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The Deity of The Holy Spirit in Acts Chapter 5

Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by ICHTHUS, Mar 24, 2017.

  1. ICHTHUS

    ICHTHUS Member
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    "But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit...You have not lied to man, but to God...How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord” (verses, 3,4,9)

    This is one of the clearest passages in the Holy Bible, testifying to the Deity of the Holy Spirit. Peter here charges Ananias of lying to the Holy Spirit (to pneuma to hagion). And then makes the charge even stronger, when he informs Ananias that his falsehood was not to “anthropois”, that is, “a human being”, but, to ALMIGHTY GOD. Note in the Greek Peter does not say, “theoi”, which such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others, may reduce its meaning to “god”, as they do with John 1:1, “and the Word was a god”, which has nothing to do with the Greek grammar of the text, but to support their false “theology” on the Person of Jesus Christ. But, here in Acts, we have the use of the Greek article, “toi” (toi theoi), “THE GOD”. Later in this passage, when Peter is speaking to Ananias’ wife, Sapphira, he says that they both, “agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord (to pneuma kupiou)”. Not only do we have this wonderful testimony to the Holy Spirit’s Deity, but also another important fact is established in this passage, which is the Personality of the Holy Spirit.

    There are some, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who teach “doctrine of demons”, when they say that the Holy Spirit is nothing more than “an active force” of Jehovah. Such is their blasphemy. If, has they blaspheme, that the Holy Spirit is “impersonal”, they how can it be possible for Peter, who is speaking under the inspiration of Almighty God, say that the Holy Spirit, was “lied to” and “tempted”, something only possible of a PERSONAL BEING?

    The Greek word for “lied”, which is used in verses 3 and 4 for the Holy Spirit, is the verb, “pseudomai”, which Dr Joseph Thayer, in his Greek-English lexicon, so defines, “to deceive one by a lie, to lie to, Act 5:3… like verbs of saying, with a dative of the person, Act 5:4” (page 675. emphasis mine). Dr Thayer’s words are quite important here, as he was a Unitarian, and denied the Personality of the Holy Sprit, as he did His Deity. But, as we can see from his definition of the Greek verb used in Acts 5, that it is here used “of the person”. Dr Thayer is here showing what the Greek word actually says, even though it contradicts his own “theology” on the Person of the Holy Spirit. At least he is being honest here, unlike the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who blatantly use lies to promote their own heresies.
     
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