Is the Holy Spirit a third person?
The Objection Lab · Objection VIII of X
Is the Holy Spirit a third person?
Stated first the way its strongest advocate states it. Then your turn.
“The Holy Spirit isn’t the Father or the Son; He speaks, teaches and can be grieved, so He is a distinct third person.”8 verses answer it
I · The steelman
Their case, at full strength
“The Holy Spirit isn’t the Father or the Son; He speaks, teaches and can be grieved, so He is a distinct third person.”
The Holy Spirit has every mark of a person. He teaches and brings things to remembrance (John 14:26), testifies (John 15:26), guides, hears and speaks (John 16:13), and commissions: “Separate me Barnabas and Saul” (Acts 13:2). He can be grieved (Eph 4:30), and He intercedes (Rom 8:26–27). Lying to Him is lying to God (Acts 5:3–4). He distributes gifts “as he will” (1 Cor 12:11).
And He is distinct from the Father and the Son. Jesus prays the Father to give “another Comforter” (John 14:16), whom the Father sends in Jesus’ name (John 14:26) and Jesus sends from the Father (John 15:26). The Spirit “shall not speak of himself” but will glorify Christ (John 16:13–14). He is named with the Father and the Son in the baptismal command and the apostolic blessing (Matt 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14). A force does not glorify someone else. A person does.
II · Drill it
Answer it. Ninety seconds.
Write what you would say if you heard this tonight. The clock starts with your first word; the ring is only a guide.
0 words
Read further
- Ten Objections to Oneness, Answered · this objection in the essay
- Oneness Theology: A Working Compendium
A short but complete map of Oneness theology: the one God of Israel, manifested in flesh as Jesus Christ. It works through the Hebrew and Greek of the key Old and New Testament texts, the typology of the angel, the tabernacle and the priesthood, and the apostolic practice of baptism in Jesus’ name. Each contested text is set beside the strongest Trinitarian reading before it is answered.