Third person of the Trinity.
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
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.
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