THE HOLY SPIRIT

Orthodox Christianity believes in a Triune God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It believes in the Father as the Creator;” in the Son as the Redeemer; in the Holy Spirit as the Comforter and Sustainer. Orthodox Christians regard these three aspects of Divinity as three separate Persons, who are in perfect harmony as to thought and purpose, and who function as One God.

In this concept of the Divine Being, the Holy Spirit is regarded as the third Person in the Trinity, whose special form of activity is to fill the heart and mind of the devout with peace and joy. As a Person the Holy Spirit has always been in the Christian mind a somewhat shadowy Being. People pray to the Father and to the Son. Seldom, if ever, are petitions directed to the Holy Spirit.

In the Old Testament, Jehovah speaks; in the New Testament, the Savior; but nowhere in the Bible does this supposed third Person, the Holy Spirit address mankind. For many centuries people have adored the Holy Spirit, giving it equal rank with the other Divine Persons in the Trinity; but they have known little or nothing about it. They have prayed to the Father, that he would fill their hearts with the same Holy Spirit.

But to the Spirit itself they have made no direct approach. In True Christian Religion Swedenborg asserts, “All those of the clerical order when they enter the spiritual world (which generally takes place on the third day after death) receive instruction at first about the Divine trinity, and particularly about the Holy Spirit.

They are told that it is not a God by itself, but that the Divine operation proceeding from the One and omnipresent God is what is meant in the holy Word by the Holy Spirit” And Swedenborg continues, “Those who after instruction relinquish the idea that the Holy Spirit is a God by itself are then taught that the unity of God is not divided into three persons, each one of whom is singly God and Lord, according to the Athanasian Creed; but that the Divine Trinity is in the Lord the Savior, like the soul, body and proceeding energy in any human being.”

Swedenborg then makes a statement that is rather startling to those who first read True Christian Religion. This is what he says: “The Holy Spirit is the Divine Truth and also the Divine energy and operation proceeding from the One God in whom is the Divine Trinity, that is, from the Lord God the Savior.” We can understand this better if we use an illustration.

From the sun of our solar system heat and light flow in a constant steady stream. They radiate throughout the wide expanse of our planetary system, and fill with themselves all recipient forms on which they fall. By their activity the vegetable and animal kingdoms are sustained. The stream of heat and light is ceaseless in its operation, well-nigh changeless in its power.

On it, under Divine Providence, all animated nature depends. From the one eternal and ever-present God goes forth an emanation of love and truth. From all eternity this stream of love and truth has been flowing, and because God is eternal and changeless the stream will ever continue to flow. In itself it is the stream of life, in which we live and move and have our being.

It is the radiant energy of the Divine which keeps in existence the universe both on the spiritual and material planes. This emanation from the Divine, which is the heat and light of the spiritual universe, has various activities. In its aspect of love it is the great creative principle from which proceeds all creation. It is the source of all cosmic activity. It is the life from which all things exist and subsist.

But it has another form of activity. It is educative. It gives form and beauty to all created things. It also operates upon the human mind. In its aspect of divine truth, it is the source of all human thought, and the agent of all spiritual education. It is the impulse from which every person derives the power of rational thought. We call it the Divine Truth. Truth is something more than knowledge, something more than the verity of proven fact. Flowing from God it is really the Divine Word. In its essence it is the thought that emanates from the mind of the Creator.

One great and important aspect of its activity is its constant appeal to the human mind. God is ever revealing himself to us. He desires to be known as a God of love. But this knowledge comes to us primarily in the form of truth. Out of the Infinite Truth that flows from God, each human being can gain just that knowledge which his mind can receive and use. The Bible is Divine Truth accommodated to our feeble intelligence. At the Incarnation, and thereafter for all time, Divine Truth came to us through the Divine Humanity; in other words, through the Savior God.

This spirit of Truth, which is concerned with man's response to the Lord, which moves us to repentance, and brings us into harmony with the Divine Will, is the Holy Spirit. Not a person, not a separate God, but the Divine Energy, flowing through the Savior, and inspiring all those who seek to keep the commandments. This is the Comforter, this is the spirit of truth, this is the Holy Spirit.

This is what is meant in the words of the Savior, “1 will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you” There is one mention of the Holy Spirit in the Gospels that needs especial notice. It is cited by all the evangelists.

“And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him” From this record the Christian world has adopted the dove as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. And rightly so, because the dove is an external symbol of the affections and consequent thoughts of the regenerate life. But any intelligent person can realize that it is no more than a symbol, and that its appearance to the Savior carries with it no support of the belief that the Holy Spirit is a third person in a Divine Trinity.

We quote again from Swedenborg: “As the Lord is truth itself, all that goes forth from him is truth, and this is what is meant by the Comforter, who is also called the Spirit of Truth and the Holy Spirit” In support of this statement Swedenborg quotes many passages in the Bible, as for instance the one quoted above, and here for emphasis repeated, “I will pray the Father to give you another Comforter, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him, for he abideth with you and shall be in you.

I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you; and ye shall see me.” Here the Lord clearly identifies himself with the Comforter. Just as elsewhere he declares, “I and the Father are One” so here he speaks of himself as the Comforter Swedenborg teaches us therefore that the Holy Spirit is the Lord himself, coming as the spirit of truth into our hearts and minds. He also calls it the Divine Operation and Energy, exerted upon mankind for a special purpose. That purpose is our reformation and regeneration.

To all who believe in him the Lord comes as the Spirit of Truth, moving them to amendment of life. He woos them to himself. He urges them to reformation and to complete regeneration of soul. All Christians believe the Lord's words, “Ye must be born again.” And all sincere Christians are eager to attain this new birth. Swedenborg tells us how the new birth is achieved. It is brought about by the operation of the Holy Spirit. “The operation of these energies” he says, “is the Holy Spirit, which the Lord sends to those who believe in him and who prepare themselves to receive him.”

This is what is meant by “spirit” in the divine assurance, “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit; and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.” Towards the close of his chapter on the Holy Spirit, Swedenborg also defines -the human spirit. He says, “In the concrete, man's spirit means simply his mind; for this it is that lives after death, and it is then called a spirit—if good an angelic spirit and afterwards an angel, if evil a satanic spirit, afterward a satan. The mind of every one is his internal man, which is actually the person himself, and resides within the external man which constitutes his body; consequently when the body is cast off, which is brought about by its death, the internal man is in a complete human form.”

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