we are invited to come boldly to the throne of grace, the
throne of grace, that we might find forgiveness and pardon [Hebrews 4:16], and we
are encouraged thus to come by the moving of the Spirit in our hearts [Romans 8:9].
No one would respond were it not for the moving of the Spirit in our hearts. We
know God and we come to God in human experience as a tripersonality.
Thus do we live before the Lord. We pray to him in a tripersonality, the self-
revelation of God to us. We pray to the Father, “Our Father who art in heaven”
[Matthew 6:9], and we come in the name of Jesus [John 14:13-14]; not in our name
or in our righteousness, but we plead the blood and the forgiveness and the pardon
of our Lord [Hebrews 10:19-22]. And the Holy Spirit moves us. We feel His
presence in our deepest souls. The Holy Spirit of God moves us to call upon the
name of the Lord [Ephesians 6:18; Jude 1:20]. We know God in human experience
as a tripersonality: our Father, and our Savior, and the Spirit of God that moves in
our souls."

DANIEL STEELE
The orthodox doctrine of the Trinity is that the three Persons are
by nature equal in power and glory. Theologians call this the essential
Trinity , which may be represented by three stars on the same level.
I 2 3
☆ ☆ ☆
But the Scriptures speak of the Persons as performing different offices
in creation and redemption. In creation the Father is the principal,
and the Son and the Spirit are agents. The First Person creates through
the Second and the Third as agents coequal to each other, but in func¬
tion subordinate to the First Person. This is called the economic Trin-
ity , which may be represented by two stars on a level, with one star
above them.
☆
2 3
☆ ☆
In the work of redemption there is a different relation of these Per¬
sons. The First is said to send the Second, and both of them to send

the Third. This may be represented by placing the stars thus :
’☆
2 ☆
3 ☆
This is called the redemptional Trinity. The Father sends the Son,
and the Father and the Son send the Spirit. This functional Trinity
the Greek Church denies, but admits the essential Trinity and the
economic Trinity. It denies the filioque , i. e., that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the
Son."
"Here it would be well to give a word of warning. We might be inclined to look upon
the Father as first in importance; the Son as second in importance; the Holy Spirit
as third in importance. But this would be an utterly wrong thought. 'If the Father is
God, He is supreme, and none higher. If the Son is God, He is supreme, and none
higher. If the Holy Spirit is God, He is supreme, and none higher.
An illustration may help. Supposed a handsome chandelier with three branches,
each branch equal in shape and size, each stretching out an equal distance from the
central stem, each giving equal light from the same source. If the question were
asked, Which branch is first in importance, which second, which third? you would
rightly reply no differentiation of this sort can be made.".
"Questions and Answers on the Trinity
25. How many Persons are there in God?
In God there are three divine Persons--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
(a) Unaided by divine revelation, the human mind could not know the existence
of the Blessed Trinity because it is a supernatural mystery.3 Even after God has
revealed the existence of the Blessed Trinity, we cannot understand it fully. When

we believe, on the word of God, that there are three Persons in one God, we do
not believe that three Persons are one Person, or that three gods are one God;
this would be a contradiction.
26. Is the Father God?
The Father is God and the first Person of the Blessed Trinity.
(a) The first Person of the Blessed Trinity is called the Father because from all
eternity He begets the second Person, His only-begotten Son.
(b) God the Father is called the first Person not because He is greater or older
than the other two Persons, but because He is unbegotten.
27. Is the Son God?
The Son is God and the second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
(a) The second Person of the Blessed Trinity is called the Son because from all
eternity, He is the only begotten of the Father. Proceeding from the Father, the
Son is called the Divine Word or the Wisdom of the Father.
28. Is the Holy Ghost God?
The Holy Ghost is God and the third Person of the Blessed Trinity.
(a) The third Person of the Blessed Trinity is called the Holy Ghost because from
all eternity He is breathed forth, as it were, by the Father and the Son.
Proceeding from the Father and the Son, He is called the Gift or Love of the
Father and the Son.
(b) The word "Ghost" applied to the third Person means "Spirit."
29. What do we mean by the Blessed Trinity?
By the Blessed Trinity we mean one and the same God in three divine Persons.
30. Are the three divine Persons really distinct from one another?
The three divine Persons are really distinct from one another.
(a) Although the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are distinct Persons, they
are not distinct in nature. The nature of the Father is entirely the nature of the
Son; and the nature of the Father and the Son is entirely the nature of the Holy
Ghost.
31. Are the three divine Persons perfectly equal to one another?
The three divine Persons are perfectly equal to one another, because all are one
and the same God.
(a) No one of the three Persons precedes the others in time or in power, but all
are equally eternal and all-powerful because they have the same divine nature.
32. How are the three divine Persons, though really distinct from one
another, one and the same God?
The three divine Persons, though really distinct from one another, are one and
the same God because all have one and the same divine nature.

(a) Because the three divine Persons have one and the same divine nature, they
have the same perfections and the same external works are produced by them.
But in order that we may better know the three divine Persons, certain
perfections and works are attributed to each Person; for example, omnipotence
and the works of omnipotence, such as creation, to the Father; wisdom and the
works of wisdom, such as enlightenment, to the Son, love and the works of love,
such as sanctification, to the Holy Ghost.
33. Can we fully understand how the three divine Persons, though really
distinct from one another, are one and the same God?
We cannot fully understand how the three divine Persons, though really distinct
from one another, are one and the same God because this is a supernatural
mystery.
34. What is a supernatural mystery?
A supernatural mystery is a truth which we cannot fully understand, but which we
firmly believe because we have God's word for it.
(a) In addition to those truths which can be attained by man's natural reason,
there are certain mysteries hidden in God which we cannot know without divine
revelation, but which we must believe because God has revealed them. Divine
mysteries by their very nature are far above the power of human understanding
and even when revealed and accepted on faith they remain obscure during our
life on earth. To understand these things fully, a finite mind would have to
comprehend the infinite.
(b) In heaven there will be a fuller understanding of these mysteries, but never an
infinite comprehension of them.
It is reasonable to believe supernatural mysteries revealed by God because He
can neither deceive nor be deceived. In our everyday life we believe many things
on the word of human beings even though at times they deceive or are
deceived."
MORGAN
THE RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE TRINITY
The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the declared
facts of Holy Scripture of which no perfect ex-
planation is possible to minds that are finite. The idea

of one Essence subsisting after a threefold manner, and
in a Trinity of relationships, finds nothing in the phe-
nomena of nature upon which it can fasten as a suffi-
cient symbol. There have been many attempts to give
the mind of man an understanding of this mystery by
some such symbol. The mystics attempted, by anal-
ogy, to reconcile the doctrine to human reason. They
made use of such figures as those of the light, the radi-
ance, and the heat of the sun; the fountain, the flux,
and the stream of the river; the root, the stem, and
the flower of the plant; the intellect, the will, and the
feeling of man; or, perhaps most familiar of all, the
human being, consisting of spirit, soul, and body.
They declared that in. all these things, and indeed
throughout nature, there is a perpetual reproduction of
that which is the essence of the Divine Trinity in Unity.
All these illustrations suggest a Trinitarian possi-
bility ; but if employed as final symbols, they only serve
to mystify. They are insufficient, and differ from the
declared facts so radically, that the impression they cre-
ate, as to the great underlying fact of Divinity One
in Three and Three in One is vague and evanescent.
As in the case of the personality of the Spirit, so here;
the things which are evident are faint and incomplete

suggestions of the facts concerning the Infinite. The
Scriptures contain a progressive revelation of the doc-
trine ; but when the last word has been said, there is no
attempt made to explain the mystery. All that they
give is a declaration of the fact, without attempting to
give that which would be incomprehensible, a definition
or explanation that is final.
The first hint of plurality in the unity of the Godhead
is found in the words : 'And God said, Let Us make man
in Our image, after Our likeness. 1 To claim that as a
definite and final statement of the doctrine of Trinity in
Unity would be false. It is the privilege of those who
live in the light of the New Testament to view the Old
Testament therein. All things were made by Him;
and without Him was not anything made that hath been
made* This refers to the work of the Word, the
. i. 26. *Johh i. 3.
eternal Son, in creation. It was by His intermediation
that the worlds were formed in the beginning.
Thus the Bible story of creation reflects the presence
of the three Persons in the Trinity, the Father, as
original Source; the Son, as Intermediary; the Spirit,
as the Medium through which creation came into

being.
The truth is still further developed in the words:
So shall they put My name upon the children of Israel. 2
The emphasis should be laid upon the word so, SO
shall they put My name upon the children of Israel.
The method indicated is to be found in the three pre-
ceding verses.
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be
gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and
give thee peace*
This is the trinity of benediction in unity, My name
in threefold repetition. It is not probable that the
priest of the old dispensation, in pronouncing that bene-
diction, had a clear understanding of the truth of the
Trinity in Unity, but a hint was enshrined therein
which prepared the way for future development. Thus
in the priestly benediction of Numbers, there is an ad-
vance upon the suggestion of Genesis.*
1 Gen. i. i. John i. 3. Gen. i. 2. 2 Num. vi. 27. 8 Num. vi.

