Source: The Trinity — Evidence and Issues, Robert Morey Chapter 12, p. 188ff
See also this page on the personality of the Holy Spirit.
We were not surprised to find references to the Father and to the Son in the Old Testament because we believe that the doctrine of the Trinity is true. Thus, we expected to find such references. But the Unitarians are hard put to answer all these passages because they did not expect to find them in the Bible.
But what about the Holy Spirit? Is He also part of the old Testament theology and experience? If the doctrine of the Trinity is true, then we would expect to find references to the person and work of the Spirit in the Old Testament. And, when we open our Bible, what do we find? There are actually more references to the Spirit in the Old Testament than all the references to the Father and the Son combined!
The following chart gives us an overview of the Old Testament material on the Holy Spirit:
| Terminology | # |
|---|---|
| The Spirit of the LORD | 24 |
| The Spirit | 15 |
| The Spirit of God | 12 |
| His Spirit | 5 |
| Holy Spirit | 3 |
| Thy Spirit | 3 |
| TOTAL | 62 |
It is amazing to us why anyone would deny the personhood of the Holy Spirit and reduce Him to an impersonal force or power. The reduction of the Spirit to the level of electricity is made purely on a priori grounds. When we ask for a passage in the bible where the Spirit is defined as an impersonal force, we never get an answer.
The Bible talks about the Holy Spirit as a real Person. He is alive and not a dead, impersonal, force like electricity. He is real and not imagined. Thus the Spirit does things in the real world which only a Person can do.
The Biblical evidence that convinced us that the Father and the Son are Persons, is the exact same kind of evidence that demonstrates that the Spirit is a Person. Thus, to deny the evidence when we apply it to the Spirit, but to accept it when we apply it to the Father or to the Son is sheer hypocrisy as well as being self-refuting. If the evidence is valid for One, then it is valid for all Three.
Isaiah 63:10-11 (NASB) But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them. 11 Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moses. Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them,
First, Isaiah say that "His Holy Spirit" was "grieved to the point of being provoked." The word "grieved" is a waw consecutive participle of עָצַב (ʻâtsab, aw-tsab') and means to feel profound hurt, pain, and grief.
For example, the word was used to describe the inward pain felt by David when he heard that his son Absalom was dead (2Sa 19:1-2). His weeping (v. 1) reveals how deeply he felt the pain. It was even used of God in Genesis 6:6, where we are told, "He was grieved in His heart."
Secondly, only a Person can be grieved by "rebellion" against Him. Thus, the Holy Spirit is a Person and not an impersonal force.
Micah 2:7 (NASB) "Is it being said, O house of Jacob: 'Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these His doings?' Do not My words do good To the one walking uprightly?
The word translated "impatient" is קָצַר which is a qal perfect of the word קָצַר which means to be impatient. It is used in this sense in such places as Num 21:4; Judges 10:16; 16:16, etc. The question, "Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient?" reveals that the Jews believed that the Holy Spirit was a Person capable of becoming annoyed with the sin of man.
That the Spirit manifests intellect, emotion and will is also clear from the fact that He communicates with man by speaking to him. He is the one who inspired the prophets and gave them the Word of God.
While there are many passages where the Spirit "came upon" the prophets and enabled them to prophesy (1Sa 10:10; 19:20,23, etc.), the Spirit was at times the one who spoke.
David testified on his death bed:
2 Samuel 23:1-2 (NASB) Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse declares, the man who was raised on high declares, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, 2 "The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue.
The personhood of the Spirit is as certain as the inspiration of the Psalms of David. Notice that it is theSpirit's word which is the word of God. Only a Person can speak the word of God. Only a self-conscious, living, person speaks.
The speaking of the Spirit is also referred to here:
1 Kings 22:24 (NASB) Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, "How did the Spirit of the LORD pass from me to speak to you?"
Obviously, Zedekiah had no problem believing that the Spirit spoke to the prophets. Micaiah did not object to this concept, but only to the issue of whether the Spirit had spoken to him or to Zedekiah.
Only a person can "testify" or "give witness." And this is what the Spirit did throughout Israel's history.
Nehemiah 9:30 (NASB) "However, You bore with them for many years, And admonished (or testified) them by Your Spirit through Your prophets, Yet they would not give ear. Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
Other evidence of the personhood of the Spirit is as follows:
If the Holy Spirit is divine in His Person just like the Father and the Son, then we would expect to find divine attributes and works applied to Him in the Old Testament. And this is what we find to be the case. For example, the Spirit is described as being omnipresent and, thus, is everywhere present at the same time.
Psalm 139:7 (NASB) Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
The parallelism in the Hebrew text is quite clear that wherever God is present, the Spirit is present. Thus, we can no more escape from the Spirit than we can escape from God. They are both omnipresent.
In terms of the context of the entire Psalm, since the omnipresence of God is joined to the omniscience of God (v.6), this reveals that if One possesses one omni-attribute, He will possess them all. The Spirit is, thus, omniscient as well as omnipresent. His deity could not be made more emphatic.
As God, the Spirit does divine works. For example, according to Moses, the Spirit is the immediate Creator of the world. Like a bird hovering over the primordial waters, He formed the earth out of nothing (Gen 1:2).
Like Moses, Job declares:
Job 33:4 (NASB) "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
The Spirit is also said to be the Author of Providence in which man and animals are brought forth:
Psalm 104:30 (NASB) You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the ground.
1 Samuel 10:10 (NASB) When they came to the hill there, behold, a group of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him mightily, so that he prophesied among them.
2 Samuel 23:2 (NASB) "The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue.
Zechariah 7:12 (NASB) "They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.
Zechariah 12:10 (NASB) "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
Psalm 84:11 (NASB) For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
If we take the words of Scripture seriously, we can only come to one conclusion concerning the Holy Spirit. He is not an impersonal force or power but He in a Person. But He is not just a creature, but Almighty God. Thus the multi-personal nature of God includes the Holy Spirit as part of the Godhead.
See also this page on the personality of the Holy Spirit.