{"id":91335,"date":"2025-10-17T14:53:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T19:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=91335"},"modified":"2025-10-20T08:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:41:15","slug":"why-do-some-churches-of-christ-not-believe-in-the-holy-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-some-churches-of-christ-not-believe-in-the-holy-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do some churches of Christ not believe in the Holy Spirit?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Howdy!<\/p>\n<p>I am reaching out to inquire why some of the churches of Christ do not believe in the Holy Spirit. They think it&#8217;s just the Bible and that He is not actually with Christians! Seems like a false teaching. It&#8217;s like they are too afraid to be anything like the church of God movement, so they went way too far to the other side and neglected the truth of Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>(Acts 2:38, 5:32; Romans 8; 1 Corinthians 3, 6; Ephesians 1; 1 John 3:24)<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know of any congregation that says it doesn&#8217;t believe in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, you need to define what you think believing the Holy Spirit means.<\/p>\n<p>The Bible is the product of the Holy Spirit&#8217;s work. &#8220;<em>But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one&#8217;s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God<\/em>&#8221; (II Peter 1:20-21). It wasn&#8217;t a vague method of inspiring people to write, but giving them the very words to write. &#8220;<em>Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words<\/em>&#8221; (I Corinthians 2:12-13). When we study and listen to the teachings found in the Bible, we are listening to the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n<p>Paul said that through singing we fill ourselves with the Spirit. &#8220;<em>And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ<\/em>&#8221; (Ephesians 5:18-20). Paul told the Colossians a similar thing in slightly different words. &#8220;<em>Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him<\/em>&#8221; (Colossians 3:16-17). In one place Paul said &#8220;be filled with the Spirit&#8221; in another, he said, &#8220;let the word of Christ dwell in you richly;&#8221; both are the same thing expressed in different words.<\/p>\n<p>The Church of God began on August 19, 1886, in Monroe County, Tennessee, by Richard Green Spurling. The churches of Christ have existed for a much longer period of time. What is taught among the churches is definitely not in reaction to a denomination that did not exist at the time.<\/p>\n<p>See:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-you-know-you-are-filled-with-the-spirit\/\">How can you know you are filled with the Spirit?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/indwelling\/\">Indwelling<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-gift-of-the-holy-spirit\/\">What is the Gift of the Holy Spirit?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/acts-2-and-3-and-the-gift-of-the-holy-spirit\/\">Acts 2 and 3 and the Gift of the Holy Spirit<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-gift-of-the-holy-spirit-3\/\">The Gift of the Holy Spirit (Bassford 2)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Thanks for the response. I&#8217;m sorry I did not word that correctly. The church of Christ I went to did not believe the Holy Spirit is with or indwells a Christian, but the Bible says otherwise (Acts 2:38, 5:32; Romans 8; 1 Corinthians 6; etc). The teacher and minister tried to explain it away, but did not use the Scriptures to do so.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>It is often difficult to answer questions off the top of your head, especially if you were not expecting the topic to arise. Hopefully, enough passages were given in the articles to which I gave you links to settle your mind about the concept.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Howdy! I am reaching out to inquire why some of the churches of Christ do not believe in the Holy Spirit. They think it&#8217;s just the Bible and that He is not actually with Christians! Seems like a false teaching. It&#8217;s like they are too afraid to be anything like the church of God&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-91335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-holy-spirit"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33614,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-you-know-you-are-filled-with-the-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":91335,"position":0},"title":"How can you know you are filled with the Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How does a person become filled with the Holy Spirit and know they are filled? Does everyone who is filled with the Holy Spirit have the gifts that Acts speaks about? Answer: A Christian receives the Spirit by the hearing of faith. \"This only I want to learn from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7946,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-arent-we-following-the-holy-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":91335,"position":1},"title":"Why aren&#8217;t we following the Holy Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I believe that the word of God is truly inspired and is the divine authority in every aspect of our lives today. The one problem I see in this answer to this question is that you seem to assume that everyone who believes that God speaks today does not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2760,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-holy-spirit-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":91335,"position":2},"title":"Is the Holy Spirit Jesus?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 19, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Answer: \"Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88520,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-holy-spirit-not-bound-by-only-the-words-in-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":91335,"position":3},"title":"Is the Holy Spirit not bound by only the words in the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 9, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Jeff, I heard a sermon a while ago, and someone recently shared it on Facebook to say that brethren are too worried about emotionalism, and they don't worship in the Spirit and truth as God intended. \"The Holy Spirit is not bound in the words alone within the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67461,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/as-the-holy-spirit-says\/","url_meta":{"origin":91335,"position":4},"title":"As the Holy Spirit Says","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton When the topic of \"inspiration\" (breathed of God) is brought up, some will argue that we don't know how the Scriptures are \"breathed of God,\" but we do know that the words of the Scriptures were delivered from God's mind to the mind of the writers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34819,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-dont-you-believe-that-the-spirit-actively-dwells-in-the-believer-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":91335,"position":5},"title":"Why don&#8217;t you believe that the Spirit actively dwells in the believer today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In my seeking to find \"Christian only\" groups, I have visited several \"churches of Christ,\" which came out of the restoration movement in the 1800s. My question is, though I deeply appreciate the non-denominational and back to the Bible emphasis, why is it that many reject any direct involvement\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}