Holy Spirit #4

A Study in Basic Greek #1

Fred R. Coulter—December 5, 1992

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One of the reasons we are doing this series is because we find some difficulties among people who once believe that the Holy Spirit was not a trinity, but now they're going back and believing that it is a trinity, or getting close to it. Here's the reason why.

Let's see some basic reasons as to why these things take place. Why is it that people who have supposedly proven something at one time out of the Bible, go along and then, years later they overthrow that and believe something that is not true? We saw it happen before our very eyes, and some of us with people we have know for a long time.

Hebrews 5:11: "Concerning Whom we have much to say and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing." That doesn't mean that you need a hearing aid. Obviously, this means that you have gotten tired of listening to the Word of God as the basis of Truth.

Verse 12: "For truly, by this time you ought to be teachers, but instead you need to have someone teach you again what are the beginning principles of the oracles of God, and have become those in need of milk, and not of solid food. For everyone who is partaking of milk is unskilled in the Word of Righteousness because he is an infant. But solid food is for those who are fully grown… [mature spiritually] …who through repeated practice…" (vs 12-14)—constantly using again and again and again, the Word of God:

• to be applied in your life
• to be applied in the situations that are confronting your life
• to be able to overcome the difficulties that you have in life
• to be able to understand the Word of God

You have to use it!There are a lot of people who are not using it.

I talked to one minister back in Missouri. He said, 'How is it that all of these doctrinal changes are coming down?' He said:

• people are so busy with their jobs
• they are so busy with their lives
• they are not studying
• they are not praying
• they come to church on the Sabbath just like people come to church on Sunday

So, this is a Biblical definition of that.

"…who through repeated practice have had their senses trained to discern between good and evil" (v 14).

Just like we were discussing a little earlier, the way you get evil in is to have a good cause. Just like with Somalia. The way you get the power given to the UN, is have a good cause. After all, you don't want people to starve to death. It's just like, everyone who doesn't believe in the trinity is a cult. You don't want to be a cult.

It's been quite a while since we did the series on Satan's Ten Most Believable Lies by Dave Breese, but I just want to cover a couple of paragraphs out of here.

From: Satan's Ten Most Believable Lies, by Dave Breese:

The "father of lies" will surely present assertions that will sound blessedly true.

One of them that we heard, was that the trinity did not come from paganism. That's why in our little study paper, I put in the page from The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop, showing that it came from paganism. People want to hear those kind of things. If you talk smooth things to them and gradually introduce some of these things, then over a period of time—Voilà!—you have the Catholic Church all over again. For those who say, 'I'm trusting in God! I'm just going to let Him work this out. Surely God will not let this happen.'

Then again, how did the Catholic Church get started. The responsibility lies with us, that we need to do things. So, Satan comes along with these assertions that sound blessedly true and are only proven false when analyzed in-depth. That's what we're going to do with this sermon series on the Holy Spirit.

The cleverest set of lies that Satan has ever produced is the satanic system of doctrine. With his doctrines, we presses quiet arguments upon reasonable men…

I call your attention to read what they say about the trinity in the Catholic book there.

…appealing to high intelligence and mature sensibilities. Every person who is not a Christian believes in one or another demonic doctrines as the principle, the first principle of his life. Many Christians, though saved by believing Truth, have been render spiritually impotent through accepting, along with the Truth, a doctrine of Satan.

Of course, that has affected the Church of God! Let's see that constantly, the Church of God is confronted with:

• those who are false apostles
• false ministers
• those who are confronted with Satan the devil
• with Satan's doctrines

I'm not going to go into each one of these, but let's just pick up a little bit here.

Revelation 2:2 "I know your works, and your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot bear those who are evil; and that you did test those who proclaim themselves to be apostles, but are not, and did find them liars."

Verse 4: "Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love…. [becoming 'dull of hearing']: …repent, and do the first works; for if you do not, I will come to you quickly; and I will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. But this you have: that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans…" (vs 4-6).

We come to the church that no one wants to be, which is the Church of Smyrna, because:

• they're martyred
• they're poor
• they are killed
• they are chased by Satan, who is going to cast them into prison for ten days

We come to the next church, which is the Church at Pergamos, which is right in the capital of Satan's organization, where Satan's seat is. Then things have come so perverse that they:

Verse 14: "…because you have there those who hold the teaching of Balaam…to eat things sacrificed to idols…" That's how, as we saw, idol worship got started in the Catholic Church:

• an idol is nothing, just a reminder of something
• you could only worship God
• you don't worship these idols
• Tell me, what is wrong with having something as a reminder?
• Don't you have pictures of your relatives?

