Why Is He Called the Holy Spirit? | Ligonier Ministries So, now we can move on to talk about the third Divine Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. What does it mean that the Father is the first Person of the Trinity? . When we fail to do so, we are offending the Creator of all things, who is gracious indeed but who always wants us to remember the high cost for this gracethe death of the Son. The Trinity does not live in a splendid . As I said earlier, it means the same thing as being. Yet it does not seem necessary to adopt this conclusion. Thus it is sometimes urged as a reason for rejecting Arianism that, if there were a time when the Son was not, it follows that God must then have been devoid of Wisdom and of Power a conclusion from which even Arians would shrink. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 29.8, Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures XI.19; John Damascene, Of the Orthodox Faith I.8). Contrary to this, the passages we have seen imply that God always was and always will be three Persons. Explore answers to life's biggest questions. Third Person of the Trinity by Chuck Smith - Blue Letter Bible Thus understood, the Circuminsession is a corollary of the doctrine of Recapitulation. It is rooted in the fact that God came to meet Christians in a threefold figure: (1) as Creator, Lord of the history of salvation, Father, and Judge, as revealed in the Old Testament; (2) as the Lord who, in the incarnated figure of Jesus Christ, lived among human beings and was present in their midst as the "Resurrected One"; and (3) as the Hol. The Holy Spirit is often called the third Person of the Trinity because, in this "Trinitarian formula," He is listed third. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God. Thus Irenaeus (Against Heresies III.8.3) says: "He commanded, and they were created . For nowhere in the Old Testament do we find any clear indication of a Third Person. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. Nor indeed can it be said that the passage, even though it manifests some knowledge of a second personality in the Godhead, constitutes a revelation of the Trinity. It has been seen that every action of God in regard of the created world proceeds from the Three Persons indifferently. Yet, notwithstanding this difference as to origin, the Persons are co-eternal and co-equal: all alike are uncreated and omnipotent. But as a follower of Christ, your identity can and should be grounded in one thing: who He says you are. This is why grieving the Spirit is something to be avoided. God is not one person who plays three different roles, as this illustration suggests. "Expressions such as these are undoubtedly the score that it violates the laws of thought is invalid. We may view the Three Persons insofar as they are equally possessed of the Divine Nature or we may consider the Son and the Spirit as deriving from the Father, Who is the sole source of Godhead, and from Whom They receive all They have and are. Omissions? They all have the same omnipotence. The first tendency recognized the distinctness among the three, but at the cost of their equality and hence of their unity (subordinationism). For example, since the Father sent the Son into the world (John 3:16), He cannot be the same person as the Son. References to the Holy Spirit in the Bible: The Holy Spirit Has the Characteristics of Personality: Fairchild, Mary. Thus we say that a king sends a messenger, and that a tree sends forth buds. Petavius, who was at that period engaged on his great theological work, was convinced by their arguments, and allowed that at least some of these Fathers had fallen into grave errors. Joyce, George. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Here we see an important advance in the theology of the Godhead. As this point is treated elsewhere (see JESUS CHRIST), it will be sufficient here to enumerate a few of the more important messages from the Synoptists, in which Christ bears witness to His Divine Nature. But the Holy Spirit is not an it, but a He (see John 14:26; 16:7-15; Acts 8:16). The evidence from the Gospels culminates in the baptismal commission of Matthew 28:20. On the Day of Pentecost, he rested like tongues of fire on the apostles. For if we deny this, we have denied Gods unity and affirmed that there is more than one being of God (i.e., that there is more than one God). The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were associated in such New Testament passages as the Great Commission: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19); and in the apostolic benediction: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:13). Just as human nature is something which the individual men possesses, and which can only be conceived as belonging to and dependent on the individual, so the Divine Nature is something which belongs to the Persons and cannot be conceived independently of Them. The Blessed Trinity. This