The controversies that raged in early times over the relation of the Spirit to the Father were not, it would seem, so fierce nor so prominent as those, which upon the subject of Jesus Christ the Son of God, or God the Son, caused such unholy quarrels and dissensions in the Christian Church.

However, although the doctrine has not formed the subject of such acute and bitter dissensions, yet it has filled its place in theological discussions, and at times has been probably the cause of some serious declensions from the true body of Christ. Therefore it is necessary, in a subject which deals rather with the modem aspect, when the Spirit is more largely than of old conceived to be a personality, to analyse the words employed to describe it, in the endeavour to discover what is truth upon this particular point.

The Spirit of God is spoken of as being active from the very first. At the time of the creation the Spirit of God was there, and the work was performed by its agency:

"By his (God's) Spirit he hath garnished the heavens" (Job xxvi. 13).

and when the earth was being prepared for Adam's race, then the Spirit was there working the will of the Creator:

"The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen. i. 2).

What, then, is this Spirit which was with God from all time? What was its relation to Yahweh the Creator?

A comparison of the various terms used for recording the same event, will quickly illustrate the position held by the Spirit, and also more certainly define its nature.

From these quotations it will be noticed how that the creation of the universe was attributed to the Spirit's agency; how that God, by His Spirit, had ordered all things. The account of the creation in Genesis though the most complete, is not the sole mention of this great work, in the Scriptures; the creation is frequently the subject of praise. For example, the Psalmist sings the praises of God's handiwork in the 33rd Psalm:

"By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. . . . For he spake and it was done, he commanded, and it stood fast."

Now from this account it will readily be observed how the Psalmist attributes the creation entirely to the "word of the Lord." How Yahweh spake and it was done. Can there be any doubt that the expressions the "word of God" and the "Spirit of God" are identical? Further illustrations must quickly dissipate any remaining doubts.

The Spirit, it is assumed, will be allowed as the means by which God inspired His Apostles and Prophets for His work. Numerous are the occasions when the Prophets record how the Spirit came upon them. Ezekiel testifies how that:

"The Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, speak" (chapter xi. 5).

but Ezekiel also on many occasions interchanges the manner in which he describes this event; for instance, he says:

"The word of the LORD came upon me" (chapter xii. 17).

In New Testament records the same interchange ability of the words may be discovered. The record says when Jesus was performing one of those acts so frequently associated with His name, that:

"He cast out the spirits with his word" (Matt. viii. 16).

but upon another occasion He attributes the performance of the miracles to the Spirit of God:

"I cast out devils by the Spirit of God" (Matt. xii. 28).

Can there be any doubt that the "Spirit" and the "word" are synonymous? God had purposed in Jesus the salvation of the world, and to accomplish that work God gave Jesus the power of performing miracles in attestation of His claim. God is the One who is acting, whether it be by His angels, or His servants the prophets, whether it be by His Apostles, or by His Son; for--

"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Cor. v. 19).

God is the cause of all these actions, and by His Spirit He wills and performs His determinations.

The following analysis will, it is believed, demonstrate the impossibility of ascribing any attribute, other than that of the power of God, to the Spirit.

In the Old Testament there is but one word employed in relation to the Spirit of God:

RUACH

This word is defined by Parkhurst to be:

"Air in motion, a breeze, a breath, wind. See Gen. i. 2; viii. 1. In 1 Kings xviii. 12 seems to denote a miraculous wind from Jehovah. . . . Because air is most powerful, though subtle and invisible agent, hence it is used for The Spirit, or animal soul of a brute. . . .

"As a noun The Holy Spirit, or Spirit of God, whose agency in the spiritual world is, in Scripture, represented to us by that of the air in the natural (Gen. vi.3; x1i.38; Num. xi. 25, 26)."

Accordingly it will be seen that the definition given by Dr. Young is confirmed by Parkhurst. This latter authority, it will be noted, not only does not attribute a personality to the Holy Spirit, but draws as an analogy, the air of the natural world; which all, it is believed, will agree is a power: an agency. The various renderings recorded in the summary at the commencement of this chapter, illustrate how such a meaning is necessarily the correct one:

As air:

"No air can come between them" (Job x1i. 16).

As a blast:

". . . the blast of thy nostrils" (Exodus xv. 8).

As wind:

"The LORD brought an east wind" (Exodus x. 13).

As Spirit:

"Spirit of God is in my nostrils" (marg., breath which God gave him) (Job xxvii. 3)

"When the Queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, there was no more spirit in her" (1 Kings x. 5).

"Daniel was preferred because an excellent spirit was in him" (Dan. vi. 3).

"The Spirit of the LORD came upon David" (1 Sam. xvi. 3).

It is relevant to the examination of this word to note the alternative rendering given to Gen. i. 2, where the Authorised Version reads:

"The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,"

by Professor Cheyne, who renders the whole verse:

"Now the earth was chaos, and darkness was upon the face of the flood, and the wind of Elohim was hovering upon the face of the waters." -Encyclopedia Britannica, Art., "Cosmogony."

