Christians believe in an Almighty Being in the form of three persons:
God the Father = Yahweh/Jehova/Allah
God the Son = Yesh’ua/Joshua/Jesus
God the Holy Spirit = ?
I think you misunderstand.
God the Father = Yahweh
God the Son = Yahweh (incarnated as Yesh’ua)
God the Holy Spirit = Yahweh
I am no longer a Christian, but I believe this was the standard doctrine
I’ve always heard Him addressed and referred to as the Holy Spirit.
In the old days, He was “Holy Ghost”. The Greek word itself, pneuma, means wind. Jesus also called Him the Counselor, and the Spirit of Truth.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Holy Spirit” is his name.
The Holy Spirit is never really called anything other than “Holy Spirit.” Probably because he’s more abstract than the Father or the Son. (I’m using the word “he” as a matter of convenience; AFAIK the Holy Spirit has never been associated with either gender.)
According to Catholic doctrine, the Holy Spirit inspired the books of the bible. It’s basically the essence of holyness.
Yeah, I’m pretty churchified, and I’ve never heard any kind of name. (IIRC, Yahweh isn’t much of a real name in the western sense either).
Romans 8:9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
My point being that Paul seems to be arguing that it’s possible to view the Holy Spirit as Christ present in unfleshly form.
In Gnostic traditions (not that they are really “christian”) the Spirit of wisdom is Sophia.
I am Chrisitan, but as a woman can’t reconcile myself to the idea of a fully male God, and as father and son seem grounded in the male gender, I take the Holy Spirit to be gender neutral or feminine…and Sophia seems a nice enough name.
But I’m a bit odd.
There is quite a movement (and has been for a few years) among feminist theologians to identify the HS, or more often Jesus, with Sophia (Lady Wisdom) or to identify the HS as “feminine.” The Sophia Movement, as its known, caused quite a stir in The United Methodist Church some few years ago, with accusations of heracy flying about, but I’d say it’s almost passe these days, now that we have Karen Damman (openly lesbian pastor aquitted of being a lesbian [glossing over important technicalities] in recent church trial) to fight about. There is actually some good theological basis for identifying Jesus with Sophia, based partly on similar language used to describe each in Scripture. Technically, all three personae of the Trinity are without gender and can be imaged as female as well as male. Jesus was male, but the preexistant, eternal Son has no inherent gender. (Although the doctrine of the communication of predicates states that what is said of Jesus can be said of the Son and hence God, I don’t think that can legitimately be extended to gender being applied to any persona of God as unincarnate spirit.)
As for the HS, the term Spiritus is gramtically masculine, and the HS is traditionally refered to by pronoun as “he”, but the Spirit often functions theologically in what many consider to be a more “feminine” mode (nurturing, comforting, sustaining, etc., although, of course all three persona do each of these equally) and the Hebrew term ruach is gramatically feminine, so why not? It does help balance out the undeniably masculine language of Father and Son, which can’t really be changed without changing the relational meaning of Jesus’ words.
Oh, yeah–nobody’s mentioned Paraclete–another title (not name) for the HS.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit:
one God, mother of us all,
“Alan”
“Bob”
This is not found in the bible.
This concept is not found in the bible.
And, shouldn’t the bible be the arbiter as to whether there is any truth to this?
Well, the Bible does identify the Father, the Son and the Spirit. What it does not do, at least explicitly, is state that they are three persons in one God, in the way that most Christians now understand.
Belief in the Trinity is an early, strong and almost but not quite universal Christian doctrine which is founded on scriptural texts, but is developed beyond those texts. Denominations in the protestant tradition, which stresses the primacy of scripture and tends to downplay the signficance of tradition, have in (relatively) modern times reexamined the doctrine of the Trinity in the light of scripture alone. Some - though, it has to be said, a small minority of Christians - have rejected the notion of the Trinity, most notably the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Christadelphians and, of course, the Unitarians, but most continue to accept it; presumably they consider it sufficiently founded upon scripture.
The Latter Day Saints have a theology of the Trinity which (I think) differs signficantly from the Christian mainstream. Whether this is founded upon a reexamination of the traditional Christian Scriptures, or on further revelations found in the Book of Mormon, or a bit of both, I couldn’t say.
It’s MISTER Holy Spirit to you.
Ruach Adonai would be the closest Hebrew comes to naming Him (or Her; Ruach is feminine) – it means “Spirit of the Lord” (or Breath or Wind). (The ch is the guttural unvoiced fricative of Loch or Moloch, not the /tsh/ sound of March.)
A very common appelation for the Holy Spirit is the Paraclete, an Anglicization of Jesus’s epithet “Advocate” applied to the H.S. It’s probably the commonest that English comes to assigning a name to the Holy Spirit.
But, as mentioned, the terms God and “the LORD” (YHWH) in the Old Testament is taken by Christians to mean the Trinity acting as a unit, unless one Person (usually the Holy Spirit) can be specifically identified from the usage: “The Spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2); “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me” (Isaiah 61:1, cf. Luke 4:18).
As a former Latter-Day Saint I think I can speak with some authority on LDS beliefs.
God The Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost (yes, that’s what they call it), are three seperate and distinct Personages. God The Father and Jesus Christ have bodies of flesh and bone, as tangible as our bodies. The Holy Ghost is a spirit that dwells within Latter-Day Saints who have been baptized and confirmed members of the church, as long as that person remains worthy to receive the “counsel” of the Holy Ghost. He has no other name.
Any jokes about his name being “Casper” will be immediately flamed…
Isn’t the name of the Holy Spirit “Grace”?
No.
Grace is a gift of mercy: a gift of God you can’t earn and don’t deserve.
And didn’t the Holy Spirit come like a mighty wind… like the sound of ‘WHOOSH’?
