OZTheology

As indicated my last blog on the Holy Spirit, this one focuses on the Holy Spirit’s personality and deity.   The cults typically depersonalise the Holy Spirit and understand Him to be an influence or some kind of force or energy.   It is important to recognise that God's Spirit who indwells the Christian is a person, which means believers are in relationship with Him.    They can know Him and relate to Him despite His invisible and intangible presence.   Numerous aspects from Scripture testify to His personality.   The first deals with His attributes, which include intelligence (mind), sensibility (emotions) and volition (will).   These are commonly understood to make up genuine personal existence.   With respect to intelligence, the Holy Spirit knows and investigates (1 Corinthian 2:10-11) and has a mind (Romans 8:27).   He is also able to instruct (John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 2:13).   Regarding sensibility, He can be grieved (Ephesians...

  Dispensational premillennialism distinctly holds that God has a positive future for the nation of Israel, yet to be realized in the millennium, the 1000-year reign of Jesus Christ on earth.  The Church has not replaced Israel.  God’s promises to Abraham and David still hold; were not fulfilled in the Old Testament era, nor spiritually in the Church.  This view uses a consistent literal interpretive method, which allows for non-literal elements, but only when justifiable in the context. REASON ONE Using a consistent literal interpretation of Scripture demands the covenants made to Abraham and David, as well as the New Covenant to Israel, be fulfilled in their entirety for the nation of Israel.   The Abrahamic Covenant is unconditional with respect to Abraham’s or his descendants’ performance, being solely based on God’s performance (see Genesis 12 and 15).   In Genesis 12, this covenant includes the creation of a nation, blessing and a great name, with...

  Having considered the activity of the Holy Spirit as recorded in the book of Acts, we now turn to the teaching concerning Him in the rest of the New Testament.   The Pauline epistles contribute the majority of data on the Holy Spirit and several themes emerge in addition to His identity as a person and God.   Genuine spirituality is derived from the Holy Spirit.   No one can be a Christian without receiving the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:2 cf. Romans 8:9).   The Christian life is the life of the Holy Spirit expressed through the voluntary submission of each believer (Galatians 2:20 cf. 5:16, 22-23).   It is not legal observance through human effort but a higher way of life (Romans 8:1-4 cf. 7:6).   The Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9 cf. 1 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 4:6 and Romans 8:14ff.) and as such no one can claim to speak by the Holy Spirit while speaking against Christ (1 Corinthians 12:3).   This i...

   Last time, we considered the missing person in the life and ministry of Messiah Jesus, who promised this person would come as another comforter.  This promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and filled the disciples gathered in waiting at Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-4).  The remaining chapters of this historical book document His activity through the newly constituted Church and it could be better named the Acts of the Holy Spirit, instead of the Acts of the Apostles.  The experience of the early church is foundational to our understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but it should be remembered that this is a transitional period.  The introduction of a new sphere of divine operation necessitates a transition from the old to the new and with it some unique aspects of divine activity. THE DAY OF PENTECOST   This signified the beginning of the Spirit's ministry in the new era of the Church.   Associated with His...

 Previously, in considering the identity of Jesus the Messiah, I emphasised His dependency on God the Father as part of fulfilling His role as our substitute in place of Adam, our representative head.  This reality is accomplished by the work of the Holy Spirit enabling Jesus to minister as Messiah, empowering Him with regard to miracles and supernatural knowledge beyond human capacity. This blog examines the ministry of the Holy Spirit in and through Jesus the Messiah.  Even before Jesus was born, the Holy Spirit was the agent of His conception, as revealed to Mary (Matthew 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35).  This not only brought the humanity of God's Son into existence, it also ensured that Jesus was sinless in nature.  Of necessity, Jesus must be entirely sinless internally and externally, so that His substitutionary sacrifice would be acceptable and sufficient for humanity. When John introduces Jesus as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29) a...

 Last time, I promised to address the Holy Spirit's relationship to people in the Old Testament era.  This is perhaps the area of greatest debate among evangelicals.  To what degree does the Holy Spirit work in believers prior to the Church age?  Dispensationalism has tended to teach a greater discontinuity between the Old and New Testament eras, which is applied to the work of the Holy Spirit, as well as other areas.  Discontinuity is certainly apparent between those eras, especially in the shift from Israel to the Church as the functional body that God is working in and through.  Although, this is not the replacement of Israel by the Church, as we will see in a later topic.  So, how much of the Holy Spirit's work in the New Testament era is new and not found in the Old Testament era?  One approach to answering that question is a consideration of the prepositions used in describing the Holy Spirit's relationship to people.  A number of prepo...

  Have you ever walked down a street and seen small black & white posters with a person’s picture on them and a caption, “MISSING!”?  I have in Los Angeles.  They were nailed to wooden telephone posts in a main street in Burbank.  You could find similar posters throughout most cities and even on TV screens.  Pain and loss accompany these posters.  Did you realise that many Christians, and even churches, have a missing person?  There is also pain and loss accompanying this missing person.  You are probably asking the question - Who is this person?  The answer is staggering, because this person is the Holy Spirit.   At this point you may be thinking I’ve lost it, but hold your judgment, at least for a few more minutes.  Non-Charismatic evangelical Christianity has reacted to the extreme emphasis on the Holy Spirit within Charismatic Christianity by steering well clear of that topic with the result that the Holy Spirit has become a...