24-26. * This priestly benediction of the Old Testament has its
fulfilment in that of the New : The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ r
The messages of the prophets contain suggestions
on the subject: In the year that King Uzsiah died I
saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,
and His train filled the temple. Around*- Him stood
the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he
covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto an-
other, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts.
Isaiah was permitted to have a vision of the King,
high and lifted up. He heard the doxology of the hid-
den place, the cherubim and seraphim chanting the
praise of the Eternal, and they sang Holy, holy, holy,
is the Lord of hosts, a threefold ascription of praise to
the one Person.
In this prophecy also is to be found perhaps the most
clear statement of the doctrine of the Trinity that the
Old Testament contains : Come ye near unto Me, hear
ye this; from the beginning I have not spoken in secret;
from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord
God hath sent Me, and His Spirit. 3 There is an im-

portant alteration in this passage from the Authorized
Version, which reads: The Lord God, and His Spirit,
hath sent Me. The Me here is the coming One of
Whom the prophets wrote and spoke the great De-
liverer, the Messiah, Jesus. The Authorized Version
and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be
with you all. Here also the Trinity is named. 2 Cor. xiii. 14.
1 Around, {not above, as in the English Version) . . .
Dr. G. A. Smith.
s lsa. vi. 1-3. 8 Isa. xlviii. 16
makes it appear as though Christ was sent by God and
the Spirit; but in the Scriptures He is never so spoken
of. This change in the Revised Version is of the
utmost importance; for it contains a prophecy of the
coming of Christ and the dawning of the dispensation
of the Spirit. God hath sent Me, and His Spirit. Here
the Trinity is distinctly revealed, not as a doctrine, but
incidentally in the midst of prophecy. All that the
New Testament unfolds in its beauty is suggested in
this prophecy, uttered centuries before the coming of
the Messiah God sending Son and Spirit.
The New Testament takes up the suggestion of the
Old, making it clear and plain: And Jesus, when He

was baptised, ivent up straightway from the water: and
lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the
Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon
Him; and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is
My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.' 1 The
voice of the Father is heard from the heavens, an-
nouncing His pleasure in the Son, while the anointing
Spirit descends upon Him. This is a manifestation of
the one God in His threefold personality. Thus, at
the outset of Christ's public ministry, the truth of the
Trinity was declared by a solemn manifestation, though
the men around did not then comprehend the deep sig-
nificance of the event.
The Paschal discourses contain the Lord's full teach-
1 Matt. iii. 16, 17.
ing on the subject of the Spirit. This is of sufficient
importance to demand special attention, and a subse-
quent chapter will be devoted to it. 1
One more reference claims attention in this section.
The Master having finished His work on Calvary ; the
Resurrection being accomplished; and the Ascension
imminent; He gave to His disciples the commission
under which they were to serve. In connection with

this, He committed to them the great baptismal for-
mula, which contains the most simple and concise state-
ment of the Trinity that is to be found in the whole of
Scripture : Baptising them into the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 2 The phrase of
the, in each case clearly marks the separation of person-
ality, but the singular number of the name, by which
these are prefaced, marks the unity of the Godhead.
That baptismal formula is the consummation of all pre-
vious suggestion, and the standard of all subsequent
teaching concerning the Trinity.
The declarations of Scripture, then, may be sum-
marized thus : In one essential Godhead there coexist
three Persons, consubstantial, coequal, and coeternal.
This mystery cannot be explained nor defined, because
it is beyond the grasp of the finite ; and no explanation
is attempted in the inspired Book.
Accepting the doctrine of the Trinity, it is now com-
petent most reverently to enquire what Scripture
x john xiv., xv., xvi. *Matt. xxviii. 19.
teaches concerning the relation of the Holy Spirit to the
Trinity.

The Holy Spirit is always spoken of as the third
Person in the Trinity.
In the historical revelation the last personality re-
vealed is that of the Spirit. That of the Father was thv
supreme point in the creation and history of the Jewish
people: The Lord our God is one Lord. 1 Then there
came the revelation of the Son ; and lastly, as the con-
summation of His mission, came the revelation of the
personality of the Spirit.
Again, in the actual facts of the awe-inspiring mys-
tery of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is not first.
It is distinctly stated that the Spirit is sent; and
Christ declared that the Spirit proceedeth from the
Father? This order can never be reversed. The
Father cannot be spoken of as being sent of the Spirit,
neither can He be said to proceed from the Spirit;
therefore, in a sense hard to understand, but distinctly
announced, the Holy Spirit cannot be the first Person
in this mystery oi the Trinity.
Nor can He be the second Person therein. The
Son is spoken of as sending the Spirit from the
Father, and as Himself sending the Spirit. 3 Within
the realm of Divinity the Son is never said to be

sent by the Spirit. It is said of Jesus that the
Spirit drove Him into the wilderness ; but that was in
1 Deut. vi. 4. 2 Jolin xiv. 26, xv. 26. * John xv. 26, xvi. 7.
His representative capacity as a Man. In His Divinity
He is sent by the Father, for the accomplishment of the
Father's work ; but He is never spoken of as being sent
by the Spirit. Consequently, the Spirit, sent by the Son
is the third Person within the Trinity, in the order in
which these Persons move in the mighty majesty of their
wondrous activities. The great creeds of the Church
have caught up the idea of the Spirit proceeding from
the Father and from the Son. While there is no direct
and positive statement of the kind, still the very argu-
ment of the Lord's own teaching, as recorded in the
Gospel of John, coincides with that expression of the
truth.
The term third must be used with most careful limi-
tations. As used with reference to the Persons in the
Godhead, it does not imply inferiority. Once in the
writings of Paul he reverses the order, and names the
Spirit first : One Spirit, even as also ye zvere called in
one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one bap-
tism, one God and Father of a//. 1 Upon another occa-
sion he changes the order again, and places the Spirit in

the second place : Now I beseech you, brethren, by our
Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye
strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.*
The word third is not used in the sense of inferiority.
Perhaps that fact will most surely be understood by re-
membering that the term third has here no reference to
*Eph. iv. 4-6. 2 Rom. xv. 30.
time. The time element must be eliminated from all
consideration of Divine things. It is very difficult to
do this. Speaking of the Father, and of the Spirit pro-
ceeding from the Father, unconsciously, but none the
less certainly, the time element enters into the concep-
tion. It may be argued that there can be no procession
save that which has a beginning. If that be true,
neither can there be a Source from which procession is
made, which has no beginning. When dealing with the
things of God, time is not; it finds no place in the
boundless Being of the Eternal. The procession of the
Spirit from the Father is as eternal as is the Father
from Whom the Spirit proceeds.
The relation of the Spirit to the Father is declared in
the words: The Spirit proceedeth from the Father. 1
He is the gift and outmoving of the Divine Essence, the
Eternal Spirit. This defies analysis. It is a truth de-

clared, which remains an impenetrable mystery. Men
have no right to make any attempt to discover that
which is not revealed. It is the simple declaration of
the Word of God, that the Spirit proceedeth from the
Father ; and there the matter must be left.
The relation of the Spirit to the Son is indicated in
the words of Jesus in which He declared that the Son
receives from the Father, and the Spirit therefore pro-
ceedeth through the Son. 2 Professor Swete, in a paper
read before the Church Congress several years ago, in
1 John xv. 26. 'John xiv. 16, xv. 26.
well-chosen words stated, with as much clearness as is
possible, the great mystery of the Spirit's relationship to
the Son. These are his words: The Son is thus the
Intermediary of the self-communication of God. His
mediation in creation and in grace rests ultimately on
His mediation in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The
mediation in creation, and the mediation in redemption
are based upon the fact, that Scripture declares, that in
an inscrutable manner, in a way that defies definition,
the Son is intermediary between Father and Spirit, in
that great and sublime and magnificent mystery of the
Trinity itself.