What'd they do before cameras? No one thought of that. Then things got so bad, that:

Verse 15: "Moreover, you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes…"

Then, we come over to the Thyatira Church and find that they are commended for all the things that they did, but

Verse 20: "…you allow the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and…eating things sacrificed to idols."

Then Christ makes quite a statement here. After He says that 'if they don't repent, I'll cast them into tribulation' (v 22).

Verse 23: "'And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am He Who searches the reins and hearts; and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to you I say, and to the rest who are in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, and who have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will not cast upon you any other burden'" (vs 23-24). We need to really think on that statement and analyze that statement a little bit.

Were they then doing exactly as Dave Breese said here in this book Satan's Ten Most Believable Lies?

Many Christians, though saved by believing Truth, have been rendered spiritually impotent through accepting, along with the Truth, a doctrine of Satan.

There it is!

Then, we come over to the next church. They're so worn out that they're 'dead' and God says 'strengthen' the little bit that you have left.

Then the Philadelphia Church: they're confronted with the synagogue of Satan. Then the Laodicean Church: they're confronted with the compilation of all of their sins. They're 'naked, wretched, blind and poor' and all this sort of thing.

I had an interesting phone call from a man the other day. I talked to him and he said, 'Do you believe in church eras?' I said, 'What do you mean, church eras?' Because there are so many people going around and one is saying, 'I'm this church era.' Another is saying, 'I'm of this church era.' So, I said, 'There are a couple of things that people have not even thought about.' You come to the churches in Rev. 2 & 3, and you've got seven churches. They existed at that time when John was writing. You also have that John was writing in the 90sA.D.

• What about all of the churches that were up to that time?
• What about the Church in Jerusalem?
• What about the Church in Rome?
• What about the Churches in Spain?
• What about the Churches in Parthia?

They're not mentioned, there, either. What about:

• The Church at Corinth?
• The Church at Philippi?
• The Church at Colossae?
• The Church at Thessalonica?
• Were all those not Churches of God?
• How about the Church at Antioch?

One of the biggest churches that Paul raised up!

• Why is not Antioch mentioned there?

I said, 'Part of the problem is that everyone likes to be a Philadelphian.' I know of five churches that say they're Philadelphian. No one wants to be a Laodicean and no one surely wants to be from Smyrna. I said, 'They all choose the Philadelphian.' I said, 'I'm going to throw a little curve at you.'

• What if at the end, when we're all looking just for Laodiceans, and we have the same thing as at the beginning?
• What if you have a whole spreading of the Churches everywhere, to where there is more than seven distinguishable groups?
• What if you have multiple hundreds of groups like we have today, which come out of what people have thought of as the Laodiceans?

I said, 'The way things are going, the way I read the society in the Church today, I would say that we're more like in the Corinthian era.' You go back and you look at all of the problems in the Church at Corinth and I can almost pull up a letter, pull up a booklet, pull up something that someone has sent me. You can't rely on church eras.

• Church eras were for what?
• What was the main reason behind church eras?
• What was one of the main reason behind the church eras, especially to be a Philadelphian? Attitude toward Christ is partly it!
• What was one of the main motivating factors for that? You feel safe! If you're in the Philadelphia Church, you feel you have it made!
• Why?

Let's read what it says to the Philadelphians. God says:

Revelation 3:10: "Because you have kept the Word of My patience… [there is something that has to be done, not just proclaimed] …I also will keep you from the time of temptation which is about to come upon the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth." Most people want to be a Philadelphian so they can escape. Rather than concentrating on their relationship with God, they're concentrating on saving their necks.

So much for church eras. Here, at the close of this book of Dave Breese writes:

From: Satan's Ten Most Believable Lies: A small degree of understanding of the Bible mixed with faith, will produce salvation.

You might put 1-Cor. 3, about the gold, the silver, the precious stone, the wood, hay, and stubble, etc. That all ties in there with that.

Such small understanding, however, will produce Christian capability in the great battle, which we now face in our age. The successful soldier, then, is the one who becomes knowledgeable to the point of the mastery of Scripture.

The unfortunate problem of our present age is that these individuals, who have proficiency in the Scripture to know the sound doctrine, are somewhat rare. Too many Christians have settled for the simple outline produced on the denominational mimeograph machine and have developed little knowledge beyond this.

