The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fifth Year: Divine Immanence and the Holy GhostRoberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fifth Year: Divine Immanence and the Holy Ghost
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
Moreover, as we have seen in a previous lesson, the Holy Ghost does
those things, performs those offices which may be done only by a
"person" in the sense here considered, viz. He is represented as
proceeding from the Father; as sent forth in the name of the Son; as
abiding; as teaching; as bearing witness; as reproving the world; as
guiding; and revealing.[A]
[Footnote A: See Lesson viii, this treatise where citation to scripture
for all these things is given.]
It is, however, proper that attention should be called to the fact that
in some cases the Holy Ghost is represented by the neuter pronoun "It"
and "Itself." "The spirit _itself_ beareth witness with our spirit."[A]
John calls the Holy Spirit "the anointing;" "But the anointing which ye
have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach
you; but as the same anointing teach you all things, and is truth, and
is no lie, and even as it hath taught, ye shall abide in him."[B] Here
we see that the neuter pronoun "_it_" is applied to the Spirit which
"teacheth all things."[C] "That this anointing," says Orson Pratt,
"referred to the Holy Spirit is evident, not only from its 'teaching
all things,' but the word is so applied by Peter: 'God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.'"[D] Elder Pratt also
cites the following instances from the Book of Mormon: "The Book of
Mormon in two places uses the neuter pronoun 'it' when speaking of
the Holy Ghost. Nephi says, 'Behold, there are many that harden their
hearts against the Holy Spirit, that it hath no place in them.' And
again, he says, 'If ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy
Ghost, it will show unto you all things what we should do.' In another
place the Book of Mormon represents the Spirit of the Lord as a person.
Nephi says of this spirit, 'I spake unto him as a man speaketh; for I
beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet, nevertheless, I knew that
it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh
with another.'"
[Footnote A: Rom, viii:16.]
[Footnote B: I John ii:27.]
[Footnote C: Acts x:38.]
[Footnote D: Mill. Star, Vol. XII, p. 307.]
It is, in his described activities, however, that one may find the best
idea of the nature of the personal quality of the Holy Ghost, and these
activities can only obtain, as we hope is abundantly set forth in these
lessons, in connection with a personality, and in the sense of that
personality being an individual spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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