Here, again, the fact of limitation of language must
be borne in mind. These statements refer to eternal at-
titudes, and consequently they are dateless.
With great reverence and solemnity the question of
the function of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity may
now be considered.
No such consideration would be possible or proper if
it were not based upon the fact that a statement is made
with regard thereto in Scripture : For who among men
knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man,
which is in him? 1 This is the apostle's analogy. There
immediately follows the statement of a truth of the ut-
most importance: Even so the things of God none
knoweth, save the Spirit of God. These words clearly
reveal the fact within the mystery of the Trinity the
x i Cor. ii. ix.
Spirit is the seat of the Divine consciousness. The
eternal Spirit knows the things of the eternal Godhead :
The Spirit scarcheth . . . the deep things of God. 1
That statement leads to the inner heart of this great
mystery; and from it a most important deduction is
drawn. Seeing that the Spirit of God is the seat of Di-
vine consciousness, He is also the Spirit of revelation.

As it is the Spirit of God Who knows the things of God,
it must of necessity be the Spirit Who unveils and re-
veals those things, as much as is necessary and possible,
to those outside the marvellous and mysterious circle of
the Deity. In that great fact, beyond perfect compre-
hension, lies the secret of the inspiration of Scripture,
and of the presence and work of the Spirit in the Church
and in the world.
If any person should accept this attempt to examine
one of the greatest mysteries of our most holy religion,
feeling that now all is clear, then the attempt has sadly
and awfully failed. This subject must be left where
God has left it a revealed mystery, not the revelation of
a mystery. That is to say, revelation has declared a
mystery; revelation has not given the explanation of
that mystery. The mind of man could never under-
stand, even if the most simple language were used, the
Trinity in the Unity of the Godhead, or the relation of
the Persons in the Godhead to each other. But, so far
as it is necessary and possible for man to see it, things
1 1 Cor. ii. 10.
which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered
not into the heart of man . . . unto us God revealed
them through the Spirit. 1

The statement may thus be made in brief words.
There is one God. There are three Persons within the
Unity. The Holy Spirit is third in position, for ever
proceeding from the Father, through the mediation of
the Son. That Holy Spirit" is the Consciousness of
God, and therefore the Revealer of God.
While these things are too high and too wonderful for
perfect exposition, yet, so far as is necessary for redemp-
tion and life and final perfecting, God has allowed the
light of the glory of the inner facts of His own Being to
fall upon the human mind.
1 x Cor. ii. 9, xo.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Today we are going to take yet another look into a doctrine that I feel clearly shows
the extent that mankind, cut off from God, is willing to go in order to keep from
believing what the Bible literally says. It shows how human nature can persuade us
to be intellectually dishonest through using vague Scriptural statements to override
clear ones, and so on this Pentecost we are going to take a short look at the world's
admission that the basis for the Trinity doctrine is shaky at best, and then we are
going to take a much longer look at what the Bible clearly says that the Holy Spirit
is. But I also have to put a qualifier in here, because we are looking at what can be a
very large subject. This sermon is not going to answer every possible question that
might come up, but I think that it will give you a clear and truthful basis for
understanding what the Holy Spirit is.
Now perhaps you relegated this subject to being one of minor importance, or feel
that it is too complicated for you to grasp, and so you have left it to the ministry and
to the theologians to argue over because it appears to be more bookish and technical
and theoretical than practical and impacting on daily life. But brethren, while it is
something that theologians argue over, if any of you have had any of the other
thoughts, you could not be more wrong. It is not a doctrine of minor importance. It

is not all that complicated. It is very practical and it impacts very much on your
daily life. It is very likely that a person with only a Bible, a decent dictionary, and
perhaps most important of all an honest and open mind, is going to come up with
the correct answers in searching out the Scriptures. First we are going to take a look
at how the world rates this doctrine's importance, and the basic manner used to
reach their conclusions that God is a trinity. I am going to do a bit of reading here,
and I will try to emphasize things that are important.
Quote No. 1 is from The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912 Edition, Volume 15, page 47,
from the article "The Dogma of the Trinity":
The trinity is the term employed to signify the central doctrine of the
Christian religion...
That tells you the importance that they put on it as being the central doctrine of the
Christian religion. Is that true?
...that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons: The Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, these three persons being truly distinct one from
another.
This the church teaches is the revelation regarding God's nature which Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, came upon earth to deliver to the world, and which
she [the church] proposes to man [humankind] as the foundation of her [the
church's] whole dogmatic system.
We are not talking about a doctrine here that is minor in any way whenever you are
talking about the central doctrine of the Christian religion which is the nature of
God. What they are saying then is that this doctrine, after the fact that there is God,
is the next most important thing.
Quote No. 2 is from The New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967 Edition, page 295, article:
"Holy Trinity":
It is difficult in the second half of the twentieth century to offer a clear
objective and straight-forward account of the revelation doctrinal evolution
and theological elaboration of the mystery of the trinity. Trinitarian
discussions (Roman Catholic as well as others), present a somewhat unsteady
silhouette.
This is shaky.
Two things have happened. There is the recognition on the part of exegetes
[people who explain Scripture] and Biblical theologians, including a
constantly growing number of Roman Catholic, that one should not speak of
trinitarianism in the New Testament without serious qualification.
There is also the closely parallel recognition on the part of historians, the
dogma, and systematic theologians, that when one does speak of an
unqualified trinitarianism, one has moved from the period of Christian
origin, to say, the last quadrant of the fourth century.
At least 400 and some years later.
It was only then that what might be called the definitive trinitarian dogma,

"One God in three persons," became thoroughly assimilated into Christian
life and thought. Herein lies the difficulty. On the one hand it was the
dogmatic formula, 'One God in Three Persons' that would henceforth for
more than fifteen centuries [up to this present time] structure and guide the
trinitarian essence of the Christian message, both in the profession of faith
and theological dialectic. On the other hand the formula itself does not reflect
the immediate consciousness of the period of origin.
They are coming that close brethren to say they cannot see it in the Scripture.
It was the product of three centuries of doctrinal development, but current
preoccupation and current emphasis is far less with the subsequent
articulation of Christian dogma than with the primitive sources chiefly
biblical. It is this contemporary return to the sources that is ultimately
responsible for the unsteady silhouette.
Oh brethren! In that fancy academic language, they said when you go back to the
Bible, it gets shaky.
Quote No. 3 is from The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, page 3012,
article: "Trinity":
The term 'trinity' is not a Biblical term, and we are not using biblical
language when we define what is expressed by it as the doctrine that there is
one only and true God, but in the unity of the Godhead there are three co-
eternal and co-equal persons, the same in substance but distinct in
subsistence. A doctrine so defined can be spoken of as a biblical doctrine only
on the principle that the sense of Scripture is Scripture....
The key word here is "the sense"—what they feel the Scripture infers.
...and the definition of a biblical doctrine in such an unbiblical language can
be justified only on the principle that it is better to preserve the truth of
Scripture than the words of Scripture.
Boy! You talk about academic gobbledygook!
In point of fact the doctrine of the trinity is purely a revealed doctrine. That
is to say, it embodies a truth which has never been discovered, and is
undiscoverable by natural reason. With all his searching, man has not been
able to find out for himself the deepest things of God.
Quote No. 4 is from The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912 Edition, page 47, article:
"Trinity":
It is manifest that a doctrine so mysterious presupposes a divine revelation.
When the fact of revelation, understood in its full sense as the speech of God
to man, is no longer admitted, the rejection of the doctrine follows as a
necessary consequence.
Now listen to this. You thought the Protestants believed in the Trinity?
For this reason it has no place in liberal Protestantism of today.
This quote above is from the Catholic Encyclopedia which says "It has no place in

