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THE HOLY GHOST

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 5, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 39.

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THE HOLY GHOST.

By L. D. Santee

Is It a Person? or a Power Sent from God?

BY L. D. SANTEE.
WHILE all agree as to the divinity of the Holy Spirit, all are not agreed in regard to the personality of the Spirit. Converts are baptized in “the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Matt. 28:19. The Father and the Son are persons. Let us see what the Scriptures teach in regard to the Holy Spirit.
Jesus says, “Nevertheless I will tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” John 16:7. Why expedient? Could some other person do better for the world than the world’s Redeemer? The answer is plain. Jesus, being a person, could only be in one place at once.
When Lazarus was sick, Jesus was not in Bethany. But the Holy Spirit, “which proceedeth from the Father” (John 15:29), not being a person, could be world-wide in its ministry.
Read the promise of God in Acts 2:17. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh.” Again in verse 38, Peter said to those who would repent, and be baptized, “Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
The coming of the Holy Ghost gave power (Acts 1:8), and was better for the church than even the visible, bodily presence of their Lord.
The Scriptures often speak of the Holy Ghost in a way that would be out of place if it were a person: “I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed” (Isa. 44:3); “I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh” (Joel 2:28); “On the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 10:45). Had it been a person, these expressions would not have been used.
Why are we never told to pray to the Spirit?—Because it cometh from the Father, and does His will. In thirteen of Paul’s letters, we find this invocation, “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” If the Spirit of God, or the Holy Ghost, is a person, why is the grace of the Spirit never invoked?
We are made “in the image of God” and it is natural to conclude that we have His attributes, only in a lesser degree. We all recognize that we have a magnetic influence over each other. Especially is this observable in the mesmerist, or the hypnotist. That God has this same attribute in an infinitely higher degree, seems reasonable. All comparisons fall short when we compare the finite and the Infinite, but this will give an idea of my meaning.
I read in Acts 10:38 that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.” Again, John 20:22, “He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Evidently it is not a person.
Is not the influence of the Spirit of God like the wireless telegraph, that reaches to the farthest limits of His universe?—an agent, that God uses in accomplishing His purpose? I read that, “the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.” How?—“The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Gen. 1:2. Again I read, in John 6:44, “No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him.” How does He draw him?—“And the Spirit” says, “Come.” Rev. 22:17.
The Spirit of God is all-pervading. David asks, “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?” and after compassing infinity of space, “Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.” Ps. 139:7-10.
Through this agency, God gives to His children any gift that He desires them to possess. The Scriptures were received in this way. 2 Peter 1:21. In this way God satisfies our needs. Luke 11:13.
After the church apostatized, they passed a decree in the Council at Nice, A.D. 325, that the Holy Spirit was a PERSON.
It is said by some, The Spirit of God must be a person, for the Bible when speaking of it, often uses the pronoun, “He.” But is there any real argument here? Recognizing God as the mover, and His Spirit as the instrument, it would be proper to say, “He did it,” or, “It was done by the Holy Spirit.” In neither case have I misstated facts or done violence to language.
Herman Heinfetter has given us a literal translation of the Vatican Manuscript, which is one of the oldest three known in the world. Where the personal pronoun “He” is used, in speaking of the Holy Spirit, he has changed it to “it.” He says, “There are upward of three hundred references to the Holy Spirit under its various titles, and in all but five, the Greek word is neuter, and is connected with neuter pronouns, articles, and adjectives.”
Prof. J. H. Thayer of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., speaking of John 14:17, says, “The pronouns in verse seventeen, are neuter in the best manuscripts.”
Says Prof. Chas. Gardner of Chicago, “The true antecedent of these pronouns in John (14:17 and 16:13, 14) is to pneuma and this is neuter of course, and a true grammatical rendering makes the pronoun neuter.”
Lastly, we shall copy from “The Christian Layman,” page 224, “In the original Greek, to pneuma, is neuter gender, and if it is a person of any sort, it is the only person in heaven or earth that is of that gender. Again it has no proper name, and if it is entitled to personality, it is the only person in the universe that has no name. The Holy Spirit, is not a proper name. It is only the appellation of a thing or power. Proper names do not have the English article before them. We do not say, the Jesus, the Peter, the Paul, the John.”