The Holy Spirit

Makestraightpaths.com examines the teachings of the religious group variously known as “the Family,” “The Family International,” the “Children of God,” or the “Family of Love,” and evaluates these teachings from a Christian perspective. This page is one in a series on Family beliefs regarding salvation and the nature of God.

The Holy Spirit

In recent years, the Holy Spirit has not been as prominent in Family teaching as in the 1970's and 1980's. However, unscriptural aspects of Family theology regarding the Holy Spirit continue until this day. In fact, one of the most controversial doctrines propagated by the Family - or one of the oddest - has been the assertion that the Holy Spirit is female. The 2009 Statement of Faith reads:

We believe that the Holy Spirit represents the feminine and maternal elements of the Trinity of God, and comforts and nurtures believers.
(Statement of Faith, The Family International, 2009)

This excerpt actually presents a watered-down version of the teaching published in great detail over many years by the founder of the Family, Dad/Berg. He said that not only did the Holy Spirit represent feminine elements of the Trinity (as above), but that "She" was literally the female person of the Trinity, which consists of God the Father (male), Jesus the Son (male), and the Holy Spirit (female), who was like the Mother of the Trinity. For the first 20 years of the Family's existence, the Holy Spirit was pictured in numerous publications, cartoons, tracts and posters as a sexy, voluptuous woman, often clad in little more than a heart-shaped bikini.

In the 1990's, these images were gradually phased out, and following the death of Dad/Berg in 1994, the emphasis shifted so strongly to Jesus that the Holy Spirit was rarely mentioned at all. Although a belief in a female Holy Spirit does not appear to be a mandatory Family doctrine, the founder of the Family is still held in such high regard by current members that few if any would dare to say that he was wrong on this topic.

This page does not examine all that the Bible says about the Holy Spirit, for such an undertaking would take volumes. Instead, this page discusses the Family's belief in a female Holy Spirit, the role of the Holy Spirit in believers' lives as contrasted with Family practice, and several other doctrinal issues related to the Holy Spirit in the Family.

The third person of the trinity, who exercises the power of the Father and the Son in creation and redemption. Because the Holy Spirit is the power by which believers come to Christ and see with new eyes of faith, He is closer to us than we are to ourselves. Like the eyes of the body through which we see physical things, He is seldom in focus to be seen directly because He is the one through whom all else is seen in a new light. This explains why the relationship of the Father and the Son is more prominent in the gospels, because it is through the eyes of the Holy Spirit that the Father-Son relationship is viewed.
(Nelson's Bible Dictionary, Holy Spirit)

The gender of the Holy Spirit

The founder of the Family gave several reasons (paraphrased here) why he thought the Holy Spirit was female.

When God first created people, He said, "Let us make man in our image... male and female." Therefore, there must be both male and female elements in God for male and female people to be made in God's image.

Gen 1:26-27
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
NASU
The book of Proverbs describes 'Wisdom' as female, and as having characteristics that could only belong to deity.

Prov 3:13-19
How blessed is the man who finds wisdom
And the man who gains understanding.
14 For her profit is better than the profit of silver
And her gain better than fine gold.
15 She is more precious than jewels;
And nothing you desire compares with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand;
In her left hand are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are pleasant ways
And all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her,
And happy are all who hold her fast.
19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth,
By understanding He established the heavens.
NASU
The Holy Spirit is described as the Comforter, which is naturally a more feminine attribute.
If the Holy Spirit were male, then the Trinity would be somehow off balance. A female element in the Trinity is necessary, otherwise the Trinity would consist of an all-male Godhead.

These arguments are, on the whole, unconvincing.

First, God created man in His image. The Bible does not say that the male and female genders were created in God's image but that man as a person somehow reflects an aspect of God. Theologians have proposed numerous ideas as to what aspect of God people reflect:

It lies in the nature of the case that the "image" does not consist in bodily form; it can only reside in spiritual qualities, in man's mental and moral attributes as a self-conscious, rational, personal agent, capable of self-determination and obedience to moral law. This gives man his position of lordship in creation, and invests his being with the sanctity of personality. The image of God, defaced, but not entirely lost through sin, is restored in yet more perfect form in the redemption of Christ.
(International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Image of God)

The New Testament says that the likeness of God is related to righteousness, holiness, truth and knowledge:

Eph 4:24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. NASU

Col 3:10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him — NASU

There is nothing in Genesis 1:26-27 to suggest that human gender reflects God's gender.

Second, the book of Proverbs is written as ancient wisdom literature. It is very poor Bible interpretation to read the analogy of wisdom as a woman as literally meaning that the Holy Spirit is female. 'Wisdom' in Proverbs is personified as a woman in direct contrast with 'folly,' also personified as a woman (Proverbs 2:16-19, 5:3-8).