That's why they become 'dull of hearing.' Doctrine that is not of God, or out of the Bible, can be put down and they will accept it.

We must assure ourselves that there is no religious syndicate, no organization that has a corner on the knowledge of the Scriptures. Each individual is called upon to know the Word of God for himself. Indeed, no ministry is doing its job unless it produces individual competence in Scripture. Too many organizations are merely producing a limp, mass, of spiritual dependence—saints who are not equipped to study the Bible for themselves.

• What is told the people in the Catholic Church? Don't study the Bible!
• What is told to some people in the Church of God, after they've been in for a while? Don't study the Bible!

They're all set up for the same fall!

Limp mass is spiritual dependence. They must ever be propped up by their spiritual gurus, never coming to the place of personal doctrinal expertise.

Let's review just a little bit. Let's see what happens when the philosophy of this world, which developed the doctrine of the trinity, comes full circle.

• it's one thing to be able to read the Scriptures
• it's one thing to be able to know where things are in the Scriptures
• it's another thing to be able to know the Scriptures
• it's another thing to be able to think with the Scriptures and properly put them together

Hopefully, that's what we're trying to do, here. That's why I'm giving you some of these tools that we have.

Colossians 2:8: "Be on guard so that no one takes you captive through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the traditions of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ."

• What happens after that?
• What do people get into?
• What do people get into when they give up on God?

Verse 18: "Do not allow anyone to defraud you [beguile/deceive you] of the prize by doing his will in self-abasement and the worship of angels…" We know those can't be righteous angels because a righteous angel of God would tell you not to worship him. These are the fallen angels of Satan the devil, demonic angels.

"…intruding into things that he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his own carnal mind" (v 18). Isn't that exactly what has happened, if we just sit back and we think about what has happened to every religion of this world?

Discovery Channel was showing this Buddha ritual that this Japanese man was going through. He made a pilgrimage from Japan to the Hawaiian Islands. They had a Japanese commemoration of those Japanese who died in the attack of Pearl Harbor. All the things they were going through:

• the idols
• the smoke
• the incense
• the chanting
• the beads
• the prayers
• the kneeling
• the standing

They had this Japanese priest and he had on a little miter. I thought, straight out of Babylon! What happens? Exactly what's right here! They get into worshipping fallen angels! That's what the whole oriental art is all about, fallen angels. That's what happens when you get into those things. In part three we covered concerning evil spirits, fallen angels and angels of God.

Let's look at just a couple of references in the Old Testament concerning the Spirit of God and then we'll get on into the New Testament. What we are going to see is that the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, just by the way of review, was the power of God; that force, that power by which God did, does and accomplishes things. It is the power that God gives to those whom He calls. In the Old Testament, we only find two places where it talks about 'the Holy Spirit.' The Old Testament generally talks about:

• the Spirit of the Lord
• the Spirit of God
• the Spirit of the Lord of hosts

Psa. 51 talks about the Holy Spirit. We know that this is the Psalm of repentance that David prayed to God and wrote up afterwards, after He repented of his sin with Bathsheba.

Psalm 51:10: "Create in me a clean heart…" Isn't it interesting that all sin is uncleanness.

• What are fallen spirits called?
• What are wicked spirits called?
• Unclean spirits!
• What is it that God wants from each one of us? A clean heart!

Notice how it comes. You don't have a clean heart by thinking good thoughts. The heart is 'deceitful and desperately wicked.' You can't do it yourself. God has to create it! How do you create it? With God's Word and the Holy Spirit!

"…O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me" (v 10). As we mentioned before, just stop and think of how long it took for:

• this whole Bathsheba affair
• killing of Uriah the Hittite, her husband
• the birth of the baby
• all those things going on
• how long David was involved in this thing avoiding the truth of his sin

He knew better. So he said:

Verse 10: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me" (vs 10-11).

Apparently, David was really understanding that he was on the verge of committing an unpardonable sin, you would have to say. If once you have the Spirit of God and it's removed from you, that's it!

Verse 12: "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and let Your free spirit uphold me."

You'd have to agree that David was at the lowest, possible, spiritual, condition that he could be in—to be redeemed out of—just by this prayer. Those that God called, like David and some of the prophets, had God's Holy Spirit, which was also called 'the Spirit of Christ' that was in them and did signify the times ahead.

Isaiah 63:10: "But they rebelled, and troubled His Holy Spirit…" There's a place in the New Testament which says, 'Grieve not the Holy Spirit.' That is vex it.

