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Originally Posted by aron
Raptor asked, and Ohio implied, How many Holy Spirits can there be? I showed the verse by Jesus (not some now-obscure Church Father), showing the holy angels coming in glory with the Father and Son. Nobody seems to notice. Where's the futility coming from?
How many holy spirits are there? Is it too shocking to consider One Holy Spirit of God manifesting in plural ministering holy spirits? "Behold, He comes with myriads of His holy ones". And the one holy spirit differentiating into you and I, for that matter? Or, to ask what spirit gives life to them, as well as we current mortals of flesh? How can you think that all of these questions were irrelevant to Jesus and his disciples if they referenced them?
One can read in Psalm 29:7 that the Voice of God "divides the flames of fire" - is it too shocking to consider multiple flames of fire burning before the throne in Revelation 1:4, especially since they'd been burning in the tent of meeting since Moses' day? "See that you make everything according to the pattern that you have seen there on the holy mountain". Why does seven spirits have to be one singular spirit sevenfold intensified? Why can't it be one spirit divided into seven distinct manifestations? Just as Jesus and the Father are separate essentially (ontologically) yet one in reality (economically), and you and I likewise? I'm still me, and you're not me nor I you, yet we are one in Jesus Christ. I'm not a 'mode' of you nor vice versa. Yet we are one. Why does our theology make this all so hard to grasp?
Is it too difficult to read in Psalm 114 that the 'pawnim' -- faces -- of God melts rocks and makes the mountains to skip like rams? Why is there a plural manifestation or presence of the One True God? And, why wave a verse from Paul and ignore a verse from Jesus, or John? Is our theology that precious to us? In this tendency I see strong overlap, and probable effect, with that of Lee's work. Forgive me if I too easily put you all together but it's nearly impossible not to. The fixation on a few 'proof verses', and the stubborn deafness (a resolute inability to hear/reply to other verses) is probably not coincidental. I remember it well from my time meeting there.
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So much for the traditional descriptor of "3 Persons in one God,"
aron is trying to convince us that there are multiple Holy Spirits, one for each of us. I agree. There are far too many verses in scripture that just blow up any cute and stylized characterization of God.
At best these scholarly identifiers can help the church ward off blatant heresy like sequential modalism*, but do little to benefit the believer to know God. Think about it. If Christ is in me, and the Holy Spirit is in me, then in some way within us Christ must be the Holy Spirit within.
I grew up with the traditional "3 Persons" trademark of God. Jesus was resurrected far way in heaven having nothing to do with my life. Yet I lived in a dark, godless, drugged depravity. What changed my life was having Jesus in my heart and in my spirit. If that's a heresy, then I'm willing to die for it. Meanwhile I'll continue to give glory to God as
UntoHim's featured quip instructs . . .
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There is no reason to learn divine truths if we do not apply them in our hearts and minds, live them out daily, and defend them in the public square when we are given the opportunity to glorify God in so doing.
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The truth that Jesus as the Holy Spirit can live in our heart is one of the greatest truths in the universe. Untold martyrs have died for this truth, refusing to deny the Savior within.
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* sequential modalism: The Father ceased to exist when the Son was incarnated, and the Son ceased to exist when the Spirit was poured out on Pentecost