“For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no
greater burden than these necessary things” (Acts 15:28).
To sin against the Holy Spirit is to sin against God:
“...why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back
part of the proceeds of the land?...You did not lie to men but to God!”
(Acts 5:3-4).
Further evidence of the Holy Spirit’s distinct personality is found in the
following verses:
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to
pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too
deep for words” (Rom. 8:26).
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the
day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).
“How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man
who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant
by which he was sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?” (Heb.
10:29).
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”
(Rev. 2:7).
The Athanasian Creed (so-called after St. Athanasius, the great fourth
century fighter of Arianism) encapsulates perfectly the Catholic expression
of the doctrine of the Trinity:
“The Christian faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and
the Trinity in unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing
the substance; for there is one Person of the Father, another of the
Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is all one; the glory equal; and
the majesty co-eternal.”
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