1. The Third Person He Has Spoken Through the Prophets 1 Holy Trinity - 23

2. Where is God 2 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

3. Experience 3 Pretend your name is Ann Hutchinson. You are a woman in Puritan Massachusetts. In 1636 you are holding Bible studies in your home and teaching views that are different from accepted Puritan beliefs. Specifically, you claim the Holy Spirit speaks directly to you and what the Spirit says to you is more true than the Bible. In your defense, you are claiming women’s rights! And freedom of belief within the churches. Are you happy pretending to be Ann Hutchinson?

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5. Discussion & reflection: 5 When you claim a personal experience of the Holy Spirit in preference to the Bible, the consequences are: 1. to deny the saving nature of the Bible / Holy Spirit 2. to deny to law of God found in the Bible and taught by the Holy Spirit 3. to prefer your own interior sense of the Holy Spirit. This is one definition of a Gnostic heretic (a heretic distorts and destroys the truth of God, taught throughout the ages all across the Church).

6. Discussion & reflection: 6 Is the Bible divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit? Is that why we call it the Holy Bible, because of the role of the Holy Spirit breathing the thoughts and will of God through the poor vessels of the scriptural writers? Pseudo-Macarius (4 th Century, Syria) Take the example of a king who writes letters to those on whom he wishes to bestow special privileges… And if they do not come and receive them (the privileges) they will profit nothing…Rather they are in danger…for having refused to come…

7. Discussion & reflection: 7 Is the God you read about in the Old Testament (OT) the same God you read about in the New Testament (NT)? Ireneaus (2 nd Century, France) …it is evident that God did not seek sacrifices…but faith and obedience and righteousness, because of their salvation. This is what God said when teaching them His will in Hosea…Besides, our Lord also exhorted them to the same effect when He said “But if you had known what this means, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice….”

8. Discussion & reflection: 8 Did the Holy Spirit bring the words of Jesus Christ to the Old Testament prophets? Origen (c185-254, Israel) The prophets…to kept the word of the Son of God when the word of the Lord came to Hosea or Jeremiah or Isaiah, for no other Word of God came to any of these that he who was in the beginning with God, his Son, God the Word. Now if anyone has kept this word, the prophets most certainly have.

9. Discussion & reflection: 9 Is Jesus a New Testament figure or can you find Him in both New Testament and Old Testament? Augustine of Hippo (13 Nov 354 – 28 August 430, Algeria) But just as in barley the kernel is hidden in the husk, so Christ is hidden under the wraps of the mysteries of the Law.

10. Discussion & reflection: 10 Is Jesus speaking in the Old Testament (OT)? Origen (c.185-254, Israel) If there is anyone who, when he reads Moses, murmurs against him, and the Law that has been written … because it seems incoherent in many things, Moses shows him the rock that is Christ and leads him to it that he may drink from it and quench his thirst.

11. Discussion & reflection: 11 Are the Apostles equal to the prophets in importance or are they more important? Tertullian (c 160 – c 220, Italy) Apostles have the Holy Spirit uniquely as those who possess the Spirit fully in the prophesies they give…

12. Written reflection Name: Date: 12 What was most important to you in today’s lesson?