The Truth About the Holy Spirit

 Among mainstream Protestants, Catholics, and even Seventh Day Adventists, the Holy Trinity continues to be one of the most sacred beliefs. This idea holds, as the Seventh Day Adventist website states, that, "There is one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a unity of three coeternal Persons." Sometimes this doctrine is also expressed as "three in one, one in three."

How this makes any sense, no one seems to be able to explain. In fact, GotQuestions.org observes, "The most difficult thing about the Christian concept of the Trinity is that there is no way to perfectly and completely understand it."

Of course, there are many things we can't grasp about the spiritual realm. For example, I can't grasp the concept of God always existing, of Him never having any beginning or any end. I can't wrap my mind around that, even though I know it's true.

Other things don't make sense simply because they aren't true.

Since those who hold the trinity doctrine admit they don't understand it, which one of these categories does it fall into? More specifically, what is the nature of the Holy Spirit?

If the Holy Spirit is a separate person, then why is it never mentioned in any of the visions of God's throne room?

Just before being stoned to death, Stephen, "being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" (Acts 7:55-56).  If the Holy Spirit is a separate being, why did Stephen see only the Father and the Son, but not the Holy Spirit?

Someone might reply, "Because the Holy Spirit was within Stephen." However, this doesn't truly answer the question, because the Holy Spirit can be in many people at once, in many places at once. If the Holy Spirit is also a separate God-being equal to the Father and the Son, then why didn't Stephen see it with the Father and the Son?

This is by no means an isolated incident. The prophet Daniel, in his vision of God's throne, saw the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:9, 13), that is, the Father; he saw the Son of Man (Dan. 7:13-14), that is, Jesus Christ; but he did not see the Holy Spirit.

Throughout the Book of Revelation, John saw visions of God the Father, Jesus Christ, cherubim ("the four living creatures"), the 24 elders, and numerous angels, but never the Holy Spirit. Even "the seven Spirits of God" mentioned in Rev. 4:5 and Rev. 5:6 are not represented as a living being or beings.

Why is there no vision of the Holy Spirit anywhere in the Bible, if indeed the Holy Spirit is a separate being?

Here's another question to ponder: why didn't the Apostle Paul, in any of his epistles, greet the congregations in the name of the Holy Spirit, but only in the name of the Father and the Son?

Here's an example in Rom. 1:7: "To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." No mention of the Holy Spirit.

Here's another example in 2 Cor. 1:1-2: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Again, no mention of the Holy Spirit, but only of the Father and the Son.

In every epistle, Paul greets his audience in a similar manner, mentioning only the Father and the Son, not the Holy Spirit. Paul wasn't alone in this. The Apostle Peter wrote, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord" (2 Pet. 1:2). The Apostle John wrote, "Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love" (2 John 1:3).

If the Holy Spirit is a God-being equal to the Father and the Son, wouldn't this be disrespectful? Wouldn't it be a snub? Yet the apostles continually left the Holy Spirit out of their greetings, blessing their audience only in the name of the Father and the Son.

In fact, John wrote in his first epistle, "truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3). No mention of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ Himself, when He was on this earth, prayed to the Father, "Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are" (John 17:11). He added later, in the same prayer, "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one" (John 17:20-22).

Here, in Jesus' prayer, we find a form of "three in one, one in three," but it's not the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; it's the Father, Son, and His people!

In fact, there is no Scriptural evidence that the Holy Spirit is a living being, and plenty of evidence to the contrary. What, then, is the Holy Spirit? It's simply "the Spirit of God," as its called throughout the Bible beginning in Gen. 1:2, and "the Spirit of Christ" (Rom. 8:9).

Just as man has a spirit, so does God. We read in 1 Cor. 2:11, "For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God." Man's spirit is not a separate being, and neither is God's Spirit. Our spirit is part of us; it's what makes us who we are. So it is with God.

In Luke 1:35, an angel of God spoke to Jesus' mother Mary, saying, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." Here, "the Holy Spirit" and "the power of the Highest" are used in interchangeably because they are the same thing. The Holy Spirit IS the power of God!

In Job 33:4, we find, "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life." Here, "the Spirit of God" and "the breath of the Almighty" are used interchangeably. Why is this?

Well, when God made man, He "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being" (Gen. 2:7). The spirit of man came from the breath of God! It is God who gives life. Even the Hebrew word ruach (Strong's # H7307), or spirit, means "wind" or "breath." Jesus, too, compared the Spirit to wind, saying, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).

Just as God's original creation of man involved breathing into man's nostrils the breath of life, so does His spiritual creation. In a fascinating parallel, when Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, "He breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit'" (John 20:22).

When we receive the Holy Spirit at baptism, we are receiving new life from the breath of God! We are in the process of being made into His spiritual image, even as we were made in His physical image: "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3 :18). We are, or should be, in the process of building Godly character so that we can be part of His Kingdom.

Over and over again, we see that the Holy Spirit is not a separate being, but is the Spirit of God. It belongs to Him, it's part of Him, it's who He is. God is holy, therefore His Spirit is also holy.

Hopefully, we can now all see why the doctrine of the "holy trinity" doesn't make any sense: it's because it isn't true. The Holy Spirit isn't a separate being equal to the Father and the Son. There's only the Father and the Son; the Holy Spirit is who and what They are.