is something far removed from our human experience, where every different human "person" is a different being as well. The Orthodox Church does not use the phrase filioque, "and of the . Sp. This seems to be first found in the correspondence between St. Denis of Alexandria and St. Dionysius of Rome. Marc. Holy Trinity Sunday | EWTN Expressions such as these are undoubtedly due to the influence of the Stoic philosophy: the logos endiathetos and logos prophorikos were current conceptions of that school. Thus, the New Testament established the basis for the doctrine of the Trinity. Since God is one in a different way than He is three, the Trinity is not a contradiction. In the New Testament we find it addressed not alone to God the Father, but to Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 4:18; 2 Peter 3:18; Revelation 1:6; Hebrews 13:20-21), and to God the Father and Christ in conjunction (Revelations 5:13, 7:10). St. Jerome says, in a well-known phrase: "The true profession of the mystery of the Trinity is to own that we do not comprehend it" (De mysterio Trinitatus recta confessio est ignoratio scientiae "Proem ad 1. xviii in Isai."). John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (2023, April 5). It follows therefore that, when applied to a Divine Person as designating the relation uniting Him to the other Persons, it must signify that the procession determining His origin is one which of its nature involves devotion to God. This is very important: God is one and three at the same time, but not in the same way. Petav., "De Trin", V, viii). Nor is the tradition as to the interpretation of Proverbs 8, in any sense unanimous. (Acts 13:2). He is the seal, Himself impressing on us the Divine image. Answers to questions on donations, financial policies, Crus annual report and more. Who/What Is the Holy Spirit in the Trinity? What's His Role? - Jim Feeney (See also HOLY GHOST; LOGOS; MONOTHEISTS; UNITARIANS.). Vol. Epiphanius in the same way asserts the orthodoxy of the Montanists on this subject (Haer., lxviii). Third, notice that although the three divine Persons are distinct, we are baptized into their name (singular), not names (plural). The Holy Spirit: Who is He? What does the Bible teach about Him? - CARM.ORG ", iv). Augustine insists that of the ten Aristotelean categories two, stance and relation, are found in God (On the Trinity V.5). We have already adverted to the view that the Son is the Wisdom and Power of the Father in the full and formal sense. Help others in their faith journey through discipleship and mentoring. He has all the characteristics of person-hood. The Third Person of the Trinity - Acts 29 Network: North America Speaker: Lonce Crump This blog post serves as a preview to what we will hear from Lonce Crump at the 2016 Acts 29 US Southeast Network Conference. The traditional statement of the doctrine of the Trinity is this: There are three persons within the Godhead; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. It should be observed, however, that this is not the only form in which the psychological theory has been proposed. Helping students know Jesus, grow in their faith and go to the world to tell others. The term perichoresis is first used by St. John Damascene. The words, "That which my Father hath given me," can, having regard to the context, have no other meaning than the Divine Name, possessed in its fullness by the Son as by the Father. Essence means the same thing as being. Thus, since God is only one essence, He is only one being, not three. 1 Corinthians 8:4). Christians can easily identify with God the Father (Jehovah or Yahweh) and his Son, Jesus Christ. We worship a Trinity (Matt. Besides these passages there are many others in the Gospels which refer to one or other of the Three Persons in particular and clearly express the separate personality and Divinity of each. Catholic Daily Mass - Daily TV Mass - June 22, 2023 - Facebook Do you need to devote yourself to unselfish religious deeds? Obviously we cannot, for Scripture is clear that there is only one God: There is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. They are personal forms of existence other than a difference in being. The Spirit also guides us in our lives. I, xix) and by St. Gregory Nazianzen (Orations 31.31-32), of the Three Divine Persons to the sun, the ray, the light; and to the source, the spring, and the stream. This can only be if they share one essence. Yet, apart from Christ's subsequent teaching, the dogmatic meaning of the scene would hardly have been understood. And Origen (Against Celsus VIII.15) says: "We declare that the Son is not mightier than the Father, but inferior to Him. Partnering with urban churches to meet physical and spiritual needs. But it is possible to go deeper. In view of this, it might be said that the Father created the Word, this term being used in place of the more accurate generated, inasmuch as the exemplar ideas of creation