Dig Deeper: The HOLY SPIRIT is Not an "it"

Friday, December 1, 2023

The HOLY SPIRIT is Not an "it"

"CHRISTIANITY in all that in itself it is, contemplates only a

Person. It has its origin only in a Person. It comes to men only from a Person. It is given to men only by a Person. It is sustained and maintained in believers only by a Person.

Christian loyalty, therefore, is and can be only loyalty to that Person. The loyalty of Christians can never be to anybody, and much less to any thing, other than just that one Person. And that Person is God—God, in Christ, through and by the Holy Spirit.

God is a person—a living, intelligent, person: a person who thinks, who loves, who pities, who speaks, who is good, who is true, who is faithful, who enters into covenant with men, and who keeps covenant and mercy with men forever.

And Christ Jesus is a person. In this personal Christ the personal God is manifested to the world and made personally known to believing men. Christ, was a person before he came into the world; yea, he was a person before ever the world was.

*This same Person who was before the world, and who made the world and made man, came into the world and to man.

*He was a person in the world and with mankind.

*In this same person he left the world and ascended to heaven and to the personal God of heaven.

*In this same Person, and as this same Person glorified, he is at the right hand of the throne of the personal God in Heaven.

*And in this same Person, and as this same Person glorified, He is soon corning again in all the glory to glorify and take to Himself and to the personal God of glory, all who are His by a personal faith upon their own personal choice.

And the Holy Spirit is a person. This great truth is not recognized, indeed it is not believed, by more than a very few even of Christians. For everybody knows that almost invariably, with very, very few exceptions, the Holy Spirit is referred to and spoken of by Christians as “it.”

But the word “it” never applies to a person. The word “it,” in the

very genius of our language, refers and applies only to things, never to persons; to things of inanimate substance, as a stone, a horse, a tree; or to things of concept, or experience, as space, height, breadth, peace, joy, grief, an impression, an influence. But the Holy Spirit is none of these: the Holy Spirit is not an influence; nor an impression, nor peace, nor joy, nor any thing. The Holy Spirit gives peace, and gives joy, assuages in grief, makes an impression, exerts an influence; but the Holy Spirit is none of these things, nor any other thing.

No, eternally no! The Holy Spirit is a Person, eternally a divine Person. And He must be always recognized and spoken of as a Person, or he is not truly recognized or spoken of at all.

See how plain and emphatic the Scriptures set forth this truth that the Holy Spirit is only a Person: and to aid the reader to see this truth, we will print in capital letters Italic, the words that designate the Holy Spirit:—

John 14:16, 17: “I will pray the Father, and he shall give, you another comforter that HE may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; WHOM the world cannot
receive because it (the world) seeth HIM not, neither knoweth HIM; but ye know HIM; for HE dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

John 15:26: “When the Comforter is come, WHOM I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which (WHO, Revised Version and others) proceedeth from the Father, HE shall testify of me.”

John 6:7-15: “If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you; And when HE is come, HE will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.) ... I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now. Howbeit, when HE, the Spirit of Truth is come, HE will guide you into all truth; for HE shall not speak for HIMSELF; but whatsoever HE shall hear, that shall HE speak; and HE will shew you things to come. HE shall glorify me; for HE shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore, said I, that HE shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.”

Thus in the short space of a few lines the Lord Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as a person; and speaks of Him in no other term than that which signifies in Greek, literally, “that person there.”

Therefore to be consistent those people who persist in speaking of the Holy Spirit as “it,” should also speak of Christ as “it,” and of God as “it.”

But as certainly as any one speaks of God as HE and of Christ as HE, he must also speak of the Holy Spirit as HE.

A. T. Jones, The Medical Missionary p. 98, 1907

What We BELIEVE

* And now abideth faith, hope, LOVE, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE. 1 Corinthians 13:13

* Genesis 1-11 is actual HISTORY

* The 10 Commandments WAS - IS - & WILL BE the LAW of GOD

* REVELATION is written in symbols for actual end time events

* The SANCTUARY lays out the Plan of Salvation (Justification / Outer Court + Sanctification / Inner Court = preparation for your Judgment / Most Holy Place)

* The solemnity of the 7th day SABBATH (Saturday) was NEVER transferred to the 1st day of the week (Sunday) by God

* The modern charismatic movement is a counterfeit Latter Rain

* The Mark-of-the-beast will involve some sort of counterfeit Sabbath

* "Soul Sleep" for the State of the Dead (dead until the resurrection)

* The Godhead (Trinity) are 3 separate beings who work together in unity

* The GODHEAD's Existence is ETERNAL (in other words-The arrow of time stretching for Infinity in both directions)

* The GREEN RELIGION (modern environmental movement) is a cleverly cloaked spiritualism for the "sophisticated" modern world

* The Little Horn of Daniel & the Beast of Revelation (a.k.a. the anti-christ to some) is one & the same institution - the same institution the Reformers declared it to be during the Reformation

* Marriage is between ONE man & ONE woman

* The Emerging Church movement -- & spiritual formation are modern day GNOSTICISM & have NO place within Christendom

