The Holy Spirit
Church of Almighty God
God is a Spirit; Jehovah is God as a Spirit; The Holy Spirit is not God as a separate person.
The Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit manifested in the effect of Divine Power, but the work of the Holy Spirit is limited by human’s cooperation.
The Holy spirit is not a person and has no emotions.
- The Holy Spirit’s ministry is limited.
- The Holy Spirit is not God, the third Person of the Trinity. (The Trinity does not Exist)
- The Holy Spirit is without emotions.
- The work of the Holy Spirit cannot be supernatural and is limited by human’s cooperation.
- The Holy Spirit cannot reveal the unrighteousness of man.
- People who do not believe in Almighty God do not have the Holy Spirit.
- Christians, i.e. non-CAG followers, in the Age of Kingdom commit sins continuously because they don’t have the Holy Spirit.
- “Today, you ought not to concern yourself with what effects are to be achieved; in short, this is how the Holy Spirit works, and whoever commits an offense (must be punished)*. The Holy Spirit is without emotion, and heedless of your present understanding. If you offend Him today, then He will punish you. If you offend Him within the scope of His jurisdiction, then He will not spare you. He does not care how serious you are in your adherence to the words of Jesus. If you violate God’s commandments of today, He will punish you, and condemn you to death. How could it be acceptable for you not to adhere to them? You must adhere, even if it means suffering a little pain! No matter what religion, sector, nation, or denomination it is, in the future they must all adhere to these practices. None are exempt, and none will be spared! For they are what the Holy Spirit will do today, and no one may violate them.” [1]
- “The Holy Spirit works by this principle: Through people’s cooperation, through them actively praying, searching and coming closer to God, results can be achieved and they can be enlightened and illuminated by the Holy Spirit. It is not the case that the Holy Spirit acts unilaterally, or that man acts unilaterally. Both are indispensable, and the more that people cooperate, and the more they pursue the attainment of the standards of God’s requirements, the greater the work of the Holy spirit. Only people’s real cooperation, added to the work of the Holy Spirit, can produce real experiences and the substantive knowledge of God’s words. Gradually, through experiencing in this way, a perfect person is ultimately produced. God does not do supernatural things; in people’s notions, God is almighty, and everything is done by God—with the result that people wait passively, do not read the words of God or pray, and merely await the touch of the Holy Spirit. Those with a correct understanding, however, believe this: God’s actions can only go as far as my cooperation, and the effect that God’s work has in me depends on how I cooperate.” [2]
[1] The Word Appears in the Flesh, accessed November 22, 2021, “The Commandments of the New Age,” Google E-book, 1297.
[2] The Word Appears in the Flesh, accessed November 22, 2021, “How to Know Reality?” Google E-book, 1250.
*An older version of a pdf file (page 774) says “must die.”
- CAG’s claims and assertions about the Holy Spirit are not supported by any direct or explicit Bible references (See CAG’s Additional Arguments and Explanations below)
Christianity
The Holy Spirit is God – the Third Person of the Triune God
The essence of the Holy Spirit is identical to the essence of the Father and of the Son.
The holy spirit is a person and has emotions.
- The Holy Spirit is God, the third Person of the Triune God (Acts 5:3-4; 1 Cor. 3:16).
- The believers of Christ are sealed with the Holy Spirit; it is an inheritance, the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Eph. 1:13-14)
- The Holy Spirit will be with the believers forever. (John 14:16-17)
- The Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. (John 16:8)
- The Holy Spirit has emotions like a real person. We are not to grieve the Holy Spirit. (Eph. 4:30; Isaiah 63:10)
- The Spirit can be sinned against and lied to. (Acts 5:3)
- We are to obey the Holy Spirit. (Acts 10:19-21)
- Honor the Holy Spirit with personal desire and gratitude. (Psalm 51:11)
- When Jesus taught His disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit, He says, “8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” (John 16:8-11). In this particular passage teaching the disciples, Jesus specifically says the Holy Spirit “will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment,” which is directly refuting CAG’s Holy scripture as quoted below. (see CAG’s Additional Arguments and Explanations)
“The Bible provides many ways to help us understand that the Holy Spirit is truly a person—that is, He is a personal being, rather than an impersonal thing. First, every pronoun used in reference to the Spirit is “he” not “it.” The original Greek language of the New Testament is explicit in confirming the person of the Holy Spirit. The word for “Spirit” (pneuma) is neuter and would naturally take neuter pronouns to have grammatical agreement. Yet, in many cases, masculine pronouns are found (e.g., John 15:26; 16:13-14). Grammatically, there is no other way to understand the pronouns of the New Testament related to the Holy Spirit—He is referred to as a “He,” as a person.
Matthew 28:19 teaches us to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is a collective reference to one Triune God. Also, we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30; Isaiah 63:10). The Spirit can be sinned against and lied to (Acts 5:3). We are to obey Him (Acts 10:19–21) and honor Him (Psalm 51:11).