"…therefore, He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them" (v 10). That's a terrible thing that the God you worship you become so removed from Him that He's the One Who fights you. That's what Christ said that He would do to the Church at Pergamus. He said, 'Unless you repent, I will fight against you with the sword of My mouth.' That was referring to eating things sacrificed to idols in the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. He said that He was going to fight against them.

Verse 11: "Then He remembered the days of old, Moses and His people, saying, 'Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He who set His Holy Spirit among them; Who led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name'" (vs 11-12). That's the only place where it says, the Holy Spirit of God in the Old Testament. In the New Testament it's entirely different.

I want you to put in your notes and please go study Num. 11. This is were Moses came to God and said, 'Oh, God. Why did you stick me with this bunch of rebellious people? It's more than I can bear.' When you read that, I want you to see his attitude and how he talked to God. So, God said, 'All right, you get 70 of the elders of Israel and I'll take some of the Spirit that I have put upon you and put it upon them that they may bear the burden with you.' Then the Spirit of God came upon them.

Again, it shows that the Spirit of God is the power of God! It is not a person! We can make this unqualified statement concerning the Old Testament: Nowhere in the Old Testament is the Holy Spirit ever referred to as a person! Nowhere in the Old Testament is the Holy Spirit personified! The close as you get to that is the personification of wisdom in Prov. 1 & 6.

Now let's come to the New Testament and look at some things concerning the New Testament.

• The Holy Spirit is never referred to as a person, as is God the Father and Jesus Christ.

There is no such statement in the New Testament that the Holy Spirit is Divine, giving it personage. It is Holy because it comes from God! Nowhere do we find any statement in the New Testament that defines God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. That is from the Catholic doctrine that comes about because of what is known as Christology. In other words, the philosophy of theology to try and explain how we can retain the old pagan doctrine of three gods and make it Christian.

We're going to look at a series of Scriptures on the introduction of all the Epistles in the New Testament. In some cases, this may get a little redundant, but I think it's very necessary for us to go through. Let's start with Rom. 1.

What we are doing, as I mentioned when we started this out, is that this was not only going to be a study into the Holy Spirit of God in the Bible, but it was also going to be an example of how you study 'precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line and here a little, there a little,' and you put together the whole doctrine. I'm trying to do it in such a way so that you will have understanding. It doesn't do any good for me to understand it, preach on it and then preach in such a way that you don't understand it. We will see this all the way through. This will become rather dramatic as we go through.

Romans 1:1: "Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, set apart to preach the Gospel of God, which He had promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son; Who came from the seed of David according to the flesh, Who was declared the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrection from the dead—Jesus Christ our Lord; through Whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all the nations… [the Gentiles] …in behalf of His name; in Whom you also are called of Jesus Christ… (vs 1-6). You could have a whole sermon on that—the called of Christ Jesus.

Verse 7: "To all those who are in Rome, beloved by God, the called saints: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ." No Holy Spirit!

Sometimes the simplest thing, such as just reading the introductions to the Epistles, teaches us the greatest lessons.

I know that when I go through and I've been editing a book, I read over things. I leave out words. When I go back and read it, I read in the missing word and I miss the obvious. Sometimes it's really good for us to go back and just take the obvious and go all the way through.

1-Corinthians 1:1: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, called by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the Church of God that is in Corinth, the called saints who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, together with all those in every place who are calling on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (vs 1-3). No Holy Spirit!

If the Holy Spirit were a person, do you not think that we should have greetings from the Holy Spirit?

2-Corinthians 1:1: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the Church of God that is in Corinth, with all the saints who are in the entire region of Achaia: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort" (vs 1-3).

We'll spend a little more time on this when we come to explain all of John 14, the Comforter, the 'paraklet' and all of this sort of thing. Here is one of the places where they think they have the masculine personification of the Spirit. When we get there, we will show you conclusively that that is not so.

John 14:15: "If you love Me, keep the commandments—namely, My commandments."

People send me tapes. It is amazing, brethren, how many ministers that have been in whatever Church of God, preach law-keeping and commandment-keeping still with 'a fist in your face,' rather than you love God and that's why you keep His commandments! That's why. What good is it going to do to keep the commandments of God if you don't love Him? Commandment-keeping alone is only part of the love of God. That's why Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep the commandments—namely, My commandments."

Verse 16: "And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter…" I want you to keep in mind the word 'Comforter'—'parakletos'—which is a descriptive noun of the function of the Holy Spirit. In Greek:

• the noun form for Comforter is 'parakletos'
• the verb is 'parakleo'

When we come to 2-Corinthians 1:4: "Who comforts us… [parakleo] …comforted by God… [paraklesis].' It is a function that comes from God!

