Who is the Holy Spirit According to Mormonism?

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An excerpt from the forthcoming 40 Questions About Mormonism (Kregel Academic).

Brigham Young could have chosen an array of topics when he addressed the Latter-day Saints in the fall of 1844. It was the first time he spoke as their prophet in General Conference, just four months after Joseph Smith’s assassination. Young used the speech to encourage his followers to continue “building up the kingdom of God,” especially by completing the unfinished temple in Nauvoo, “where the power of God shall be made known,” he promised. It was a privilege to be called to such a task, he said, one that was only made possible by the revelatory power of the Holy Ghost. “All saints male and female have the privilege of revelation, of inspiration, the spirit of God the Holy Ghost.”

For Young, and so many Latter-day Saints before and after him, the Spirit of God is the divine revelator, an accessible avenue for every sincere believer who yearns for knowledge, a privilege given “after one repents and becomes worthy.” This emphasis on the Spirit’s revelatory mission is a prevalent theme in LDS pneumatology, but it is not the only divine activity Latter-day Saints anticipate from the third member of the Godhead. And while Mormonism speaks of God’s Spirit in ways that seem familiar to traditional Christianity, there are also important differences. So, who is the Holy Spirit according to Mormonism? To answer this question, let’s first consider the Holy Spirit in traditional Christianity, and then juxtapose His person and work against an LDS pneumatology.

The Holy Spirit: Comforter and Sanctifier

As the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit shares every divine attribute that is essential to God. The Bible uses titles to associate the Spirit with God, e.g., “the Spirit of the Lord God (Isaiah 61:1; cf. Luke 4:18), “the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11), and “the Spirit of His Son” (Gal. 4:6). And like the Son, the Spirit shares the same essence with the Father, proceeding from them as our loving Comforter and Sanctifier of faith. So, the term “holy” is less a description of the Spirit’s nature than it is the Spirit’s mission and work. That the Spirit of God is holy ought to be apparent, for nothing that is of God or proceeds from Him is unholy. What makes Him the Holy Spirit is the work that He does.

The Spirit’s work is commonly described in symbols like the wind (John 3:8), fire (Acts 2:1–4), and a dove (Luke 3:22). Jesus taught that just as the “wind bloweth where it listeth,” so the Spirit moves as He pleases (John 3:8). The Spirit acts personally yet invisibly, so that, like the wind, He is only seen by His effects and not His body, for He is an unembodied spirit. The Spirit is also like a fire that burns and melts away impurities to refine souls into something untainted by sin. And like a dove sent from heaven to rest on Christ at His baptism (John 1:32), so the Holy Spirit searches for our souls, not to hunt for sinners like a hawk, but to rest gently on us, hovering over our chaotic hearts to bring about holy order, just as He did over the dark and formless primordial earth (Gen. 1:1–2).

Off all the Spirit’s titles, perhaps none is more cherished by Christians than Comforter, the promised paraclete sent by the Son. The term describes someone who is ‘called alongside’ another to aid them, and the Holy Spirit does so by testifying of Christ and advocating for Him to the sinner. This is an especially precious doctrine for Christians because it reinforces Christ’s promise to His disciples that the Holy Spirit would “come unto you” and “reprove the world of sin” (John 6:7­–8), not to avoid sinners in their fallenness.

The Holy Spirit does not depart the saint when they sin, as if He were “weak and ill-inclined and a deserter, standing far off and watching for us to repent from our sin, and then, once we are in a state of justification again, return to dwell within us.” What good would it do for us if the Holy Spirit fled when we needed him the most? “Does a doctor leave a patient the moment he sees that he has fallen into some illness?” No, of course not. The doctor remains and presses in because that is precisely when his skills are needed the most.

So it is with the Comforter of God. Personal qualification or worthiness neither invites nor maintains one’s companionship with the Holy Spirit; instead, the Spirit’s love for sinners, which he shares with the Father and the Son, keeps His residence in our hearts. We do not make ourselves worthy to receive the Holy Spirit; rather, the Holy Spirit is received by faith as a gift to make us worthy (sanctification). The only reason we can repent is because of the Holy Spirit’s presence. No wonder an early theologian rejoiced that the Comforter came “not only to relieve the sadness of the faithful but also to fill them with unspeakable joy.”

As Jonathan Edwards famously taught, the saints of God find blessed joy in holiness, in the power of God to “bring grace to perfection, in making the soul completely amiable in Christ’s glorious likeness.” This is, after all, what it means to be a “saint” (Gr. hagios). To be hagios is to be called a ‘holy one,’ not by our own means, but by the critical mission of the Holy Spirit to make sinners holy, sanctifying them by His power for the glory of God.

The Spirit does so in myriad ways. First, he effectually calls sinners to repentance through the gospel (1 Thess. 1:5), and then empowers their conversion by causing them to be born again (John 3:3–8). He fastens God’s saints to Christ in an inseparable union (John 6:37; 1 Cor. 6:17), justifies and sanctifies them (1 Cor. 6:11), and produces in them spiritual fruit (Gal. 5:22–23). He provides for them spiritual gifts (Isaiah 11:1–2; 1 Cor. 12:8–11; Rom. 12:6­–8), indwells them to enable a life of holiness (Phil. 2:12–13), and offers them assurance of faith and seals them (Eph. 1:13; 1 Thess. 1:5). The Spirit also plays a revelatory role, guiding the saints “into all truth” (John 16:13), testifying of Jesus Christ (John 15:26), and inspiring the word of God (2 Tim. 3:16).

