Journal: Emmaus Journal
Volume: EMJ 13:1 (Summer 2004)
Article: The Other Comforter: The Place of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity
Author: Larry Dixon

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EmJ 13:1 (Summer 2004) p. 73

The Other Comforter:
The Place of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity

Larry Dixona

Introduction

In 2002 I wrote an article in The Emmaus Journal entitled “The ‘Shy’ Member of the Trinity: The Holy Spirit.”1 Numerous authors have noted the neglect in the area of doctrine that relates to the person and work of the Holy Spirit.2 In the opinion of A. W. Tozer:

Our blunder (or shall we frankly say our sin?) has been to neglect the doctrine of the Spirit to a point where we virtually deny Him His place

EmJ 13:1 (Summer 2004) p. 74

in the Godhead…. Our formal creed is sound; the breakdown is in our working creed…. A doctrine has practical value only as far as it is prominent in our thoughts and makes a difference in our lives. By this test the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as held by evangelical Christians today has almost no practical value at all. In most Christian churches the Spirit is quite entirely overlooked. Whether He is present or absent makes no real difference to anyone…. The doctrine of the Spirit is buried dynamite. Its power awaits discovery and use by the Church…. When He gets into the thinking of the teachers He will get into the expectation of the hearers.3

Church history illustrates the failure to thoroughly study the Holy Spirit. W. H. Griffith Thomas writes:

After making every allowance for historical circumstances, it is surely not without significance that the Apostles’ Creed contains ten articles on the Person and Work of Christ, with only one on the Holy Spirit. And when we consider the scarcity of references in the New Testament to the Holy Communion, contrasted with the prominence given to it in the history of the Church, we have another significant illustration of the comparative neglect of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.4

EmJ 13:1 (Summer 2004) p. 75

As we will see in our study, the Holy Spirit has always been there to be studied and appreciated. But the disclosure of information about the Spirit of God has varied down through biblical history.5

We will examine the promises of Jesus to send the Spirit (including a discussion of the expression “the other Comforter”), the place of the Spirit in the Trinity (including the Spirit’s presence in the Old Testament), analyze one evangelical scholar’s doctrine of the Spirit, a...

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