Acts 16: Paul pits the Spirit of Jesus vs the Holy Spirit

 Acts 16: Paul pits the Spirit of Jesus vs the Holy Spirit (before the Trinity) *

[Note: When reading Bible passages, I apply Genesis-1 perspective. I think Genesis 1:28, in the-metaphysical-Jesus (JESUS) perspective, suggests that, given each 1) mysterious-God, offering appreciation and 2) JESUS, proposing peace, male unites-to female human-being and their spouse-hood pursues comprehensive-safety& security (SECURITY) to the living species and to the earth. Every person can& may accept personal duty to SECURITY. Some persons neglect each appreciation, peace& SECURITY.

I call Genesis-1’s message “responsible-human-independence” or RHI. A few human-beings (noun) throughout history practiced, facilitated, and encouraged RHI. The RHI-individuals from the past are our friends and the others, not so much. I think the authentic-Jesus practiced, facilitated, and encouraged RHI. But I don’t know.

Appreciating contemporary human being (verb) during each generation constitutes the-metaphysical-Jesus I advocate. In other words, I attribute to JESUS the civic-appreciation that human being (verb) applied “before Abraham was born” and since then. Given the question, “Was Jesus a man?”, my response, “I don’t know yet value JESUS”, seems sufficient& complete. I accept that I don’t know and am glad I no longer find that hard to do.

Rather than continue bemusement, I propose, with appreciation, to accept the mystery of God, in order to pursue conformity to the-laws-of-physics (PHYSICS), leaving peace to Jesus’ reported promise. It seems PHYSICS constrains the consequences of each person’s choices.]

Word study:

Christ 1: Jesus-

God 5: the Most High- 1 (seems annoying talk by a demon)

Jesus 12: the Spirit of –

Lord 4: -Jesus 1

Spirit 5: 3 lower case, 2 upper case; Holy- 1

Acts 16: Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra [now Turkey, south of Ankara], where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. [This may be my greatest objection to Paul: judging other citizens’ pursuits.] ² The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. ³ Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. ⁴ As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey [arbitrary authoritarianism, not necessarily Jesus’s suggestions]. ⁵ So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

Paul’s Vision of the Man of Macedonia

⁶ Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia [halfway to the Aegean Sea from Iconium] and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. ⁷ When they came to the border of Mysia [north from Phrygia in Turkey], they tried to enter Bithynia [further north and east in Turkey], but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to [Is Paul contesting the Trinity?]. ⁸ So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. ⁹ During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia [NW of Greece] standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi

¹¹ From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. ¹² From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

¹³ On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴ One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. ¹⁵ When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

Paul and Silas in Prison

¹⁶ Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” ¹⁸ She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her. [Three lower case “spirit” and 2 upper case in V 6&7.]

¹⁹ When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. ²⁰ They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar ²¹ by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

²² The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. ²³ After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. ²⁴ When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶ Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. ²⁷ The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸ But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

²⁹ The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. ³⁰ He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹ They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” ³² Then they spoke the word of the Lord [Jesus?] to him and to all the others in his house. ³³ At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. ³⁴ The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

³⁵ When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” ³⁶ The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”

³⁷ But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”

³⁸ The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. ³⁹ They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. ⁴⁰ After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left. [Between Jews or Roman citizens, believe in God or believe in the Lord Jesus, annoyance with servants of the Most High God, and claims against the magistrates, and seeming contention with the Trinity, this is quite a salad bowl of allegiances. I don’t trust either Paul’s writing or Paul.]

[I don’t support using mystery to hinder pondering Jesus’ creativity. I’ll keep working for transparency (borrowing a word Chris Nalepa teaches).]

* Online at ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/is-god-a-trinity/the-surprising-origins-of-the-trinity-doctrine:

“Professor Ryrie, also cited earlier, writes, "In the second half of the fourth century, three theologians from the province of Cappadocia in eastern Asia Minor [today central Turkey] gave definitive shape to the doctrine of the Trinity" (p. 65). They proposed an idea that was a step beyond Athanasius' view—that God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit were coequal and together in one being, yet also distinct from one another.

These men—Basil, bishop of Caesarea, his brother Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus—were all "trained in Greek philosophy" (Armstrong, p. 113), which no doubt affected their outlook and beliefs (see "Greek Philosophy's Influence on the Trinity Doctrine").”