In many ways the question of the Holy Spirit is parallel to the issues we have already looked at with regard to the person of Christ.  Like Christ, in the ancient church the Spirit was often held to be subordinate to the Father.  In marked contrast to the pagan world, Judaism, and Christianity following it, held firmly to monotheism.  To safeguard the monarchy, both Christ and the Spirit were thought of as lesser than God (the Father) in some way.  Otherwise how could one avoid polytheism?  In the fourth century the problem of a plurality in God issued in a full Trinitarianism, with the person of Christ as the focal point of a long and bitter controversy.  Once theology figured out the necessity of Christ’s full deity and worked out an explanation for how God could be dual, the biblical triadic pattern of Father, Son, and Spirit naturally carried the Spirit’s deity almost as a matter of course. Read the rest of this entry →

And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”                                                                  John 20:22

The Holy Spirit is often the least studied and thus the least understood member of the Trinity. A. W. Pink in his book entitled The Holy Spirit says Read the rest of this entry →