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Study Section 11: Holy Spirit and the Trinity

11.1 Connect.

You need to know that when the Jehovah’s Witnesses come to your door, they do not believe
in the Trinity. They deny that Jesus is God. They claim that the Holy Spirit is simply the FORCE
of Jehovah. They think that the doctrine of the Trinity states that there are THREE gods. So,
you will have opportunity to help them understand what the true doctrine of the Trinity is.
The concentration of this lesson is to prepare you to defend the doctrine of the Trinity.

11.2 Objectives.

1. The student should be able to discuss how the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ proof texts to prove the
Holy Spirit is not a person is a twisting of the truth.

2. The student should be able to cite some of the Greek words in Matthew 28:19 to
demonstrate that there are three persons of the Godhead who are one God.

3. The student should be able to explain a line of reasoning to demonstrate that Jesus is Jehovah, the
one and only true God.

11.3 Verses used by the Watchtower to “prove” that the Holy Spirit is not a person.

1. Acts 2:4
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the
Spirit was giving them utterance.

Watchtower argument: Since the Holy Spirit filled 120 people all at the same time, he could
not be a person, because a person cannot be in 120 disciples at the same time.

Eph. 4:10 speaks of being filled with God Himself. The fact that God fills things does not mean He is NOT
a person. Eph. 1:23 says that Christ “fills all in all.” Christ’s filling does not mean He is NOT a person. In
the same manner, when the Holy Spirit fills, that does not negate the fact that He is a person.

2. I John 5:6-8
6 This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water
and with the blood It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
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7
For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in
agreement.

JWs argue that since water and blood are obviously not persons, then neither is the Holy Spirit a person.

In verse 7, the water and spirit are personifications (non- living things given living characteristics) in that
they testify. But just because they are personifications, it does not logically mean that the Holy Spirit is
a personification. There are many times in the Bible where Jesus is associated with impersonal items,
yet this does not argue against his personhood. Jesus is called the Bread of Life (John 6:35), a door

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