Trinity and Jehovah's Witnesses

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Attributing the actions of the Holy Spirit as being a mere force like “electricity” or “radio waves,” the Society asserts that the Holy Spirit “never” appears as a person. As discussed previously, what qualifies a being as a “person” are the attributes of personhood that the being possesses and not whether or not the being possesses a physical body. Simply because Satan has never appeared in the form of a man, this does not in the least imply that he is not a person. In the same way, simply because the Holy Spirit has appeared in other forms than that of a man, this does not in the least imply that He is not a person—especially since He possesses all the qualifying attributes of personhood. Note the following examples:

ROMANS 8:27: “and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
1 CORINTHIANS 2:10-11: “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God….Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.”

EPHESIANS 4:30: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God….”
ISAIAH 63:10: “But they…rebelled and made his holy spirit feel hurt.”—New World Translation
MICAH 2:7: “...Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these His doings?”
HEBREWS 10:29: “...and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”

1 CORINTHIANS 12:11: “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.”
ACTS 8:29; 13:2,4; 16:6: “And the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go up and join this chariot....The Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’...So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit....having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.”
2 SAMUEL 23:2: “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue.”

THE HOLY SPIRIT IS TREATED AS A PERSON AND DOES THINGS THAT
ONLY A PERSON CAN DO:

JOHN 14:16; 15:26: “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper....When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me.…”

Concerning the Holy Spirit being our Helper, Ron Rhodes notes:

“Now there are two words in the Greek language for the English word ‘another’: The first one (heteros) means ‘another of a different kind.’ The other Greek word (allos) means ‘another of the same kind.’ It is this second word, allos, that is used in John 14:16. So Jesus is saying that He will ask the Father to send another Helper of the same kind as Himself—that is, personal!”—Reasoning from the Scriptures with Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1993, p. 212

ROMANS 8:26: “And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
JOHN 14:26: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
1 TIMOTHY 4:1: “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away.…”
ACTS 5:3-4: “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit.…You have not lied to men, but to God.’ ”

Now let’s take some of these same verses and substitute the word “electricity” or “radio waves” for the Holy Spirit and see how they would read.

“...but the radio waves Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts [God] knows what the mind of the radio waves is….for the electricity searches all things, even the depths of God....Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the electricity of God.…But they themselves rebelled and made his electricity feel hurt.…And do not grieve the radio waves of God...How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who...has insulted the radio waves of grace?….Is the electricity of the LORD impatient?…But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the electricity....’ ”

How can an impersonal force express personality? I can’t make the electricity in my room express my personality any more than I can cause radio waves to “feel” hurt. As one considers these passages, the irrationality of interpreting the Holy Spirit as a mere force is plainly manifest. The following is a discussion of some of the arguments the Watchtower Society employs endeavoring to justify their reasoning:

“...regarding Samson, Judges 14:6 relates: ‘The spirit of Yahweh seized on him....’ …Did a divine person actually enter or seize Samson, manipulating his body to do what he did? No....Acts 2:1-4 relates that the disciples were assembled together at Pentecost when....‘they all became filled with holy spirit.…’ …People are urged to become filled with holy spirit instead of with wine. (Ephesians 5:18)…Such expressions would not be so common if the holy spirit were actually a person.”—Should You Believe in the Trinity?, pp. 21-22

Is this a viable argument? Let’s consider the following passage:

“And when He had come out onto the land, He was met by a certain man from the city who was possessed with demons.…And seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him.…For He had been commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had seized him many times.…And Jesus asked him. ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered him.”—Luke 8:27-30

Is it credible to argue that the demons or fallen angels are not persons because they enter and “seize” humans? Is the apostle Paul any less of a person because he states at 2 Timothy 4:6, “I am already being poured out as a drink offering....”1. What about the following passages where we read that both the Father and Jesus “fill” people?

“…that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.…one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”—Ephesians 3:19; 4:6

“…which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.…and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.…Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test.”—Ephesians 1:20, 22-23; 3:17; 2 Corinthians 13:5

Since we know that it is a fact that both the Father, Jesus, and demons are not any less persons simply because they “fill” people, we must therefore conclude that this Watchtower argument is untenable, for the Holy Spirit is not any less a person than the Father and the Son.

“In the Scriptures it is not unusual for something to be personified. Wisdom is said to have children. (Luke 7:35) Sin and death are called kings. (Romans 5:14, 21)…But, of course, sin is not a spirit person; nor does personifying the holy spirit make it a spirit person. Similarly, at 1 John 5:6-8 (NE) not only the spirit but also ‘the water, and the blood’ are said to be ‘witnesses.’ But water and blood are obviously not persons, and neither is the holy spirit a person.…At Matthew 28:19 reference is made to ‘the name...of the holy spirit.’ But the word ‘name’ does not always mean a personal name.…Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament says: ‘The use of name (onoma) here is a common one in the Septuagint and the papyri for power or authority.’ ” —Should You Believe in the Trinity?, pp. 21-22

Concerning the Scripture’s personification of wisdom and death, Peter Barnes 2. notes:

