HERESIES  OF  WESTCOTT  AND  HORT  #7

Chapter VII

Heresies in Pneumatology

In this general division of pneumatology, there is usually-taken up the teachings about God the Holy Spirit, including His Person, His Works, His Deity, and so on [cf. Chafer, Systematic Theology, Vol. VI]. In this area, I noted the following items, in various,degrees of heresy and/or error.

Westcott Had a False View of Christ's Realization of "the Spirit" Within Him. Beginning Only at His Baptism

(John 1:33-34) At the same time we cannot but believe (so far as we realize the perfect humanity of Christ) that Christ at this crisis first became conscious as man of a power of the Spirit within Him corresponding to the new form of His work.

—Westcott—;John, op. cit., p. 23

There is not a syllable of scriptural proof for this heretical statement. There is no reason whatsoever for assuming anything but that from the very moment of the Lord Jesus Christ's conscious awareness as the God-Man, He was fully aware of the power of God the Holy Spirit within Him. In Luke 2:49b, the Lord Jesus—fully conscious of Who He was and of God the Holy Spirit's power within Him—told his mother: "... wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"

WAIT GAVE ITALICS YOU NOTICE TO CERTAIN WORDS OF WESTCOTT, BUT  FAILED  TO  DO  SO  FOR  THE  WORDS  AFTER "CORRESPONDING  TO  THE  NEW  FORM  OF  HIS  WORK."

IT  WAS  A  NEW  WORK  CHRIST  WAS  NOW  SETTING  UPON  AND  SO  THE  SPIRIT  WAS  GIVING  HIM  MORE  INSIGHT  CORRESPONDING  TO  THE  NEW  FORM  OF  HIS  WORK.

A  WEAK  ARGUMENT  BY  WAIT.

Westcott Failed to Realize That God the Holy Spirit Dwelled Within the Believer, Despite the Clear Context Pointing to This Meaning

(1 John 4:4) he that is in you, that is in the Christian society.... The Divine Person is undefined. We think naturally of God in Christ.

—Westcott—1-3 John, op. cit., p. 144

There should be no question but that the reference is to God the Holy Spirit, since the context of First John 4:1-4, there is repeated reference to various "spirits." The Greek relative pronoun, o{, [ho, "who or which"], is in the neuter, and is used in the context several times, referring to the word in Greek "spirit" which is also a neuter word. God the Holy Spirit would be the reference as in First Corinthians 6:19-20.

MAYBE  WAIT  HAS  A  POINT  HERE,  TO  A  POINT.  BUT  VERSE  4  USES  "GOD"  -  THE  GODHEAD  IS  GOD.  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  TEACHES  BOTH  THE  FATHER  AND  SON  WILL  BE  IN  CHRISTIANS [John 14:23]  AND  OF  COURSE  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  IS  IN  ALL  TRUE  CHRISTIANS [ROMANS 8:9-11],  SO  BOTH  WESTCOTT  AND  WAIT  COULD  HAVE  GIVEN  A  FULLER  ANSWER.

Hort Mistook a Reference to God the Holy Spirit for Merely "a Holy Spirit"

(1 Peter 1:12) (by a holy spirit sent from heaven) . . .

—Hort—1 Peter, op. cit., p. 60

This clearly is a reference to "the"Holy Spirit, and not "a" holy spirit. Hort, in the context of his explanation, makes clear that this is not a reference to God the Holy Spirit, but to some human spirits. This is an error.

WAIT  DOES  NOT  GIVE  US  THE  CONTEXT  OF  HORT,  SO  HARD  TO  GIVE  WAIT'S  ARGUMENT  A  YES.  HORT  DOES  SAY  "SENT  FROM  HEAVEN"  SO  HARD  TO  THINK  HORT  WAS  SAYING  THIS  WAS  SOME  "HUMAN  SPIRITS"  AS  WAIT  SAYS  HE  WAS  SAYING.  GREEN  IN  HIS  GREEK/ENGLISH  INTERLINEAR  PUTS  THE WORD "THE" IN BRACKETS, SO  TRANSLATES  "HEAVEN,  FROM  SENT  HOLY  SPIRIT [THE]..." NO  GREEK  FOR  THE  DEFINITE  ARTICLE  "THE" - WHICH  DOES  NOT  AUTOMATICALLY  MEAN  HORT  WAS  TEACHING  ERROR.  THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  HOLY  SPIRT  THAT  COMES  FROM  HEAVEN.  EVERYONE   SHOULD  KNOW  IF  THE  WORD  "THE"  OR  "A"  IS  USED  IT  MEANS  THE  ONE  AND  SAME  AND  ONLY  SPIRIT  THAT  SOMES  FROM  HEAVEN.

ANOTHER  WEAK  ARGUMENT  BY  WAIT.

PLEASE  DO  NOT  BELIEVE  I'M  DEFENDING  WESTCOTT  AND  HORT,  THEY  SURELY  DO  HAVE  SOME  HERESIES,   BUT  MOST  SO  FAR  PRESENTED  ARE  VERY  WEAK  AS  TO  CALL  THEM  "HERESIES"....BUT  WE  SHALL  GET  EVENTUALLY  TO  SOME  SERIOUS  HERESIES.

SO  BEAR  WITH  ME.