liberal Protestantism of today."
The writers of this school contend that the doctrine of the trinity as professed
by the church [meaning Catholic] is not contained in the New Testament, but
that it was first formulated in the Second Century and received final
approbation in the Fourth as a result of the Arian and Macedonian
controversies.
Was not this doctrine attempted to be sold to us as something that ALL of
Christianity outside of the church of God believed? No, brethren. Everybody does
not believe it. It is not universally accepted by those who cannot find it in the
Scriptures.
Quote No. 5 is from The New International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, page 3013:
As the doctrine of the trinity is undiscoverable by reason, so it is incapable of
proof from reason. There are no analogies to it in nature, not even in the
spiritual nature in man who is made in the image of God. In His trinitarian
mode of being, God is unique, and as there is nothing in the universe like
Him in the respect, so there is nothing which can help us to comprehend
Him.
(Not clearly revealed in the Old Testament.)
So strongly is it felt in wide circles that a trinitarian conception is essential to
a worthy idea of God that there is a broad, a deep-seated unwillingness to
allow that God could ever have made Himself known otherwise than a
trinity. From this point of view it is inconceivable that the Old Testament
revelation should know nothing of the trinity. If however, (and this is the
faith of Christendom) a living idea of God must be thought in some way after
a trinitarian fashion, it must be antecedently [previously] probable that
traces of the trinity cannot be lacking in the Old Testament since its idea [the
Old Testament's idea] of God is a living or historical one. Whether there
really exists traces of the idea of the trinity in the Old Testament however is a
nice question. Certainly we cannot speak broadly of the revelation of the
doctrine of the trinity in the Old Testament. It is a plain matter of fact that
none who had depended on the revelation embodied in the Old Testament
alone has ever attained to the doctrine of the trinity. Nobody has ever found
it there. The tendency of more recent authors is to appeal, not so much to
specific texts of the Old Testament, as to the very organism of revelation in
the Old Testament in which there is perceived an underlying suggestion that
all things owe their existence and persistence to a three-fold cause.
That is academic language for "We are assuming."
It is with a view to this cursoriness [skimpiness] of the allusions to it in the
New Testament...
I want you to get this. They are saying that it is just "alluded" to in the New
Testament, not the Old Testament. This is in the New Testament now.

...that it has been remarked the doctrine of the trinity is not so much heard,
as overheard in the statements of Scripture. It would be more exact to say
that it is not so much inculcated, as presupposed. The doctrine of the trinity
does not appear in the New Testament in the making, but it is already made.
Now wait a minute, brethren! This is the same book that a couple of paragraphs
before said it is not in the Old Testament, and yet here they are saying that in the
New Testament it appears as a doctrine already made.
It takes its place in the pages, as Dunkle [a researcher] phrases it, "with an
air almost of complaint, already in full completeness, leaving no trace of its
growth."
You talk about intellectual dishonesty. You see what we're dealing with here are
presuppositions and assumptions.
Quote No. 8 is from The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912 Edition, "The Trinity: The
trinity as a mystery":
The Vatican Council has explained the meaning to be attributed to the term
'mystery' in theology. It lays down that a mystery is a truth which we are not
merely incapable of discovering apart from divine revelation, but which even
when revealed remains hidden by the veil of faith and enveloped, so to speak,
by a kind of darkness. In other words, our understanding of it remains only
partial even after we have accepted it as part of the divine message. Through
analogies and types we can form a representative concept expressive of what
is revealed, but we cannot attain that fuller knowledge which supposes that
the various elements of the concept are clearly grasped and the reciprocal
compatibility manifest. As regards the vindication of the mystery, the office
of the natural reason is solely to show that it contains no intrinsic
impossibility that any objection urged against it on that score that it violates
the laws of thought is invalid. More than that it cannot do. The Vatican
Council further defines that the Christian faith contains mysteries strictly so
called. All theologians admit that the doctrine of the trinity is of the number
of these. Indeed of all truth, it is the most impenetrable to reason. But
according to their own testimony, it still remains only a possibility.
Now I want you to turn with me to II Corinthians 11. It is impenetrable to reason
only because they are trying to read things into it that are not there. And I, with my
own eyes, have read that no less a personage than Billy Graham said that the
doctrine of the trinity is "incomprehensible." But now notice what Paul says here:
II Corinthians 11:1-3 Would to God you could bear with me a little in my
folly: and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly
jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a
chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled
Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ.
"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, that
your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." The doctrines
and the way of God are not technically complicated to those to whom they are

revealed. They may be complicated to the world, and the reason for that is within
the loving purpose of God that He has not revealed some things to them, but to you
and me this doctrine should not be complicated, and so I want you to turn to
Matthew 13 and we will see what God Himself has to say.
Matthew 13:10-11 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speak you
unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given
unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is
not given.
Matthew 13:16 But blessed are your eyes for they see; and your ears, for they
hear.
Sometimes I get some sarcasm in me that is probably wrong, and I feel as though
these people with all of the numbers and letters after their names ought to be able to
understand these things, and so I feel that they are being intellectually dishonest.
Maybe they are, because some apparently can see it, that things like this, like the
trinity doctrine are not there. But none of us brethren has any excuse. God has
revealed Himself, and He has revealed these doctrines, and the doctrine of the
trinity we can see is wrong, and the doctrine of the nature of God is not that
complicated. God is not a trinity. God is a Family! God uses all kinds of analogies to
get that across to us. He is the Father. Our Savior is the Son. We are His children.
We are Spirit-born. We are in His Family. We are going to inherit the Kingdom of
God. We are going to marry. We are the Bride of Christ. We are brethren. God is a
Family. He is not a closed trinitarian Godhead.
Now there are mysteries connected with the way of God, and these things need to be
revealed, and apparently that is one of the things that has not been revealed to
people. The word "mystery" in Greek is enigma, and I am going to give you the
definition of that which I got from William Barclay, because I think that it is
expressive of a truth. Barclay says, "An enigma is not a puzzle difficult to solve, but
a secret impossible to penetrate without a revelation."
The word "revealed" means "to make known," "to disclose," "to divulge," "to
make visible," "to expose," "to exhibit," "to remove the veil," and that is what has
happened to us. God has miraculously opened our minds to give us an
understanding that makes this doctrine simple so that we can see that God is a
Family. He is not a trinity. We can see very many aspects of this. We may not be able
to turn to the scriptures and explain it scripturally and give understanding to
someone to whom it has not been revealed, but we should be able to explain things
to one another, and encourage one another with the truth of God, because those to
whom it should be revealed it should be easily understood.
Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things [Remember, "mystery" is a "secret"
impossible to penetrate.] belong unto the LORD our God: but those things
which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may
do all the words of this law.
Things like "the nature of God" have been revealed to us. It has been opened up to
us, but there are still things that have not yet been revealed, even to God's children.
God has never revealed to anyone of us yet when Jesus Christ is going to return. I

might add to that there are also prophecies that are written in His Word that we can
see the general sense of, but when we try to get the specifics of it, since He has not
yet revealed it to us, anything that we deal with in that area is going to be nothing
more than a speculation on our part. And as I said at the last Feast of Tabernacles, it
makes me wonder if we have ever gotten any of these things right. We do have the
general sense right, but the specifics elude us until God reveals it.
The Living Bible translates the last couple of phrases in that same verse as "but
these words which He has revealed are for us and our children to obey forever."
These things that God has revealed overwhelmingly pertain to how to conduct
ourselves within relationships. First and foremost is the relationship with God
Himself, and secondarily in our relationships with each other. Those things have
been made very clear to us. Whether we do them or not is another question
altogether, but they have been revealed to us, and we can see them clearly.
Deuteronomy 30:11-14 For this commandment which I command you this
day, it is not hidden from you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you
should say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we
may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who
shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do
it? But the word is very near unto you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that
you may do it.
Before I expound on this, at least for a brief time, we have to remember to whom
this is written—to whom God spoke it. He spoke it to those who have made the
covenant with Him, but before we can determine who that is, we have to look
somewhere else first.
Right in the same context, back to Deuteronomy 29 again. A very important
principle. This is what leads in to what He said about the "secret." This is what
leads in to what He said there in Deuteronomy 30:11-14.
Deuteronomy 29:1-4 These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD
commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab,
beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. And Moses called
unto all Israel, and said unto them, You have seen all that the LORD did
before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants,
and unto all his land; the great temptations which your eyes have seen, the
signs, and those great miracles: Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to
perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
God never enabled the vast majority of those Israelites to understand this
spiritually. They could never understand their relationship with Him under the Old
Covenant. They could not understand it any better than these theologians who wrote
in those books that I quoted to you. They could not understand it any better than
anybody else who has ever lived who was unconverted, so I have to ask the question.
To whom them was Deuteronomy 30 written? It was written to those who obeyed the
covenant with God. It was written to those who can understand! You! Now God did
enable some in Israel's history to understand—people like Moses and Aaron and
Miriam and Joshua and Caleb and others besides them. All of those others, Paul

