"God speaks through his spirit"

Before you say,... I know – these observations have been made before and are not new. But…

Here are two true statements:

• God speaks through the Bible
• God speaks through the Holy Spirit

I assume we wish to join the Eastern and Western churches throughout their history in affirming that the Spirit is one of the three persons, that the Spirit is divine, is God. If not, the implications are serious indeed – but it also makes the rest of this post redundant. Proceeding, then, on that assumption…

The two statements above are therefore different kinds of statement.

• The first tells us the instrument God uses to speak, namely the Bible. Much as I use a telephone to ring my wife when I’m away from home.
• The second tells us the person of the godhead who speaks, namely the Spirit.

These two statements are not contradictory, incompatible, or alternatives to choose between.

• When we say “God speaks through the Bible”, we need to ask “Given God is triune, which person speaks through the Bible?”
• When we say “God speaks by his Spirit”, we need to ask “Given the Holy Spirit is himself God, what means does God the Holy Spirit use to speak?”

So we ask, “Can God speak in ways other than described by those two sentences?” Again, of course he can.

• Can God speak other than through the Bible? Of course he can – when he called Jeremiah to the prophetic ministry, he did not use the Bible. This was im-mediate speech, part of writing the Bible.
• Can God speak other than by the Holy Spirit? Of course he can – the other 2 persons can speak as well. We hear God the Son speak in a sizeable proportion of the 4 gospels. We hear God the Father speak at Jesus’ baptism and at Jesus’ transfiguration.

Which means that the question we need to ask is more precise: Has God promised to speak to any of his people, in the post-apostolic church in either of the following ways?:...

• With the person speaking being God the Son or God the Father
• Either without means, or with means other than the Bible

This post is not setting out to answer that question. But unless we intend to deny the doctrine of the Trinity in the process, we need to say that this is the question to answer.