The Holy Spirit by Dudley Marvin Canright

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jul 25, 1878

The Holy Spirit.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON, BUT AN INFLUENCE PROCEEDING FROM GOD.

ALL trinitarian creeds make the Holy Ghost a person, equal in substance, power, eternity, and glory with the Father and Son. Thus they claim three persons in the trinity, each one equal with both the others. If this be so, then the Holy Spirit is just as truly an individual intelligent person as is the Father or the Son. But this we cannot believe. The Holy Spirit is not a person. In all our prayers we naturally conceive of God as a person, and of the Son as a person; but who ever conceived of the Holy Ghost as being a person, standing there beside the Father and equal with him? Such a conception never enters any one's mind. If you say that it does, we ask of what form is the Holy Ghost? Is it like the Father and Son, in the form of a man? Who can tell? Again, the Father himself is said to be a spirit. Are there, then, two spirits, both divine, both God, both equal to each other, both alike? Then how is one different from the other? God is said to be a spirit; and it is everywhere declared that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of God. Is it then the spirit of a spirit? What kind of spirit would that be? Again, "God is a spirit." John 4:24. Now if the Holy Ghost is a distinct person from the Father, here are two spirits.

That the pre-existent Word, the Son, is another person, our opponents contend; and that he has a spirit they will not deny. Here, then, are three spirits—the son is a spirit, and the Holy Ghost is a spirit, and both equal in substance and power. Well, now the Son has a spirit, for "God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father." Gal. 4:6. Again, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his." Rom. 8:9. This makes four spirits. God also has a spirit. "The Spirit of God." Gen. 1:2. And if the Holy Ghost be equal to the other two persons, then it must have a spirit too. Here are six spirits, and according to our trinitarian brethren, six persons.

How absurd! The simple truth is that God is a real person, in bodily form; and the Holy Spirit is truly the Spirit of God, a divine influence proceeding from the Father and also from the Son, as their power, energy, etc. The Bible never in any case calls the Holy Spirit a person, though it frequently does both the Father and Son. Another fact having an important bearing upon this question, one which shows the utter falsity of the trinitarian creed that makes the Holy Ghost equal with the Father and Son is that the Holy Spirit has no throne, and is never worshiped. Many times it is explicitly declared that both the Father and the Son have a throne, and are seated upon that throne. Rev. 3:21. "But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it." Rev. 22:3. But where is the throne of the Holy Spirit? Who ever heard of that? How astonishing, if the Holy Spirit is the same as the Father and the Son, and is one of the trinity, equal with them in power, substance, and glory! How is it, we ask, that it has no throne while the others have?

Then, again, as before stated, while worship is offered both to the Father and to the Son (see Rev. 5) in no single case is worship ever offered to the Holy Spirit. How can this be harmonized with the supposition that the Holy Ghost is equal with both the Father and the Son? Also we are required to love God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ; but no one is ever required to love the Holy Spirit. No such precept is given, nor is there any reference to it.

Another important fact is, that while very much is said about the great love that exists between the Father and the Son, how tenderly the Father loves the Son, and how devotedly the Son loves the Father, yet not one word is said about the Father's loving the Holy Ghost, nor that the Son loves the Holy Ghost, nor that the Holy Ghost loves either the Father or the Son. No such thought is ever expressed. How shall we account for this fact if the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are three persons alike and equal? How astonishing, we say, that so much is said about the mutual love between the Father and the Son, and yet, not one word is said about a similar love between the Holy Ghost and the other two persons! Why is it left out in this manner? The truth is evident. The Holy Spirit is not a person, not an individual, but is an influence or power proceeding from the Godhead.

Furthermore, it is never said that the Holy Spirit ever loves man; yet it is frequently declared how greatly both the Father and Son do love man. But no such thing is ever said of the Holy Ghost. How shall we account for this? Then, almost every illustration that is given of the Holy Spirit is inconsistent with the idea of its being a person. Let us notice a few. It is compared to water being poured out. "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh." Acts 2:17. It is compared to water shed forth. "Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear." Acts 2:33. How could a person be shed forth? Believers are to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." Matt. 3:11. How could you baptize one person with another person?

We are to drink of the Holy Spirit. "Have been all made to drink into one spirit." 1 Cor. 12:13. How could you drink into a person? It is compared to lamps of fire. "And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God." Rev. 4:5. Has God seven personal spirits, then instead of one? Is each one distinct from the other? Has each one a person? Or is this one person divided into seven parts? What does this mean? All these illustrations plainly show that the Spirit of God is not an individual.

D. M. C.

(To be continued.)