says in Romans 9 through 11, God concluded in unbelief, that He might have mercy
upon them because He withheld something from them that would have enabled
them to understand. But we have no excuse. These words, the book of Deuteronomy,
are primarily written to you and me. They are written to the church. It is written to
those to whom spiritual salvation has been offered.
I want you to go back to Ephesians 1:4. Paul writes to the church:
Ephesians 1:4 According as he [God] has chosen us [the church] in him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love.
Ephesians 1:4 proves beyond dispute that God had the church in mind before the
foundation of the world. The foundation of the world was laid in Adam and Eve's
sin, so God had the church in mind before Adam and Eve were ever offered to eat of
the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or of the Tree of Life. And
so God, from the very beginning, right up until this time, has had the church in
mind. God has been looking forward to the church, its formulation, its growth, its
birth into His Family.
Deuteronomy 30 is written to those to whom He would give the Spirit to change
their hearts and enable them to keep His commandments. And so back in
Deuteronomy 30, after Christ's return, God's focus will shift away from the church
to the salvation of Israel and the rest of the world living during the Millennium, and
then in the Great White Throne to the spiritual salvation of all of those who have
lived and died without ever having been called of God. In those two judgments these
words will then become very important to them, but now they are important to you
and me.
I am now going to summarize Deuteronomy 30, beginning in verse 11. The
commandment that He speaks of there is summarized in verse 16: "In that I
command you this day to love the LORD your God."
I need not go any further. The commandment summarized in verse 16 is, "to love
the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind." This is the first of the two great commandments. The inference is, without
adding anything to that, that if we will keep the first of those two great
commandments, the others will fall into place, because of key importance is our
relationship with God. He then goes on to say that our duty to Him is not hidden in
some inaccessible place. It is not beyond some insurmountable barrier, meaning the
sea. It is at our right hand, and it is in our mouth. In other words, it has been
preached, and the mention of the "heart" means that it is easily understandable.
The sum of it all is that God does not require the impossible from His people either
in doing or in understanding. There is nothing deep, impenetrable, and
unexplainable about the Holy Spirit to those to whom God has revealed Himself,
thus enabling them to understand, and so anybody who is converted and has normal
intelligence can understand this doctrine and use it to the full to glorify God and to
fulfill His purpose.
We must understand what the word "spirit" means in English, in Greek, and in
Hebrew. Do you know what? Though each language uses different sounds, as ruach

in Hebrew, pneuma in Greek, and "spirit" in English, even though there are
different sounds connected with the symbol, they communicate exactly the same
concepts. Now Bullinger, in The Companion Bible, Appendix 101 says pneuma
(translated "spirit") is used in fourteen different senses in the New Testament and
corresponds to the uses of ruach in the Old Testament. In other words these two
words are synonyms for each other. Now I am going to begin by giving uses from the
English language first, and these uses are going to be coming from the Reader's
Digest Oxford Complete Word Finder. I recommend this dictionary highly, because it
is a combination dictionary and thesaurus all rolled up into one.
Meanings of the word "spirit" in English:
A. The vital animating essence of a person or animal. Synonyms: breath, life,
vitality, vital spirit, soul, consciousness, psyche, self, heart, essence. All of
those are synonyms for the word "spirit" when the vital animating essence of
a person is meant.
B. The intelligent non-physical part of a person. Synonyms: mind.
C. A supernatural being, such as a ghost.
D. A prevailing mental or moral condition or attitude. When this use is
intended the word "spirit" may be translated into: attitude, principle,
thought, inspiration, notion, feeling, inclination, tendency, impulse,
atmosphere, mood, temper, sentiment, cheer, humor, frame of mind, morale,
esprit de corps, team spirit.
E. A person's mental or moral nature or qualities. When used in that sense
"spirit" may be translated as: character, temperament, temper, nature, kind,
persona, disposition, heart, will, mind, will-power, attitude, bent, inclination.
F. The real meaning as opposed to lip-service or verbal expressions. When
this sense is intended it means "the spirit of the law," meaning: sense, tenor,
signification, purport, intent, intention, purpose, aim, inclination, message,
essence, quintessence, core, part, meat, pith, substance, marrow.
As you can see, the usage of it is quite broad, but believe it or not, in the Bible it is
somewhat wider. In every usage except one, there is something in common. The odd
one, in English, is the one in which "ghost" is the indication of a being. In all of the
rest "spirit" has the usage of an invisible, internal, immaterial, animating force or
power that one is aware of only when it is manifested externally in some action. I
will explain this in one sentence. You never see spirit. You only see what spirit does.
You never see spirit. You only see what spirit does. That is the basic sense of the word
ruach, pneuma, or "spirit." We never see what is actually driving or motivating or
inspiring the person. All we see is the action that is taken.
Now the Bible uses "spirit" in all the ways just given, but in some cases more
specifically, and a couple are added. If you ever want to get a basic definition of this
word in Strong's Concordance, ruach is No. 7307, and pneuma is No. 4151. You can
look up the word in any resource, and the basic definition for both is "breath,"
"wind," or "current of air." Air is invisible. We can only see what it carries, or what
it does, but it is from that principle that the usage of ruach and pneuma is built.

Figuratively the usage is quite broad. These words symbolize the vital animating
essence of life. If you look this up in Zodhiates or in Vines, this is what you will find.
They symbolize the vital animating essence of life—the rational elements of life—
mind and mental disposition, such as angry, depressed, happy, peaceful, courageous,
wise, understanding, and many more, and like the English, also qualities of
character.
John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in
spirit and in truth.
It does not say that in the Greek. The King James is wrong. It says "God is spirit." It
does not say He is "a" spirit. There is no indefinite article in the Greek. What is
Jesus saying here? Basically He is saying that God is invisible and immaterial. God
is invisible and immaterial.
II Corinthians 3:16-17 Nevertheless when it [or anyone] shall turn to the
Lord, the veil [the blindness] shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that
Spirit. . . .
Both of these scriptures are saying that "God is Spirit," only the one directly refers
to the Father, the other directly refers to Jesus Christ. In these two instances,
"spirit" is being used in the sense of composition. But just because they are spirit
does not mean they have no form. If they had no form, how could the Bible honestly
say that we were created in the image of God? They do have form. Physically we are
in their image.
I Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a
living soul; the last Adam [Jesus Christ] was made a quickening spirit.
"Quickening" means "life giving." Again the reference here is to His composition.
He was made "a life-giving" Spirit. Kind of hang onto that idea of "quickening."
Paul's explanation continues.
I Corinthians 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall
[in the resurrection] also bear the image of the heavenly.
Jesus Christ was resurrected bodily. He was spirit. When we are resurrected it will
be bodily. We too then will be "quickening"—life-giving, composed of spirit.
Luke 24:36-39 And as they thus spoke, Jesus himself stood in the midst of
them, and said unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and
affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit [meaning a ghost]. And
he said unto them, Why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your
hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see;
for a spirit [ghost] has not flesh and bones, as you see me have.
Does that not make it very plain that God in composition is spirit, that He does have
form, that He is solid, and He has skin and bones? That even included the scars in
His hands and His feet.
We have to proceed from here, and we are going to see in John 3 how Jesus Himself
gave a basic usage of the word "spirit," so we can see that this is clearly and easily
understandable.

John 3:6-8 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto you, You must be born again.
The wind blows where it lists, and you hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell
whence it comes, and whither it goes: so is every one that is born of the
Spirit.
When "spirit" is being used in the sense that Jesus is using it here, the "air" is the
closest physical thing He could use to illustrate His instruction. Air is material, but it
is invisible, and the invisibility is what He wants us to focus on. Spirit is invisible—
immaterial—and when it is used in this sense it has no form or substance. It is non-
physical, but it can affect the around and the about, the environment, including a
person regenerated by means of it.
We will stop here and give a clarifying thought. There is a common thread between
English, Hebrew, and Greek in the use of "spirit," in the use of ruach and pneuma
and "spirit," even when a spirit-composed being is shown. Spirit is the symbol used
to represent something non-physical, and normally invisible. Now we can reach a
conclusion, except in the one case where "spirit" or ruach or pneuma is used to
represent a being which has revealed itself. Spirit is never seen. All that is ever seen is
what spirit causes, motivates, inspires, encourages, impels, triggers, stirs, provokes,
stimulates, influences, or activates. Now why? Because in every other sense, except
where spirit clearly means a spirit being who has revealed himself, spirit is seen as a
function of the mind, whether it is God's mind, or whether it is man's mind. And
just as we surely do not see mind, but we do see what mind does, so also we cannot
see spirit. We only see what spirit does, and as we understand it, mind is more than
spirit, yet spirit can figuratively mean "one's mind."
Okay. Now let us begin to build on this.
I Corinthians 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
This usage points out how easily one might be misled or confused by inference in
contrast to a direct concrete statement. From this verse one could conclude that if
one is joined to the Lord, then one is a spirit just like the Lord is composed of. "He
that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." The hat pin test disproves that very
quickly. You are not one spirit, are you, not the way the Lord is a spirit.
When you read it in its wider context, Paul reveals that he is not writing on the
theme of spirit composition at all, His theme is "closeness of connection," which he
illustrates by being "joined to a harlot." Unity emerges as the theme as he begins to
bring Christ into the picture, and in this case the highest, purest form of unity that a
human being can be involved in. So Paul is suggesting then that sheep may wander
from the shepherd, a branch may be cut from a tree, a member severed from the
body, a child alienated from his parents, and even a wife from her husband, but
when two spirits blend into one, nothing can separate them. So close is the unity that
what affects one affects the other. This is why Jesus said there in Matthew 25,
"Inasmuch as you have done this unto the least of these, My brethren, you have
done it unto Me." What affects one affects the other.
Therefore Paul says do not involve Christ in sin. Do everything in your power to
affect that relationship, that unity, for good. Our unity with Jesus Christ is spiritual.