were communicated by the Father to the Son. What we believe about the gospel and our call to serve every nation. . Awareness of the distinct role that each Person of the Trinity has in our salvation can especially serve to give us greater comfort and appreciation for God in our prayers, as well as helping us to be specific in directing our prayers. The fact that the Holy Spirit is a Person, not an impersonal force (like gravity), is also shown by the fact that He speaks (Hebrews 3:7), reasons (Acts 15:28), thinks and understands (1 Corinthians 2:10-11), wills (1 Corinthians 12:11), feels (Ephesians 4:30), and gives personal fellowship (2 Corinthians 13:14). A member of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit had no beginning and has no end. He stands ready to help us change from the person we are today to the person we want to be, ever closer to the character of Christ. John 14:26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. While there are some illustrations which are helpful, we should recognize that no illustration is perfect. Finally we have the doctrine of Circuminsession (perichoresis). We exist to worship God. At the risk of sounding too physical, essence can be understood as the stuff that you consist of.. The terminology is unavoidable because the limitations of our experience force us to represent this relation as due to an act. To the Greek Fathers, who developed the theology of the Spirit in the light of the philosophical principles which we have just noticed, the question presented no difficulty. This mystery of the faith cannot be fully understood by the human mind but is a key doctrine of Christianity. In the intellectual ferment of the time Abelard initiated a Rationalistic tendency: not merely did he claim a knowledge of the Trinity for the pagan philosophers, but his own Trinitarian doctrine was practically Sabellian. The Greek word for both, Ghost and Spirit, is the word pneuma, which sounds like new'-ma. To understand more fully what God is like is a way of honoring God. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. This experience is the term of the internal act. The Spirit dwells in heaven but also on Earth in the heart of every believer. (NIV). Didymus even employs expressions which seem to show that he, like the Latins, conceived the Nature as logically antecedent to the Persons. Among the Jews and in the Apostolic Church the Divine name was representative of God. An argument of very great weight is provided in the liturgical forms of the Church. More than this it cannot do. We cannot express this save by attributing to Him filiation and spiration (I:32:2). In regard to Christ, the Apostles employ modes of speech which, to men brought up in the Hebrew faith, necessarily signified belief in His Divinity. Each one of Them is fully God and possesses all of the divine attributes. Ibid, p. 255. This must, they argue, be, like the names Father and Son, a name expressive of a relation within the Godhead proper to the Person who bears it. All Western theologians teach that creation, like all God's external works, proceeds from Him as One: the separate Personalities do not enter into consideration. The latter tells us that Christians "are conducted to the future life by this one thing alone, that they know God and His Logos, what is the oneness of the Son with the Father, what the communion of the Father with the Son, what is the Spirit, what is the unity of these three, the Spirit, the Son, and the Father, and their distinction in unity." God is spirit (John 4:24). In Latin theology thought fixed first on the Nature and only subsequently on the Persons. ", Thesis xxvi). . Bringing hope and resources to military families worldwide. The Holy Spirit first appears in the second verse of the Bible, in the account of creation: Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. What does essence mean? This should make it clear why it is so important to understand that all three Persons are the same essence. Wisdom 7:25-26), but of the Holy Spirit. How is God three? var m_names=new Array("January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December");var d=new Date();var curr_day=d.getDay();var curr_date=d.getDate();var curr_month=d.getMonth();var curr_year=d.getFullYear();document.write("Retrieved "+m_names[curr_month]+" "+curr_date+", "+curr_year+" from New Advent: "); In the New Testament, he is sometimes called the Spirit of Christ. In view of these facts the opinion of those theologians seems the sounder who regard this explanation of the procession simply as a theological opinion of great probability and harmonizing well with revealed truth. As regards the vindication of a mystery, the office of the natural reason is solely to show that it contains no intrinsic impossibility, that any objection urged against it on Reason. Thus the Son and the Spirit are termed "Powers" (Dynameis) of the Father.
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