johnny botwright
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Guest, Join Papa Zoom today for some uplifting biblical encouragement! --> Daily Verses
Is the Holy Spirit a person?
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Well, if the Holy Spirit (a.k.a. God's Spirit) is nothing more than sanctified atmospheric gases, then it is a rather unique material in that it is a gas with intelligence, feelings, and the ability to inspire men and enlighten their minds.
The Hebrew word ruwach (roo'-akh) is a bit ambiguous. It can indicate atmospheric gases, a ghost, one's soul, one's feelings, a non material being, one's attitude, one's temperament, and it can indicate winds and breezes. Any attempt to give ruwach a narrow meaning and/or a specific application would of course be advantageous to people with autism, but in reality, restricting ruwach to just mean air is futile; and besides God's Spirit is easily shown to pre-exist air.
†. Gen 1:1-2 . . In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
It's conceivable that God's Spirit could be translated "a wind from God" but without air a normal wind would be impossible to produce. Even a solar wind would be impossible since the sun wasn't created until the fourth day. But supposing "wind from God" is the correct translation. Then the wind would have to be a supernatural wind rather than a created wind because the earth had no atmosphere until the second day. And if the wind is a supernatural wind, then you've got to wonder of what it precisely consists because according to the Bible's Christ, the Bible's God is ruwach too.
†. John 4:24 . . God is spirit
The koiné Greek word for "spirit" in that verse is pneuma (pnyoo'-mah) which means— you guessed it —a current of air; viz: a breeze.
Personally I cannot imagine a better word than air to adequately depict and/or describe invisible beings because, to the human eye, spirit beings have no more consistency than thin air. You can wave your arm right through one of them and never know it. It's conceivable that you could stand within a spirit being, sit within a spirit being, sleep within a spirit being, and your body could host a spirit being; all without your being aware of its proximity.
BTW : I checked out David Icke on Wikepedia and what I discovered was the description, in my opinion, of a somewhat deranged individual.
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Well, if the Holy Spirit (a.k.a. God's Spirit) is nothing more than sanctified atmospheric gases, then it is a rather unique material in that it is a gas with intelligence, feelings, and the ability to inspire men and enlighten their minds.
The Hebrew word ruwach (roo'-akh) is a bit ambiguous. It can indicate atmospheric gases, a ghost, one's soul, one's feelings, a non material being, one's attitude, one's temperament, and it can indicate winds and breezes. Any attempt to give ruwach a narrow meaning and/or a specific application would of course be advantageous to people with autism, but in reality, restricting ruwach to just mean air is futile; and besides God's Spirit is easily shown to pre-exist air.
†. Gen 1:1-2 . . In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
It's conceivable that God's Spirit could be translated "a wind from God" but without air a normal wind would be impossible to produce. Even a solar wind would be impossible since the sun wasn't created until the fourth day. But supposing "wind from God" is the correct translation. Then the wind would have to be a supernatural wind rather than a created wind because the earth had no atmosphere until the second day. And if the wind is a supernatural wind, then you've got to wonder of what it precisely consists because according to the Bible's Christ, the Bible's God is ruwach too.
†. John 4:24 . . God is spirit
The koiné Greek word for "spirit" in that verse is pneuma (pnyoo'-mah) which means— you guessed it —a current of air; viz: a breeze.
Personally I cannot imagine a better word than air to adequately depict and/or describe invisible beings because, to the human eye, spirit beings have no more consistency than thin air. You can wave your arm right through one of them and never know it. It's conceivable that you could stand within a spirit being, sit within a spirit being, sleep within a spirit being, and your body could host a spirit being; all without your being aware of its proximity.
BTW : I checked out David Icke on Wikepedia and what I discovered was the description, in my opinion, of a somewhat deranged individual.
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Are you asking us or just showing us what non-Christians think? Those are the types of answers to expect from such a site, which makes me wonder why you ask that there.
If you're asking us, then yes, the Bible shows that the Holy Spirit is a "person".
Define "person."
If, by person, you mean the modern English word that is synonymous with a "being," then are you asking whether the Holy Spirit is a divine being distinct from the divine being we call "God"? Are you saying that there are three divine beings that form some sort of team or committee called "God"?
The origin of the term "person" in the Trinity doctrine is Cyril of Alexandria, who said that people should use the Greek word hypostasis (translated "person" in the King James Version of Hebrews 1:3) for Father, Son and Holy Spirit individually (instead of for God, which is how Hebrews 1:3 uses it), and stop using the Greek word prosopon.
I prefer not to use the terms person and persons with regard to the Trinity. Instead, I adhere to the original Nicene Creed (which, in 325 A.D., first formalized the Trinity doctrine as a distinct doctrine of the Church) and the expanded version of that Creed, which is sometimes referred to as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (of 381 A.D.).