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Really!... someone's stalking me.
keith drury
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8 comments:
Keith, moving and convicting! Thanks for sharing this. I will come back to this repeatedly over the next days and weeks. Bless you.
Once that Someone was once stalking me, too. Now He's Wearing me. He's taken up residency and presidency within me. He loves living in low-class housing, I guess. :-) Anyway, good thoughts. I want what that Someone wants more than I want anything. Grateful and ALL JOY TO YOUR WORLD!
That will preach!!
(Hmmm... I see this has me signed in as "Rev." Vecchi, rather than Pete Vecchi as it always used to. I didn't change anything in my settings, so I don't know why this change occurred. But I hope people will continue to just refer to me as Pete)
I'm not doubting the existence of the holy spirit or the doctrine of the Trinity, but can we please explain what it means to call the holy spirit a "person?"
You said: "He—not “it”—has the characteristics of personhood..."
What exactly are these characteristics that come together to equal "personhood?" Emotions? Being in Space and Time? It just seems that the Spirit's personhood is qualitatively different the than type of "person" we imagine we we use such language.
You have silenced most of us, apparently. We have lot's of strong opinions on holiness, and the doctrine of sanctification, but your last post speaks clearly to the hard reality of whether or not I am going to live in communion with God, this God who loves me, and whom I say I love.
Someone recently referred to Christianity as "walking with God," suggesting that this may be much better language than words like "saved" or "converted" and the like. To walk with him has to mean we are constantly aware of his presence; or seeking to be.
This indeed is a column to spend some time with. Hopefully God will use it to help all of us to examine ourselves and draw closer to him.
And yes, it will preach and hopefully will be preached.
Devotionally this is a wonderful reminder--I will meditate on this. In this season of Advent it might be easy to think all "father and son" and forget the third person of the trinity. And likewise, in the business and family stress of the holidays it's easy to slip into the kinds of attitudes you mention that grieve the Holy Spirit. :-)
Michael Cline's question about the "personhood" of the Holy Spirit is a good one. Some of the answer would be contained in the definition of "personhood" itself. Human does not equal person. Does the holy spirit think for itself, feel things, take sentient action?--yes, yes & yes. I would think that all of the definable qualities of personhood are true of the HS.
Theologically in terms of Orthodox Doctrine, the case is just as clear (although some of the below ideas might not be clear-sounding), I think.
The second ecumenical council (a.k.a. the 1st Council of Constantinople) clarified the doctrine of the Trinity in regards to the Holy Spirit, even adding the following lines to the Nicean Creed which says now of the HS:
"the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father, With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified." This is accepted in *all* Christian traditions as an ecumenically affirmed doctrine.
Even the pneumatomachian (sorry, big word) heretics, who were opposed by this 2nd Ecumenical Council, believed that the HS was a creation of the Son and held to the heretical view that opposed the Trinity.
All that to say that even the early Heretics viewed the Holy Spirit as a person--albeit a non-divine one. Orthodox Theology affirms the personhood of the Holy Spirit.
Now, as to whether it's accurate to say the Holy Spirit "stalks us" or is "in us", that's another theological matter. :-)
How about this thought!
"If one can see the Scriptures the way the Holy Spirit see, one can see the personhood of the Holy Spirit the way one see it."
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