It is so close brethren, the way that God looks at it, it is closer than being joined in
intercourse with a harlot! The reason being, brethren, because even in that situation
we are still in reality two beings. But brethren, if you are in Christ, you are actually
in His body, and that is why Paul used the word "spirit." You cannot see it. It is
invisible, but it is real! You are IN Him! Are you aware of that? I hope we are
growing to understand it. You are a cell in His body, and everything that is done by
us, as Paul explains in I Corinthians 12, that when one part of the body hurts, the
whole body hurts. When one part of the body is strengthened, the whole body is
strengthened. We have got to begin to understand that when God uses the word
"spirit," it suggests a unity that is so close, it is a matter of the joining of minds!
In I Corinthians, as we begin to understand this, we can begin to see why it is so
easy to leap to a wrong conclusion. The Bible uses many inferences, and it is
necessary for anybody who is researching in that among us to look for something
more specific to clear the air, or to shed light on the subject, to let the plain and clear
scriptures clarify the vague ones. "Inference" is the act of forming a conclusion
based upon premises, and "premise" is a previous statement from which another is
inferred. Brethren, what if the inference is wrong? What if the premise is wrong?
Many premises, brethren, are merely theories. We saw that as I read all of those
quotes to you. They are assumptions. They are presumptions. The whole
evolutionary concept is built upon inferences, upon wrong premises, and yet it
dominates the thinking of all of academia, and brethren, so is the Trinity doctrine. It
is built upon false premises that are inferred into conclusions that are just as wrong
as the premise that they began with. In I Corinthians 2 we saw earlier that God is
Spirit, and we did not search it out at that time because we all know that it is a
truth. God also has a spirit, and again we did not search that out because it is so
obvious in regard to man. Man is material, but man also has a spirit. Now we are
going to prove it here.
I Corinthians 2:10-11 But God has revealed them unto us by His spirit. [He is
a spirit-being, composed of spirit, and He has a spirit.] For the Spirit
searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knows the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? [Though man is not
spirit (he is material), but like God, he has a spirit.] So the things of God
knows no man, but the Spirit of God.
Even as the spirit in man is invisible, immaterial, and an immaterial element of his
mind, so also is the Spirit of God an invisible, immaterial element of God's mind. A
question now. God is Spirit, and He has a spirit. Man is material, and he has a spirit.
What is the difference between the two? The answer to that is "nothing," and
"much." Nothing in the sense that they are both spirit and they are so much alike,
but the Spirit of God, in the analogy that we use, can be joined to the spirit of man,
and a begettal takes place.
Now one of the laws of this universe is the law of biogenesis. A law is a "cannot be
broken" principle. The law of biogenesis tells that kind reproduces after kind.
Reproduction will not take place spiritually unless the Spirit of God and the spirit of
man are capable of procreation, and so between the two of them there is no
difference. I want you to think of this. When God breathed into Adam the breath of

life, what did He breathe into him? Was that a precursor of what Jesus Christ did in
Luke 24 when He breathed on the disciples and said, "Receive you the Holy Spirit"?
It is that spirit that God breathed, as it were, into Adam that makes it possible for
the Spirit of God to be joined with the spirit of man. There is no difference between
the two except one—GOD IS HOLY! The only difference is that God's is holy. Man's
is foul, spoiled, rotten, filthy, dirty, murderous, adulterous, evil in every sense; but still
procreation can take place, and nobody even sees it. It happens in the mind! It is a
spiritual thing, a spiritual joining of what? Two minds. Herbert Armstrong used to
say that man was given God-like powers. Indeed he was, and those powers reside in
the essence of his mind, joined with the brain. We are beginning to see what spirit is
forming.
Let us examine this word "holy" just a bit. The basic meaning of the word "holy" is
"different." God's Spirit is different—different, and therefore set apart. It is
distinct. It is peculiar. It is different from the spirit that man is accustomed to
dealing with on a day-to-day basis since his birth; different because it is clean,
transcendently pure. It is so pure that it has an "otherness" to it. It is "a cut above"
anything that is earthy. Every action that proceeds from the mind of God is thus a
projection and a reflection of His Spirit, motivating, activating, inspiring, and
impelling it. Every action of God is pure and filled with love. It is kind, merciful,
gentle, good, life-giving, quickening, encouraging, strengthening.
These next scriptures will explain themselves.
Proverbs 30:5 Every word of God is pure.
Make a connection here, brethren, between "holy" and "word." Where do words
come from? Words come from the mind. Words are a product of the mind. Every
word of God is pure.
Psalm 12:6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a
furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
ways, says the LORD.
Where do thoughts occur? They occur in the mind. Where do words come from?
They come out of the mind. Thoughts are formed by words in the mind. Thoughts
and words are spirit. The Lord's thoughts are holy thoughts, holy words—Holy
Spirit.
Isaiah 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
So thoughts and words and ways are all functions of the mind. "Ways," the manner
in which things are done, are the product of words and thoughts. What is a word? In
one sense it is nothing but a sound until somebody gives meaning to it. A word is a
symbol of a concept. Words are spirit. Words are the essence of one's mind. It does
not matter whether it is God's or yours. We use words for communicating concepts
of all sorts, and they have the potential to have powerful effects. They can inspire,
encourage, exhort, depress, inform, cut to the quick, destroy reputations, mislead, or
calm. They can create faith, love, hope, determination, courage, endurance, fear,

enthusiasm, morality, ethics. Words are in the mix of every technical development of
man. Every invention that man has come up with has words at its foundation. The
list of qualities and the things that words can do is almost endless. I want you to see
in Psalm 104 what it says in regard to God.
Psalm 104:30 You send forth your spirit, they are created: and you renew the
face of the earth.
Do you understand, brethren, that this exactly describes the same process man goes
through when he invents, when he creates something new, or builds something? He
plans with his thoughts in his mind, the thoughts that are formed by words which
are the symbol of concepts, and then from his mind he sends them forth in the form
of activity, and builds with the tools what he has planned, and it all began with
spirit. Are you beginning to get the concept? And so these things begin as invisible,
immaterial concepts, invisible within the recesses of the mind.
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickens [that gives life, that makes alive]; the
flesh profits nothings: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and
they are life.
Now here is the difference between God's Holy Spirit and our spirit being noted.
God's Spirit (His Word, His thoughts, His way) always produces life—eternal life—
the way God lives. Jesus was made a life-giving Spirit, and He is the High Priest. He
is the leader as High Priest of what? The administration of life [II Corinthians 3].
The difference between the two covenants is that the priesthood under the Old
Covenant could not administer life, but the Priesthood under the New Covenant
administers life by ministering the Spirit of God to the mind of man. And so demons
and men and Satan cannot truthfully claim what Jesus claimed here, that His Spirit
is life. Now man's spirit, like the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, produces
death, because it produces sin.
Now let us try to understand something.
John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes
on him that sent me, has everlasting life. [The spirit of the mind of God
passes into the mind, joining with the spirit of man, and it brings with it life.]
And shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
But only if the person believes! Remember, belief has more to do with what the
person does with what he hears than the fact that he merely agrees with it.
Remember that words are spirit, and we pass from death to life by means of those
words.
John 8:51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall
never see death.
Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free
from the law of sin and death.
Paul is saying, "I have passed from death to life."
Let us go back to John 14, and let us start asking a question here. How was Jesus
able to produce miracles?