How many have a comforter at home? I do! I go down to my office and since I don't like to pay the huge electric bill to keep the room warm in the winter, because we have these little electric heaters in the rooms, I put on a blanket and a comforter. I make sure I have one under my feet so my feet stay warm. It's not a person. God's comfort is a function that comes from God, not a person!

Verse 4: "Who comforts us in all our tribulation, in order that we may be able to comfort… ['paraklene'—which is the infinitive sense of it] …those who are in any trial, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."

When we come to really study and analyze those places in John 14:15 and 1-John 2, about the 'parakletos'; it is a function that comes from God and does not establish it as a person.

Galatians 1:1—no mention of the Holy Spirit as a person: "Paul, an apostle, not sent from men nor made by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, Who raised Him from the dead; and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: Grace and peace be to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ" (vs 1-3).

• If you have grace and if you have peace, why not have comfort?
• Why not say, 'And comfort from the Holy Spirit, the Comforter?'

It doesn't say that!

Let's go to the next one. We find the same thing all the way through. There are a couple of places we'll see where it does mention the Holy Spirit. We'll get to those.

Ephesians 1:1: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (vs 1-2).

Philippians 1:1: "Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (vs 1-2). No God the Holy Spirit!

Colossians 1:1: "Paul, an apostle by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying for you continually since hearing of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love that you have toward all the saints; because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven, which you heard before in the word of the Truth of the Gospel; which has come to you, even as it also has in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, just as it is among you, from the day that you heard and knew the grace of God in Truth" (vs 1-6).

All the way through. Now, let's come down to v 8. Epaphras came back and told Paul. He said:

Verse 8: "Who has also informed us of your love in the Spirit"—showing that it's the power of God.

1-Thess. 1:1-2 it says the same thing; it talks about God the Father and Jesus Christ:

Verse 4: "Knowing your election, brethren, as you are beloved by God. For our Gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit…" (vs 4-5).

The New Testament is associating the Holy Spirit with power and we're going to see that's exactly what the New Testament teaches.

James and we'll see that James did exactly the same thing, just a little differently; James 1:1: "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes, which are in the dispersion: Greetings!"

1-Peter 1:3: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Again, no Holy Spirit.

Let's go to Jude. We find the same thing in 1-John and 2-John. In 3-John you don't find it.

Jude 1: "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to the called saints, sanctified by…"

• How are you made Holy?
• What is the Spirit called? The Holy Spirit!
• If the Holy Spirit is a person, you would be sanctified by the Holy Spirit?

It says in some places that you are sanctified by the Holy Spirit, we'll see a little later.

"…sanctified by… [Whom?] …God the Father and kept… [How?] …in Jesus Christ" (v 1).

John, who wrote the last bit of what we find in the Bible, ending the Bible. Surely, if there was any one doctrine that the world really needed to know before the Apostle John died, was whether the Holy Spirit was a person or not—wouldn't you think?

Revelation 1:1: "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him, to show to His servants the things that are ordained tocome to pass shortly; and He made it known, having sent it by His angel to His servant John; who gave witness to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, and all the things he saw. Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of this prophecy and who keep the things that are written therein; for the time is at hand" (vs 1-3). Nothing concerning the Holy Spirit as a person!

What is the Holy Spirit?

• The Greek word for spirit or Holy Spirit is neuter

It is not, anywhere in the New Testament, masculine. It is not anywhere in the New Testament, personified.

(go to the next track)

We're going to learn a little bit of Greek today. I'll try and put it in such a way that it will be understandable.

• pneuma—Spirit

Have you ever wondered why in English that the word pneumonia starts with a 'pn?' Because it comes from the Greek! In the Greek it's 'pneuma'—spirit.

•  'tau' or 'tou'—'tau pneuma'—the spirit
• 'pneuma hagiou'—spirit holy
• 'tau hagiou pneuma'—the Holy Spirit
• 'tau pneuma tou hagios'—the Spirit the Holy or the Spirit, namely the Holy Spirit

Now let's look at a couple of things concerning Greek that we don't have in English. There is only one spelling for the word the in all the English language, which is the:

• the man
• the woman
• the car
• the house

In Greek, that is not so.

