The Use of the word Spirit’ in the New Testament is frequent and fundamental to passages dealing with the first-century organisation of the church, and also with the relationship of believers to Divine salvation. And those who put God’s truth foremost in their lives will want to gain a thorough understanding of its meaning. No one meaning is obvious in the New Testament. But more troublesome than this is the wide variety of conflicting interpretation which has built up in the Brotherhood, mainly during the second half of this century, although it occasionally occurred earlier than that. An easily available publication which dealt thoroughly with the subject and remained true to the gospel and the general principles of the Word of God would for long have been a welcome help to many.
`Spirit’ in the New Testament by Brethren Edward Whittaker and Reg Carr is a substantial and important work on the theme expressed in its title. It deals faithfully and thoroughly with many of the problems. It speaks honestly, directly and unambiguously, and in doing so it imitates pioneer brethren and, more importantly, the faithful messengers of God’s Word in the first century. We are not deciding a human matter, and so it is not a consensus that we need, but to determine God’s truth.
Introductory material
The book reproduces fairly closely a series of articles in The Testimony which appeared during the years of 1973 to 1975. Having only read a small part of the original series the reviewer came to this book with little preconception of its contents, and found so much of value that he wishes he had made the opportunity to obtain and read the material before. The context in which the book has been written is registered by the following quotation from the Introduction: “Claims to possess or receive the Holy Spirit of God, or to be the subject of its direct, independent operation in matters of enlightenment, belief and sanctification, are very much older than the history of Christadelphianism, and represent one of the errors of Christendom from which the Truth was deliberately separated in the nineteenth century. False claims to possess miraculous powers have recurred sporadically during the whole of the Christian era; the inspiration and infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit have been continuously claimed by most of the sects that call themselves Christian; and the doctrine of grace’ as a Divine energy or essence, mediated by the Holy Spirit operating directly on the minds of men to enable them to understand and believe the truth of the gospel, has been deeply ingrained in the theology of every part of Christendom for almost as long as it has been astray’ “(pp. 9, 10).
The authors go on to mention the modern religious emphasis on evangelical and charismatic movements concerned with the alleged personal inworking of the Holy Spirit (‘grace’), and the desire of many Christadelphians to reexamine carefully one of the foundation doctrines of their faith. In this context the aim of the book is to demonstrate “that the traditional C hristadelphian understanding of the Holy Spirit and its work is soundly based in Scripture, and that it can be sustained by a close analysis of the Biblical text”. This aim is further exemplified in the concluding words of the Introduction: “In setting out to show, perhaps in greater contextual detail than ever before, that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit held by earlier generations of C hristadelphians is correct, the writers can only pray that the readers of this book will be convinced of that fact, and that, if the Lord remains away, a goodly number of brethren and sisters will remain faithful to the heritage of sound teaching which God in His mercy has entrusted to us in His Word”.
The authors go far in achieving their aim. Occasionally the relaxed and imaginative style wanders into detailed Scripture interpretations which, though they might be of interest in themselves and appropriate to the original series of articles in The Testimony, are rather speculative and not sufficiently relevant to the aim of the book. The space to be saved by reducing these could have been applied to the more urgent and fundamental problems which have received further publicity since the original series appeared. The book cannot be described as a light read. It is, however, thorough in its scope, especially in explaining the nature of the Spirit-gifts.
The structure
In structure the book corresponds closely to the original series in The Testimony: sixteen chapters are followed by an appendix containing the authors’ response to comments received as the series unfolded. The appendix deals with a number of fundamental and important topics, and contains material which is at least as relevant and valuable as much which appears in the main text. It is a pity that opportunity was not found during the years since first publication to insert this material at appropriate places in the main body of the work, possibly even in an expanded form. Reorganisation along such lines might also have led to the appendix being used instead as a receptacle for some of the more speculative or less important material works.
A doctrine common to almost every sect of Christendom ( apart from Christadelphianism), it claims that a man cannot believe ( have faith in God), or repent, or do good works, unless he is the subject of grace’, by the direct physical operation of the Spirit of God upon his mind, affecting, predisposing and aiding his free will. The doctrine is embodied in the 39 Articles of the Church of England, and is one of the Doctrines to be Rejected in the Christadelphian Statement of Faith” ( authors’ italics). This definition encapsulates ideas similar to some which have come to the fore amongst Christadelphians over recent years, and the authors controvert them at a number of places in their book with or without the use of the phrase mentioned. An additional Scripture passage which one might think was concerned with such ideas if they were correct, is 2 Timothy 2:25,26: “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will”. But God’s gift of repentance cannot be by direct means, otherwise meek instruction would not be necessary.
