Is it the third person of the Trinity, or something altogether different? You might be surprised at what the Bible really says!

xactly who - or what - is the Holy Spirit? Many assume that the Holy Spirit, along with God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son, form what is commonly known as the Trinity. This doctrine expresses a belief in one God who exists in three distinct but equal persons. Is the Holy Spirit a third divine person, along with God the Father and Jesus Christ?

The word Trinity doesn't appear anywhere in the Bible. It didn't come into common use as a religious term until after the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325), several centuries after the last books of the Bible were completed.

A.W. Tozer, in his book The Knowledge of the Holy, writes that the Trinity is an "incomprehensible mystery," and that attempts to understand it "must remain forever futile." He admits that churches, "without pretending to understand," have nevertheless continued to teach this doctrine. He concludes, "The fact that it (the Trinity) cannot be satisfactorily explained, instead of being against it, is in its favor" (Harper & Row, New York, 1961, pp. 17, 18, 23).

Unger's Bible Dictionary, in its article on the Trinity, concedes that the Trinitarian concept is humanly incomprehensible: "It is admitted by all who thoughtfully deal with this subject that the Scripture revelation here leads us into the presence of a deep mystery; and that all human attempts at expression are of necessity imperfect" (Moody Press, Chicago, 1966, p. 1118).