Greek Three Declensions: Masculine, Feminine, Neuter

I took some pages out of my old, old, beginning Greek textbook.
neuter—'neu.' That's exactly the same spelling that comes out of 'pneuma.' You see how the Greek carries over.

masculine—'au'—masculine the
neuter—'tau'—the

The reason I'm bringing this out is so that you can understand that in the Greek, there can be no confusion between masculine, feminine and neuter. It cannot be.
New Testament Greek Lesson Four: Second Declension Order of Words

Vocabulary: I'm sure you recognize all of the English equivalents there. The first word is:

• 'adelphos'—a brother
• 'ho adelphos'—the brother
• 'anthropos'—man
• 'ho anthropos'—a man
• 'apostolos'—apostle
• 'ho apostolos' an apostle or the apostle
• 'doulos'—slave or servant
• 'ho doulos' a slave or servant
• 'doron'—gift or offering (neuter)
• 'tau doron'—the gift or the offering (neuter)

See the difference in the definite article between the two? No mistake! A gift, obviously, is neuter even in English.

• 'thanatos'—death (masculine)
• 'ho thanatos'—a death

Why would they have death listed as masculine? Is death masculine or does it happen to everyone? It happens to everyone! Men die! Women die! Every noun in the Greek language must be designated masculine, feminine or neuter. It is by demand of the structure of the language. Not everything that is masculine is in the sense that it is a male gender thing. For example: Death is not a male gender thing, but it is a masculine gender noun in the Greek.

• 'hieron'—temple
• 'tau hieron'—a temple
• 'kye'
• 'logos'—word
• 'hau logos'—the word
• 'nomos'—law
• 'ho nomos'—the law

Is law masculine in the sense that it is a male gender? No! It is masculine in the sense of the demand of the language.

• 'ho oikos'—a house
• 'ho huios'—a son

From the book in beginning Greek:

Section 26: There is no indefinite article in the Greek, which means that 'adelphos' can mean either brother or a brother, usually, the latter. We in English distinguish it by 'a house' or 'the house.' If someone were interrogating a witness and said, 'He ran in the house.' What would be the next question? Which house is the house that he ran in?

Greek, however, has a definite article and where the Greek article does not appear the definite article should not be inserted in the English translation. Thus 'adelphos' does not mean the brother. In plural, English, like Greek, has no definite article. 'Anthropoi' simply means men. It does not mean the men.

Section 27: The noun in Greek has gender, number and cast. There are three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.

Section 31: The declension for 'anthropos,' 'hau anthropos.'

I want you to take the time to look at this. What do you see immediately when you look at this word? What is the most conspicuous thing that happens in Greek? You notice the spelling as you come right down the line is the same until you come to the last two letters! That becomes important in the Greek. I'll show you why in just a minute.

Come over to the second column which says, 'anthropoi' it's men. You spell it differently if its of man or of men, and so forth.

Feminine: It looks like a funny looking 'n.' I'm sorry I didn't have time to number these pages when I got them to you. By the time I mail them out, I'll have the pages numbered. 'Feminine' looks like a funny looking 'n.' That is a long 'e' in the Greek, pronounced 'ee.' With a little tail above it, it is pronounced 'hey.'

Let's come down here where it says the first declension.

• the truth
• a kingdom
• a writing
• glory
• peace
• a church
• a commandment
• life
• day
• heart
• parable
• voice
• soul
• hour

are all in the feminine declension. Let's go back and I'll just read a couple of them for you.

• 'ho aletheia'—the truth
• 'ho aletheia tou theou'—means the Truth of God
• 'ho basalia'—the kingdom
• 'ho grapho' or graphe'—the writing
• 'ha doxa'—the glory
• 'ha eirene'—the peace
• 'ha ecclesia'—the church

I'll just call your attention to Section 54. Look again where it says declension of 'doxa' or doxazo'—which is glory. Notice again, the endings of the words are different. See the last letter of the last two letters. You see that? I don't expect you to memorize or know that, but all I'm doing is just showing you that it's different.

The Definite Article the

Section 54: The Declension of The Article:

In English, every 'the.' In Greek it's spelled all these different ways, which looks a little complicated, but:

• if you want a language that is specific
• if you want a language that is detailed
• if you want a language that cannot be misconstrued like English

That's what you need.

