Holy Spirit - OT vs NT (Logos Search Help NOT debate requested please)

Hi Josh,

I studied this in the past. Basically what helped me was to just look up every reference to Spirit in the OT. What you discover is that the Spirit came "upon" or "on" or even "in" a person...but as you said, the key was that the Spirit could also leave. That is why David prayed and asked the Lord not to take His Spirit from him after he sinned with Bathsheba. That changed however with the New Covenant as the Spirit comes to dwell within permanently

I would recommend any dictionary you may own that has longer, more detailed discussions of topics. For instance, lexical theological dictionaries (NIDOTTE, TDNT) multi-volumes Bible dictionaries (Anchor, NIBD, ISBE) and theology dictionaries/handbooks.. 

Remember you can use the topic guide AND the lookup command (i.e, lookup Holy Spirit) and then use the + tab to see other entries. 

You can also do searches such as "Holy Spirit" AND "Old Testament" in Large Text, Title, Heading, Topic.

For this one, I'd go more for a theological than biblical resource.

Vol. 2 of J. Rodman Williams's Renewal Theology covers this quite thoroughly, with lots of biblical references, but unfortunately it is not in Logos. At the moment I'm (dogtired) not able to think of a similar one, but when/if I do, I'll post again.

I would say your P.S. is a pretty accurate assessment.

Mark Barnes said:

On this topic, by far the best book (IMO) is this one.

[Y]

Hamilton is helpful as he surveys views (across denominational lines) and categorizes them:

He also surveys relevant texts in both the OT and NT. It is helpful even if you don't share his conclusions.

Hamilton's book is the first thing that popped into my mind as well.

Here's the search I'd use to look through my whole library:

You could narrow that down further by restricting your search range to a collection on, say, theology.

Hi Josh, God bless you.

I agree with the concept of "The Holy Spirit came to or for some but not permanently in the OT". And I do so based on what I can make out of Bible passages.

David said that he killed bears and lions, and indudibly he could do that because the Holy Spirit gave him the strength and courage to do it (i.e. H.S. was dwelling in him in the fight).

Now, I personally believe that due to the lack of the completed work of the atonement, the Holy Spirit could not be permanently in the people.

I base myself on the passage in John 1:32 - 34. Notice that in verse 33, John said the person on which the Spirit descended and remained, that was the Son of God.

Before then no one (in my opinion) could withstand the presence of the Holy Spirit continuously, as Jesus had not died yet to have people justified before God.

Some theologians have suggested that the fact that the Spirit remained in Jesus, is proof that was indeed a Holy being (Luke 1:35).

Some have even suggested that all this points to the possibility that the whole zygote (Hebrews 9:11) was placed by God in Mary's womb.

If such is the case, all the nonsense of Jesus being married to Mary magdalene is just not true.

Once Jesus died for us (Colossians 2:13-14), we were justified, and pronounced righteous in front of God, and through Christ we could now be considered holy and the possibility to have the Holy Spirit indwell in us was real: 

As we can now have the Holy Spirit dwell permanently (thanks to Jesus sacrifice), Jesus himself said: Matthew 11:11, meaning that now the disciples and believers were going to receive the Holy Spirit permanently (Acts 2:1-4).

Hope this helps.

Kind Regards, God bless.

P.S. I think you touch on a very important topic, needed to be further explored, developed and if needed published.