THE HYPOCRISY OF FALSE EXPRESSIONS

by A.E. Knoch


A NOTABLE EXAMPLE Of this delusive sin is found in an article on "The Personality of the Holy Spirit," in THE BIBLE LEAGUE QUARTERLY. The writer says, "the great doctrine of the Trinity is being to a great extent abandoned by those who have been caught in the current of what we call Modernism. Unless we recognize the truth of the doctrine of the Trinity and the true personality of the Holy Ghost, we are almost certain to be driven into a practical denial of the personality of God altogether," Not only is this a pious pretense of believing God, but a slanderous implication that all are apostate who are not likewise deceived by the doctrines of men. After considering the passages where the expression "the holy spirit" occurs, we are asked, "Need we go further for proof of the personality of the Holy Spirit? It is a Person Whom we are enjoined "not to grieve." In order to evade the unreasonableness of his heresy he insists that we must recognize the wisdom of a human proverb, "Cease to use mere reason where mere reason ceases to be of use." In plain words, where it is a question of God's truth, use neither faith nor reason. Express it in words which He has not chosen and in a way which conflicts with reason.

Let us note how subtly these hypocritical expressions are used. The article is ostensibly on the personality of the spirit. Really it demands the distinct personality of the spirit with reference to God, in order to bolster up the heresy of the Trinity. It is false reasoning, made plausible by introducing an unscriptural term, which forms an intermediate stepping stone, so that there is no direct plunge into error. If they were to say, "The Spirit, the Holy One, is not God's spirit," which is the end aimed at, the deception would be impossible. When we demand that they drop these hypocritical expressions, and use only those in God's Word, they are helpless. Then they find some one like this writer who insists on a false "faith" and an irrational rationalism. He shows from the Scriptures that the holy spirit is "personal" (from which we do not dissent) and then, instead of believing other passages which plainly make it the same "Person" as God, they bludgeon reason, and insult and forsake the Word of God, by bringing in a "Trinity" which denies the very fundamental of fundamentals, "I am first! Beside Me there is no God" (Isa.44:6)! Stop thinking, shut your eyes, stop your ears, and swallow! It is just a little pill, made from the creeds of men.

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