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If you have read my previous articles, then I hope you are now convinced that what Christians think about the Holy Spirit really does matter.
But maybe you are not convinced. Perhaps you are wondering, “What’s all this fuss about the Holy Spirit?” We do, after all, identify ourselves as Christians or followers of Christ. Shouldn’t our attention be focused on Christ – to trust in him, know him, follow him and imitate him?
Below the surface, Christians have many unofficial, unstated, and untested notions about the Holy Spirit that profoundly impact their spirituality. These ideas casually spread from one person to another and become a de facto orthodoxy, a set of positions that are rarely taught but are nevertheless deeply embedded in the collective psyche of a faith community. In this article, I will try to uncover some of these assumptions and demonstrate that they really do matter. Try asking yourself the following questions.
Tags: Holy Spirit
If you are a Christian, then you ought to call the Holy Spirit “he” rather than “it.” The Spirit is not an invisible power or force, but a person who thinks, communicates and decides. And you ought to agree that the Holy Spirit is God. On that point, Scripture is very clear. For example, Acts 5:3, Peter said, “Ananias,… you have lied to the Holy Spirit.” One verse later, Peter adds, “You have not lied to men but to God.”
In the last post, I argued that the Holy Spirit plays an indispensible role in our understanding of the Christian gospel. We see abundant evidence for this in Scripture. And we see abundant evidence in the history of the Church.
One defining moment in Christian history came in 1054 A.D. in an event known as the Great Schism, when the Church split into Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman Catholic) branches. The tension between these camps had been building for some time. It was exacerbated by poor communication between leaders from the East who spoke Greek and those from the West who spoke Latin. But the immediate issue that caused these tensions to flare was a seemingly obscure argument about the Holy Spirit known as the filioque controversy. Filioque is a Latin word meaning “and the Son.” The Nicene Creed, which was written in 325 and expanded in 381, declared:
The importance, nature and work of the Holy Spirit is not well understood by many Christians today. And in that category, I definitely include myself.
Since my college days, I have belonged to an independent church that emphasizes textual Bible study, prayer and evangelism. Over the years, we have constantly spoken of God and Jesus, and in passing we have often mentioned the Holy Spirit. We formally uphold the doctrine of the Trinity. But in-depth discussion of the Holy Spirit has been rare. As far as I can tell, this experience is common among evangelical Christians, especially those of the non-Pentecostal variety. The implicit message seems to be: If you believe that Christ died for your sins, that is enough to make you a real Christian. But is it enough?
Tags: Holy Spirit
I recently ran across this presentation by Gary Hamel, an author and management consultant who has been called “the world’s most influential business thinker” by The Wall Street Journal. Hamel advises Fortune 500 companies and writes for Harvard Business Review. He is also a deeply committed Christian. In 2009, he was invited to speak at the Global Leadership Summit, an annual gathering of pastors and church leaders organized by Willow Creek Community Church. Hamel spoke with thoughtfulness and passion about the need for churches and ministries to change. Some of his basic arguments are found in this WSJ blog post. But if you can do so, please watch the full 57-minute video presentation; you won’t be disappointed.
Tags: Church Trends
This Sunday, Christians will ”celebrate” Pentecost Sunday. I put “celebrate” in quotes because, if you attend an evangelical church in the United States, there’s a high probability that Pentecost will not mentioned at all.
Hey! I’m going to be posting lots of YouTube content on here to keep the blog updated. Great YouTube videos are in abundance and don’t really require much introduction or analysis from me (laziness? haha).
Anyways, here’s Shai Linne’s retelling of the greatest story ever told:
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Keller on the Gospel
May 28, 2010 in Commentary, Personal Experience by Ruthie | No comments
Earlier this month, another Seed contributor, Andrew, and I attended Chapter Camp with Intervarsity. It was an awesome time for many reasons, but really it was all about the bible study. That consumed our time and minds and energy. We studied the first half of Mark, aka “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” We’ll study the second half next summer. It’s not that I’ve never studied any Mark before, but this time I saw God as huge and mysterious, the way he really is. I had so many questions, and so did everyone else. I am so glad that we weren’t satisfied leaving the pieces of Mark at what we’d heard that this or that was supposed to mean for us but kept digging. The great thing is that we prayerfully approached what we didn’t understand, began to understand, and were moved by it. We all came to the table leaving behind what we thought we already knew and just read what Mark had to say. God worked in that. I saw Jesus as love and a man and I was moved to tears when he cured Legion. We let Jesus be Jesus and he met me there. Too often, I don’t experience the reality and magnitude of Jesus when approaching the bible. This time was entirely refreshing.
Just today, thinking about all of this, I found an article by Tim Keller, “Preaching in a Post Modern City.” He gives an interesting perspective on how we live and fail to live gospel centered lives. He talks about how we become the changed people that we desire to be and are supposed to be. Speaking about virtue he says,” it particularly grows by a faith-sight of the glory of Christ and his salvation.” I believe that to be true, that seeing Jesus is powerful and causes us to move. He also says, “Is [the gospel] basically about what I must do, or basically about what he has done?”