HOLY SPIRIT (in the A. V. and older English,
Holy Ghost): The third person of the Trinity.
Other Scriptural designations are: the Spirit
(Matt. iv. 1);
the Spirit
of God
(I Cor. ii. 14);
the
Spirit of Christ
(I Pet. i. 11);
the Spirit of grace
(Heb. x. 29);
the Spirit of truth
(John xvi. 13);
the
Comforter (Gk.
parakl&es,
" advocate, intercessor,
helper ";
John xiv. 26, xv. 26).
For the Trinitarian
relation of the Spirit see
Trinity;
for the procession of the Spirit see
Filioque Controversy.
This article will deal with the personality and work
of the Spirit.
I. Personality: While early Christian writings
(the Shepherd of Hernias, Justin Martyr, Irenmus,
Origen) seem at times to teach the subordination
of the Spirit to the Father and to the Son, and
to
waver concerning his personality, upon the
whole their testimony is unmistakably in favor
of the personality. The doctrine of the Holy
Spirit was not made prominent till the fourth
century. The Apostles' and Nicene Creed have
the simple statements of belief "in the Holy
Ghost." The Nicene Creed as revised at ConstantinopIe (381) has the fuller formula, [And we believe]
" in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life,
who proceedeth from the Father, and with the
Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who
spake by the prophets." The personality of the
Spirit is
rejected by Sabellians, Arians, Socinians,
and Unitarians, the Socinians representing the Spirit
as an energy or power of God. The personality is
proved by the following considerations: (1) The
personal pronoun " he " is used of the Spirit
(
John xvi. 13).
(2) He is expressly distinguished from
God the Father and the Son
(
John xiv. 16, 26;
I Cor. ii. 10).
(3) Acts of will and intelligence are
attributed to him, such as belong only to a personal agent
(
John xv. 26, xvi. 8, 13;
Acts xiii. 2;
Rom. viii. 26).
(4) He is directly contrasted with
Satan
(
Acts v. 3)
and may be the object of blasphemy (Matt.
xu.
31), falsehood
(
Acts v.
3),
and
grievance
(
Eph. iv. 30).
(5) In the formula of
baptism
(
Matt. xxviii. 19)
and in the apostolic
benediction
(
II Cor. xiii. 14)
he is distinguished
from the Father and the Son; so also in
I Pet. i. 1-12
distinct functions are ascribed to the Father,
Son, and Spirit.
II. Office and Work: Like the Father and the
Son, the Spirit has ever been active. His person
ality and his work are brought out
Biblical clearly in the New Testament as effi-
Teaching. cient in the
renewal of the soul and its
sanctification. The fact that Christ
promised to send the Holy Spirit and assured the
disciples that they should be filled with the Holy
Spirit indicates that his temporal mission in the
Church involved, if not some now element of ac
tivity, at least some increase in the efficacy of that
influence which it has always been his office to
exercise upon the hearts of men. According to the
statements of the apostolic writers, he was the
author of the light which the prophets of the Old
Testament had of the coming of Christ
(
I Pet. i. 11)
and of their inspiration
(
II Pet. i. 21).
It might
be possible to explain all passages of the Old Testament
referring to the "Spirit of God"
(
Gen. i. 2, vi. 3;
etc.) as meaning the influence of God upon
the heart of man; but in view of the New Testament
revelation the influence of the personal Holy
Spirit appears in
the operation of God upon the
hearts of the Old Testament saints and prophets.
As for the New Testament, it is not always
possible to determine with assurance whether the
personal Holy Spirit is meant or the divine influence
(cf.
Luke iv. 18).
But that he had a definite work
assigned to him in the development of our Lord's
life the language
certainly implies
(Matt. iii. 16, iv. 1;
Luke i. 35).
In his last discourses Jesus
promised that the Spirit should come as his representative after his removal from the earth and the
dispenser of the benefits of his life
to the souls of
believers
(John xiv. 16, xv. 26, xvi. 7, 13;
Acts i. 8).
The Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ
(Rom. viii. 9)
because he holds the relation of a dispenser
to the benefits of Christ's salvation. He
has a
relation to Christ similar to that which the Son has
to the Father: as the Son reveals the Father
(John i. 18),
so the Spirit reveals the grace and meritorious
atonement and promises of Christ to the heart of
the believer (John xvi.15).
