Becoming an Atheist: The Holy Spirit

Here is the question that truly makes one question the existence of YHWH.  Where is the Holy Spirit?  Think about that a minute.  Really, where is the Holy Spirit that was promised by the writers of the New Testament and Jesus himself?

In three places Jesus tells the disciples that the Spirit will be given to his followers, not just the apostles.  After Jesus’ death the Spirit acts three more time.  I will be starting a Biblical Topics on the Holy Spirit after this post, which I plan to write on Sundays.  The Biblical Topics will be extremely numerous, as the Spirit of God is in both the Old and New Testament.

The Gospel of Luke seems the most concerned with the “gifts” of the Holy Spirit.  In fact, the Gospel of Luke is the only Gospel that describes the Holy Spirit as something that will be given to all believers!  The other three Gospels only tell of how Jesus and the apostles used/received the Spirit.  So I will start here:

Luke 11:13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

This comes from a passage where Jesus teaches all his disciples how to pray, again not just the apostles.  It’s as simple as that; all a Christian has to do is ask for it!  Then the question remains: why do we not see the Holy Spirit in the Church?  Where is it?

Here is an even more straight forward verse:

Luke 12:11 “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”

Well isn’t that wonderful.  But notice, when a defense is needed the Holy Spirit will take over.  I guess responding on Atheist blog sites is not included in “brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities” or “don’t worry about how you will defend yourselves” because some of the worst comments on those blogs are from Christians.  They have horrible spelling, hideous sentence structure, and those comments have very little ability to sway opinion.  But twice now the jury system of the US has struck down the Christians as well.  I am speaking about the Monkey Scopes Trial and the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area Schools.  It would seem the Holy Spirit doesn’t care if children are taught evolution.  Or those in defense of Christian values were left speechless by the Holy Spirit.  So again the question is raised:  Where is the Holy Spirit?

The one verse in the Gospel of John that is universal to all Christians is this one:

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

So where is this Spirit?  If one “Spirit” teaches the disciples what Jesus taught, why are there 46,000 denominations (and growing)?  Shouldn’t one source create one Church?  There is only one Jesus and he taught the same message to everyone, why are there so many different opinions on what is Christian?  Where is the “Counselor”?  Why do so many Christian forget the teachings of Jesus for their own beliefs?  Christian hate crimes are definitely not what Jesus taught!

But maybe the Spirit does not enter everyone who is a Christian?  Wrong!  Here is a verse that proves that all Christians have the Spirit:

Acts 10:44 When Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 

You have to understand Peter was talking to the entire family of Cornelius and his friends.  All of Cornelius’ friends may have had an “open heart”, but his entire family?  No, this is an example where the Holy Spirit entered everyone, not because of Peter, but because that is what the Holy Spirit does.  Where is this Holy Spirit?

Finally, for the Atheist, this is the one that kills any possibility that the Holy Spirit exists:

Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.  Be shepherds of the Church of God, which was bought with his own blood.

So the Holy Spirit chooses the leaders of the Church?  How many examples do I need to bring up to show that the Holy Spirit has done a lousy job at this?  Kip McKean, Ted Haggard, Jimmy Bakker, Priestly pedophilia (not just in the US), etc I believe those will be enough.

So where is this “Counselor” that Jesus promised?  It is certainly not in the church leaders, it certainly does not appear when the defense of Christianity is required, and it does not enter those who ask for it.  As a Christian, I struggled over those questions.  I also struggled over my own “sin”, which I never received comfort from the Spirit in dealing with.  The Holy Spirit is missing from today’s Church.  Did it ever really exist?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Archaeologist: Jesus took a different path (cnn.com)
• Jane Williams: The debate over the status of non-Jews in the early church was lengthy and vicious (guardian.co.uk)
• Believing the Unbelievable: He is Risen Indeed! (highcallingblogs.com)

This entry was posted on May 3, 2009, 6:08 pm at 18:08 and is filed under My Beliefs, Biblical topics, Becoming an atheist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

| Print