There can be no doubt, indeed, that the word is simply that of an agency, a power: whether that power be as "breath," as "a wind," or as the "spirit" within a man; it is that power which controls and energises. No occasion can be discovered where this word can mean a personality; if the Spirit of God be a personality, which the use of these words and the comparison made just previously seem to most positively deny, then authority for attaching to this power such personality must be sought for elsewhere; it cannot be found in the original word for "Spirit" in the Old Testament.

In the New Testament precisely the same definition must be given to "Pneuma," the equivalent in Greek of the Hebrew "Ruach."

PNEUMA

Defined by Liddell and Scott as:

"Wind, air . . . like Latin anima, the air we breathe, breath, also breathing, respiration."

And by Parkhurst:

"Pneuma, from word 'to breathe,' 'wind is nothing else but a large quantity of air flowing, which is also called pneuma.'"

The records in the summary will further illustrate these definitions: for example:

"The body without the spirit (marg., breath) is dead" (James ii. 26).

"The wind bloweth where it listeth" (John iii. 8).

which again describes its agency as a power, and most emphatically excluding any possibility of attributing personality to the Spirit: the word in itself does not teach such a doctrine. The Lord Jesus Himself also regards the Spirit which was showered upon the expectant apostles at Jerusalem shortly after His ascension as a power, saying to them:

"Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke xxiv. 49).

To place greater emphasis upon this matter, the opinion of an authority among Trinitarians is here given. Principal Hill writes in Lectures in Divinity, vol. i., p. 439:

"There are many passages in which the Spirit of God means gifts or powers communicated to men, and from which we are not warranted to infer that there is a person who is the fountain and distributor of these gifts. So we read in the Old Testament, 'the Spirit of the Lord came upon him,' when nothing more is necessarily implied under the expression, than that the person spoken of was endowed with an extraordinary degree of skill, or might, or wisdom. So the promises of the Old Testament, 'I will pour out my Spirit upon you,' were fulfilled under the New Testament by what are there called 'the gifts of the Holy Ghost;' in reference to which we read, that 'Christians received the Holy Ghost,' 'that the Holy Ghost was given to them,' 'that they were filled with the Spirit.' Neither the words of promise, nor the words that relate to the fulfilment of it, suggest the personality of the spirit."

GHOST

This word in the original is the same as the word Spirit, and on all the occasions when it appears in the New Testament,--for the Holy Ghost is not mentioned in the Old Testament,--the word is PNEUMA. It would have been well if this word Ghost had not appeared in the Scriptures at all, for it bears no greater meaning than Spirit, and is frequently the cause of much misconception of the nature of the Spirit.

HOLY

The word "Holy," HAGIOS, is defined by Dr. Young as "Separate, set apart, holy," and by Webster:

"Set apart to the service and worship of God; hallowed; sacred; reserved from profane or common use, as 'holy vessels;' 'a holy priest hood.'"

The reason of its occasional use in the Scriptures will be readily appreciated, from these definitions. This Spirit power, which pervades the whole universe, is constantly in application in upholding all creation, but when God is performing work special to His purpose with man, it is sanctified to this mission, it is set apart for this particular purpose. It should be particularly remarked that no doctrine of the character of the Trinity may be predicated upon this word.

It is also interesting to note that even when the Spirit is being applied by God to a particular purpose, it is not in any way an invariable rule to describe it as "Holy."

Peter says that:

"Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter i. 21).

but when the Holy Ghost, or Spirit, came upon the prophets of old, it is frequently described in more simple language:

Of the seventy elders chosen to assist Moses in judging the children of Israel:

"the Spirit rested upon them" (Num. xi. 25).

Of the prophets:

"Thy Spirit in thy prophets" (Neh. ix. 30).

Of Ezekiel:

"the Spirit took me up" (Ezek. iii. 12).

While the appearance of the two words in one sentence is to be discovered in Luke iv. l:

"Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness."

There is "one Spirit" as Paul writes to the Ephesians (chapter iv. 4), and accordingly it is plain that the modes of expressing the Spirit of God, as "Holy Ghost," "Holy Spirit," "Spirit," and "spirit," are alternative.

By reason of the Spirit being the power of God, and thus so immediately being identified with Him the empowering of persons by the Holy Spirit is frequently described as the presence of the Lord:

"The Spirit of the Lord came upon David" (1 Sam. xvi. 13)

"Saul was afraid of David because the LORD was with him" (1 Sam. xviii. 12).

Again, upon the occasion of that terrible exhibition of Apostolic power, shortly after the first gift of it:

"Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?" (Acts v. 3).

"Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God" (Acts v. 4).

There can be no doubt indeed that the original words do not of themselves teach the personality of the Spirit, and accordingly there is no warrant in the words for attributing to this Spirit of God, the third place in the Trinity; if such a doctrine be true, then its pronouncement by God as a truth must be sought elsewhere.

SECTION 3: Scripture Supposed To Support The Doctrine Of The Trinity Examined And Explained