Losing My Religion, part 4, Nails in the Coffin

Parts 1, 2, and 3 for those who want to follow in order.

Remember back in part 2, I said that rebellion was a major factor in my desire to sin.  I've never gotten over having a rebellious, questioning and contrary attitude.  I'm this way about politics, economics and lots of other things in life.  It shouldn't be a surprise to learn that I'm this way about church related stuff.

Back in part one, I talked about being self-righteous and legalistic.  The sin of pride should be included in that list as well.  One of the cool things about being a modern day Pharisee is that you know the book chapter and verse for what you think, and you have the skills and training to manipulate those verses to make your point.  Another cool thing about having those skills and knowledge is that you, have those skills and knowledge.  In my case arrogance, knowledge and my contrary attitude, led me down a path that I wasn't expecting.

In my denomination we don't talk about the Holy Spirit.  Universally folks would say they believe in the Holy Spirit.  By "believe" I mean we acknowledge "It's" existence.  The greatest extent of  "It's" existence is what we call "the indwelling".  Any reasonably informed preacher in my denomination will give you a trite and shallow explanation of what they think  "the indwelling" is or means.  I've never met one that could tell you more about it than to say "It's" something every Christian receives at baptism.  Which is scripturally actuate and practically useless.

Slightly off on a rabbit trail for a moment.  Try this experiment, ask your pastor, or favorite teacher in your church what the "indwelling of the Holy Spirit" is. See how satisfying of an answer you are given.  Then ask a follow up question: "How do I experience more of this?".  I'm interested in what they have to say.  Put it in the comments or email it if you care to share.

Folks in my church would tell you that everything the Bible had to say about the topic of the Holy Spirit was true and happened the way it was written.  They would also tell you that the Holy Spirt doesn't do much today, and certainly he doesn't manifest Himself in miraculous ways.  A key teaching, if we have one, is that everyone else is wrong about the Holy Spirit.

In my arrogance I decide to take on everything my denomination had to say about the Holy Spirit and teach a 13 week adult Sunday morning class on the topic.  To do that, I decided to study everything that the Bible had to say about the Holy Spirit, both old and new testament.  Because in order to teach you first have to learn, I undertook a substantial study on the topic.  I wasn't prepared for what I learned. 

A special shout out to Rabbi B for his assistance in Hebrew word studies and developing my understanding of the ruach hakodesh.