Objection · Case 12 · Jehovah’s Witnesses
“Grieve the Spirit” is Isaiah 63:10 language, where the Spirit is God’s own spirit. Isn’t Paul just using inherited Old Testament phrasing?
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
The Isaiah background is real, and it gives the Spirit’s identification with God. Ephesians 4:4 to 6, a few verses earlier, supplies the triadic distinction: one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father. The Witnesses’ reading has to make grief figurative for a force, while the Trinitarian reading takes it literally for a person. The Old Testament gives the deity and the New Testament’s patterning gives the distinction, and the argument is the combination.
About this exhibit
This objection is to The Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 30.
Paul writes, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” Grief is an emotional response of a person.
Under Claim 09: The New Testament describes the Holy Spirit doing things only a person can do, which does not fit an impersonal force.