Sometimes well-intentioned people argue for the right thing the wrong way. Their position may be right even though at least one of their arguments is not. This seems to be the case with a popular exegetical and theological argument for the personality of the Holy Spirit. The right position is that the Holy Spirit is a person, and the fallacious argument is that the masculine demonstrative pronoun ἐκεῖνος [ekeinos] in John 14:26, 15:26, and 16:13–14 proves it. Trinitarian theologians through church history have rightly defended the personality of the Spirit, and an astonishing number of defenders appeal to this argument for support.

That’s how Phil Gons and I begin the following article (now available free online as a PDF):

“Prooftexting the Personality of the Holy Spirit: An Analysis of the Masculine Demonstrative Pronouns in John 14:26, 15:26, and 16:13–14.” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 16 (2011): 65–89.

When I presented this article at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in November 2010, I was surprised to see Dr. and Mrs. Grant Osborne walk into the room. Just half a year earlier I had graduated from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where Grant has been teaching since 1977. I was born in 1980. And I was about to publicly disagree with him. Jim Hamilton tells the rest of the story here.

Related: Is the Holy Spirit an “It”? 7 Proofs for the Spirit’s Personhood