The Holy Spirit

[Maureen]

I'm inspired by Justice's thread about the Son of God.

The Trinitarian view sees the Holy Spirit as God, he is the third person of the Trinity. He sanctifies believers and testifies of the Father and Son. StephenVH gave great descriptions of the Holy Spirit's relationship with the Father and Son:

Originally Posted by StephenVH

The Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son which is so real that it constitutes a distinct person.

...I don't know if you saw one of my previous posts related to John telling us that "God is love". Love cannot exist unless there is someone to love. It requires a lover and a beloved. This is my argument for the Trinity. If God is Love, as has been revealed to us, then God, by his very nature, must consist of a Lover (the Father) and a Beloved (the Son) and the love between them (the Holy Spirit). So God has existed as a Trinity of Persons from eternity....

The LDS beliefs of God are that:

God is a glorified, perfected man, and sits enthroned in yonder heaven...and that Jesus is the literal Son of God, he is considered the Father's offspring in the same sense that humankind is also Father's literal offspring.

What can you tell me about how LDS view the Holy Spirit:

What is his relationship to the Father and Son?

Where did he come from?

What is his purpose?

How does his existence work with the plan of progression and exaltation?

M.

[volgadon]

What is his relationship to the Father and Son?

He is the third member of the Godhead, which itself is a form of social triniatrianism.

Where did he come from?

We don't know the details.

What is his purpose?

"He sanctifies believers and testifies of the Father and Son" as well as providing continuous, personal revelation.

How does his existence work with the plan of progression and exaltation?

See above.

[Shelly200]

Maureen -- I explained the doctrine of the Trinity in the same way, using the God is Love explanation. It works very well.

Not completely off topic, as it pertains to the Holy Spirit (or the Holy Ghost I guess I should say ... do LDS members always refer to the Spirit as the Holy Ghost?): Can someone explain to me a little about the idea of personal revelation? I have heard this phrase frequently, but don't exactly know what it encompasses. Is it revelation in the Joseph Smith/prophet sense (i.e.- can anyone in the church receive revelations such as Smith got in the D&C?), or is it something else?

I have frequently heard it mentioned in reference to Bible study. Is revelation the way that the HG helps us understand things?

How does someone receive a revelation?

[Forget-Me-Not]

And also comforts and warns...

[jayanna]

Here is a talk about personal revelation Personal Revelation: The Teachings and Examples of the Prophets - general-conference

Here is a lesson about the Holy Ghost and personal revelation from the teacher's manual for the adult Sunday School. Doctrine and Covenants and Church History Gospel Doctrine Teacher?s Manual Lesson 6: ?I Will Tell You in Your Mind and in Your Heart, by the Holy Ghost?

Yes, the Holy Spirit will recieve a body and all the blessings that we recieve. It will be during the Millennium, though I don't have on hand the source. Ill look for it tomorrow morning and post it.

Good questions :)

[james12]

What can you tell me about how LDS view the Holy Spirit:

What is his relationship to the Father and Son?

There is precious little that has been given us from prophets and apostles in regards to this question. To my knowledge nothing has been provided which indicates his exact relationship with the Father and Son. I suspect it is because members (not to mention non-members) are not ready for this truth.

Speaking now of the Godhead...

We do know that God is the Father and Christ is his Son. Elder Oaks once said, "The basis of the government of God is the eternal family." (Ensign, June 1985, p. 7) Whether statements like these can be applied to the Holy Ghost I do not know.

Where did he come from?

Again nothing official has been stated by the authorities of the church. However, we have something from Joseph Smith about where he is going. He said, "The Holy Ghost is yet a spiritual body and is waiting to take to himself a body, as the Savior did."[Joseph Smith, Encyclopedia of Joseph Smith's Teachings, edited by Larry E. Dahl and Donald Q. Cannon (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997)] Now, the idea that he will receive a body during the millennium is to my knowledge pure speculation. I have read no authoritative quote indicating this is so.

What is his purpose?

Joseph Smith once stated the purpose of the Holy Ghost in relation to the Godhead. He said, "everlasting covenant was made between three personages before the organization of this earth, and relates to their dispensation of things to men on the earth; these personages…are called God the first, the Creator; God the second, the Redeemer; and God the third, the witness or Testator" (TPJS, p. 190).

How does his existence work with the plan of progression and exaltation?

As stated above he is a testator. Additionally, "The Holy Ghost is a sanctifier. Because no unclean thing can dwell in a divine presence, the whole system of salvation centers on the process of sanctification; people are saved to the extent that they are sanctified." (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Holy Ghost)

[Justice]

Maybe I can answer more generically, and not focus so much on your questions. Others have done a fine job of addressing your specific questions.

The Spirit of God is not to be confused with the Holy Spirit. Sure, the terms can be the same, but they also refer to specific and distinct things.

The Spirit of God emmanates from His Person, to fill the immensity of space. God cannot exist everywhere at once, because He has a body. But, His spirit, power, presence, glory, or light and truth can and does exist and radiates from Him and can be felt by all His creations.

The Holy Ghost is a Personage of Spirit, just as Jehovah (pre-mortal Jesus Christ) was before He was born in the flesh, and is a member of the Godhead. Because He does not have a physical body He can dwell "in the hearts of men," as to where the Spirit of God can be felt, even if He does not "dwell" in man's heart.

How can they be different and unique, yet satisfy our claim that there is only One God?

All are subject to God the Father. Everything happens under His direction. All Beings (Gods, angels, and men, which are but the same "race" of beings at different stages of development) are subject and subordinate to God the Father. He is Supreme. He is the One.

Those on His direct errand, as Jehovah in the Old Testament, or angels sent into the world, can and do speak The Father's words in first person as if God the Father is delivering them Himself, just as a prophet might speak the words of Christ.