The authors do not explain the arrangement of the material in their book. It is not simply a string of unrelated chapters, but has a deeper structure. The pattern which emerges ( according to this reviewer) is:
A phrase which is mentioned critically some half-a-dozen times and which may be unfamiliar to many is prevenient grace’. The following definition of the term is provided in a footnote to chapter 11: “‘Prevenient’ grace is so-called because it is supposed to come before’ ( from Latin praevenire) belief, repentance, and good
Occasionally we may wish that the authors would deal with certain contrary arguments or alternative views which are nowadays heard. But a little patience is usually rewarded, if only by one of the appendix sections. One example is the idea that the miraculous element on the day of Pentecost, when every man heard the apostles speak in his own language, was in the hearing rather than in the preaching. We might expect an answer to this idea on page 24, but we have to wait for page 56 to hear the clear answer of Scripture that the apostles “began to speak with other tongues” (Acts 2:4).
The Comforter
Looking now at some of the highlights of the book we must restrict ourselves to a few for brief mention. The book commences with Jesus’s promise to his disciples in John 14-16. The authors rightly distinguish between the Abiding Presence, by which the Father and Son are to come, and the Comforter which they will send. They point out that every feature of the Comforter was of a miraculous character perceivable by the senses, unlike the Abiding. The Appendix recognises the further distinction between (a) ‘abiding with’, and (b) ‘abiding in’, applying them respectively as: “(a) The Father and the Son abide with all true believers in every age, omnisciently and omnipresently (Jno. 14:21,23; Ps. 139; Isa. 57:15; 66:1,2); (b) Christ abides in the true believer in the degree to which the believer ‘abides’ in him, by ‘having’ and ‘keeping’ his commandments. He ‘dwells in’ the believer’s heart ‘by faith’ (Eph. 3:17), as ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Col. 1:27)” (p. 159).
Regarding the last point, we ought of course to make some distinction between Christ abiding in the believer and the believer abiding in Christ. The reviewer would express it by saying that abiding in Christ’ refers to our status, relationship and dependency on Christ Christ abiding in us refers to his way of thinking and character absorbed through faith in his word. The second will tend to depend on the first.
The Comforter is understood to be “the temporary miraculous ministry of the Holy Spirit-gifts manifested to help build up(‘ edify’) the early church; it was withdrawn around the end of the first century”. (Teased’ might be a better term than ‘withdrawn’, since the gift was made on an individual basis, and died out as the recipients died.) This understanding of how the promise of the Comforter was provided lines up well with the essential meaning of the Greek word for Comforter, parakletos. This has nothing to do with comfort in sorrow, but rather with support generally, and the word could be translated ‘Advocate’. There are a number of differing interpretations of the Comforter widely promoted; this one is consistent with the miraculous work of witness promised in John 14-16, and listed by the authors as five sayings. The Advocate’s work was finished when the church had grown to maturity and the Scriptures had been completed, its function of witness being continued by the Scriptures until Christ returns.
A chapter entitled “From Pentecost through ‘The Acts'” shows the promise of the Advocate being fulfilled (Lk. 24:49; Acts 1:4; 2:33). The very reasonable interpretation of “the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38) as being the gift of miraculous powers is strongly supported by the Appendix section 3, which answers objections and in particular disposes of the contrary view that this gift was an inward activity of the Spirit. The authors claim that “every instance of ‘Holy Spirit’ in Acts is of a miraculous character” (p. 28). Even Acts 9:31 (“walking . . . in the comfort of the Holy Spirit”) is seen as walking in the comfort of the Spirit-gift of exhortation (1 Cor. 14:3). Interestingly, the book applies the obvious reference to Joel 2, found in Acts 2, as a background rather than as a direct prophecy of Pentecost. ( See later for more comment on the relevance of Joel 2.)
Spirit gifts
Chapter 3, “Baptism in Spirit”, which shows how believers were filled with the Holy Spirit, and chapter 4, “A Survey of Spirit-Gifts”, together help to emphasise the value of the miraculous gifts. This is important at a time when they are often down-rated in favour of a different view of how the Holy Spirit is received, and which can in extreme positions make the original Spirit-gifts largely unnecessary. In the authors’ words: “This minimising, or even eliminating, of the miraculous element of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for present-day believers to claim to ‘receive’ the Holy Spirit in some non-miraculous sense. This process of reasoning then opens the way for the application of many passages of Scripture to Christians of all ages when, in reality, they relate in their contextual sense to the experience of those who received the miraculous first-century gifts” (p. 35). From 1 Corinthians 12:27,28 they deduce: “Clearly, apostleship was only one of the several classes of Spirit-gifted offices in the ecclesia . . . But to suggest, as some have done, that the gifts were restricted to the twelve apostles only is to deny the evidence of Scripture . . . ” (p. 35).
