The Holy Spirit is not a Person
Of the many biblical courses that must exist, there is one whose first lesson is titled: What the Bible Teaches About God. This lesson concludes by asking the student to promise to love God. It does not seem coherent, to say the least, to ask someone who presumably knows nothing or nearly nothing about God to first: promise, and second, no less than to love God!
The student is just learning whether God is one, if He is a Father because He has a son, if He is triune (if that term even exists). Who can be asked to promise to love someone they do not even know? Could this reflect a very poor understanding of the Divine? If it can be understood.
God the Father, Jesus, are the Deity of whom there seems to be greater revelation in the Bible, although it is not always unequivocal or explicit. For example, This is my beloved Son; I and the Father are one;; he who has seen me has seen the Father;; immediately raise questions, doubts, and warrant deeper study.
The father-son relationship is known in human relationships, but probably in the Deity, it is only didactic of a relationship that we do not understand. How is the concept of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then taught?
It is appropriate to say that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are mentioned together only once in the Bible;
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19)
The other verse;
“For there are three that testify in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one” (1 John 5:7)
That which would be the most revealing for the topic of the Trinity is an interpolated passage; in other words, it does not appear in older texts, it was added later, and that invalidates it as a source.
It is also worth noting that the expression Holy Spirit is found only in the New Testament. There are more than ninety references, and in all of them, it is possible to replace the term Holy Spirit with God, but in the interest of teaching about the Holy Spirit, is where one reaches the point of heresy. It is not our interest to treat the issue of the Trinity, which is complex in itself, but to express some considerations on the terminology used by some to teach this topic, in order not to fall with the best of intentions into heresy or blasphemy.
We believe that the Trinity is one of the fundamental beliefs of all Christianity, regardless of the denominations into which it is fragmented. The existence of one God as expressed by the Bible in Ephesians 4:6, but as clearly also reveals that Jehovah is God (Deuteronomy 4:35), that Jesus is God (Hebrews 1:8), and that the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:4). This one and triune God is called Trinity. The Bible states it, but does not explain it, and we should be far from the presumption of doing so; we accept it.
That the Holy Spirit is God can be inferred from the sacred texts. For example, it is said that lying to God is lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3, 4), in others, characteristics proper to divinity are attributed to Him, such as omnipresence (Psalm 139:7) or omniscience (1 Cor. 2:10,11); there is consensus on this, it is a Christian doctrine, but in attempting to know how the Holy Spirit is or in the pretension of trying to explain it lies the problem.
What probably generates the greatest difficulty is the word “spirit,” as it is understood as an incorporeal entity. We do not refer to the Holy Spirit as a “being” because that is not appropriate, as we will see later, but to the concept of spirit, which is defined as an abstract, non-corporeal, immaterial, and rational entity, a supernatural and immaterial being endowed with will. It is interesting to note that these characteristics are perfectly attributable to the Holy Spirit, except that we would have to add those inherent to God: loving, compassionate, comforting, merciful, etc.
The following paragraph corresponds to a Guide for Bible Study, from the Lessons “The Holy Spirit and Spirituality” of January-March 2017. It teaches about the aforementioned topic, beginning with saying:
Since the Holy Spirit is sometimes presented in the Bible in impersonal terms, such as wind or fire, some have concluded that it is impersonal, a kind of divine power. According to this point of view, the Holy Spirit resembles more an electric current that gives us power rather than existing as a personal Being.
Let us analyze this study text part by part.
“that the Holy Spirit is sometimes presented in the Bible in impersonal terms, such as wind or fire”
If the Holy Spirit is sometimes represented in the Bible as wind or as fire or as water, it is precisely because even those inspired by God could not describe it, because it is indeed impersonal and incorporeal, and it is unnecessary to be ironic in saying that for some it resembles more an electric current because simply known elements are sought to explain the unknown, which is what the inspired writers did, to whom reproach would also be due. We recall here the presence of the Holy Spirit in the baptism of Jesus, where according to the account of the four gospels, it is presented “as a dove,” where the “as” introduces a comparison in a figurative or approximate sense.
“some have concluded that it is impersonal, a kind of divine power”
It is assumed that those who have reached that conclusion are mistaken, but they certainly are not because it is impersonal and indescribable and therefore for humans is “a kind” “a form” of divine power. The emphasis should be that it is divine power, and that is indeed manifestly expressed in the Bible where there are many texts that declare the power of the Holy Spirit because it is God and God is almighty.
“of existing as a personal Being”
It is sacrilege to refer to the Holy Spirit as “a personal Being” because it does not conform to the definition of Being, as it is a philosophical concept studied by ontology, which designates the objective world, nature, objective reality, matter that exists, independently and differentially from consciousness. If the Holy Spirit were a being, the doctrine of the Trinity would have to be reformulated; there would be three beings and not one God.
When it is extensively argued in the Study Guide, beyond the quoted paragraph, to explain that the Holy Spirit is a person, that is when one falls into blasphemy, because a person can only be a human being. There were theological discussions, only in the IV and V centuries about the Logos “Word,” when philosophy took the Greek theater term Prosopon (person) defining the Logos as a divine person. By affinity, the concept was later applied to the Holy Spirit, to angels, and to humans.
The word person is a philosophical concept, etymologically comes from Greek; “actor’s mask,” which is defined as: “Individual of the human species” because only humans have personality, which are the psychic characteristics inherited or acquired of a subject that determine an individual to act differently compared to another. God does not act, does not have a mask or personality; He says, I AM WHO I AM.
When it is taught that the Holy Spirit guides, speaks, makes known, glorifies, teaches, testifies, helps us remember, convinces, and can be grieved. Actions that the Bible notes that He performs and that are used as an argument to say that He is a person. It is not said that He falls upon several people at the same time (Acts 10:44; 11:15) that He is poured out upon people (Acts 13:52), that He fills them (Luke 1:35), that He takes the form of a dove (Luke 3:22), that those He fills can speak in tongues (Acts 2:4), that He can be received in portions (Hebrews 2:4), that He dwells in us (1 Corinthians 6:19), those things are not said, they are not quoted because they are not realizable by a person and would nullify the argument.
It is undoubtedly impossible to define God as a person. The Holy Spirit is not, in any way, in any form, or under any circumstance, a person; He simply is not human. God the Father is not, Jesus is not, because by assuming humanity, He did so without a mask, without acting, and because He had no genetic or acquired characteristics. God does not fit any human definition; therefore, He cannot be explained. So to the question: What is He, if He is not a person? The answer is: God.