In short, traditional Christianity recognizes the Holy Spirit as God, co-equal with the Father and Son in their divine essence, who glorifies God as His sent Comforter and Sanctifier, who testifies of Jesus Christ to the world.

The Holy Ghost: Revealer and Sealer

Mormonism describes the Spirit of God in familiar ways to traditional Christianity. The Spirit is a witness of God (2 Nephi 31:18) and the Comforter (D&C 88:3) who inspirers scripture (D&C 20:35; 21:2), authenticates church leadership (D&C 20:60; 1 Nephi 12:7), guides congregational life (D&C 20:45; 46:2), and prompts and empowers personal obedience to God (D&C 45:57; 121:43, 46). But LDS pneumatology is distinct in portraying the Holy Ghost’s nature and role as a divine revealer.

The shift in the Spirit’s name here is intentional; although “Holy Spirit” and “Holy Ghost” are used interchangeably in LDS scripture (D&C 121:26), the latter is commonly favored. Relatedly, LDS language oscillates between calling the Holy Ghost “it” and “he,” not due to any theological rationale per se, but likely a habit learned from their preferred translation of the Bible, the KJV, which refers to the Spirit as “it,” e.g., “the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit” (Romans 8:16). LDS theologian Robert Millet made clear the LDS conviction that the Holy Ghost is a “male spirit personage,” although this is challenged in Mormonism (as it is in Christianity) by those who advocate for neutral or feminine renderings of the Holy Spirit for a variety of reasons.

What is meant by “personage,” though, reveals a doctrinal distinctive. According to Joseph Smith, the Holy Ghost is a personage like the Father and the Son but differs from them in its embodiment. While the Father and Son are embodied in “flesh and bones as tangible as man’s,” the third member of the Godhead is “a personage of Spirit.” “Were it not so,” Smith explained,” the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.” Smith apparently speculated that the Holy Ghost would eventually receive a tangible body. Until then, the Holy Ghost inhabits a spatially restricted spirit body, being “a personage in the form of a personage,” and can, on occasion, manifest this form before us (1 Nephi 11:11).

As a revealer, the Holy Ghost “takes of the Father, and of the Son, and shows it to the disciples,” taught Brigham Young. “It opens the vision of the mind, unlocks the treasures of wisdom, and they begin to understand the things of God.” Smith explained this role more succinctly: “No man can receive the Holy Ghost without receiving revelations,” for the Spirit is “a revelator.” This role is especially important in authenticating the validity of the LDS restoration, especially its scripture and prophets. Oliver Cowdery, one of Smith’s earliest converts, once asked if he could join the translation work on the Book of Mormon, even as he apparently harbored uncertainty. Smith’s reply came in a revelation, promising Cowdery that God would give him “a knowledge concerning the engraveings of the old Records.” This knowledge would come “by the Holy Ghost,” which would indwell Cowdery’s heart, God’s “spirit of Revelation.”

Here, Smith draws heavily from the Protestant tradition of how God confirms the truth of scripture, echoing John Calvin’s assessment that “God alone can properly bear witness to his own words,” so that the Bible “would not obtain full credit in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit.” Of course, Calvin would have strongly objected to Smith and the Book of Mormon, as he did a group of radical spiritualists in his day. But where the Reformers would refrain, Smith advanced his new scripture by appealing to old ways of supernatural confirmation.

Cowdery was given a caveat to his request, though. The Holy Ghost would only confirm the Book of Mormon’s veracity so long as Cowdery’s prayer was sincere. “[Ask] with an honest heart believeing that ye Shall receive,” he was commanded. Then, the Holy Ghost would confirm the authenticity of the Book of Mormon material, apparently by religious experience. This confirmatory role is still very prevalent today, as investigators (or seekers) of the LDS Church are commonly asked to do likewise, to pray with a sincere heart whether the Book of Mormon is true. Thus, in Mormonism, the Holy Ghost serves, in part, by revealing the wills of the Father and the Son to genuine seekers, constantly reorienting their minds and hearts back to the Godhead through the LDS Church and its canonical tradition, especially the Book of Mormon.

Converts are then baptized, having placed their confidence in the LDS message, after which qualified priesthood holders communicate the Holy Ghost to them by the laying on of hands (D&C 20:43; 76:52). This reception is important because, as Brigham Young taught, “you cant get into the celestial kingdom” without the Holy Ghost, a gift that seals to individuals certain promises and convents of God “for time and for all eternity” (D&C 132:7, 18­–19, 26). Mormonism also teaches that the Holy Ghost serves as a moral agent and a protector from spiritual and physical harm. It aids in guiding a person’s decision-making and moral development, yet without interfering in their personal agency. It is possible to see this blessing diminished, however, as members must seek God and personally qualify for companionship with the Holy Ghost, or his influence will evade them. “Breaking covenants [with God] may remove the sealing,” explained LDS Church leaders.

The print edition will, naturally, include citations.