The Holy Spirit Is Not a Person
Distinct from the Father
Distinct from the Father
As taught throughout the centuries, the commonly held belief is that there is a person called the Holy Spirit who is God, but is neither “the Father” nor “the Son.” In the doctrine of the Trinity this person is viewed as a third co-equal and co-eternal person along with the Father and the Son and within “the Godhead,” but there are not three gods, that is, there is supposedly no tritheism.
However, the Hebrew words ruach and neshamah and the Greek word pneuma, generally rendered as “spirit” in English, have the basic meanings of breath and wind as something powerful, as well as indicating the manifestation of one’s self.
A New Testament Issue Only
Theologian George Eldon Ladd states what all theologians recognize about the “spirit of God” in the Hebrew Scriptures, commonly called the Old Testament, when he says:
The ruach Yahweh in the Old Testament is not a separate, distinct entity; it is God’s power—the personal activity in God’s will achieving a moral and religious object. God’s ruach is the source of all that is alive, of all physical life. The spirit of God is the active principle that proceeds from God and gives life to the physical world (Gen. 2:7). It is also the source of religious concerns, raising up charismatic leaders, whether judges, prophets, or kings. “The ruach Yahweh is a term for the historical creative action of the one God which, though it defies logical analysis, is always God’s action” A Theology of the New Testament p. 287.
Additionally, The New Catholic Encyclopedia notes that:
The Old Testament clearly does not envisage God’s spirit as a person...God’s spirit is simply God’s power. If it is sometimes represented as being distinct from God, it is because the breath of Yahweh acts exteriorly...The majority of New Testament texts reveal God’s spirit as something, not someone; this is especially seen in the parallelism between the spirit and the power of God. 14:574, 575.
So, according to all reputable theologians, the spirit of God as spoken of in the Old Testament is not a person. Therefore, this is really only a New Testament issue, leading us to ask: did the writers of the New Testament change the definition of “holy spirit” so that it would now refer to a person separate from God or Jesus? However, indicating that there has been no such change of definition, Church of England Theologian Alan Richardson reasons that:
To ask whether in the New Testament the spirit is a person in the modern sense of the word would be like asking whether the spirit of Elijah is a person. The spirit of God is of course personal; it is God’s dunamis [power] in action. But the Holy Spirit is not a person, existing independently of God...The New Testament (and indeed patristic thought generally) nowhere represents the Spirit, anymore than the wisdom of God, as having independent personality.
Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament, p.120.
Clearly, the spirit of Elijah is not a person separate from Elijah. So, too, logically with the spirit of God—it is not a person separate from God. In fact, historically, after New Testament times, but prior to 381 A.D., the holy spirit was generally thought of as the power and presence of God rather than as a substance or a separate person; yet at the Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D., Emperor Theodosius decided that the holy spirit, now viewed as a person, was equal to the Father and to the Son. Nevertheless, this teaching was not widely accepted by Christians for many decades.
NOTE: There is no justification for the capitalization of the terms spirit or holy spirit. Also, in many cases, there is no justification for the insertion of the definite article before these terms in most translations.
Factors Showing That Holy Spirit Is Not a Person
When we examine the Scriptures in some depth, we find that the holy spirit is indeed not a person distinct from the Father and the Son, and therefore not part of the unbiblical doctrine of the Trinity. The following factors should help us to understand that “holy spirit” is, in fact, God’s powerful outreach to His creation through which He performs His activities:
1. Assuming (though wrongly) that the holy spirit is a third person—he (?) is evidently not omniscient as is the Father, as shown by Jesus when he stated: “But concerning that day or that hour no one knows (including an imagined Holy Spirit as a third person) neither the angels in heaven nor the Son...but the Father only” (Mark 13:32). Also, the following statement by Jesus would not be true if the holy spirit were a third person of the Trinity who (?) was also omniscient because he (?) was Almighty God. Jesus’ statement was that: “...no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son” (Matt. 11:27), and so the spirit, as a supposed third person, is excluded from this relationship. In reality, because the spirit of God is actually God’s own outreach to humanity it is omnipotent. Indeed, according to 1 Corinthians 2:10: “the spirit searches everything” and is also omni-present (Ps. 139:7). But there is no third person in a supposed Godhead as omnipotent or omnipresent.
2. The Spirit as a Person Cannot Be Distributed
However, the spirit as an influence or as power and energy can be described in metaphorical terms as being able to be distributed. So, Jesus, and later John, says: “…for he gives the spirit without measure” (John 3:34) and “…because he has given us of his spirit” (1 John 4:13). Or “given us a share in his Spirit” (NJB). Or “He has imparted his Spirit to us” (REB).
3. A Person Cannot Be Given the Attributes of the elements such as liquid, air or fire. Yet these are used to describe the spirit:
LIKE WATER
“‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him.’ He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive” (John 7:38, 39) and “…all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13).
Certainly, persons do not flow as water does and neither can one drink them.
LIKE AIR
“…[Jesus] breathed on them and said to them ‘Receive the Holy Spirit...’” (John 20:22). Also see John 3:8 and Acts 2:2.
LIKE OIL
“...how God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 10:38) Also, Isaiah 61:1.
It was one of God’s arrangements that at the appointment of a new King or Priest in Israel, he was to be anointed with oil and from which time onward he was seen as having God’s spirit and so making the “pouring out of spirit” or “anointing with spirit” an apt metaphor. This is why, “…God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” (Acts 2:17) in the sense of anointing them.
LIKE A VISCOUS WRITING MATERIAL
“…you are a letter...written not with ink but with the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:3).
LIKE FIRE OR SOMETHING RED HOT
“Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19). This is similar to extinguishing a fire or something red hot.
LIKE SEALING WAX
“…you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (Eph. 1:13).
LIKENED TO SOMETHING HUMANS CAN BE FILLED WITH
“Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:4).
“…the [disciples] were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4).
“…be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). Here it is likened to wine.
“But he [Stephen], full of the Holy Spirit...” (Acts 7:55).
LIKE A DOVE
“…and the skies opened and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him” (Matt. 3:16). 3
Of course, none of these expressions mean that “spirit” is an actual substance, but rather breath, wind, water, oil, and dove are apt metaphors. However, what is meant by the term “the spirit of Christ” and when Jesus speaks of “another helper”?
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