Information Related to "Questions and Answers - Mar/Apr 2005"
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Editor's note: Our answer to the question about the Trinity in the last issue generated quite a few additional questions. Since most of the questions revolved around the same basic points, for space reasons we have chosen to publish one representative letter in which those questions were asked so we can give a considerably more detailed response to that letter.
We thank all of those who wrote us with questions. If you would like more detailed information, please request our free booklet Who Is God?, which contains two chapters on the Trinity and the nature of the Holy Spirit. If you have further questions, feel free to write to our office nearest you from the list on the contact page. We look forward to continuing to serve you.
Question: I am disappointed by your denomination's teaching about the Trinity in the last issue and find your reasons for rejecting the concept less than satisfactory. It is indeed one of the not-so-easy-to-grasp things of God.
Your selected passages highlight that the Spirit of God is just a wind, or a power, some inanimate thing that can be poured out and quenched, etc. But that's not the whole picture. Jesus refers to it as the Counselor who can only come and will come when Jesus leaves the earth, and that that was to be our great comfort (John 16:7).
Furthermore there are numerous places where the Holy Spirit is described in his activity with verbs such as help, dwell, is being sent forth, bears witness and searches all things, just to name some. Sounds like a person to me! Lastly, a personal favorite and quite appropriate here: "We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" (Romans 8:26).
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