The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19 can equally be interpreted in the light of the doctrine of ‘ejusdem generis’, meaning that items of same characteristics are put in one group. Thus, The Father (Who is God), The Son (Who is God), and The Holy Spirit, mentioned along These Two Persons, concludes that The Holy Spirit is God. Furthermore, using the principle of ‘expressio unius est exclusio alterius’, means that mentioning Persons that belong to the Godhead in that Commission concludes that there is no other characteristic one can assign to the Holy Spirit, other than to say that He is also a Member of the Godhead. All other implicit or explicit characteristics are excluded. Thus, the Holy Spirit is God, The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. There are Three Persons in One God, a fact that some saints, like St. Augustine, had wanted to fathom but was told, in that interesting story, to stay action for it was something of a Mystery but which is also an absolute Truth. Having established the personality of the Holy Spirit, one further asks: what special attribute is related with Him? In God’s relation with humankind, God The Father prevailed in the Old Testament, God The Son prevailed in the New Testament and God The Holy Spirit is now prevailing since the Great Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit kickstarted the seed of God’s Church (Catholic) sowed by Jesus Christ before His Death and Resurrection. And The Holy Spirit lives in the hearts of Christians which are regarded as the Temple of the Holy Spirit. And The Holy Spirit would ONLY do so if the Christian had no sin. With sin The Holy Spirit is expunged from the heart of the Christian; in other words, evicted from the body of this person. And if this continues till the death of this person, then forgiveness for the prevailing sin becomes impossible. This is articulated in Mark 3:28-30: sinning against The Father or The Son would find forgiveness but there is no forgiveness for sinning against the Holy Spirit which is obstinacy in sin; and the six sins, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 1864 are: despair, presumption, resistance to known truth,envy of a brother’s spiritual good(ie increase of Divine grace in the world), impenitence, and obstinacy in sin. Thus we can now conclude that The Holy Spirit is The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity and that He has a special attribute that we, members of the human race, must watch out for and be careful about. The presence of The Holy Spirit in us concludes all the efforts at reconciling humankind with God such that God can now ask us: ‘what is that I should have done that I have not done?’

I’m thrilled to read about the Holy Spirit because I once heard a homily given by a priest that shared with us what he was taught in grade school, about the Holy Spirit he said, “It’s a mystery.”  He left it at that.

For this reason, I say as a Catholic convert, I think too many Catholics have replaced knowledge of the Holy Spirit with other things, practices and people that we can understand more easily, a shame because it was the Holy Spirit and His power that caused the Church to grow, gaining 3,000 new converts in one ‘sitting’ even.

A question:
Somewhere I read that Eastern Orthodox Christians (maybe even Catholic?) objected to Rome using the phrase “proceeded from the Father and the Son” in the Creed, to describe the Holy Spirit.  But the Holy Spirit does proceed from the Father and the Son, so if what I remember is accurate, I don’t understand the objection.

I will spend more time with this article and video on Tuesday, studying it, and I want to thank everyone for broaching the Person of the Holy Spirit, especially on Pentecost!  A terrific idea!

Very nice.  Except “ego” is Latin, not Greek.

Monica: Thanks! Also, just btw, “ego” is also Greek. :-)

We should all remember to give thanks to God the Holy Spirit for empowering us, guiding us, and leading us into the fulness of life,

To all of you who think that Jehovah Witness have a problem only with the Third Person of Holy Trinity - They have a problem already with the Second Person - Our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no point, I think, to talk with them about the Third Person if the Second Person is not present. Just a simple mathematical thing… However, interesting fact is, that only by Holy Spirit can we say that Jesus is the Lord (I don’t talk about saying words but truly knowing that He is God.) If they don’t believe in the Holy Spirit then it must imply, in my opinion, that they cannot say that Jesus is the Lord (and they don’t.) Just a funny thought…

Blessings,
Greg.

Thank you for your response,Terah James. However, I have to disagree with this very erroneous statement: “too many Catholics have replaced knowledge of the Holy Spirit with other things….” The Catholic Church’s Teachings on the Holy Trinity, the Third Person of the Trinity, has never changed these 2000 years. However, we have problems with converted Catholics who have not fully grasped the depth, the richness and the Whole Salvation Mystery as taught by this One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church because they come to us with warped and erroneous baggage of their Protestant beliefs. The Catholic Church has preserved, protected and proclaimed this Divine Message as given by Her Head and Founder - Jesus Christ Himself - and through the Guidance of the Holy Spirit She still teaches this Authentic Truth. I would advise you to study the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Church and Doctors of the Church.  Or better still get yourself a Spiritual Director who will guide you and walk with you in your new Faith. 
Welcome Home, Terah James

@Mary@42,
Thanks very much for this very kind work of enlightenment. Actually I had been trying to make sense of what Terah James had said up there but I must admit I couldn’t understand any word of his/her assertion. Now that you have clarified the matter to him/her, I guess he/she would take note and learn accordingly. Thanks again.