* Women Ordination is an ASSAULT on the foundation of the Godhead (as God is the head of Christ in an ecclesiastical setting - so too was the man placed as the head of the woman in an ecclesiastical setting -- outside this setting they are equal as Christ is with the Father)

* Baptism is by Immersion at an age of consent

* Justification + Sanctification = TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH....(Justification) Neither do I condemn thee: (Sanctification) go, and sin no more. John 8:11

* God is NOT homophobic -- rather He is sexual immorality phobic (HE places adultery, fornication, rape, bestiality, cross dressing AND homosexuality ALL in the same category)

* "HELL" is NOT an eternally burning place -- rather it is the Lake of Fire where the wicked will be destroyed together once & for all when this Great Controversy between God & His opponent comes to an end....God does NOT torment people for eternity

* The "Great Controversy" theme is the prism to make sense of this universal conflict between God & His opponent, of which we play a part on this space fabric of time as a "spectacle" (as Paul calls it) before all watching

* Biblical "speaking in tongues" was a GIFT of known foreign languages for Evangelization (not the gibberish "tongues" uttered in churches today)

* Historicism is the way to interpret eschatology from the view of the prophetic porch (NOT preterism, futurism or idealisim)

* The 3 Angel's Message (of Rev.14) is the central Mission of the SDA Church & the Sanctuary Doctrine (& it's sub-doctrine of the Investigative Judgment) is the Cornerstone Doctrine of the Denomination

* The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a SYMBOLIC Remembrance

* The 2nd Advent of Christ will be a literal, visible, physical return where EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM & that is when the dead will rise & the living be caught up-- Not at some sort of a "secret rapture" before His return...

* On the Nature of Christ - He was born with our sinful fallen nature / propensities--yet did NOT sin - hence His ability to be the spotless Lamb of God - the Lamb without blemish to cover ours

* 7th Day Adventism did not rise up at the end of the time-frame of Daniel 8:14 to be just another denomination to hang upon the wall of Christendom...

* The Dispensations around the Cross are 1) Before the Cross the Plan of Redemption laid out in the earthly Sanctuary in Types & Symbols patterned after the Heavenly Sanctuary {from the Altar of Sacrifice to the Mercy Seat} 2) After the Cross shifts to the REALITY of the Heavenly Sanctuary {from the Cross to the Judgment Seat}. ---- We REJECT the Dispensationalism that says "before the cross we were saved by the Law & after the Cross by Grace" ---- (the reason is because on BOTH SIDES OF THE CROSS we were never saved by the Law and always saved by Grace)

* We REJECT the DISGUSTING "Prosperity Gospel" as many see TV (so-called) Evangelists preach today

* Justification & Sanctification Simplified - God draws the BOUNDARIES with His LAW. When we step outside of them it's called SIN. (He offers JUSTIFICATION to remedy it). But afterwards He expects us to step back within those Boundaries (called SANCTIFICATION ).

* EndTime "BABYLON" - Confederacy of the Counterfeit Trinity of the "Dragon", "Beast" & "False Prophet" of Rev.16:13. (Also a term of Reference for the Fallen Condition of Christendom)

*The OLD TESTAMENT is simply the NEW TESTAMENT in Types & Symbols- therefore both are valid for Study & Doctrine.

* "A Minister's words are only of Value as long as his word's are an Echo of the Word's of God." {Dwayne Lemon}

* We REJECT the Church being involved with the ECUMENICAL movement....where do you see in Scripture God's people ever being told to be Ecumenical with neighboring religions?.. Nowhere....

*We believe in "Replacement Theology", that "Israel" in prophetic terms and spiritually is God's people...NOT Literal, Modern Day Israel in the Middle East.

* Tithing is Biblical: MONEY (1/10 to God) TIME (1/7 to God- the 7th day of the week, called the SABBATH)

* Soteriology: We believe in total FREE WILL as a component. - Therefore we Reject Sacramentalism, Predestination, Once-Saved-Always-Saved, Universalism & Pluralism.

* The HEALTH MESSAGE-Live it as best you can. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest....be in health... 3 John 1:2

* And always remember - "If you feel yourself to be the greatest sinner, Christ is just what you need, the greatest Savior. Lift up your head and look away from yourself, away from your sin, to the uplifted Savior; away from the poisonous, venomous bite of the serpent to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." Ellen White {JUSTIFICATION}

* "God has given us His commandments, not only to be believed in, but to be obeyed." Ellen White {SANCTIFICATION}

* SUMMARY: "Every chapter and every verse of the Bible is a communication from God to men." Ellen White

* WARNING: "...by beholding we become changed. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell. It becomes assimilated to that which it is accustomed to love and reverence." Ellen White

Are Ashes Upon Your Lips?

The love of God still yearns over the one who has chosen to separate from Him, and He sets in operation influences to bring him back to the Father's house.
--Have you, reader, chosen your own way?
--Have you wandered far from God?
--Have you sought to feast upon the fruits of transgression, only to find them turn to ashes upon your lips?
Now that voice which has long been speaking to your heart but to which you would not listen comes to you distinct and clear, Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest; because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction. Micah 2:10. Return to your Father's house. He invites you, saying, Return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee. Isa. 44:22.
E.G.W.