Where is the Holy Spirit[i]?
The doctrine of the Holy Wind is almost absent from the
Reformed Baptist circle. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith does not have a paragraph
of comprehensive discussion on the Wind of the Lord, and this should be a great
concern for the Reformed believers. John Calvin was known as the theologian of
the Holy Wind. Reformed Baptists are proud to be Calvinist, but why is the
doctrine of the Holy Wind almost left out in the Confession? I am not surprised
that, as the result of this negligence, seldom one can hear Him being mentioned
by the members and seldom one can hear Him being preached from the pulpit. This
scenario was fixed probably as soon as the first Reformed Baptist church was
founded in Malaysia. The church was established at the height of the “sign
seeking”[ii]
movement in Malaysia in the 80’s. On the contrarily, teaching was issued from
the pulpit against the movement with its experiential doctrine or anybody who
attempts to explore this experiential expect of the doctrine[iii].
The blasting was so effective that so much so members begin to shun away from
the mentioning the Holy Wind and it was deem to be the right thing to do. As
the result of this, the church has sent out a wrong message that Reformed
Baptist people are “anti charismatic and the Holy Wind”. Are we? No, we are
definitely not like that, but such definition is hard to remove.
Is the Holy Wind important to the Christians? The answer is
a resounding “Yes”, but why nobody pays attention to Him? We all know that our
Lord Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb and declared as the Son of God by the
Holy Wind. He ushered our Lord Jesus Christ into a public ministry by John’s
baptism. Our Lord continuously spoke to the crowd and performed signs and
wonders by the Wind. The Lord reminded Nicodemus that none can enter the
Kingdom of God except that he is born of the Wind. The Lord was raised from the
dead by the exceedingly great power of the Wind. After the Lord was taken up,
the Wind of God toke on the name and character of the Lord, and ever since He
was known as the Wind of the Lord or the Wind of Christ. He established the
first church in Jerusalem, and from there He spread the gospel throughout the
Roman Empire. According to the gospel, the Wind of the Lord was present, from
the beginning to the finishing end, in the saving work of God in the believers.
How should I describe this scenario? I would say, in the
absence of a good doctrine of the Wind of the Lord, believers tend to look for
substitute. This tendency was clearly shown in the choice of the Jewish
believers for the custom of Moses over and against the Wind of the Lord[iv]. In
a similar manner, this scenario is shown in the Confession. When we neglect the
Wind of the Lord, we tend to resort to a hard and harsh self made regulation to
rule our life. Indeed we have particularly established a set of religious
regulative principle as a replacement of the doctrine of the Wind of the Lord. A
hard doctrine has presented Christ Jesus as a teacher of the Law or a moral
teacher who was promoting a conservative moral teaching. Presumably, all who
believe in Him should follow His moral teaching. But the question is, was Jesus
a moral teacher? If Christ Jesus was
merely a moral teacher, don’t we have many of such teachers in our own cultures
and why must we follow Him? In fact, every other religion offers its moral
teaching and why should Christianity be so different? If Christ Jesus was
merely a good moral teacher or a teacher of the Jewish Law, I would not have
been His follower. If Christianity is all about strict moral practice, then I
would not have been a Christian, because I have KongZi (孔子Confucius), LaoZi (老子), MoZi (墨子), and the whole lot of the Chinese
moral teachers and philosophers to choose from[v].
Christianity has offered me something that I could not find
elsewhere. The good news that I received gave me the joy of salvation. When I
came to Christ Jesus and He gave me His Wind and by whom I have my experience
of repentance and an assurance of forgiveness, and by that encounter I was
assured that I have entered the Kingdom of God. In a new dimension, He has
transported me to heaven and made me sit together with other believers in
Christ Jesus. He helps me to understand that I have been made right with God
the Father by the blood of Christ. As a way to assure me of this certainty He
has poured out the love of God into my heart and gave me peace and hope and
reminds me that I am an adopted child of God. He gives me the joy that is like
rivers of living water flow from within me. He has made clear to me that He
wants to transform me into the likeness of Christ. He is eager to see the fruit
of His labor. Without any delay and untiringly, from my first day as a
believer, He began to labor hard in my life to bring out the character of
Christ that is reflected in His love, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self control. He has expressed Himself clearly
that He wants me to dwell deeply in Him and walk closely with Him, and to
please Him always. He teaches me to worship God and teaches me to cry and pray
to the Lord. He desires that I stay close to the fellow believers and He gives
me gifts and teaches me the gospel and its ministry. This whole operation of
the Wind of the Lord grants me a rich and meaningful and emotional experience.
If it is such a wonderful experience to have the Wind of the
Lord in our lives, why is there still apprehension found in us? I gather that
many feel uncomfortable with the word “freedom” that comes with the gift of the
Holy Wind, and they also feel uneasy with the “sign seeking” movement that
highlighted the experiential aspect on the doctrine of the Holy Wind.
Unconsciously, they apply some kind of a curb on this freedom and they prefer not
to talk much about the Holy Wind as far as possible.
