                          THE REAL HOLY SPIRIT


   In Mormonism the "Holy Ghost" is a personage, or a god, but the
"Holy Spirit" is an impersonal force.  The Mormons refer to verses that
the Holy Spirit is symbolized by oil, fire and water and show that these
are "impersonal".  The Bible  refers to the Father and the Son as "bread
of life", "living water" and other "impersonal" terms.  Again, we must
look at the context.

   In John 16:7, our Lord is placing His emphasis on His going away and
the Holy Spirit's being sent by the Father to replace our Lord himself. 
This change (or replacement), Jesus  says, would be beneficial for His 
disciples.  AN IMPERSONAL FORCE COULD HARDLY IMPROVE ON THE PERSONAL
PRESENCE OF OUR LORD, JESUS CHRIST!

   The word in Hebrew and the word in Greek for SPIRIT and GHOST both 
mean the same, "breath or wind" and the "translators" of the King James
Bible noted that the Greek word denoted a neuter gender and was
mistranslated to be an "IT," but they did utilize the word Ghost and
Spirit and interchanged them on many occasions.  The words as translated
are from only ONE word in Hebrew and ONE word in Greek - therefore there
is NOT two words for SPIRIT and GHOST - only ONE.  Now, let's look at
this ONE entity called the HOLY SPIRIT.  In John 16:13 and 14 we see our 
Lord Jesus telling us this about the Holy Spirit, "HE shall not speak of
HIMSELF ... HE shall glorify me ... HE shall receive of mine ....".  NOTE
that our LORD gives PERSONALITY to the Spirit.  Otherwise our Lord would 
have used the term that Mormons use "IT."

   Jesus repeatedly (John  16:7-15) uses the MASCULINE PERSONAL pronoun
"He" when referring to the Spirit.  Jesus used the term clearly to tell
us that the Spirit had personality and intimacy.  Ananias was struck dead
for lying to the HOLY SPIRIT (Acts 5:3).  You cannot lie to an impersonal
force!  It would be like walking up to a window box fan, turning it on 
and facing its "force" and then telling lie after lie to it  - IT WOULD
NOT CARE THE SLIGHTEST, WOULD IT?  Now, you look at Ananias and, if you
are not a complete idiot, you would not repeat his behavior, now would
you?  The Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost are not two different items
mentioned in  the Bible.  There is only one entity referred to as both 
HOLY GHOST and HOLY SPIRIT.

   The Holy Spirit is a person.  The Spirit may be "grieved" (Ephesians 
4:30) and "sinned against" by UNFORGIVABLE blasphemy (Mark 3:29).  None
of these things are possible for an "impersonal force".
The Holy Ghost does things which only a person COULD do.

                    He SPEAKS:
   "The Spirit said unto Philip, 'Go near'" (Acts 8:29)

   "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity ... [and] MAKETH INTERCESSION
for us." (Romans 8:26)

                   He STRIVES:
   "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever" (Genesis 6:3)

            He REVEALS, SEARCHES, and KNOWS:
   "But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit
searcheth all things ... the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit
of God" (I Corinthians 2:10,11). 

   Other verses can be shown that the Spirit IDENTIFIES with believers
(Acts 15:28), The Spirit is ETERNAL (Hebrews 9:14), OMNIPRESENT (Psalm 
139:7-10), DOES GOD'S WORK (Genesis 1:2), INVOLVED IN REGENERATION (John 
3:8), participates in the RESURRECTION (Romans 8:11).  Paul identifies 
the Spirit as the speaker to Isaiah.  Acts 28:25-26 and Isaiah 6:8-9.  An
impersonal force does not counsel, speak, feel, or anything resembling 
personality.  The HOLY SPIRIT is a person - one of the THREE ENTITIES 
of the ONE TRUE GOD.

For more information see below:

This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the;

Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS)
(301) 862-3160 HST

P.O. Box 463
California, MD 20619

Sysop:  Buggs Bugnon

