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Bible Study - Foundations of Faith
The Holy Spirit
Still today, the Athanasian Creed continues to serve the Christian church as a standard of the truth. It declares that whoever rejects the doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of Christ is without saving faith. A copy of this creed can be obtained from the Ai-Ji Printing House of the China Christian Council, in Shanghai.
With this background, let us look into the Bible and learn specifically what God's Word teaches about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is God. In Acts 5:3-4 we read about the sad account of Ananias and Sapphira who withheld money from God. "How is it that…you have lied to the Holy Spirit? You have not lied to men, but to God." In this verse of the Bible the Holy Spirit is identified as God. This leaves no room for doubt in the minds and hearts of Bible-believing Christians.
Jesus specifically declares that the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son. "If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you" (St. John 14:15-18). Later in that same chapter of St. John's Gospel, and in other verses of the New Testament, we learn that the Holy Spirit was not begotten (born), but he "proceeds" from the Father and the Son from eternity. "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you" (John 14:26). Also we read in John 15:26, "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me." Finally, Hebrews 9:14 says, "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!"
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