The personhood of the Holy Spirit is also affirmed by His many works. He was personally involved in creation (Genesis 1:2), empowers God’s people (Zechariah 4:6), guides (Romans 8:14), comforts (John 14:26), convicts (John 16:8), teaches (John 16:13), restrains sin (Isaiah 59:19), and gives commands (Acts 8:29). Each of these works requires the involvement of a person rather than a mere force, thing, or idea.
The Holy Spirit’s attributes also point to His personality. The Holy Spirit has life (Romans 8:2), has a will (1 Corinthians 12:11), is omniscient (1 Corinthians 2:10–11), is eternal (Hebrews 9:14), and is omnipresent (Psalm 139:7). A mere force could not possess all of these attributes, but the Holy Spirit does.
And the personhood of the Holy Spirit is affirmed by His role as the third Person of the Godhead. Only a being who is equal to God (Matthew 28:19) and possesses the attributes of omniscience, omnipresence, and eternality could be defined as God.” [1]
CAG's Additional Arguments and Explanations
- The Holy Spirit is inferior to the second incarnation of God in the flesh: “Yet the essence of the work done by this unremarkable flesh is far superior to that of the work done directly by the Spirit, and this flesh Himself is the answer to the needs of all mankind. For those to be saved, the use value of the Spirit is far inferior to that of the flesh: The work of the Spirit is able to cover the entire universe, across all mountains, rivers, lakes, and oceans, yet the work of the flesh more effectively relates to every person with whom He comes into contact.”[1]
[1] The Church of Almighty God, The Word Appears in the Flesh, “Christ of the Last Days – Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of the Incarnate God,” Google e-book, accessed March 16, 2021, 2603.
- CAG asserts that the Spirit is “far inferior” to that of the flesh, i.e., the second incarnated God. A little further down in the same section, another passage says, “This is the clarity of the work in the flesh, and its great difference from the work of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit is only suitable for a limited scope and cannot replace the work of the flesh. The work of the flesh gives man far more exact and necessary goals and far more real, valuable knowledge than the work of the Spirit.”[2]
- The Spirit of God is also powerless in judging mankind and revealing all of man’s unrighteousness: “Satan can only be fully defeated if God in the flesh judges the corruption of mankind. Being the same as man possessed of normal humanity, God in the flesh can directly judge the unrighteousness of man; this is the mark of His innate holiness, and of His extraordinariness. Only God is qualified to, and is in the position to, judge man, for He is possessed of the truth, and righteousness, and so He is able to judge man. Those who are without truth and righteousness are not fit to judge others. If this work were done by the Spirit of God, then it would not mean victory over Satan. The Spirit is inherently more exalted than mortal beings, and the Spirit of God is inherently holy, and triumphant over the flesh. If the Spirit did this work directly, He would not be able to judge all of man’s disobedience and could not reveal all of man’s unrighteousness. For the work of judgment is also carried out through man’s notions about God, and man has never had any notions about the Spirit, and so the Spirit is incapable of better revealing the unrighteousness of man, much less of completely disclosing such unrighteousness.”[3]
- The following statement seems to imply that the Holy Spirit is either God or the power from God: “However great the authority of Jesus on earth, prior to the crucifixion, He was merely a Son of man, governed by the Holy Spirit (that is, God), and one of the earth’s created beings, for He had yet to complete His work. Therefore, His calling God in heaven Father was solely His humility and obedience. His addressing God (that is, the Spirit in heaven) in such a manner, however, does not prove that He was the Son of the Spirit of God in heaven. Rather, it was simply that His perspective was different, not that He was a different person. The existence of distinct persons is a fallacy! Prior to His crucifixion, Jesus was a Son of man bound by the limitations of the flesh, and He did not fully possess the authority of the Spirit.“[4]
[4] The Church of Almighty God, The Word Appears in the Flesh, “Does the Trinity Exist?”, accessed March 15, 2021; Google e-book, accessed November 25, 2021, 2008-2009.
Clear Thinking Exercises
- On the one hand, CAG claims that Jesus was an ordinary man before His baptism; and only after His baptism did Jesus possess the power and authority of the Holy Spirit that had been bestowed upon Him. (See the Doctrine of Christ); on the other hand Number 4 above says that the Son of man was not governed by the Holy Spirit prior to the crucifixion and did not fully possess the authority of the Spirit. When did Jesus possess the power and authority of the Hoy Spirit? After His baptism or after the crucifixion?
- Number 4 above says “the Holy Spirit (that is, God), but the CAG claims that “the Trinity does not exist.” (See the Doctrine of the Trinity) Is the Holy Spirit God or the power of God? If the Holy Spirit is God, but CAG claims that God has three names, Jehovah in the Age of Law, Jesus in the Age of Grace, and Almighty God in the Age of Kingdom.
- If the Holy Spirit is God, how can one reconcile the divinity of the Holy Spirit with 1, 2, and 3 above (in CAG’s Additional Arguments and Explanations)?