Regarding 1 Corinthians 12 the writers say: “It is at once obvious that Paul’s inspired argument contradicts the idea that only a few elders in each ecclesia possessed the gifts: ‘In one Spirit were we all baptized into one body . . . and were all made to drink ( into) one Spirit’ (1 Cor. 12:13, RV)” ( p. 36). On the other hand, scriptures from Ephesians, Corinthians, Colossians and John are brought to our attention and provide a wonderful impression of the living qualities of the Body of Christ, “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4). An ecclesia authenticated(‘ sealed’), miraculously active and the source of revelation through the Spirit, is in this way “filled with all the fulness of God” ( Eph. 3:19). The following quotation taken from the authors’ discussion of Ephesians 4 is typical of their exposition: “It was from Christ’s fulness ( his complete possession of Spirit-power) that the first-century church was filled, by the Spirit-gifts that flowed from Pentecost. This is consistent with Paul’s statement, in the context of his explanation of the Spirit-gifts in Ephesians 4, that unto every one of us (“all”) is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ’ (v. 7). This was the Spirit-baptism which was the experience of the first-century ecclesias, an experience of which Paul frequently speaks (cf., for example, 1 Cor. 12:4-13). The gifts were granted, as Paul says, ‘for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ’ (Eph. 4:12); and they were to continue (v. 13) ’till we all come. . . unto a perfect man’ . . . All this is indicative of the time when the infant ecclesias of Christ, through being ‘baptised in’ or ‘filled with’ Holy Spirit, would attain to the maturity of manhood in understanding by the ministry of the Spirit-gifts. Just as the Levites had been given by God to Israel to minister to their spiritual needs . . . so the Spirit-gifted brethren were given by Christ to his church to bring it to manhood” (p. 40).
Such exposition passes naturally to “A Survey of Spirit-gifts”. The various gifts are examined in considerable detail in three chapters, and are shown to be what were needed by the church to provide authority and maturity. There is plenty of useful material in these chapters. One of them looks at the gift of tongues with the Pentecostal movements in mind, and asks how the gift was intended to serve “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12). It shows from 1 Corinthians 14 that the tongues were real languages.
Another chapter discusses a number of interesting aspects of the work of Christian prophets, some of which widen the theme of this book quite considerably. Necessarily, what we know of the prophetic ministry with certainty is restricted to records in the New Testament. Correct principles for the interpretation of prophecy are established by the authors (“comparing spiritual things with spiritual”). However, their interpretation of 2 Peter 1:20 raises some questions as to how nonSpirit-gifted believers today can reach a valid interpretation of prophecy. They insist that Scripture must always be its own interpreter, prophet interpreting prophet. It is not made clear what we should do when the prophecy is more detailed than the interpreting prophet or when there is no interpreter. A problem case would be the Apocalypse.
The last four pages of this chapter consider matters relevant to the preparation of the Gospels and the other New Testament writings from the hand of the Christian prophets, and their acceptance by the ecclesias as the authenticated Scriptures. Some of the suggestions made here must remain essentially speculative, although they comply with what is in the record.
In a further chapter what Jesus promised about binding and loosing by the disciples within the church (Mt. 18:18) is seen as one function of the Spirit-gifts provided for the profit of the church. Thus the Lord Jesus, and not his disciples, sat in judgement over the church when these functions were being executed.
This half of the book ends with a discussion on the completion of the canon and the withdrawal of the gifts. Not all of what is said about the canon may be proved to the hilt, but it provides a background to the more important discussion of the withdrawal of the gifts: “As this body of New Testament writings was growing, the ministry of the Spirit-gifts began to decline, and disappeared finally with the death of the second spiritual generation of the church which had received the gifts by laying-on of hands. The list of books that had been inspired by God would never be in doubt as long as the Spirit-gifts were present in the church to establish and preserve their authenticity. Only when the authoritative Voice was gone, when false doctrines crept in and disputes developed on a large scale, did doubts begin to be raised about the genuineness’ of the various documents in the possession of the different ecclesias” (p. 91). A verse-by-verse exposition of 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 provides the explicit evidence for the eventual withdrawal. “Once the Spirit-gifts had combined to produce Scriptures able to make . . . wise unto salvation’ and to fully ‘equip the saints’ in all subsequent generations until Messiah came again, the sun would go down on the prophets of the new Israel as it had done on those of the old (Mic. 3:6)” (p. 93).
