It seems obvious that Jesus used it as a title for a person. The same person that would be infused with the "Christ spirit" at the "time of the end" the one that would "unseal the books" who would lead humanity to "all truth". carmel
Can the holy spirit be a person???
by leaving-jws 28 Replies latest watchtower bible
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theinfamousone
To me, this is similar to arguing whether Santa Claus has real bells or electronic ones on his sleigh.
i second that emotion.....
the infamous one
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Perry
The same person that would be infused with the "Christ spirit" at the "time of the end" the one that would "unseal the books" who would lead humanity to "all truth"
Carmel,
What person will be infused with the Christ spirit? What scripture are you referencing here? It doesn't sound familiar.
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jwfacts
The Personality of the Holy Spirit is determined because "he" does things that only a person can do. The Holy Spirit:
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speaks Acts 13:2
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has an "Ego" - I Acts 10:19-20
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thinks Acts 15:28
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shows emotions such as love Romans 15:30
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has intellect and teaches Hebrews 9:8, John. 14:26, 1 Cor. 2:13, Nehemiah 9:20
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has a will 1 Corinthians 12:11
The Watchtower Society identifies Satan as a person by showing he does things that only a person can do: speak and think. (Awake! 1973 Dec 8 p.27 "Satan the Devil—Personification or a Person?"). Most Christian religions determine the Holy Spirit to be a person by using this same methodology. For this reason, religions that do not accept the Trinity or the personhood of the Holy Spirit, such as Christadelphians and Christian Scientists, commonly also do not believe that Satan is a person. The Watchtower takes an unusual stance of believing Satan is literal, but that the Holy Spirit is not.
The Watchtower originally taught that the Holy Spirit is a person
In Three Worlds, and the Harvest of this World, p.58, published 1877 by N. H. Barbour and C. T. Russell, Christadelphians were criticised for not accepting the Holy Spirit as a person.
"I will give a sample of their way of reasoning: The words Satan, and Devil, says the above book, means accuser, or adversary; and are only Bible synonyms for sin.… And if they really set about it, as the Christadelphians do, they can explain away the Holy Spirit."
The first assistant editor of Zion’s Watch Tower wasJ. H. Paton, a Trinitarian. He wrote the 1880 Watchtower book The Day Dawn. Page 225 personifies the Holy Spirit, capitalising the word and referring to the Holy Spirit as He, Him, or a Person and interchanges the Holy Spirit with the Spirit of Christ.
"The work of the Holy Spirit is one of the most important elements in the plan of revelation and salvation. He is always spoken of by the Saviour as a Person, and is called the "Spirit of truth."…
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inspired men to write or speak the truth; and second, He enables men to understand it. …By comparing this with 1 Pet. 1:11, it will be seen that the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Christ are used interchangeably."
Russell did not start printing articles disputing the Trinity until after Paton left the magazine’s staff.
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runningonfaith
I'm so confused....
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Hellrider
To me, this is similar to arguing whether Santa Claus has real bells or electronic ones on his sleigh.
LoL. Yknot: Well, if the "holy spirit" is a part of god (but still, "fully god"), it could be argued that it was GOD that was Jesus` father. If the holy spirit is a person that is as "fully god" as the other two, then it was a part of god that stuffed another part of god into Mary. And he did so on behalf of the "Father"-part of god, whos functional position seems to be higher than the other two (functional, but not in essence). The trinity-doctrine is funny that way, there`s always one giving the other (two) an alibi.
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Morgana
I've not been brought up in a very Christian environment; but when I later learnt about it, the doctrine of the "Trinity" has never been a particular problem to my understanding.
God (if there is one) is certainly such a complex, multidimensional reality that with our human instruments of cognition we can at best gain a tiny, minute glimpse of some insignificant trace of his whole being...
To me it is not so hard to comprehend the eternally unknowable God as manifesting or revealing Himself in many different ways and with many names (!), many more then just three -- be it as El-Shaddai (the God of Abraham), as El-Elyon (the God of Melchizedek), as YHWH ("Jehovah" - the universal creator and at the same time the individual God of Israel), as Abba ("Father" - the personal God-Image of every human), as Yeshua ("Jesus" - the Son), and as Holy Spirit, just to name a few.
Seen in this way, it does not make any sense to speak of the Holy Spirit as "part of God"; rather, the Holy Spirit is one of the many, many ways God reveals Himself to us.
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Satanus
I find it hilarious when firm bible believers argue about how their god definitely must fit into this or that box;)
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BurnTheShips
Testing
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trevor
Can holy spirit be a person? Can god be a person? Can the devil be a person? Do these things actually exist?
It all depends what you want to believe. In our imagination anything is possible.