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AUTHORITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: THE "MISSING LINK" IN OUR CONTEMPORARY UNDERSTANDING OF DIVINE AUTHORITY?, THE
Trinity Journal, Fall 2004 by Studebaker, John A Jr
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones asked a poignant question in the 1960s in his short book entitled Authority: "How much do we hear about the Holy Spirit and His authority?"1 His main point in his final chapter is that the authority of Christ and the authority of Scripture, as critical as they are, do not provide a complete development or conception of divine authority in themselves. Without the authority of the Spirit these other authorities cannot be "felt" or realized on a practical level. Lloyd-Jones provides examples in church history specifically those periods marked by tendencies toward intellectualism or formalism -to illustrate the resulting deficiencies that followed the church's neglect of the Spirit. The final effect is that the church's "authority"-that is, her display of Christ's authority and Scripture's authority in the world -often goes unnoticed in the surrounding culture. Lloyd-Jones sums up his argument with a surprising declaration: "Here, I truly believe, we are dealing with the main source of weakness in modern Evangelicalism."2
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In our times this problem may be even more acute. Our "postmodern" culture is marked by a profound relativism, telling us that no one version of "truth" can have priority over another. As a result, Christianity seems to have become just one voice among many. Confronted with the fact that the church and her message are no longer recognized as "authorities" in our culture, many churches in America seem to have retreated from cultural engagement. Could there be a "missing link" in our contemporary understanding of divine "authority" and of the church's place within it?
In this discussion we will attempt to search out an essential but relatively undefined doctrine. We shall search Scripture and historical theology in order to develop an evangelical model of the doctrine of "the authority of the Holy Spirit." Our premise is that Christianity presents a unique principle of divine authority - one that affirms the supreme authority of the triune God, but that also incorporates a specific pattern of authority through which divine authority is graciously expressed and practically executed.3 In the OT, the pattern first incorporated the Holy Spirit and the prophets. The Spirit came upon the prophets, who in turn spoke God's Word to a particular generation of people. This was "the actual authority for the Old Testament believer."4 As a result, the basic pattern through which divine authority is expressed is that of Word and Spirit.5 The NT, however, presents a radical focusing of this essential pattern on the person and work of Jesus Christ. "Christ is the supreme object of the witness of the Spirit, and Christ is the supreme content of the Scriptures."6 The essential pattern of divine authority in Christianity thus incorporates Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Scriptures.
Our model of the Spirit's authority must therefore be developed within the context of this essential pattern. At the same time, the best way to approach the study of this critical doctrine is to investigate its development in theological church history. Whereas the story of Christ is available for historical inquiry by reading the NT, the earthly "story" of the Spirit, according to Oden, is open to investigation in the form of church history.7 The Spirit has "a history that can be narrated by remembered events."8 In the church age, the most critical events with respect to the doctrine of the Spirit seem to be the critical debates that forced the church to develop theological clarity regarding the Spirit's nature and work.9 These debates include: (1) patristic theology: Athanasius vs. Arius; (2) medieval theology: Augustine vs. John of Damascus; (3) protestant theology: Martin Luther vs. Counter-Reformation pneumatology; and (4) postmodern theology: evangelical vs. communitarian approaches. We shall evaluate each of these debates by examining related Scriptures, which will result in specific conclusions regarding the authority of the Holy Spirit in general, along with a model for understanding the Spirit's place within the overall pattern of divine authority. This basic theological model will then be applied to both systematic and practical theology.
I. PATRISTIC THEOLOGY
In the patristic period, we find a critical debate regarding the divinity of the Holy Spirit. The question here is essentially, "Is the Spirit a divine Being or merely a creature?"
A. Arius vs. Athanasius
Arius was a priest in Alexandria (c. 318) who taught a subordinationism within the Trinity -the Father alone is "God" and the Son and Spirit are "creatures."10 Arius is well known for denying the deity of the Son, particularly the idea of the Son being homoousious ("of one essence") with the Father. But he also said that the Spirit is really an angel, created by the Son, and one of the spirits ministering to God in heaven.
The essences [ousia] of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are separate in nature. They are estranged, unconnected, alien, . . . and without participation in each other. . . . They are utterly dissimilar from each other with respect to both essences and glories to infinity.11
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