The Spirit, as promised, descended with power
on the Day of Pentecost (Acts ii.). Since that day
the Church has looked to the Spirit as
The the source of all inner enlightenment,
Descent without whose
agency man neither
of the knows Christ as his Savior nor can call
Spirit. him Lord
(I
Cor. xii. 3).
He is called
the "Holy Spirit of promise"
(Eph. i. 13)
with reference to the new life of the believer
and the new realm into which the believer is trans
ferred. He is the originator of the conviction of sin
(John xvi. 8-9)
and the author of regeneration
(John iii. 5).
He promotes the sanctification of the
soul
(I Cor. vi. 11),
and imparts to the Church his
special gifts
(I Cor. xii. 4).
The agency of the Spirit
extends to assuring the believer of his union with
Christ, and participation in the promises of eternal
life
(Rom. viii. 16).
All spiritual blessings, right
eousness, peace, and joy, come to the believer by
reason of his reception of the Holy Spirit
(Rom. xiv. 17;
Eph. ii. 18).
All kinds and degrees of sin may
be forgiven, except the sin of blasphemy against the
Holy Spirit
(Matt. xii. 31, 32).
This sin is unpardon
able, because it is the final rejection of the saving
knowledge of Christ himself.
The present dispensation is called the dispensation
of the Spirit because of the prominence given
to his work and person. The Spirit's work, however,
is in no sense an atoning work or a substitute for
that of Christ. It is mediatorial between the Savior
and the saved, realizing the salvation of Jesus in
the lives and experiences of individuals. The mani
festation of the Spirit continues, as on the Day of
Pentecost, a manifestation of power-the power of
a new life and spiritual energy
(Acts i. 8).
There
is no indication in the New Testament that this
manifestation of power was to be confined to apos
tolic times, though it is reasonable that the methods
of the manifestation should be different in kind at
different epochs.
D. S. Schaff.
Bibliography:
Of the Confessions the Westminster Con
fession as revised in 1903 by the Presbyterian Church con
tains the fullest treatment. Consult: A.
Kuyper, The
Work of
the Holy Spirit, New York, 1900 (contains a bib
liography of the older literature); J. Owen, Of the Holy
Spirit, London, 1674 (the classic in English); R. Heber,
Personality and Office of the , . . Corlforter, ib. 1816; Pye
Smith, On the Holy Ghost, ib. 1831; K. A. Kahnis, Die
Lehre vom heiligen Geisls, Halle, 1847 (incomplete); J.
Buchanan, Ofce and Work of the Holy Spirit, Edinburgh,
1856; J. Hare, The Mission of the Comforter, ed. E. H,
Plumptre, ib. 1877; H. H. Wendt, Die Begrife Pleisch
and Geist in biblischen SpradWebrauch, Gotha, 1878;
G. Smeaton, Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Edinburgh, 1882;
H.'Gunkel, Die Wirkungen des heiligen Geistes nach der
Anachauung der aposWischen Zeit and each der
Lehre des . . . Paulus, Halle, 1888; J. Robson, The Holy
Spirit, the Paraclete, Aberdeen, 1893; A. J. Gordon, The
Ministry of the Holy Spirit, New York, 1894; W. K511
ing, Pneumatologie oder die Lehre von der Person des heili
pen Geistes, Gütersloh, 1894; J. P. Coyle, The Holy Spirit
in Literature and Life, Boston, 1895; K. von Lechler, Die
biblische Lehre vom heiligen Geiste, Leipsic, 1899; K.
F. Nbegen, Geschichte won der Lehre room heiligen Geiste,
Gütersloh, 1899; idem, Do# Wesen and Wirken des
Heiligen Geistes, Berlin, 1907; F. B. Denio, The Supreme
Leader, Boston, 1900; J. E. C. Welldon, The Revelation of
the Holy Spirit,
London, 1902;
L. B. Crane, Teachings of
Jesus concerning the Holy Spirit, New York, 1908;
J. H. B. Masterman, "I believe
in the Holy Ghost." A
Study of
the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the Light of
Modern Thought,
London, 1907; A. C. A. Hall,
The Work
of the Holy Spirit,
Milwaukee, 1907; J. D. Folsom,
The
Holy Spirit our Helper,
New York, 1907; G. F. Holden,
The Holy Ghost the Comforter,
New York, 1908; F. C.
Porter,
The Spirit of
God and the Word of God in Modern
Theology,
ib. 1908; E. W. Winetanley,.
The Spirit in the
N. T., ib. 1908. Consult also the pertinent sections on
the systems of theology cited under
Dogma, Dogmatics.