Third, Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the Comforter in the King James Version (John 14:26). Other versions say Helper (NASB, NKJV), Counsellor (NIV, RSV) or Advocate (NET). The adjective does certainly not refer to a feminine characteristic. All translations have Jesus referring to the Holy Spirit with the masculine pronouns, "He" (John 15:26) and "Him" (John 16:7).

Fourth, human ideas of what appears right, or what is 'off-balance' do not apply to God.

Fifth, a theology that depicts the Trinity as three separate people is entirely unscriptural. The "Trinity" (a word that is implied by, but does not appear in the Bible) refers to the three-in-one Godhead. There is only one God, but He may be known as God the Father, God the Son or God the Holy Spirit.

In the New Testament God further revealed that He is One in Three and that His essential being is triune. God is the triune family of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, united in will, purpose, holiness, and love. Accordingly, Christianity is both monotheistic and trinitarian.
Jesus' oneness with the Father is explicitly claimed in the fourth gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Jesus Himself consciously laid claim to His oneness with the Father (John 5:17-24). This angered His opponents so much that they sought to kill Him (John 5:18). The absolute unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is expressed throughout the New Testament (John 14:16; 16:13-15).
(Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Monotheism)

The term by which is expressed the unity of three Persons in the one God. The Christian doctrine is: (1) That there is only one God, one divine nature and being. (2) This one divine Being is tripersonal, involving the distinctions of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (3) These three are joint partakers of the same nature and majesty of God. This doctrine is preeminently one of revelation. And although it brings before us one of the great mysteries of revelation and transcends finite comprehension, it is essential to the understanding of the Scriptures, and, as we shall see, has its great value and uses.
On the other hand Christianity has reason to guard itself, as it has generally sought to do, against tritheistic conceptions. Both the unity and the tripersonal nature of God are to be maintained. And thus the proper baptismal formula is not "In the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit," but the words as our Lord gave them (Matt 28:19).
(The New Unger's Bible Dictionary, Trinity)

To separate the 'persons' of the Godhead in such a way (gender) that they are fundamentally separate from each other is to destroy the unity of God, and to abandon monotheism.

Sixth, God transcends gender. The only member of the Trinity that can be said to have gender is Jesus in His human form.

The Bible metaphorically assigns masculine roles to God (warrior, father, king, shepherd), but also on occasion uses feminine imagery when referring to God (giving birth to Israel, Deut 32:18, or as a midwife, Isa 66:9-11).

McGrath says:

Neither male nor female sexuality is to be attributed to God, in that this sexuality is an attribute of the created order. There is no reason to suppose that such a polarity exists within the creator God... To bring sexual differentiation into the understanding of God would mean polytheism.
(Christian Theology: An Introduction, Alister E McGrath, p.198)

In other words, although the Bible uses male (and female) imagery to describe God, at no time should this be taken to mean that God is sexually male (or female).

No doubt the Biblical writers thought of man as made in the image of God (Gen 1:27 f), and it was easy for them to think of God as being like man. It is remarkable that their anthropomorphism did not go farther. They preserve, however, a highly spiritual conception of God as compared with that of surrounding nations. But as the human breath was an invisible part of man, and as it represented his vitality, his life and energy, it was easy to transfer the conception to God in the effort to represent His energetic and transitive action upon man and Nature. The Spirit of God, therefore, as based upon the idea of the ruach or breath of man, originally stood for the energy or power of God (Isa 31:3), as contrasted with the weakness of the flesh. ...
Again we observe in the Old Testament both an identification of God and the Spirit of God, and also a clear distinction between them. The identification is seen in Ps 139:7 where the omni-presence of the Spirit is declared, and in Isa 63:10; Jer 31:33; Ezek 36:27. In a great number of passages, however, God and the Spirit of God are not thought of as identical, as in Gen 12; 6:3; Neh 9:20; Ps 51:11; 104:29 f. Of course this does not mean that God and the Spirit of God were two distinct beings in the thought of Old Testament writers, but only that the Spirit had functions of His own in distinction from God. The Spirit was God in action, particularly when the action was specific, with a view to accomplishing some particular end or purpose of God. The Spirit came upon individuals for special purposes. The Spirit was thus God immanent in man and in the world.
(International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Holy Spirit)

