While I affirm
that the Holy Spirit is a person, there
are many popular but fallacious arguments to support this doctrine. For
instance, James White, in a chapter attempting to support the personality of
the Holy Spirit, writes:
The Spirit is also a witness:
“And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given
to those who obey Him” (Acts 5:32). (James R. White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief [2d
ed; Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House, 2019], 144)
For White,
only a person can be a “witness.” Notwithstanding, the Bible has many witnesses
that are not persons, including:
Scripture
itself
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think
ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. (John 5:39)
Works
But I have greater witnesses than that of John:
for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I
do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. (John 5:36)
Conscience
Which shew the work of the law written in
their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the
mean while accusing or else excusing one another. (Rom 2:15)
The Law
But now the righteousness of God without the
law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. (Rom 3:21)
Our
“spirits”
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our
spirit, that we are the children of God. (Rom 8:16)
Water
and blood
There are three that testify: the Spirit and
the water and the blood, and these three agree. (1 John 5:7-8 NRSV)
The Holy
Spirit being a “witness” is not strong evidence of the Spirit being a person.
Furthermore, much of White’s chapter, “Grieve Not the Spirit” seems like he has
never dealt with theologies other than Jehovah’s Witnesses vis-à-vis the Spirit
not being a person. While it appears that JWs speak of the Spirit in very
impersonal terms like an “energy force” (like electricity) other theologies
(e.g., those of the Church of God Abrahamic Faith; Christadelphians--see, for e.g., Chapter 9: "The Holy Spirit: A Third Person or God in Action?" in Anthony Buzzard and Charles Hunting, The Doctrine of the Trinity: Christianity's Self-Inflicted Wound, pp. 225-39) speak of
the Holy Spirit as personal, albeit,
not a person, so those within these traditions will find much of White’s
arguments as unpersuasive. There are good texts that makes more sense of the
Spirit is a person (e.g., Acts
13:1-2), but arguments like White’s do not hold up to scrutiny and should
be retired.