“It is vitally important to understand that the purely abstract attribute of wisdom is personified only once in the entire New Testament. Also, sin is personified just five times, and death six times, on the other hand, the Holy Spirit is personified in excess of one hundred times. There is positively no valid parallel between the way in which the New Testament writers spoke of the Holy Spirit and their sporadic personification of utterly abstract things.” —The Truth About Jesus And The Trinity, 1994, p. 48

The assertion that the Holy Spirit is not a person because he is associated with impersonal objects is another argument that is not credible for Scripture also associates Jesus with impersonal objects such as the following:

In regard to the Watchtower argument that the word “name” used in reference to the Holy Spirit only refers to power and authority, Robert Bowman comments:

“The booklet offers two points in rebuttal to this argument. First, they state that ‘the word “name” does not always mean a personal name, either in Greek or in English,’ and give as an example the expression ‘in the name of the law’ (p. 22). No examples from biblical Greek, however, are given. In fact, the Greek word for ‘name’ (onoma) is used some 228 times in the New Testament, and except for four places-names (Mark 14:32; Luke 1:26; 24:13; Acts 28:7; see also Rev. 3:12) always refers to persons. Reading the modern idiom ‘in the name of the law’ back into Matthew 28:19 is simply anachronistic. Second, the booklet quotes A.T. Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament as saying that the word name is used ‘for power and authority.’ That is true, of course, but it stands for the power or authority of someone, never some impersonal force. An impersonal force cannot have authority; only a person can.”—Why You Should Believe in the Trinity, pp. 114-115

While it is true that Greek grammar rules require that neuter personal pronouns be used in conjunction with neuter nouns, Peter Barnes is quick to observe that “in the very chapter to which the Watchtower article makes reference, namely John 16:13-14, there are three strikingly clear instances where the masculine personal pronoun is used in connection with the neuter word ‘Spirit.’”3. In other words, the apostle John broke Greek grammar rules when he wrote John 16:13-14, because he used the personal pronoun “he” in reference to the neuter gender noun “Spirit.” How is that for indicating personality! Ron Rhodes also comments:

“The primary reason the Jehovah’s Witnesses say the Holy Spirit is an ‘active force’ is that the Greek word for ‘Spirit’ (pneuma) is neuter. However, as noted above, this is faulty reasoning, since the gender of the word has to do with the grammatical form of the word and not actual physical gender. For example, one will find that in Scripture, neuter terms are used in reference to infants (Luke 1:41,44; 2:16; 18:15), children (Mark 5:39-41), girls (Matthew 9:24,25; Mark 5:41,42), unclean spirits (Matthew 12:24,27,28; Mark 7:26,29,30), and angels (Hebrews 1:14). Obviously, each of these beings have personality, even though a neuter term is used in reference to them. We can safely conclude, then, that the use of a neuter term does not indicate a lack of personality.”—Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1993, pp. 213-214

On page 21 of the Trinity brochure, the Society quotes Edmund Fortman as stating: “Although this spirit is often described in personal terms, it seems quite clear that the sacred writers [of the Hebrew Scriptures] never conceived or presented this spirit as a distinct person.” However, they fail to note that Fortman goes on to say:

On page 22, the Society goes on to quote Fortman as stating: “The Jews never regarded the spirit as a person; nor is there any solid evidence that any Old Testament writer held this view.…The Holy Spirit is usually presented in the Synoptics [Gospels] and in Acts as a divine force or power.” Notice how the first statement is separated from the second statement by an ellipsis. The Society pulled these statements from two different pages of Fortman’s book and took them out of context. Note the contexts from which these two quotes are taken:

“The spirit of Yahweh was often described in personal terms. The spirit was grieved, guided men, instructed them, caused them to rest (Ps 143.10; Neh 9.20; Is 63.10,14). But it seems quite clear that the Jews never regarded the spirit as a person; nor is there any solid evidence that any Old Testament writer held this view. A few scholars today maintain, however, that even though the spirit is usually presented as an impersonal divine force, there is an underlying assumption that the spirit was a conscious agent, which ‘provided a climate in which plurality within the Godhead was conceivable.’ ” —The Triune God, p. 6

“The Holy Spirit is usually presented in the Synoptics and in Acts as a divine force or power. But in a few passages the sacred writers leave a vivid impression that for them He was someone distinct from both Father and Son with a distinct personal existence.”—The Triune God, p. 15

Scripture not only reveals that the Holy Spirit is a person, but He is also God:

· ACTS 5:3-4: “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit….You have not lied to men, but to God.”
· 2 CORINTHIANS 3:17: “Now Jehovah is the Spirit; and where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom.”—New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

JEHOVAH SPOKE	THE HOLY SPIRIT SPOKE
ISAIAH 6:8-10: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’…And He said, ‘Go, and tell this people: “Keep on listening, but do not perceive.…Lest they see with their eyes…and return and be healed.” ’ ”	ACTS 28:25-27: “…The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, ‘Go to this people and say, “You will keep on hearing, but will not understand.…Lest they should see with their eyes…and return, and I should heal them.” ’ ”

1. See also Philippians 2:17
2. Peter Barnes, who was a Jehovah’s Witness for 30 years, served as a Circuit Overseer over 16 Kingdom Halls before he encountered Christ. He currently directs the “Out of Darkness Into Light” ministry based in San Diego, CA.
3. The Truth About Jesus And The Trinity, by Peter Barnes, 1989, 1994, p. 49