A NOTABLE EXAMPLE Of this delusive sin is found in an
article on "The Personality of the Holy Spirit," in THE BIBLE LEAGUE
QUARTERLY. The writer says, "the great doctrine of the Trinity is being
to a great extent abandoned by those who have been caught in the current
of what we call Modernism. Unless we recognize the truth of the doctrine
of the Trinity and the true personality of the Holy Ghost, we are
almost certain to be driven into a practical denial of the personality of
God altogether," Not only is this a pious pretense of believing God, but a
slanderous implication that all are apostate who are not likewise deceived
by the doctrines of men. After considering the passages where the
expression "the holy spirit" occurs, we are asked, "Need we go further for
proof of the personality of the Holy Spirit? It is a Person Whom we are
enjoined "not to grieve." In order to evade the unreasonableness of his
heresy he insists that we must recognize the wisdom of a human proverb,
"Cease to use mere reason where mere reason ceases to be of use." In plain
words, where it is a question of God's truth, use neither faith nor
reason. Express it in words which He has not chosen and in a way which
conflicts with reason.
Let us note how subtly these hypocritical expressions
are used. The article is ostensibly on the personality of the spirit.
Really it demands the distinct personality of the spirit with
reference to God, in order to bolster up the heresy of the Trinity. It is
false reasoning, made plausible by introducing an unscriptural term, which
forms an intermediate stepping stone, so that there is no direct plunge
into error. If they were to say, "The Spirit, the Holy One, is not God's
spirit," which is the end aimed at, the deception would be impossible.
When we demand that they drop these hypocritical expressions, and use only
those in God's Word, they are helpless. Then they find some one like this
writer who insists on a false "faith" and an irrational rationalism. He
shows from the Scriptures that the holy spirit is "personal" (from which
we do not dissent) and then, instead of believing other passages which
plainly make it the same "Person" as God, they bludgeon reason, and insult
and forsake the Word of God, by bringing in a "Trinity" which denies the
very fundamental of fundamentals, "I am first! Beside Me there is no God"
(Isa.44:6)! Stop thinking, shut your eyes, stop your ears, and swallow!
It is just a little pill, made from the creeds of men.
