Holy Spirit as Force

John Ritenbaugh, relating four Scriptures pertaining to Pentecost (comprising 700 years in fulfillment), suggests that God does not regard time the same way as we do. Spiritual entities, such as word and ideas, are powerful and potentially dangerous if used for evil purposes. We can be easily manipulated if we do not guard our minds. Politicians and advertisers unscrupulously use the prevailing Zeitgeist to manipulate, trap, and control gullible people. Spirit is an invisible force, the effects of which are abundantly clear by its manifestations. Spirit can be discerned by carefully thinking through and taking stock of its multiple effects. The Holy Spirit can be described as the mind and creative power of Almighty God. The spirit in man is an immaterial quality that empowers, giving the power of intellect, controlling the sensory modalities, giving us the ability to be self-aware. Spirit gives humans the power to think spatially, use language, invent, and plan for the future. We have never seen this spirit, but we use it every day. Words have the invisible power to encode thoughts, motivating people to feel or accomplish something. Words can inspire or defile, motivate or depress. The source of all sin is in the spirit or thought processes. Satan and his demonic forces use words to corrupt the vast majority of humankind, including ourselves. The only antidote to these vile thought processes is the Word of God. We have been mandated to choose to either follow God's pure, liberating, and clean Holy Spirit rather than to choose to yield to Satan's unholy, vile, enslaving, and dirty spirit. We absorb God's Holy Spirit by imbibing in His Word, spending as much time with God as possible.

In discussing the Holy Spirit and the Trinity, John Ritenbaugh reiterates that the Holy Spirit is never venerated as a separate being (Revelation 22:1-3, John 10:30, John 17:3). Spirit (ruach-Hebrew or pneuma-Greek), something never seen, is manifested or personified in many diverse ways such as truth, adoption, anger, courage, grace, faith, (states of mind or emotion, character, or personality) etc. In every instance it is preceded by the words "spirit of." Spirit applies to an invisible force or power within man or beast or angelic being making them unique. Our hope of glory is the "indwelling of Christ" and is used interchangeably with "Spirit of God" and "Spirit of Truth." Jesus promised a spirit of power from on high made available for His disciples (as diverse spiritual gifts) to witness of Him. The Holy Spirit, as a force or power dwelling in us, enables us to keep God's law and to receive our new nature. Pneuma and ruach represent that invisible power applied in many diverse ways manifesting in us the power of God making it possible to have an intimate family relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, perfectly unified in purpose and composition, analogous to the relationship of husband and wife—at one in a family relationship. Ruach Ha Kodesh or Pneuma Hagion (Christ in us) provides the metaphoric glue to make this cleavage possible - making our God-family relationship manifest.

John Ritenbaugh reveals that the architects and custodians of the trinity concept admit that it is a "somewhat unsteady silhoette," unsupportable by Scripture unless one forces external presuppositions, assumptions, and inferences onto it'as did Catholic theologians at the end of the fourth century. The Holy Spirit (designated as ruach in the Hebrew and pneuma in the Greek) constitutes the non-physical, invisible essence of God's mind (I Corinthians 2:10,16) which He miraculously joins to the minds of those He calls (John 6:44), transferring His thoughts, attititudes, and character, and enabling us to have the will and the ability to carry out the creative work of God the Father (Philippians 2:13; John 14:10).

In this Pentecost message, John Ritenbaugh emphasizes that the receiving of God's Holy Spirit is not so much for our use as it is for God's use that He might carry out His creative effort in our lives. Metaphorically, the Holy Spirit can be compared to the water which the potter uses to bring the clay to the right consistency. God's Spirit brings about a transformation- turning something from a state of destruction into a state of purity. God desires to give us His Spirit and gifts in abundance, but on the condition that our motives for wanting them are unselfish. God uses His Spirit: (1) as a bridgehead through which He works His spiritual creation,(2) to empower the church, and (3) to empower us to yield to Him.

John Ritenbaugh reiterates that the trinity doctrine, never taught by Jesus or the apostles, arrived on the scene 400 years later, derived by a flawed premise and deductive logic. The trinity must be "read into" the scriptures, not "derived from it." Our Elder Brother torpedoes the co-equal three-in-one concept by his words, "My father is greater than I," acknowledging the Father's sovereignty. Theologians, misapplying grammatical gender and personification, falsely deduce a phantom spirit not supported by scripture — except by an insidious insertion of spurious scripture (I John 5:7) totally absent in the original writings. The apostles, in their greetings referring to the Father and the Son, totally ignore the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, sometimes pictured as a dove, water, wind, breath, or oil, is a creating force emanating from God's mind, the very power of God.