The reason I'm doing this is not so that you're necessarily going to learn much, if any, Greek; but you're going to learn something about the Greek language, which is: You cannot misconstrue Greek! If you do, it is done deliberately! That's the whole point I want to get to when we come to the full, detailed, discussion of John 14. This is something that every Greek student has to learn cold. Notice how this is broken down:

• singular: and then masculine, feminine, neuter
• plural: masculine, feminine, neuter

Down along each side, you have an:

• 'n' stands for the nominative case
• 'g' for the genitive case, or possessive case
• 'd' for the dative case, or receiving case

and:

• 'a' for the accusative case; that is something that goes to, or toward

Let me just pronounce these since this is one of the first things. When I took the basic Greek, Dr. Dorothy said, 'Memorize this because we're not going any further until you memorize it':

• ha/ho
• tau
• tah
• tu
• tes
• tu
• ton
• tau/tou
• ta
• toice
• tice
• ton
• tan
• taws

That might not mean anything to you, but when we get to the situation concerning how we're going to do this with the Comforter, it will really make sense.

Personal pronouns:

There's something that has to happen in the pronouns—he, she and it—which always must happen. The word for:

• the pronoun is 'auto'
• the masculine is 'autos'
• the feminine is 'autae'
• the neuter is 'autou'

The ending of the personal pronoun must agree with the ending of the article and the noun.

It must agree! That's where the problem comes in the parakletos. Then it gives the plural of it. Come over here to the use of the pronoun.

A pronoun is a word that stands instead of a noun. The sentence, "I see the disciples and teach him," means the same thing as, "I see the disciples and teach the disciple." The pronoun 'him' stands instead of the second occurrence of the noun 'disciple.' The noun for which the pronoun stands, is called an antecedent. Thus, in the sentence, "I see the disciple and teach him," the antecedent of 'him' is 'disciple.' Here's the rule. A pronoun agrees with its antecedent or its noun in gender and in number.

I will explain John 14 to you and I will have the Greek text here so we can go through it.

Let's go right back to that verse that we had. We'll come back to that next week because it deserves review and so that we understand it. I'm sorry I didn't have time to copy off the Greek text so you can see it in the Greek.

John 14:16—Jesus said: "And I will ask the Father, and He [the Father] shall give you another Comforter ['parakletos']…'"—masculine. It doesn't mean that it is male. Every comforter in the Greek language is a 'parakletos.'

What did we just read? Every pronoun referring to the noun must agree in gender! Therefore, it says

(KJV): "'…another Comforter that He… [Because it's 'altos,' as we will see clearly next week] …may abide with you forever'" (v 16). Here comes the slight of hand. Here comes the dishonesty of twisting the Scriptures to make the Holy Spirit appear as a person when it's not.

Verse 17: "Even the Spirit of the Truth…"—neuter.

Again, the reason that I'm going through this is not so that you're going to understand the Greek. It's so that you can understand what they have done in the English in relationship to the Greek and it has not been honest.

"…the Spirit of the Truth…" in the Greek is pronounced this way: 'tau penuma'—neuter. 'Truth' is pronounced: 'tes aletheia.' Now then, we have in the English—let's go back here to v 17:

(KJV): "Even the Spirit of Truth; whom…" (v 17). There is where they twist it, because 'which' in the Greek must also follow gender.

We will see where the exact same word, translated 'whom' in John 14:17, could not have been translated 'whom' in John 15:26.

John 15:26: (KJV): "But when the Comforter is come… ['ho parakletos'] …whom… [masculine, it should be 'whom'] …I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth which…" Why? Because 'Spirit of Truth' is neuter! So, it must be 'which.' In this case they honestly translated it because they had no alternative.

Over here in John 14:17, they dishonestly translated it. It's exactly the same in the Greek, which should have been translated 'which' in both cases.

John 14:17: "Even the Spirit of the Truth, which the world cannot receive because it perceives it not…" Him is an improper translation because it should be it—'auto.'

"…nor knows it; but you know it because it dwells with you, and shall be within you" (v 17).

'pneuma'—spirit—even without an article it is still neuter. Just like you say 'car.' A car or the car, it's still neuter. The same way with 'pneuma'; it's neuter. 'tau pneuma.'

• Why can't be masculine? It doesn't have the masculine article!
• Why can it not be feminine? Because it doesn't have the feminine article!

'Tou pneuma'—neuter. The same way with:

• 'penuma hagios,' which is Spirit Holy
• 'tau hagios pneuma,' the Holy Spirit
• 'tau pneuma tou hagios,' which is the Spirit the Holy
• the Spirit namely the Holy

Everywhere in the New Testament that 'pneuma' is used, it is neuter! Everywhere!