The outworking of the Spirit
The remaining eight chapters of the book deal with a number of important aspects relating to ‘Spirit’, but without following as strong and clear a theme as the earlier chapters, or maintaining such an obvious continuity. These chapters are mostly looking at the outworking of the Spirit as far as individuals are concerned. To this end they commence with an exposition of John 7:38,39:
“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)” The exposition is exemplified by reference to the blind beggar (John 9), who is pointed out as a representative man.
The exposition of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3 is somewhat unusual. The authors relate the birth of water and of the Spirit (v. 5) to the baptism of John rather than to ‘Christian baptism’, and therefore class it as an ‘earthly’ saying (see v. 12): “John 3. . . teaches that the birth of the Spirit comes, like faith, by hearing the Word of God” (p. 107).
When discussing Romans 8 the authors start with the suggestion, “It would, however, seem reasonable to expect uniformity of usage of the different Greek expressions for’ Spirit’ within the space of a single inspired book of the New Testament” (p. 110). When the exposition reaches verses 26 and 27, it very reasonably interprets “he that searcheth the hearts” as the intercessor, the Lord Jesus, while the phrases “the Spirit” and “the mind of the Spirit” are related to similar phrases earlier in Romans 8, and are understood to refer to the Christ-life within the believer.
The text of the chapter entitled “The Ministry of Angels” mainly provides Scriptural illustrations of the angels fulfilling the function of God’s abiding with His people and working on their behalf’. However, there are also some striking quotes from Robert Roberts’s The Ways of Providence, especially in the chapter notes, which help to confirm the view presented as being the Christadelphian view. Those who have left the view of the old Christadelphians ought to
show clear unchallengeable Scriptural proof, since they imply that old Christadelphians at best had a very inadequate relationship with the Father and the Son and a poor set of tools for fulfilling God’s will. Sometimes the work of angels has involved a visible manifestation of the angel. But in much, if not most, of their work the angels are not seen, even when the nature of the work is obvious and dramatic. For example, the angel of death in Egypt or amongst the army of Sennacherib was not described as visible. There are many other examples of unseen angels, some of which are listed by the book.
Chapters 14 and 15 have a close relationship, covering predestination and election and the Divine process of opening and closing eyes. The final chapter returns once more to a discussion on Joel 2. It considers a latter-day outpouring of the Spirit and applies the prophecy to the time of Christ’s return. Only an incipient fulfilment is recognised at Pentecost.
In the last eight chapters many matters are discussed and valuable points made which are important in their own right. But in fewer pages they are not given quite the same emphasis or cogency as the Spirit-gifts discussed earlier. One would have preferred a stronger balance from this part of the book. After all, though the Spirit-gifts have passed into history, these benefits derived from them have not.
Overall impressions
As mentioned earlier, the Appendix ought to be viewed as an integral part of the main text. It even contains the book’s conclusion: “The task is now finished, and can be laid aside at last in the confidence that the basic doctrine of the Holy Spirit as understood by generations of faithful Christadelphians has been upheld as true, and that it is soundly based on Scripture. Many New Testament passages in particular (many of them apparent ‘problem’ passages) have been examined in the detail of their context, and have proved to be entirely consistent with the views which were once widely held amongst us. The writers are convinced that, apart from possible minor differences in expositional detail, they have written nothing which would not have had the unqualified endorsement of their spiritual mentors and predecessors. Having thus laid out the matter in detail and at length, they can only hope that their efforts may contribute towards a clearer understanding of an important aspect of Bible teaching, and pray that others may thereby come to a fuller appreciation of the work of God through His Spirit in the affairs of men”. In the reviewer’s view this is a fair estimate of their work, and a reasonable hope.
The authors and publishers are to be complimented on the technical quality of this publication, particularly as it is the first publication in book form produced by The Testimony for many years. It is clearly printed, very well proof-checked, and for such a substantial publication (184 pages) very reasonably priced. An index is always useful in a book which is suitable for reference, and in this case is particularly important, with the same theme often appearing in more than one part of the book. Such an index has been provided very adequately by Sister Gill Nicholls in the form of both Scripture and subject index.
It is sad that the present situation requires the book’s conclusion to use the phrase, “views which were once widely held amongst us”. The authors’ effort to help this situation has been worthwhile, and their readers will find a great deal that is worth reading and later using for reference. May this book help to restore a more Scriptural understanding of the Holy Spirit and its work. Teachers of the Word and many others will find it valuable to use the book, and certainly they should be familiar with many of the arguments it contains.
Review of “The Early Earth” by John Whitcomb (1972)