Skip navigation

Tag Archives: Personification

PUTTING GOD IN A BOX , the result of the personification of the bible as the Holy Spirit. By Damon Whitsell

=======================================================

CLICK THE LOGOS ABOVE TO GO TO THE HOME PAGE AND LISTEN TO THE RADIO SHOW

—————————————————————————-

 

In the last two years, I have met about 10 Church of Christ Members and exchanged dialogue with them. I have found that about half of them deny the Trinity by saying the Holy Spirit is not God. They justify this by personifying the bible as the Holy Spirit. They turn a person into a thing. And they call an imperfect thing, the Holy Sprit. But only God is Holy. And the Holy Spirit is said to be Holy because he is God. There is no translation of the bible that is 100% correct from start to finish. I believe the KJV is very very close to inerrant. But I no longer believe it to be totally inerrant.

Lets look at an illustration that points out how these Church of Christ members (later called COC) put God in a box

1. If there are tribes in the remote jungles of the Amazon region, that still have not been discovered (and I heard it said by the pros that it is most probable) then according to the COC conclusion that it is the bible that saves and not the Holy Spirit (called the HS hereafter) it would be an impossibility for them to be saved if they have not a bible in their hand. I heard it said that there are still some languages that still have yet no bible translation in those languages.

2. Lets say that I charter a deep sea boat to go fishing with just me and a captain. We had a fire and had to abandon ship, but I did not have time to get my bible before I jumped ship. Then while the captain and I was in the raft awaiting possible rescue, he informed that that he had never read the bible but sensing the seriousness of the situation, wanted to know the bible truth and to do what it said to be saved.

According to the COC member that personifies the bible as the HS, this man could not be saved. Because it is the bible that saves, not God. And in this very matter, you see the Palagianism of the COC smack ya right in the face. According to their beliefs about the bible and the HS, they would conclude that this man cannot be saved by my witness, or any other means that God could employ to reach the man. But if he just had a bible, he could read it and grasp it under his own will to be saved. The COC believes just like Pelagius in that they do not think that it is God that saves by drawing men unto himself and authoring and finishing our salvation.

Back in the good old days before pelagianism made a comeback in the restoration movement and the restorationist religions that it created, God used to do it all in salvation. From point 1 to infinity and he got all the glory.

BEFORE GOD WAS IN A BOX.

God didn’t used to have to have a bible to reach men. He reached Abraham, Noah and Moses all without any written scripture. He spoke to them through miracles, dreams and visions. He spoke to their hearts and wrote his law on their heats. He drew them to himself very easily without any written revelation. The NT says that we can have the “mind of Christ” And there is no verse that says that you cannot get the mind of Christ only by reading the written word. Why do you think we are told to go into the world and testify, and not,, go into the world and pass out scripture.

It is no surprise that the COC puts God in a box. I think the JW’s do the same thing with the personification of the bible (their version) as the HS. If you do a study on legalism (in particular legalism in the COC) you will see that it is so common among legalist to adhere to the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law, that you have to conclude that it is pandemic among them. They also put more emphasis on the written word than they do the God that wrote it.

WHY DO THEY PUT GOD IN A BOX???

This work is licensed (for your free use) under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. Please visit How2BecomeaChristian.info

HERE IS A RELVANT BLOG POST Falsely viewing the Holy Spirit as a poetic device known as personification!

Advertisement

Falsely viewing the Holy Spirit as a poetic device known as personification!

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Anti-Trinitarians falsely view of the Holy Spirit as a poetic device known as personification!

The Holy Spirit is not a Personification of God’s power! 

A. Personification Definition: “A figure of speech in which a thing, quality or idea is represented as a person. To speak of a thing as having life or personality”

In reference to “59 Thunderbird Coup, “She sure is a beauty”
Cupid is personification of love.

Expressions like. “The face of the moon”

C. The Bible does use personification widely:

“Oh earth, earth, earth, write this man down childless.”

Ps 98:8 “The rivers clap their hands: Let the mountains sing together for Joy.

“I tell you if these become silent, the stones would cry out.” Lk 19:37­40

Of wisdom, “She stands and calls on the rooftops” Proverbs 9:1­6

“And I heard the altar say: “Yes, Jehovah God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judicial decisions.” Revelation 16:7

“At this he said: “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.” Genesis 4:10

“Look! The wages due the workers who harvested YOUR fields but which are held up by YOU, keep crying out, and the calls for help on the part of the reapers have entered into the ears of Jehovah of armies.” James 5:4

wisdom is said to have “children.” Luke 7:35

Sin and death are spoken of as kings. Rom 5:14,21

D. Similar false view of the nature of Satan. They view the devil, not as a separate personal evil being, but as the personification of sin and disease. When it says “the Devil prowls around seeking someone to devour”, (Jas 4:8) This is personification they would say.

E. Some say the Holy Spirit the personification of the Bible. They do this by constructing a chart like below and show that the two have many of the save qualities. They then conclude that since they have the same qualities, they are the sane thing and rest on this chart as proof.

Similar qualities does not mean two things are the same. Identical twins have many similar qualities but are distinct.

There are several qualities the Holy Spirit has that the word does not. Although the Bible is ascribed functionality that might imply person hood, (speak, convicts, leads, justifies, instructs etc) these terms are not exclusive to person hood but are normal applications of what a book can do.

 

What is never ascribed to the Bible, that is to the Holy Spirit, are emotions, intercedes, searches, the ability to choose, exercise free will, or be worshipped

. The many similarities between what the Bible is said to do and what the Holy Spirit is said to do, is because the Bible is the instrument the Holy Spirit uses to convict, convert and guide the church.The Holy Spirit revealed the Bible. He is the revealer. The Bible is the revelation.
The Bible is the “sword of the Spirit”, not the Spirit Himself, but the instrument he uses to accomplish His will. Eph 6:17
F. Notice that we can construct a similar chart to show Characteristics that the Father shares with the Holy Spirit. The difference is that none of these things can the Bible do!

PLEASE VISIT THIS LINK to see the charts they have made showing the differences between the Bible and the Holy Spirit   

http://www.bible.ca/trinity/trinity-holy-spirit-personification.htm

=======================================================

CLICK THE LOGOS ABOVE TO GO TO THE HOME PAGE AND LISTEN TO THE RADIO SHOW

—————————————————————————-

B. Examples we are familiar with: