Holy Spirit: the Father and/or Son

Mark Schindler, explaining that the purpose of the weekly commentary is not to promote any political agenda, but to help God's People steer clear of toxic worldviews, reminds us that God is above partisan politics. One recent result of such factionalism-run-rampant has been the destruction of civility in the public square as pompous, egocentric pundits dig into ideological trenches which admit to no reconciliation. A salient example of this entrenchment is the uncompromising vitriol between two formerly close friends, George Will and William Bennett. Will has vilified Vice President Pence as being an insincere sycophant of President Trump. By launching salvos of poly-syllabic name-calling, Will, charter member of the Never-Trump movement, has made himself the darling of the left-wing media. Bennett, counteracts Will's venomous attacks on Vice President Pence, suggesting that his only purpose is to denigrate men who are making the nation better. Where soft answers are lacking, anger erupts, and conciliatory spirits vanish into the darkness of deceptions. God's people should avoid being drawn into these secular conflicts because resolution is only available through yielding to Jesus Christ—something those uncalled by God cannot do.

David Grabbe, mentioning the typical reaction of subscribers to statements against the trinity doctrine, reminds us that the great false church has had 1,600 years to falsely indoctrinate its congregation with a false explanation of the nature of God's Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit or the Comforter is Jesus Christ's mind dwelling in us, shaping our behavior, molding us into the mirror image of Jesus Christ. The reference to "walking in the spirit" in Micah 2:11 refers metaphorically to having a dominant attitude and behavior, adopting a lifestyle-trajectory toward walking in a false spirit or, conversely, walking in the spirit. Spiritual neglect weakens a child of God so that things of the flesh become more important. If we live by the flesh, we will ultimately die. If fleshly things become more important, we are on a trajectory toward death. God's called-out ones must exercise control, drawing on the power of God's Holy Spirit.

Charles Whittaker, reflecting on the episode in Genesis 11:1-9, in which God confused the languages, terminating the construction of the Tower of Babel, provides some insights as to the motivation of the Babel- folk for attempting to construct this doomed edifice. In these concentrated nine verses, we learn that man proposes and God deposes. In direct defiance of God's command to spread out over the entire earth, not concentrating in massive communities, Nimrod, in an effort to prevent the people from being scattered, sought to build a structure which would reach high enough into the heavens to safeguard against destruction by a universal flood. The Babylonian plain had few stones for building, but the Babel folk had carried through the Flood the basic technology for making bricks, baking them in a kiln. What attracted them to that particular region in Mesopotamia was abundant tar, pitch, or asphalt, making it possible, in Nimrod's mind, to use it as mortar, making the edifice waterproof and flood resistant. Nevertheless, lacking the iron technology which would have reinforced the walls, the structure itself would have probably collapsed on its own before it would have reached even the height of the pyramids. Nimrod's ill-fated plan, which supported the peoples' fear of loss of community and fear of scattering, was obliterated when God confused the languages. While Nimrod's plan for one world-one language failed, God reversed the Babel debacle with His own plan to unify, making one called-out people having one mutually understood language, commencing on a small scale on Pentecost, A.D. 31, when people heard the disciples preaching in their own languages, a project which will eventually lead to one pure language.

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.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh:  Most Bible students realize that most of the New Testament books are letters—epistolé in Greek and our “epistle,” which is a written communication between parties. ...

John Ritenbaugh, maintaining that our responsibility is to yield to God's sovereignty, nevertheless suggests that God has, by giving us free will, enabled us to freely sin, but holds us responsible for governing ourselves. The word govern, derived from the Latin noun gubern?tor, indicates a regulating, as in steering a ship with a rudder. The edict to submit to civil authority has a built-in exception when the civil government has explicitly asked us to do something contrary to God's Law. No power exists that is not in some degree permitted by God. All governments have the responsibility to protect the law-abiding, to punish evil doers, and to establish peace. The American government was established in a climate of rebellion against oppression and a desire to be free. The Founding Fathers were educated men, schooled in English Law and the ordinances of the Bible. John Adams warned that this government, based on maximum liberty, would only work for a moral citizenry. Sadly, the current citizenry is more concerned about their own selfish obsessions for entitlements than the welfare of the nation. God's government has also given us maximum liberty, but we have a daunting responsibility to govern ourselves. We have been called by God to do God's will, following in Christ's steps. In order to regulate ourselves, we must have the same kind of vision that Abraham and Moses possessed, leading them to the Promised Land. This vision can only occur if we have Christ within us, producing spiritual fruit. Without Christ, we can do nothing. As the physical Israelites had to eat manna to be sustained, the spiritual Israelites must be sustained on the true bread, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit (the mind of God the Father and Jesus Christ), giving us the ability to keep His commandments.