John 14:10 Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?
The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father that
dwells in me, he does the works.
Now was the third person of the trinity in Jesus? Who did the works? The Father,
not a third person of a trinity. It was the Father! This is plain and just as clear as
anything!
John 14:11-12 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or
else believe me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than
these shall he do, because I go unto my Father.
He would of course be administering the spirit Himself.
John 11:41-42 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead
was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank you that you
have heard me. And I knew that you hear me always: but because of the
people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that you have sent me.
Jesus asked the Father to do what? To resurrect, to give life. Who did the works?
Jesus was only a man. Yes, He was God in the flesh. The important thing for you and
me to understand is that even as God the Father worked in Jesus Christ, He is
working in you and me. The pattern was established in the Son. The Father that
lives in you does the works. That is how the miracles were done. In John 5, Jesus
said, "Of My ownself I can do nothing." As close as they were, what He requested of
God was always according to God's will, and so God gave it. In that sense brethren,
Jesus never did a miracle in His life. What happened is, that when the Son
requested, God sent forth His Spirit, and performed it. It is the Father who enables,
and not a third person in a trinity. It is the Father Himself. Do you understand the
import of this? Do you understand who's living in you? It's the Father Himself that
enables us.
Let us go to the book of Philippians. We will carry this even further, so that it comes
right down to you.
Philippians 2:1-5 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any
comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
fulfill you my joy, that you be likeminded, having the same love, being of one
accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in
lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Look not every
man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Now go to verse 12 as we carry that thought forward as we continue the context.
Philippians 2:12-13 Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not
as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in you both
to will and to do of his good pleasure.
The Holy Spirit in the form of a third person is not in you. It is the Father Himself,
by His Spirit. Are you understanding how close the relationship is?

Matthew 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed are you
Simon Bar Jona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my
Father which is in heaven.
I could go on and on with this.
I Corinthians 12:6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same
God which works all in all.
Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is
among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to
think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.
I Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace
which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more
abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
II Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing
as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.
James 1:17-18 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and
comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that
we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Hebrews 13:20-21 Now may the God of peace, that brought again from the
dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of
the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ;
to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
I want you to turn to a very familiar scripture:
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me
draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Brethren, our calling, our life in Christ begins when the Father—not a third party in
a trinity or Godhead—directly interfaces with our mind for the purpose of revealing
Himself, His ways, His purpose, His plan, His mind, His attitude, His perspective,
His character, His love, His power, His mercy, His forgiveness, and on and on, that
we might use our life and free moral agency to choose life—right back to
Deuteronomy 30 and its context.
But what I want us to get is that the Father Himself does this. God miraculously
joins His own mind to ours! There is nothing mysterious about that at all. He begins
a transference of His thoughts, His attitudes, His character—the Spirit of His mind
into our minds, and when it says, "Grieve not the Spirit of God," it is saying, "Don't
grieve the Father by resisting Him." He is transferring the invisible essence of His
mind through the access that we have to Him by means of the death of Jesus Christ.
He is not kidding about the importance of that. He is helping us to understand that
even as we are influenced by those who are around us, that unless we are in the
presence of God, we will not be influenced by Him, and so we have to share life with
Him.

This is where prayer begins to become important. This is where Bible study begins
to become important, because we are literally in His presence and He is transferring
the essence of His mind into ours. Nobody sees it. And when we obey, we are giving
Him permission to do this. We submit, using our free moral agency. There is nothing
magical about this at all. It occurs when we respond to the influence in the interface
that He creates between us when we believe His Word and submit and when we
strengthen the relationship through prayer, Bible study, and meditation. There is no
third person in a trinity called "the Holy Spirit." The "Holy Spirit," when a
personality is indicated by the context, is the Father or the Son.
In Ezra 1:1 it says very plainly that God stirred the spirit of Cyrus. In Haggai 1:14 it
says that God stirred the spirit in Zerubbabel and Joshua. That is what happens to
us! God stirs, excites our mind to things that we would never understand or grasp
unless He did what He did.
Ezra 1:1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the
LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the
spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his
kingdom, and put it also in writing.
Haggai 1:14 And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of
Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the
high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and
did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep
my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and
make our abode with him.
Is that not interesting? So simple—the Father and the Son, and this is right in the
context right after where He said, "I will send another spirit." It is the Father and
the Son who live in us, not a third person in a trinity.
Now what is the Holy Spirit? It is the essence of their mind. Is that not simple? It is
the essence of their mind. Jesus said, "The Father and I are one," because their
minds are so much alike. The Holy Spirit is power that issues forth from them, and
when we accept it, what does it issue forth from us in? What is its fruit? Love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, meekness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
It emanates directly from them for the express purpose of influencing us directly
and personally, and that is why you can be called "the called," "the chosen," "the
elect," because of all the people in this world, God chose directly to influence you.
Remember Ephesians 2:2? Satan indirectly affects everyone on earth with his spirit.
He broadcasts it forth, and it goes out in a general manner. But the relationship with
God is direct and personal. It does not go to everybody. It came directly to you. He
sent forth His Spirit. He was thinking about you, and He was creating thoughts in
His mind (also spirit) about you, and what you could become, where you could fit in
His Kingdom, and what He needed to do to prepare you for it.
He was thinking about you before He ever let you know, and when the time came
that it was right, He sent forth His Spirit and began to create you spiritually. He sent
forth His mind, and began to interface with you personally. That is the difference

between God's approach, and Satan's approach. Once you understand this, you can
begin to answer those ticky-tacky questions that have to do with the Trinity.
I hope that I have at least gotten something across here that may be helpful to you.
Like I said at the beginning, it is not going to answer all the questions, but it does
provide a basis. The Holy Spirit is the essence—it is an emanation from God's mind
to yours.
JWR/smp/drm
The Holy Spirit and the Trinity (Part 2)
The Meaning of the Spirit
John W. Ritenbaugh
Sermon; #348; 69 minutes
Given 04-Jul-98
Description: (hide)
John Ritenbaugh identifies spirit as the most important element in the whole salvation
process. Spirit (ruach in Hebrew, pneuma in Greek) can be defined as that invisible,
immaterial, internal activating agent which impels or creates. There are varieties of spirit
(generated through advertising, cheerleading, or political rallies) motivating people to "go
with the flow," conforming to a sheep-like mob psychology. Satan begets or inspires a
spirit or mood (Ephesians 2:2; John 8:44) that captivates all of us before our calling,
leading us to follow sinful appetites. God's Spirit is vastly different in that 1) it is holy,
2)provides a tap into infinite knowledge, and 3) provides us an interface with the mind,
wisdom, and character of God (I Corinthians 2:9).
Last Sabbath it came to mind (while Darryl was expounding on John 4:24 in regard to
"spirit and truth"), that spirit is the most important element in regard to the whole
salvation process. As an indication of this, mankind is surrounded by truth about God,
and yet we are not inclined to believe it, accept it, and use it. I want to go to a couple of
examples of this to show you God witnesses this to mankind in Romans 1:
Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold [or suppress] the truth in
unrighteousness.
You cannot suppress what you do not have. Truth about God is available, and it is being
suppressed.
Romans 1:19-20 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them
[or to them]; for God has shown it unto them. For the invisible things of him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made, even his eternal power and [divine nature]; so that they are without excuse.
Now, it is quite a condemnation. God is not saying that He has revealed spiritual truth, or
let us say, saving truth to these people, but even what He has revealed to them in regard
to Himself—His power as Creator—that has been rejected. How much of mankind
believes the theory of evolution? That is an outright rejection of God.