[Shelly200]

Maybe I can answer more generically, and not focus so much on your questions. Others have done a fine job of addressing your specific questions.

The Spirit of God is not to be confused with the Holy Spirit. Sure, the terms can be the same, but they also refer to specific and distinct things.

The Spirit of God emmanates from His Person, to fill the immensity of space. God cannot exist everywhere at once, because He has a body. But, His spirit, power, presence, glory, or light and truth can and does exist and radiates from Him and can be felt by all His creations.

The Holy Ghost is a Personage of Spirit, just as Jehovah (pre-mortal Jesus Christ) was before He was born in the flesh, and is a member of the Godhead. Because He does not have a physical body He can dwell "in the hearts of men," as to where the Spirit of God can be felt, even if He does not "dwell" in man's heart.

How can they be different and unique, yet satisfy our claim that there is only One God?

All are subject to God the Father. Everything happens under His direction. All Beings (Gods, angels, and men, which are but the same "race" of beings at different stages of development) are subject and subordinate to God the Father. He is Supreme. He is the One.

Those on His direct errand, as Jehovah in the Old Testament, or angels sent into the world, can and do speak The Father's words in first person as if God the Father is delivering them Himself, just as a prophet might speak the words of Christ.

This was a very informative answer, thank you (even though I didn't ask the question...)!

I have a question about your comment on Gods, angels, and men being of the same race in different stages: what is the LDS view, then, of angels? I thought angels were the LDS members who never married, or never married in the temple? Is that right? Are there other types of angels?

(Could people living in OT times be exalted, since Christ had not yet come? Is this where ordinances from the dead come into play? What were these people doing for the thousands of years before the ordinances started?)

[maiku]

Yes, the Holy Spirit will recieve a body and all the blessings that we recieve. It will be during the Millennium, though I don't have on hand the source. Ill look for it tomorrow morning and post it.

To be honest, I can't agree with that statement. There has been no statements made by the Church regarding the Holy Ghost receiving a body. We simply don't know His destiny.

[bytebear]

This was a very informative answer, thank you (even though I didn't ask the question...)!

I have a question about your comment on Gods, angels, and men being of the same race in different stages: what is the LDS view, then, of angels? I thought angels were the LDS members who never married, or never married in the temple? Is that right? Are there other types of angels?

(Could people living in OT times be exalted, since Christ had not yet come? Is this where ordinances from the dead come into play? What were these people doing for the thousands of years before the ordinances started?)

Angels literally are messengers from God. But they are often considered the state of man when they are not mortal. Angels are often considered pre-mortal spirits or post-mortal spirits, or resurrected immortal beings.

Since Jesus conquered death, opening the door to the resurrection of man, no men could have been resurrected prior to Christ's resurrection. The ordinances of salivation prior to Christ involved animal sacrifice and ritual washings (baptism). Afterward, the ordinances were changed to a different kind of symbolic message. Rather than animal sacrifice in similitude of the sacrifice of Christ, we take sacrament, and symbolically eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ. But, really the key to exaltation (beyond salvation) is marriage performed by authority to seal families together. That was true both before and after Christ, even from the very beginning when Adam was given Eve.

[JudoMinja]

Some great answers have already been given, but I wanted to take a stab at both Maureen's question about the Holy Ghost/Spirit and Shelly's question about angels:

We believe that the family is an eternal unit and example of our relationships in heaven. We believe that we are literally God's children in spirit, and everyone in "human form" is one of his spirit children. This has led to speculation that God also was once a spirit child who progressed and became an "exalted man", but there is nothing definitive on this. While I believe that is a possibility and that it makes quite a bit of sense when we consider the importance of the family relationship in heaven, I am open to other interpretations. What does all this mean about the Holy Spirit?

Well, we know that Christ is the Son of God in both spirit and body, so his relationship to us is clear- he is our eldest brother. But the family relationship we have with the Holy Spirit has not been so clearly identified. We know that he is the third member of the Godhead, so he holds some level of sanctity/divinity/responsibility greater than our own, and we know that he has not yet received a body as our Father God and Jesus Christ have, so it's quite logical to assume that he is one of our "siblings" in spirit and that he will also receive a body once his "job" is complete (during the millenium). While this makes sense, much like God being an "exalted man" makes sense, we don't know for certain if this is the case.

We know that it is his job to testify of truth, of Christ, and of light. He is a sanctifier, a tester, a comforter, a revelator, and a witness. He can "dwell in our hearts" and speak to us on a very personal and individualized level. It is possible for him to be our "constant companion" if we receive him by the laying on of hands, but he also has limitations. He cannot dwell in "unholy places", and so we lose his presence and influence when we choose to ignore him and do things we know to be wrong. Those who have not received him as a constant companion can still feel his influence, but typical only during very "spiritual" moments, and they feel a greater influence from "the Spirit of Christ" which is something we believe to be separate from the Holy Spirit. It is like our conscience and is "given to every man".

While our information about the Holy Spirit is limited, we know quite a bit about angels. An angel is simply a messenger and can be any spiritual being. It can be one who has not yet received a body, one who has passed away but has not yet been resurrected, or an already ressurected and glorified being. All angels are our spiritual siblings and can even be someone we know. While we mostly think of angels in relation to God, Satan also has angelic messengers- all of which will be beings who have never received and will never receive bodies. These will attempt to mimic Godly messengers or may be more prone to visitation that people would equate to hauntings or "ghosts".

Our understanding of our relationship to God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, angels, and even Satan can be very easily understood when we look at our families, because we believe that the family is an eternal unit that will continue on forever and ever and that we are all part of God's "family". Christ, the angels, and even Satan are our siblings- and the Holy Spirit is either one of our siblings or related to us in some other way.