In the earliest Scriptures, the Spirit does not clearly emerge as a distinct personality. The Hebrew word for "spirit" (ruah) can also mean wind, breath, or life-force. Most commonly designated as "of God" or "of the Lord, " the Spirit appears as God's agent of creation ( Gen 1:2 ; Job 33:4 ; 34:14-15 ), a mode of his interacting with humans ( Gen 6:3 ), his agent of revelation ( Gen 41:38 ; Num 24:2 ), and a mode of empowering select leaders of God's people (Moses and the Seventy Num 11:17-29 ; possibly Joshua Num 27:18 ; Deut 34:9 ). ...
Although relatively infrequent in his Old Testament appearances, the Spirit now emerges to dominate the theology and experience of the major New Testament witnesses. The term "Holy Spirit" (pneuma hagion) becomes common, although the absolute use remains frequent and "Spirit of God/the Lord" and even "Spirit of Christ" appear too. A distinct personality emerges and, ultimately, explicit trinitarian teaching. ...
Jesus' most extensive and distinctive teaching about the Spirit emerges in the five "Paraclete" passages found only in John's Gospel. Parakletos can be translated variously as "advocate, " "exhorter, " "encourager, " or "counselor." He is Jesus' personal representative and substitute, enabling the disciples to carry on ministry without Christ's physical presence on earth ( John 14:16 ). Five distinct functions can be discerned in these passages: The Spirit will help Jesus' followers, remaining with them forever ( 14:15-21 ); he will enable them to interpret Jesus' words ( 14:15-17 ); he will testify to the world who Jesus is (15:26-16:4); he will prosecute sinners, convicting them of their offenses ( 16:5-11 ); and he will reveal further truth ( 16:12-15 ), doubtless including though not explicitly specified as the New Testament canon. A week after his resurrection, Jesus begins to fulfill these promises as he breathes the Spirit on the eleven ( 20:22 ); fuller fulfillment will come a month and a half later at Pentecost.
(Baker's Evangelical Dictionary, Holy Spirit)

Personality. The historic and prevailing doctrine of the Christian church, in accordance with the Scriptures, has been that the Holy Spirit is a person distinct from the Father and the Son, though united to both in the mysterious oneness of the Godhead. He is not simply a personification or figurative expression for the divine energy or operation, as some have held at various periods of the history of the church (Anti-Trinitarians), but He is an intelligent agent, possessed of self-consciousness and freedom. In proof of this it is justly said: (1) that the Scriptures that ascribe distinct personality to the Father and the Son with equal explicitness ascribe distinct personality to the Holy Spirit. Prominent illustrations of this are found in Matt 3:16-17; 28:19; John 14:16-17; 15:26. (2) The pronouns used with reference to the Holy Spirit are invariably personal pronouns, e.g., John 16:13-14; Acts 13:2. (3) The attributes of personality, self-consciousness, and freedom are ascribed to the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 2:10; 12:11). (4) The relations described as existing between the Holy Spirit and mankind are such as to emphasize His personality. The Spirit strives with man (Gen 6:3). He instructs, regenerates, sanctifies, and comforts believers (John 3:5-6; 14:16-17; 16:13-14; 1 Peter 1:2). We are warned not to "blaspheme against," "not to resist," not to "grieve," nor to "quench" the Holy Spirit (Matt 12:31-32; Acts 7:51; Eph 4:30; 1 Thess 5:19).
(The New Unger's Bible Dictionary, Holy Spirit)

In summary, the concept of a female Holy Spirit, as propagated by the Family has several serious problems:

The reasoning used to support this theory is invalid. The Bible does not teach a female Holy Spirit, either explicitly or implicitly.
A female Holy Spirit would abandon fundamental biblical monotheism. Christian belief in the Trinity has never been polytheistic.
The Holy Spirit is God, and as such transcends gender. The only 'person' of the divine Trinity that can be said to have gender is Jesus Christ in His manifestation as a man on earth. God - including the Holy Spirit - is far greater than human gender.
Ascribing sexuality to God blatantly imitates ancient pagan spirituality and rituals. It humanises God and treats Him as no better than, for example, the plethora of Greek, Roman or Hindu gods, each one with limitations and weaknesses.
The founder of the Family's theory that the Holy Spirit is female probably originated from his own well-documented, self-confessed obsession with sex, rather than from any particular Bible passage.

Therefore, Family members who worship a female Holy Spirit are in fact either vainly giving their time and energy to an imaginary deity who does not exist, or they could actually be unwittingly playing into the hands of spiritual wickedness, willingly giving themselves to a deceptive demon. This is a theory that must be abandoned immediately.

Receiving the Holy Spirit

Family members are generally unaware that there is a major disagreement between Christian denominations over when believers receive the Holy Spirit. Pentecostal and charismatic churches generally hold to the 'two-stage' theory, while more conservative, fundamentalist and evangelical churches believe in a 'single-stage.'

The Family believes in the 'two-stage' theory, reflecting the founder's charismatic roots. In fact, for many years, Family members used to count the number of "Holy Ghosts," that is, the number of people with they prayed to receive the Holy Spirit, for their monthly reports. For some reason, this statistic was quietly phased out a few years ago. The official Family website states:

"Everyone who receives God's gift of eternal life by praying to ask Jesus into their heart has also received a measure of the Holy Spirit. But receiving the complete infilling, or what the Bible calls "baptism" of the Holy Spirit, is usually a separate experience that happens after you have received Jesus."