Why the agitation? This is really unnecessary; Our Father in
heaven is the one who grants the freedom and not us. God is not worried to
grant the freedom and why should we worry for Him? It is like what the Chinese wisdom says, “The
eunuch is agitated while the emperor is not.” The gospel has made it so clear
that anyone who comes to Christ Jesus would gain freedom from sin and death and
would also gain freedom to worship God, but never any indication about freedom
from morality. The Wind of the Lord is holy and righteous in character and He
will not grant us a freedom that is contradicting His own character. The gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient to guide every believer to the path of
holiness. The Wind of the Lord is capable of leading every believer to where He
wants them to go. We must not under estimate the power of the Wind of the Lord
and over estimate our human effort and the capability of the regulative
discipline. Indeed, we have much to learn from Jonathan Edwards[vi] when
come to knowing and trusting the Wind of the Lord, and learning how to conduct
ourselves under the Lordship of the Wind. Even John Calvin and his contemporary
had failed to show that they have fully grasped the freedom given by the Holy
Wind[vii].
Ultimately, we have to turn to the apostles’ teaching. The
apostles’ were concerned about the believers’ life on earth because they were
pneumatic people and they have a pneumatic life[viii]. This
pneumatic life is upright and good and free. This pneumatic life would meet the
demands of the gospel and the demands of any moral teaching. However, the
apostles did not focus on moral demands of the gospel as the main message in
their ministry; instead their attention was on the believers’ pneumatic life. For
the apostles, the horse was always before the cart. The apostles’ approach was
gentle and patient, and ready to bear with all the nonsense of the believers.
They reminded the believers that they were pneumatic people, and then they challenged
them to live a life that was worthy of the Wind of the Lord. The apostles
employed lots of persuasion, encouragement, motivation, and warning, while
making the challenge. They used the famous adverb “therefore” (as the result of
this) to highlight that the believers were different and special and they
deserved to be treated differently. I would list down some texts that show the
manner in which the apostles persuaded the believers.
1.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view
of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this
is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his
good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12.1-2)
2.
I, therefore, the
prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you
were called, with all lowliness and gentleness,
with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ….. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no
longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind. (Ephesians 4.1-3;
17-32)
3.
Therefore
put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness,
passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3.5;
Read with in context of 3.1-4.6)
4.
Therefore we also, since
we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12.1-2 and read its context 12.1-13.7)
5.
Therefore, laying aside all
malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babies, desire
the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. (1 Peter 2.1-2)
The challenge before us today is that we must pay good
attention to the Wind of the Lord and have a comprehensive grasp of the
believers’ pneumatic life, if we wish to see effective result in our effort in personal
growth, evangelism, missions, and church planting and building. We are in need of
a comprehensive study on the doctrine of the Holy Wind, and then with the good finding
we must fill in the missing part on the doctrine of the Holy Wind in the 1689
Baptist Confession of Faith. We must be ready to provide answer to the related
issues concerning the Wind of our Lord Jesus Christ. Right now, we are
vulnerable because we do not have the answer.
[i] The
word “Spirit” is not an accurate translation of the third person of the Godhead
today. Modern mind would understand the word “spirit” as “alcoholic liquor” or
“the invisible life principle in man and the animals”. The word “spirit” originally
derived from the old Latin word “spirare” which means “breath or wind”. This
Latin word was a correct translation of the Greek word “pneuma”. Unfortunately,
this Latin root meaning has lost its place in the new English dictionary. In a
misleading manner, based on the English translation, the Chinese and Malay
Bible both translated it as the “holy soul” of God. Therefore, I would prefer
to address the third person in the Godhead as the “Holy Wind” (Jn. 3.8).
[ii] It
is commonly known as “charismatic movement”. However, I prefer that the word
“charismatic” not to be monopolized by any movement or person. Strictly speaking, the word “charismatic” is a
biblical word and it is a definition of all the believers in Christ. The word
“charismatic” derives from the Greek word “charis” which means “grace”.
“Charis” is a very important word. Christians are saved by the grace of God and
the church has been bestowed with many gifts (charismata) to carry out her
duty.
[iii]
Unfortunately, Martin Lloyd Jones was one of them and his series of sermons on
“Joy unspeakable” was frequently quoted as dangerous. Ian Murray was criticized
for defending Lloyd-Jones’ “experiential” attempt.
[iv] Acts
15.1; Gal.5
[v] The
students of Confucius’ and Chinese philosophies commented that the gospel lacks
depth in comparison with their moral teaching. They are right, in a way,
because the gospel is not about moral teaching, but it is all about Jesus
Christ being the Son of God and whoever believes in Him shall enter the Kingdom
of God. The gospel is a critique of the philosophy and message of the moral
teaching, just as it was a critique of the Pharisees’ philosophy and message.
The gospel is also a critique of the common belief that “all religions teaches
people to do good”.
[vi]
Jonathan Edwards, “Religious Affections”.
[vii] The
Reformers reserved capital punishment for believers who had violated certain
doctrine and practice. John Calvin was one of such reformers. He set up church
police to spy on individuals and families and he did not hesitate to punish
when he found anyone has violated the church rules. He has betrayed his
reputation as a theologian of the Holy Wind by swinging the big stick. The doctrine of the Holy Wind and the big
stick policy do not complement one another at ll. This big stick policy was the
result of combining the church and the state and ruled them as one. Our Lord
Jesus Christ and His apostles believed in the power of the Holy Wind and had
never demand death sentence on any believer.
[viii] Somehow the adjective “pneumatic” is found in
the English dictionary. I found it appropriate as a substitute for the word
“spiritual.” Pneumatic life is a life that has been created by the Wind of the
Lord; “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as
to spiritual people but as
to carnal, as to babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3.1).