  Just an aside to Terah James-
  I have always loved the Eastern Orthodox theologian Vladimir Lossky but when he speaks of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ as acting ‘like the two hands of God’ I immediately went ‘Catholic’...uh-uh.  NO.  One hand doesn’t ‘send’ the other hand and Jesus Christ has clearly stated he is SENDING the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit proceeds in mystery and with the fullness of God from Father and Son.

digdigby - Thanks for the tip about the EO theologian.  That’s why I prefer to stay with the Bible as reading material.  Theologians may have it correct about some things, but often they do not have it right on all things.

What we believe is of utmost importance.  Our faith must have a foundation of truth.  We’re even instructed to ‘test the spirits’ and see if it squares w/ the word.

All you wrote about the Holy Spirit squares with the Bible.  Jesus breathed on them and - yes, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father & the Son, just as we all say at Mass in the Creed. Thanks!

Thank you, chi for appreciating my humble response to Terah James. Our Profession of Faith is crystal clear : “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, Who has spoken through the Prophets.”  The Holy Spirit is Equal in Power and Divinity with the Father and the Son, thus there is ONLY ONE God in Three Divine Persons. This Divine Truth was taught by the early Catholic Church even before the Holy Bible was compiled. This old lady learned this Divine Truth when she was a wee 6 years old while being prepared for the First Holy Communion at age 7. It is our duty and calling as Catholics, to practice the 14 Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy. And the 2nd and 3rd Spiritual Works of Mercy are : to Instruct the Uninformed and Counsel the Doubtful, respectively. In response to your comment above, Terah James, may I inform you that the Catholic Church which you have joined, rests on THREE INDIVISIBLE DIVINE PILLARS, The Scriptures, The Tradition and The Magisterium. The Sola Scripture is a Protestant Belief….we time and time again are hit with this tart question by our Protestant brothers and sisters of the Sola Scripture Creed: “where is it mentioned in the Scriptures?” But our Catholic Faith does not rest on the Scriptures alone - which by the way were complied under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, by this same Catholic Church.  She rests on these Three Divine Pillars, which complement one another and make whole our Catholic Faith. Through them, we have the entire Salvation Mystery and the authentic Divine Teaching of Jesus Christ Himself. Once again, Terah James, please take the advice of this 73-year old Cradle Catholic and invest time and energy to learn more and delve deeper into the Divine Teachings of the Catholic Church and, thereby, understand your new Home and in time, you will shed off your Protestant baggage which is at the moment impending your Spiritual Growth.

We Jehovah’s Witnesses have no “trouble” acknowledging the presence of our Lord Jesus in our lives. Since we worship his Father, Jehovah (“the only true God” as our Lord called him), we must appreciate all of his gifts to us. (James 1:17)

Mr Akin writes, “In this video, I show a simple and surprising way that you can use the Bible to show both that the Holy Spirit is a Person and that he is a divine Person, alongside the Father and the Son.”
Much more impressive to me is Jehovah’s “video”, the book of Revelation. Several times we see Jesus alone, Jehovah alone, or the two together. At no time do we see the Holy Spirit pictured, alone or with ‘his brethren the Other Two Persons’ as a Catholic might say. Compare Stephen’s vision into heaven or Daniel’s- the both saw Jehovah, Jesus, but no Holy Spirit. Why, after our Lord’s glorification into heaven do we not see- “simply and surprisingly”- this Holy Spirit person? If not seen in Heaven now (and Revelation is John’s future and our present) then where is it? When is it to be revealed? By a “doctor of the Church”? We bible-thumpers have our own, Paul, and he doesn’t teach a trinity of gods.
There’s a related “problem” with using Mt 28:19,20 as a “Trinity” proof. First, it’s a statement in the imperative; ‘Go, preach!’; we do so. “In the name of” three entities, it says. So we logically look for three names. We can find Jehovah, Jesus, but no personal name for the Holy Spirit. Why not, if we are to baptize into a trinity of persons? One name would be acceptable, three likewise, but we’re given two.

The Bible itself- in our Lord’s own words- identifies the God whom Jesus and we worship at Rev 3:12.

  Dear Doug,
  I am a used book dealer from way back when.  I always have a ready market for early Watchtower and JW publications - the earlier the better. I was curious why till I discovered that your ‘leadership’ wants to keep this material away from you for you will discover that even the most fundamental teachings of this cult have changed again and again - not to mention one failed prophecy after another.

I have some myself; the oldest is a book on Revelation from 1918.
You know we used to celebrate birthdays and Christmas. We stopped when Jehovah’s spirit showed us brighter light. (Pr 4) The churches still do these pagan things. Why?
You also see in your comparative reading that the mainstream religions of Christendom still practice their nationalistic warfare, teach the unscriptural trinity, frighten the “layman” class their paid clergy created with hellfire preacting, line up with the leaders of the world’s governments, and so on. Why, when God’s kingdom is available to them? Why would they choose to be on the losing side of Armageddon? (Dan 2:44) One possible answer is that they don’t believe in Jehovah of Armies. (“LORD of Hosts” is a feeble translation of the Hebrew.)
What’s your professional interpretation of Ec 12:12,13?