Romans 2:14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature. . .
Now where does "nature" come from that would enable them to do, to keep, to observe
some of the law of God? Where does that come from?
Romans 2:14-15 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law [It had never
been revealed to them like it was to the Israelites.] do by nature the things
contained in the law, these, having not the law, [it was never given to them like it
was given to the Israelites] are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of
the law written in their hearts. . .
Paul was saying that mankind is in the image of God, and there is within man a
knowledge of that.
Romans 2:15 . . . their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the
meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.
Excusing themselves of what? I know what it is. It is that they do not obey the law better
than they know that they should be doing. The average Joe on the street knows enough
about sin and enough about the law of God to be able to keep the law of God better than
he does. He does not need to be converted to keep it better. He would not keep it the way
a converted person would be expected to keep it, but you see, that knowledge is being
rejected because there is no inclination to accept it and really make it a part of one's life.
Go back to Acts 14 and we will see how God approaches this from a little bit different
angle. Paul was being questioned by these people because they wanted to worship him.
Verse 16 is talking about God.
Acts 14:16-17 Who in times past suffered [or allowed] all nations to walk in their
own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good.
What have we seen so far?
1. We have seen that God has revealed Himself as Creator to the world in a general
sense.
2. God has revealed His law to mankind in a general sense as well, in order that they
might understand enough that they would keep it better than they do. Their
conscience is smitten when they know that they are not living up to it.
3. He left mankind witness so that they know that He does good.
His providence is also known to man. Why do the unconverted keep Thanksgiving? To
give thanks to God for His providence. They know. The things of God are not all that
hidden.
Romans 2:17 Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did
good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with
food and gladness.
So mankind is surrounded by truth about God, (and we would have to be included in
this), and yet we were not inclined to believe it, to accept it, and to use it. We see then a
witness, not only of creation, but of God's goodness and man's nature. This principle of
God's revelation of Himself reaches into virtually every aspect of life, and yet there is a
powerful impulse to pass over it or outright reject it that is unfortunately successful most

of the time. In II Corinthians 11 we will add to man's dilemma here, the way God looks at
it. This time Paul was speaking to converted people.
II Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve
through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is
in Christ.
In this world's religion the simplicity is made complex by the same rejection process, and
it is responsible for the multitude of denominations calling themselves "Christian." The
people keep splitting. We are seeing this happening in the church of God, and at least on
the surface the problem seems to be technicalities in regard to doctrine. That is only a
small part of it. The real problem, brethren, is in the area of spirit, because all other
groups have truth, but something is powerfully influencing us to divide apart.
I want you to recall and to begin thinking of this a little bit more specifically of the eight
quotes that I gave you in my last sermon on this subject from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
They were primarily from there. They were actually from two different works, but most
of those were from the Catholic Encyclopedia that dogmatically stated that the Old
Testament has absolutely nothing about any trinity. "Zilch, nada. nothing," is the phrase
that I used. They did not say that, it was me who just said that, but they put it in scholarly
language. There is nothing there about any trinity. The same reference works went on to
say that the New Testament is so vague about a trinity, that they had constructed it on
what they think is the sense of the Scripture, and one of those references, (again it was a
Catholic Encyclopedia, and I have to commend them for their honesty) said the doctrine
was constructed out of what they called "Christological speculation." They admitted that
they are guessing on this doctrine.
This sermon is going to be a review of some of the material that I gave during that
sermon on Pentecost, beginning with the basic biblical usage of the word "spirit."
Remember that word in Hebrew is ruach, and in Greek pneuma. The English word
"spirit" is the virtually perfect synonym for both of those words. We are also going to
look into some reinforcing scriptures that I did not use at that time, and again I am going
to say to you by way of qualification that this sermon is not going to answer every
question. I am trying to get narrow and specific on this subject, so it is probably going to
take a number of sermons as I have time to put them together to cover it adequately. Turn
with me to John 3 to probably the best known scriptures in the entire Bible, at least in
evangelical Protestantism. Here in John 3:6 is the Bible's basic usage of the word "spirit."
It is about as clear as you are going to get. Notice how simple this is.
John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
Do we all agree on that? Okay.
John 3:6-7 And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said
unto you, You must be born again.
Verse 8 is the one I am heading for here.
John 3:8 The wind blows where it lists, [or wherever it wishes, or wherever it
wants to] and you hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it comes, and
where it goes: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.
What we have here is an elementary example of how the Bible, with one exception, uses

"spirit." That one exception is when a being, a personality, is indicated. Now spirit,
ruach, and pneuma are the English, Hebrew, and Greek words used to convey what is
invisible, immaterial, internal, activating-dimension-agent or power.
While we were in the WCG, under Herbert Armstrong, we were taught that the Holy
Spirit is the power of God. That is a correct but incomplete, too-narrow concept. The
Holy Spirit indeed does empower, but so does man's spirit. The difference between the
two lies in the quality of what they empower us to do. Spirit is unseen. It is like the wind,
as Jesus clearly stated. Wind is Jesus' illustration of spirit. Wind is air.
That is what wind is. Wind is air, which we cannot see. Nobody has ever yet seen air.
What we do see is what air moves, or what it carries, like smog, or dust, or ash, or
moving tree limbs, or whatever. If you happen to be watching "Twister," it might be a
cow, or it might be a gasoline transporter or something, and you do not really see the
wind moving it, you only see the object flying through the air. Like the invisible wind,
unseen spirit causes other things to happen. Now get that. Like the invisible wind, unseen
spirit causes other things to happen.
Now in reference to a person, spirit activates, motivates, inspires, generates, initiates,
begins, begets, impels, spurs, encourages, provokes, triggers, influences, originates,
produces, spawns, creates, and fathers what we literally see in the way of conduct and
attitudes on the outside. This even applies to God. Turn with me to Isaiah 4, and you will
see very quickly that the period of time that he is prophesying about is right after the
return of Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 4:2 In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and
the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of
Israel.
They escaped out of the tribulation. They escaped out of the Day of the Lord.
Isaiah 4:3-4 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that
remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among
the living in Jerusalem. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the
daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst
thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
Spirit is used here in reference to that which is within God. It is being used to help us
understand the attitude motivating God's action. What is seen on the outside, externally, is
judgment; but spirit is seen as an internal, invisible force, impelling, motivating,
generating judgment, with fire representing a punishing, purging, purifying purpose. So
from God, a spirit motivates Him to judge. That is the way spirit is used in God's Word.
Isaiah 11:1-4 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, [This is
the same period of time being spoken of.] and a Branch [Jesus Christ] shall grow
out of his roots: And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; and [Notice what the spirit will do.] shall
make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge
after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with
righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the
earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath

of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
Each one of the qualities of the mind is named to encourage us that this One, Jesus
Christ, will give judgments of the very highest quality. So spirit is the general word used
to indicate those internal, immaterial, and unseen qualities of mind that energize and
activate. As we continue to see this, we will see, both from God's Word and also from our
own experience, that they can be good or evil, edifying or destructive, clean or foul,
generous or miserly, selfless or selfish, cheerful or depressive, positive or negative, and
on and on it might go, but always spirit affects. It moves. It activates, generates, creates,
and impels in the direction of its force. Brethren, why are cheerleaders used at football
games and at basketball games? Is it not to generate a spirit? Can you see the spirit that is
energized? You cannot. It is invisible. It is unseen. And that simple usage is no different
in principle from what we are going to see here in the Bible.
Let us go to Exodus 23. Again the subject is judgment. Here is part of the law of God.
Exodus 23:2 You shall not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shall you speak
in a cause to decline after many to wrest [twist or pervert] judgment.
Here we are going to call on your experience in life. There is a spirit created in groups
that tends to pull those groups along with it. It is a form of mob psychology. "Birds of a
feather flock together." A milder form of this same process motivates people to conform
to certain current fashions and music, taste, dress, or whatever. There is today a cliché
that is used which says to "go with the flow," which urges us not to resist the power or the
direction of the spirit of an event, but rather choose to yield to it. So they say, "Go with
the flow." "Don't resist it. Go right along with it." See, choose to do that.
The choice should depend on its direction, but far too many yield to what is popular or
what feels good at the moment, rather than what is right. Sometimes we have to resist the
spirit, or the flow, or the power of an event. Those of you who are a little bit older ought
to be able to relate to this somewhat. It is very well-known that Adolph Hitler used large
crowds, martial music, aggressive speaking, and dramatic lighting to create a spirit, and
he was able to win the hearts of an awful lot of people in Germany so that almost the
whole nation walked in lock-step following that spirit.
Advertising follows the same course, only in a much simpler fashion, and in most cases
for it a lot less serious, but they try to create an aura about the product. They are creating
a spirit that might energize you and me to purchase their product. Restaurants create
ambience to put you into a mood so that when you eat in their restaurants, without saying
a word, the ambience in that restaurant, everything from the kind of music they play to
the décor, to the lighting, to the dress of the waitresses, everything is coordinated to
produce the kind of spirit that they want you to eat your meal in and have an enjoyable
time. Are you beginning to get the idea of what this word "spirit" means, and how it is
used?
It is very clear from I Corinthians 2 that man has a spiritual dimension to his mind that
imparts, that is, it empowers man with the understanding of the physical and material that
is woefully lacking when dealing with the things of the spirit realm. We find in other
places that this is largely because mankind has been deceived. Those of you who are
older in the truth probably heard Mr. Armstrong say this verse six zillion times, that it
says in Revelation 12:9, "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the

HOLY SPIRIT AND THE TRINITY EXPLAINED

HOLY SPIRIT AND THE TRINITY EXPLAINED

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