For your study on that [pneuma] this week—if you want to study through—I have given you everywhere the word 'pneuma' is used in the New Testament and it's nearly 400 times. These pages (list of pneuma 400 times), by the way, are taken from George V. Wigram's, The Englishman's Greek Concordance of the New Testament.

Nowhere in the New Testament is the Holy Spirit a person! Everywhere 'Spirit' or 'Holy Spirit' is used, it is neuter!

Let's look at some things concerning that so we will see it as the power of God.

• The Holy Spirit is the power of God!

• it's not a person
• never was a person
• never has been a person
• never is going to be a person

God is a person!

What I'm doing is, even though we're going in detail in some of these things, I'm trying to circumvent having to go in too much detail. It is the power of God.

Acts 1:4: "And while they were assembled with Him, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to 'await the promise of the Father, which,' He said, 'you have heard of Me. For John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit after not many days'" (vs 4-5). Are you ever baptized in a person? No, you're baptized in water!

• water is neuter
• water is a thing
• water is something that God created

It's not a person. The parallel is: "…you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit after not many days."

Verse 8: "But you yourselves shall receive power…" The Greek for power is 'dunamis.'

"…when the Holy Spirit has come upon you… [power and the Holy Spirit are equated the same] …and you shall be My witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth" (v 8). The Jesus was taken up into heaven.

Acts 2:1: "And when the day of Pentecost, the fiftieth day, was being fulfilled, they were all with one accord in the same place. [during the accomplishing or the fulfilling of the Day of Pentecost] …And suddenly there came…" (vs 1-2).

• Another person? No!
• What are we going to talk about here, concerning the Holy Spirit? We're going to see the effects of power!

That's what we're going to see. Nowhere did they see a person.

"…from heaven a sound…" (v 2). That is the effect of power. What happens when you blow up some dynamite? You get a sound, power!

"…like the rushing of a powerful wind… [power] …and filled the whole house where they were sitting" (v 2). A substance, a power! Nothing whatsoever to do with a person.

Verse 3: "And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire…" What is 'fire?' Power! Heat! That's what makes your car run. Each one of the cylinders as they go around there's a little fire and power. So, you go fast as the wind.

"…and sat upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit; and they began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the words to proclaim" (vs 3-4). A power beyond that which they had themselves.

Verse 17: "And it shall come to pass… [Peter is quoting the prophet Joel] …in the last days,' says God, 'that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh…"

• it is a thing
• it is a power
• it is not a person

Verse 18: "And even upon My servants and upon My handmaids will I pour out My Spirit in those days…" (v 18). It's interesting because of in the Greek is 'ek,' which means, out from me. Whose Spirit? God's Spirit! It comes from God; the power from God.

Verse 38: "Then Peter said to them, 'Repent and be baptized each one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you yourselves shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." What did we see concerning gift? 'tou doron.'—neuter—"…the gift of the Holy Spirit"—'tou pneuma.'

We can go through many, many others which we'll do next time and we'll finish the series there.

• There is no basis in the Bible whatsoever to say that the Holy Spirit is a person!
• It is the power of God!
• It is the begettal of God!
• It comes from God the Father!
• It is directed by Jesus Christ!

He, in fact, in two places in the New Testament, is called the Spirit.

All Scripture from The Holy Bible In Its Original Order, A Faithful Version (except where noted)

Scriptural References:

• Hebrews 5:11-14
• Revelation 2:2, 4-6, 14-15, 20, 23-24
• Revelation 3:10
• Colossians 2:8, 18
• Psalm 51:10-12
• Isaiah 63:10-12
• Romans 1:1-7
• 1-Corinthians 1:1-3
• 2-Corinthinas 1:1-3
• John 14:15-16
• 2-Corinthinas 1:4
• Galatians 1:1-3
• Ephesians 1:1-2
• Philippians 1:1-2
• Colossians 1:1-6, 8
• 1-Thessalonians 1:4-5
• James 1:1
• 1-Peter 1:3
• Jude 1
• Revelation 1:1-3
• John 14:16-17
• John 15:26
• John 14:17
• Acts 1:4-5, 8
• Acts 2:1-4, 17-18, 38

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Revelation 2:22
• 1-Corinthians 3
• Numbers 11
• Proverbs 1; 6
• 1-John 2
• 1 Thessalonians 1:1-2

Also Referenced: Books:

• Satan's Ten Most Believable Lies by Dave Breese
• The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop
• The Englishman's Greek Concordance of the New Testament by George V. Wigram

FRC: nfs
Transcribed: 08-13-17
Proofed: bo—8/20/17