- 22 - When explaining the 12th and the 14th chapters of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, I already called your attention to this disastrous error of translation, which has led to the belief that there is but one holy spirit, a Divine person, forming one Godhead with the Father, as your (the Catholic) church teaches. • In all passages where the Greek Text says ‘a’ holy spirit or ‘a’ spirit, your translators have written ‘the’ Holy Spirit or ‘the’ Spirit. Wherever the original Greek texts have ‘a’ spirit, one of many is meant. You therefore distort the meaning entirely by substituting: ‘the’ holy spirit. There are certain passages in those texts, it is true, where reference is made to ‘the’ holy spirit or ‘the’ spirit, but in those cases the term either means the spirit as distinguished from matter, as in the sentence: ‘The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’, or else the reference is to the Spirit of God, that is, to God Himself, or to spirits of a certain kind such as ‘the spirit of light’, ‘the spirit of darkness’, ‘the spirit of truth’, ‘the spirit of comfort’ and others. This does not mean that there is only one spirit of light, of darkness, of truth, of comfort, of strength, etc., but is merely an instance in which the singular [the generic term] is employed in place of the plural. You have the same usage in your modern languages, for when you say to a sick person: ‘I will get the doctor’, you do not mean to imply that there is only one physician in the world, and when you speak of ‘the farmer’ having had a prosperous year, you are referring to all farmers collectively. So, too, you use the terms ‘the’ workman, ‘the’ lawyer, ‘the’ artist, ‘the’ theologian to mean all workmen, lawyers, artists and theologians. • When, therefore, Christ says: ‘I will send you the spirit of truth’, he means the spirits of truth, for as you already know, the Divine spirits are assigned to various callings according to their respective tasks. There are spirits of protection, spirits of battle, spirits of comfort, spirits of strength, spirits of wisdom and innumerable others. A spirit of truth has tasks of a very different nature to perform than has a spirit of Michael’s legions, and hence possesses different skills. A spirit of battle cannot take over the work of a spirit of comfort or of wisdom or of truth. Every spirit has its definite calling, and is equipped with the corresponding talents and strengths. Similarly, Lucifer has divided his hosts according to their specific tasks. He too has his fighting forces, his spirits of lying, of despondency, of greed, pride, envy, revenge, lust, and of every other vice. The different kinds of spirits, good and bad, are specialists in their fields and are well qualified to influence those on whom they work, either for good or for evil, within their respective domains. As you see, the doctrine of a triune Godhead is not only contrary to common sense, but is entirely unsupported by the Scriptures. Yet, although only the Father is God, while the Son and all the other spirits are His creatures, nevertheless a most intimate harmony and unity obtains between the Father, the Son and the good spirit world, a harmony of will and deed. What the Father wants, the Son wants also, and so do the spirit hosts under the Son’s command. God is the master and owner of all creation, spiritual and material; everything belongs to Him.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI1MzY3