Religious groups imported into our nation by false teachers have diligently promoted their errors. Among these is the belief that the Holy Spirit is a mere force or wind. This is the teaching of the a religious group known as Armstrongism and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Likewise, Mormonism has a similar view. This error is intensified by an indigenous false religion that started in Sta. Ana, Manila, the Iglesia ni Cristo which also believes in the same error.
These religious groups affirm such false view – that the Holy Spirit is only either a reflection of God or mere spirit of God. Is the Holy Spirit indeed not a person much more not God as these false groups would like us to believe? Let us consider the above text which was an experience of Apostle Peter and was recorded by Luke the recorder of the book of Acts. All the above groups regard the text as inspired of God. The difference lies in how they see the text meaning. One group sidesteps the clarity of truth presented by Peter concerning the personality or being of the Holy Spirit. Another entirely rejects the truth and present its own understanding imported into the text.
From there we could learn that religious people err in understanding the Holy Scriptures due to their preconceived biases. Others tend to bring into the text their own meaning of the text which is foreign from the text under consideration. What does the text teach about the Holy Spirit?
First, Luke narrated Peter’s rebuke of the couple’s sin against the Holy Spirit ( v.3). The couple did a marvelous sacrifice of donating great funds to the local church in Jerusalem. They sold some properties they owned and gave the proceeds. But they presented the donation as 100% of the selling price of a certain property when the truth was the donation was only a portion of it. So the couple misrepresented the truth. And Peter knowing the truth, probably because God revealed it to him prior to this meeting, swiftly rebuked the couple separately of their sin of lying and not of the act of giving. Thus, Peter saw the Holy Spirit as someone whom we could offend or sin against. If the Holy Spirit is a mere force or wind then he could not be offended. To affirm such truth is irrational. So the Holy Spirit is one who has personality. He is not a force or a wind but a person!
We learn here the importance of accuracy in representing the truth. We must tell the truth regardless of the consequence. We must not lie or beautify a lie by painting it as truth. We can see too that God sees our heart when we speak or think. Nothing is hidden from Him. More so, the Holy Spirit as a person means we can enter into mutual relationship with Him.
Second, Peter viewed the act of lying or misrepresenting the truth against the Holy Spirit as the very same offense against God. Thus, following the line of thought of Peter as given in the text will show that the couple’s sin against the Holy Spirit is the same sin against God. With simple understanding, the evidence shows that this Holy Spirit at least, must be God. We may reduce it into simple equation, i.e., to lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God. Every sin against the Holy Spirit is a sin against God.
Every sin we commit against the Holy Spirit is also against our God as the former is also God. Do not be confused by saying that so God is more than one. He is not more than one, only and always ONE in number. Instead the text tells us that the Holy Spirit with whom the couple has lied to is God.
Third, Luke wanted to convey a message to readers through this narrative that sin against the Holy Spirit carries with it a huge consequence. It may come in the form of swift public death. It was a form of divine correction intended for public warning to future offenders. God does not state He will always bring in death or disease, or destruction. But He will require us to pay for every sin against the Holy Spirit. Such a truth is truly trembling to behold.
How sad it is to see today people merely belittle the Holy Spirit. They do not regard Him as a separate deity being. They see Him as a little lower than the Father or the Son. Sometimes even as a sort of assistant of the first two beings. In the local church, there is also a decline in the high view of the Holy Spirit. When He works in our hearts as we hear God’s word we tend to reject Him if not merely pacify Him and dump Him or His workings into the thought of emotionalism. To hear God’s word with conviction is an evidence of His living witness to work in man’s heart.
Sinners tend to delay decision to accept Christ as Savior in spite of the Holy Spirit’s convicting work in their heart. They keep justifying such inaction towards Christ by many alibis. Even saints inside the house of God dare to justify inaction or indecision towards pressing crucial issues in their life and work even if the Spirit leads them to decide. Church members refuse to respond to godly pleadings of the man of God who urges God’s people to repentance, revival, return, and resolute service. Such beloved is the modern day of Ananias and Sapphira’s sinful acts towards the Holy Spirit. We criticize the couple while we unceasingly sins against the Holy Spirit! May we cease, Cornerstone people, from such evil undermining the full power of deity of the Holy Spirit! To protect our heart from such evil, we must heed Stephen’s powerful exhortation in Acts 7:51. Amen.
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