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The Holy Spirit is pictured as fire, wind, water, and a dove. The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter, Spirit of God, Spirit of the Lord, Spirit of Christ, Advocate, Counselor. There is no doubt that the Holy Spirit has a prominent place in the Bible. Beginning with Gen. 1:2 the Holy Spirit is mentioned time and again in both Old and New Testaments.
The Bible refers to the Holy Spirit as being poured out like water (Joel 2:23) and moving where it wishes like wind (John 3:8). It is the Spirit of God and God can take it away from people (Psa. 51:11).
The word “spirit” (Gk = pneuma) is in the neuter gender but the pronoun that describes the Spirit is masculine (he = John 14:26). Because the pronoun is masculine some have considered it proof that the Holy Spirit is a third person in the Godhead. But there are problems with this position.
Louis Berkhof in his book, The History of Christian Doctrine, stated that “The Holy Spirit occupied no important place (as a person) in their (church fathers) discussions at all. They spoke of Him primarily in connection with the work of redemption as applied to the hearts and lives of believers…The early church fathers had no clear conception of the trinity.”
The doctrine of the trinity has been hotly debated by many early church fathers in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th centuries and beyond. It was at the Council of Nicea that it was officially stated that the Holy Spirit was a person. All other positions were considered heretical.
In an attempt to bolster proof for such a position, a spurious verse was inserted into the “Received Text” Greek manuscript (1John 5:7) on its second printing in the 16th century. Most scholars have rejected it as spurious because no Greek manuscript prior to the 16th century contains this verse as it appears in the King James Version. Only 3 Greek manuscripts contain it and two of them are copied from Latin manuscripts.
If the Holy Spirit were a person in the Godhead, then being left out of some of the following passages would have been unthinkable and blasphemous! See Rom. 1:7; 2Cor. 1:2; 2Tim. 1:2; 2Pet. 1:2; James 1:1; 1John 1:3; Rom. 8:17; 1Cor. 3:23; 4:1; 11:3; 15:28; 2Cor. 2:14-17; 5:19; 12:19; Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:1.
Even so prominent a theologian in the 20th century as Rudolph Bultmann referred to the Holy Spirit like this: “In baptism, the Spirit has been conferred upon all Christians; it shows itself to be alive in them in the worship services of the congregation. What is meant by ‘the Spirit’? How is Christian existence determined by it?” Theology of the New Testament, p. 153 emphasis mine. Note: Bultmann made no attempt to refer to the Holy Spirit as a person. The word “trinity” does not appear anywhere in the index of his book which is a "Theology of the New Testament." The reason is that the New Testament does not teach the doctrine of the trinity.
The doctrine of the trinity could not and cannot be established from Biblical authority. And it was never was. It was never taught by the early apostles, it appears nowhere in the New Testament. No NT writer refers to it. Rather they ignore the Holy Spirit as a person or personality. The Holy Spirit is also referred to as the Spirit of Christ as well as the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:9).
If the Holy Spirit were an actual person or personality -- a third person in the Godhead, we would run into severe problems from the New Testament. Since the Holy Spirit was the one that caused Mary to conceive Jesus (Matt. 1:18), then who would be Jesus' real father. Was it the Holy Spirit or the "Father"?
What is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the “miraculous divine power that stands in contrast to all that is human” (Theology of the New Testament, Bultmann). By it we are partakers of the divine nature (2Pet. 1:4). By it Jesus Christ is in us and we are being created in His likeness. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Eph. 2:10 NIV).
The Holy Spirit is important. Very important. Blasphemy (saying derogatory statements about the Holy Spirit and the works or miracles of the Spirit) is unforgivable in this age and the next (Matt. 12:31; Luke 12:10). That is because the Holy Spirit is in you. To speak evil of it is to speak evil of God's working in you and that will sear your conscience (1Tim. 4:2).
"It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace" (Heb. 6:4-6 NIV).
I hold high teachings about the Holy Spirit as does the New Testament. But those teachings do NOT include teaching that the Holy Spirit is a separate, third person of the Godhead.
-- David L. Antion