However, many fundamental, Bible-believing, evangelical churches say that the Holy Spirit fills believers at conversion, that it is impossible for a person to be a Christian at all without the Holy Spirit, and therefore a second stage infilling of the Holy Spirit is superfluous.

When Peter preached to the crowd on the day of Pentecost, he seemed to indicate that the Holy Spirit would come to the new Christians at the moment of conversion.

Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. NASU

Ron R. Ritchie:
Who is the Holy Spirit? Scripture teaches that there is one God, but in the unity of the Godhead there are three eternal and co-equal Persons, the same in essence, but distinct in character. They all function in different ways, so their methods of ministering to God’s people are very distinct. In the words of the Nicene Creed (589 AD), “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, and who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified.” The Holy Spirit, then, is God in this mystery form called Spirit, not body. The Holy Spirit is God in us, all of us, at the same time. Each one of us who has accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior is indwelt by the Spirit of God. But the disciples had to wait for this. Jesus had told them, “John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. You will all be identified with, placed into the Body of Christ, spiritually, by the Holy Spirit.” The disciples, of course, were believers before the age of the Spirit began. The issue was not their relationship with God, rather it was that God was designing a whole new thing called the Body of Christ into which they would all be placed so that they could all function together by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, therefore, is the gift of the Father to all believers, Jew and Gentile. As 1 Cor. 12:13 says: “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Gentile, whether slave or free, and were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

(Peninsula Bible Church)

Ray C. Stedman:
The fourth characteristic, Jesus says, is that the Spirit would operate from within the believer: “You know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.” The primary reference here undoubtedly is to his disciples. Jesus could never say that of us, nor of anyone after the Day of Pentecost. We don’t have to go through a process in which the Spirit first is with us and then is in us. But these men did. At this point in their experience Jesus had been with them, and thus the Spirit of God was with them, because Jesus was filled with the Spirit. Everything he did was by means of the Holy Spirit who was in him, but with them. But now Jesus is going away, and when he goes he will send the Spirit. And the Spirit will come to be in them. Everything they do, then, they can do by the power of the Spirit living in them.

(Peninsula Bible Church)

The problem in the Family is not so much that Family members conform to Pentecostal or charismatic doctrine, but that they blindly accept what they have been given, without researching it. Unfortunately, most Family members believe that if they have memorised a large number of Bible verses, then they know what the Bible says. This is demonstrably untrue.

For more on this topic, see The Memory Book.

Walk by the Spirit

In spite of the Family's initial emphasis on the Holy Spirit, there is one area in which it is clear that Family members fall short: walking by the Spirit of God.

Gal 5:16-26
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
NASU

Galatians chapter five clearly contrasts "walking by the Spirit" with "carrying out the desire of the flesh." These two ways of operating are set in opposition to each other. On one side is "walk by the Spirit" (NASB, RSV), "walk in the Spirit" (NKJV), "live by the Spirit" (NIV, NET), and on the other side is "carry out the desire of the flesh" (NASB, NET), "gratify the desire of the sinful nature" (NIV), "fulfill the lust of the flesh" (NKJV). Many specific examples are given so that the readers of this passage would have no doubts as to what each type of living means.

"Carrying out the desires of the flesh" means engaging in sinful actions such as "sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like." (Gal 5:19-21, NIV).

"Walking by the Spirit" means living according to "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Gal 5:22-23, NIV)

Family members who engage in extra-marital sex are "carrying out the desires of the flesh" and therefore are not walking by the Spirit.

For more on this passage, click here.

Conclusion

Family members actually know very little about the Holy Spirit. In the first place, the idea that the Holy Spirit is female contradicts several crucial principles about the nature of God. Second, Family members in general are not aware of their theological links to Pentecostalism, or of the controversies surrounding some Pentecostal teaching. Third, Family members who engage in any kind of extra-marital sex are not living by the Spirit of God.

Further study

The following links are all external to Make Straight Paths, and consist of a wide variety of excellent material on the Holy Spirit. Most of the links lead to pages on Bible.org.

The Holy Spirit in the Hebrew Bible and Its Connections to the New Testament

Putting Pentecost in Perspective (Part 1) The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament (Acts 2:1-13)

Putting Pentecost in Perspective (Part 2) The Holy Spirit in the Gospels (Acts 2:1-13)

The Spirit-Filled Life (Part 1)

The Spirit-Filled Life (Part 2)

Pneumatology: The Holy Spirit

The Gifts of the Spirit

The Ministry of the Spirit in Discerning the Will of God

The Ministry of the Holy Spirit (John 16:12-33)

Siding With the Spirit (Romans 8:1-17)

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Scriptures?

Finally, the following article is written by a non-charismatic evangelical, who interestingly, actually briefly joined the Family in its early days.

The Uneasy Conscience of a Non-Charismatic Evangelical