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abstract influence. That a person is meant is indicated by the fact that the Holy Spirit as
Comforter is placed in juxtaposition with Christ as the Comforter about to depart, to whom the
same term is applied in I John 2:1. It is true that this term is followed by the neuters ho and
auto in John 14:16-18, but this is due to the fact that pneuma intervenes. (2) The characteristics
of a person are ascribed to Him, such as intelligence, John 14:26; 15:26; Rom. 8:16, will, Acts
16:7; I Cor. 12:11, and affections, Isa. 63:10; Eph. 4:30. Moreover, He performs acts proper to
personality. He searches, speaks, testifies, commands, reveals, strives, creates, makes
intercession, raises the dead, etc., Gen. 1:2; 6:3; Luke 12:12; John 14:26; 15:26; 16:8; Acts 8:29;
13:2; Rom. 8:11; I Cor. 2:10,11. What does all these things cannot be a mere power or
influence, but must be a person. (3) He is represented as standing in such relations to other
persons as imply His own personality. He is placed in juxtaposition with the apostles in Acts
15:28, with Christ in John 16:14, and with the Father and the Son in Matt. 28:19; II Cor. 13:13; I
Pet. 1:1,2; Jude 20, 21. Sound exegesis requires that in these passages the Holy Spirit be
regarded as a person. (4) There are also passages in which the Holy Spirit is distinguished from
His own power, Luke 1:35; 4:14; Acts 10:38; Rom. 15:13; I Cor. 2:4. Such passages would
become tautological, meaningless, and even absurd, if they were interpreted on the principle
that the Holy Spirit is merely a power. This can be shown by substituting for the name “Holy
Spirit” such a word as “power” or “influence.”
c. The relation of the Holy Spirit to the other persons in the trinity.
The early trinitarian
controversies led to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit, as well as the Son, is of the same
essence as the Father, and is therefore consubstantial with Him. And the long drawn dispute
about the question, whether the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father alone or also from the
Son, was finally settled by the Synod of Toledo in 589 by adding the word “Filioque” to the Latin
version of the Constantinopolitan Creed: “Credimus in Spiritum Sanctum qui a Patre Filioque
procedit” (“We believe in the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son”). This
procession of the Holy Spirit, briefly called spiration, is his personal property. Much of what was
said respecting the generation of the Son also applies to the spiration of the Holy Spirit, and
need not be repeated. The following points of distinction between the two may be noted,
however: (1) Generation is the work of the Father only; spiration is the work of both the Father
and the Son. (2) By generation the Son is enabled to take part in the work of spiration, but the
Holy Spirit acquires no such power. (3) In logical order generation precedes spiration. It should
be remembered, however, that all this implies no essential subordination of the Holy Spirit to
the Son. In spiration as well as in generation there is a communication of the whole of the
divine essence, so that the Holy Spirit is on an equality with the Father and the Son. The
doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son is based on John
15:26, and on the fact that the Spirit is also called the Spirit of Christ and of the Son, Rom. 8:9;
Gal. 4:6, and is sent by Christ into the world. Spiration may be defined as that eternal and