Government may very well be the most important subject in all the Bible because it contains the vital knowledge of how Christians are to govern themselves under the sovereignty of God. John Ritenbaugh concludes his series on our full acceptance of God's sovereignty by highlighting how Christ helps us to follow God's will as He did.

Mark Schindler, reflecting on the television program Shark Tank, which displays a nexus of entrepreneurs and wealthy investors who have the power to make things happen, draws some spiritual analogies examining what makes and breaks deals. The wealthy investor (or the shark) desires to make ambitious entrepreneurs successful by combining their investments with the entrepreneur's desire to be successful enough to willingly sacrifice everything for the sake of the project. Interestingly, the investors find pride a disgusting deal breaker, while they look favorably upon wholehearted zeal and willingness to work 24/7 with a single-minded focus to get the job done. God can take misdirected zeal, as in the case of Saul, who became the apostle Paul, rechanneling it to a positive purpose. God wants to protect his investment in us, calling those whom He knows will exercise the ardency, zeal, willingness to sacrifice, and pure sitzfleisch to stick with the project until it is completed. Are we able to see the investment God has made in us? Are we willing to make a 24/7 commitment to our calling?

God's grace is so wonderful and undeserved that, to many of us, it is almost unfathomable. Perhaps we have such a hard time understanding it because we tend to think of it as a "thing" that God dispenses. John Ritenbaugh shows, however, that "grace" is a term that represents God's awesome generosity toward us, His continuously flowing blessings and saving acts.

John Ritenbaugh reiterates that Elohim is a plural noun indicating more than one personality. Elohim could be considered a genus—a God-kind, parallel to human-kind, animal-kind, etc. Jesus Christ, as the second Adam, is the beginning of the spiritual kind. The creation has switched from physical to spiritual as God reproduces His kind. God the Father and Jesus Christ are two separate personalities, with the Father having pre-eminence. The Bible contains no shred of evidence to substantiate a third person in the God family, let alone a third co-equal being in a closed trinity. The Holy Spirit as a person did not enter the Roman Catholic Church until well into the 4th century. The doctrine was developed out of speculation, deduction, and human reason, ignoring and displacing scriptural evidence. The trinity doctrine is read into, rather than read out of the, scripture. The Holy Spirit has been designated as the "power of God" in the angels' announcement to Mary. According to the scripture, people will be immersed in the Holy Spirit, and it will be poured out on people, it will fall in people, it will fill a room, etc. In the salutations in the epistles from Paul, James, and Peter, the Holy Spirit is never mentioned as a personality or a part of the God family, and never mentioned in the chain of command. In Psalm 139, the Holy Spirit was designated as the power of God, the means through which He accomplishes His will, HIS very spirit! The communion of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to have fellowship with God and Jesus Christ, and it provides an invisible communication network to connect all of Christ's body simultaneously. When one looks at the figurative applications of the Holy Spirit (metaphor, simile, imagery, personification, anthropomorphism), the idea of the Holy Spirit as a person becomes increasingly absurd.

John Ritenbaugh asserts that we keep the Days of Unleavened Bread, not just as a memorial of the Passover and Exodus event, but because of what the Lord did to bring us out of sin (typified by Egypt). What God does sets everything in motion, significantly eclipsing what we are required to do. God continually does battle for us, breaking down the resistance of Satan (typified by Pharaoh). While God compels us to make choices, He is with us all the way, leading us out of our abject slavery to sin into freedom and eternal life. It is God's calling that makes a difference; no one ever volunteers to follow Him. All that God did to get physical Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land served as a type of what God does for us, calling us out of this world into the Kingdom of God. God is sovereign, necessitating that we diligently seek Him in order to be like Him, yielding to His sanctification, getting rid of all our false gods, worshipping Him in spirit and truth. As a branch attached or grafted to a vine, we cannot do anything without Jesus Christ, who alone enables us to produce or bear fruit through God's Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, and Christ's own Spirit dwelling in us. God is exclusively the God of His people and no one else.

Focusing upon Galatians 4:6, John Ritenbaugh reiterates that Jesus Christ constitutes that Spirit that had been designated to dwell within us. There is no third person in a closed trinity. Jesus Christ and God the Father are one in spirit and purpose, purposing to draw us toward that same kind of unity that currently exists between them. The word Elohim is not limited to god-beings, gender, or family. There are two God beings working in such harmony (John 10:30) that they are one family. The Father and the son are both of the God-kind (group, class, family)- creating, ruling beings. Absolute can be considered a synonym for supreme; there is no one to whom God the Father must submit. Jesus Christ did yield to the Father and had as His function revealing the Father. By Jesus' own testimony, Jesus recognized the Father as greater (or superior) than He (John 5:30; 6:38; 8:29; 12:49-50; 14:28). Paul recognized that the Father was superior to Christ in rank (I Corinthians 15:27-28). Revelation 3:12 The lesser is submitting to the greater. As fully spirit, Jesus still recognized the Father's superiority; Jesus was admitting He was not the Absolute God, even though both were equal in terms of their kind. In terms of function and responsibility, God the Father is superior (I Corinthians 8:6, Ephesians 4:4-6, I Timothy 3:17); God's family has hierarchy. Jesus, subject to the Father- the Absolute God, is our Lord, Master, and Savior, and High Priest, and entirely worthy of our worship (Matthew 9:18, John 9:38).Jesus, His cousin John the Baptist, and the Apostle Paul gave substantiation to Christ's eternal pre- existence (John 1:1-2,30, 3:13, 8:58, 1 Corinthians 10:9, Hebrews 11:27)The God of the Old Testament was Jesus Christ. Jesus begotten siblings, once born into the God family as God-beings, are worthy of worship (Revelation 3:9); they are NOT the God head.

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.

Richard Ritenbaugh, focusing on the five parakletos sayings of Christ, affirms that the Holy Spirit is the essence, mind, and power of God and Christ in us, providing us assistance and counsel. Many of the definitions of parakletos, a verbal adjective in the masculine gender, connote distinctive legal or judicial dimensions: advocate, counselor, advisor, intercessor, mediator, or proxy. Many Old Testament figures served in the capacity of an intercessor for others before God. The apostle John, the other Gospel writers, and the apostle Paul emphatically declare that Jesus Christ, the Lord, is our intercessor or parakletos. Jesus describes the function of the Holy Spirit as 1) helper, 2) teacher, 3) witness (proof of Jesus living in us), 4) prosecutor (convicting of sin and prompting to righteousness), and 5) revealer and guide (making God real to us, preparing us for eternal life in God's Family).

God is working to build a relationship with us, dispensing gifts for overcoming and working out His greater purpose. God's Spirit is 1) an immaterial, invisible force which motivates, impels, and compels; 2) whenever referring to a person clearly identifies the Father and the Son; 3) when not referring to a person is the essence of God's mind; and 4) can be communicated to our minds. We receive more of this Spirit as we respond to His calling, drawing near to His presence and reversing Adam and Eve's fatal errors of 1) being convinced that their way was better than God's, 2) developing pride, and 3) trying to justify themselves. Reversing these three steps brings nearness to God and spiritual growth.

John Ritenbaugh emphasizes that God's Spirit is the essence of God's mind rather than a third person of a trinity. With this Spirit, God opens our minds, dwells in us, and implants or transfers His Family characteristics into us through His Word (Romans 8:9-10; I Corinthians 2:10; Hebrews 8:10; 10:16). Just as a family member can live on another continent and still literally be in a family, so can Christ, the Father, and His called-out ones be "in one another" (John 17:21-22) united by the same Holy Spirit.

Continuing with the definition of spirit, John Ritenbaugh explains that the preposition 'in'—as in the expressions 'in Christ,' 'in the church,' 'in you," or 'in the spirit'—refer not to literal physical dimensions, but instead our 'concern with' or 'involvement with' something. As being 'in love' or 'in the mood' require no physical location, or having family characteristics requires no family members dwelling literally in us, so Christ in us (Romans 8:10), His Spirit dwelling in us (Romans 8:11), or dwelling in the the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:27) does not require a third person of the trinity but instead refers to absorbing God's characteristics through His Spirit, transmitted chiefly through life-giving words (John 6:63).

John Ritenbaugh explores the connection between feelings or emotions (specifically controlling temper) and health, suggesting that the scriptures are seemingly light years ahead of scientific inquiry. Also the inextricable connection between ceremonial sacrifices and new moons preclude any current obligations to religiously observe new moons. At the beginning of Acts 16, we notice that Paul, by circumcising Timothy, demonstrates a reluctance to flaunt his religious liberty, preferring instead to exercise cautious conservative expediency. The first European convert to Christianity was Lydia, a generous, hospitable woman. The beating and false imprisonment of Paul and Silas (for casting out a demon- upsetting local customs) followed by their miraculous release (when an earthquake shook the prison to its foundations) brought about several positive outcomes: (1) The conversion of the bewildered jailer and his family, (2) Protection for local converts to Christianity,(3) Protection for future evangelists coming through the region, and (4)Correction of local authorities for rushing to judgment, having imprisoned a Roman citizen (a punishable offense in the Roman colony of Philippi). This dramatic episode underscores God's proclivity for turning something initially evil into something good in the long run.

Do you realize not one in a hundred knows what salvation is—how to get it—when you will receive it? Don't be too sure you do! Here, once for all, is the truth made so plain you will really understand it!