Reviews for Mystery of the Holy Spirit

The average rating for Mystery of the Holy Spirit based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2021-02-14 00:00:00 Mercedes Perez To start, I have the greatest respect for R.C. Sproul. But this book is one of my biggest problems with modern Reformed Theology. While this book contained wonderful Biblical wisdom and insight about the Trinity and Christ's atonement for our sins, it was missing one crucial part: The Holy Spirit. While attempting to uncover the mystery of the Holy Spirit, the reader is given little clarity on the Holy Spirit Himself. It is a trend of the Reformed Theology movement (in answer to the charismatic movement) to not often reference or discuss the Holy Spirit in a way that becomes too "spiritual." The result of this is many Christians who have little to no understanding of the Holy Spirit and how He influences our daily life. This is not a dissertation on the Holy Spirit in Reformed Theology. But the fact that this book, which is supposed to be about the Holy Spirit, contains little mention or analysis of that figure of the Godhead is frustrating. Very disappointed with this book. I don't suggest reading it.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-05-15 00:00:00 Terry P. King The author RC Sproul was a gifted theologian who has the gift of explaining things in terms that are clear and understandable for the lay people. This book is no exception. In this work Sproul looks at the Holy Spirit and other doctrines related to the Spirit. The book consists of ten chapters with the first one on who is the Holy Spirit, the second chapter on the Holy Spirit as God and the third and fourth chapters being on the Trinity. The fifth chapter is on the Holy Spirit in Creation while chapter six is on the Spirit and Regeneration and chapter seven is titled "Safe and Sound by the Holy Spirit." Next is a chapter on the baptism of the Holy Spirit, then the fruit of the Spirit and finally a chapter titled "The Other Comforter." Each chapter was quite informative. However my favorite chapter was the one on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Sproul did a good job looking at a doctrine that is often misunderstood and incorrectly defined by some as the same thing as speaking in tongues. Sproul gave a good biblical look at the baptism of the Spirit and also argued that a wrong interpretation of seeing baptism of the Spirit as speaking in tongues would result in a two class Christianity; ironically this goes against what Scripture teaches. More importantly as we look at the context of Acts of the Spirit's baptism according to the structure of the book one sees a better view of the function of the Spirit's baptism in the book of Acts. I think the book is getting for this chapter alone. However there were other chapters that I also enjoyed. I enjoyed the chapter on the fruit of the Spirit as well where Sproul provides a good exposition on the passage in Galatians 5. He looks carefully at both the deeds of darkness and the fruit of the Spirit and I highlighted quite a bit for this chapter and plan to reference it in the future whenever I would teach from the book of Galatians. For those who want to understand the Trinity better the chapters on the subject is pretty good as well. I wished Sproul could have touch on the topic of filling of the Spirit and also wished the book could have talked more in-depth of the Spirit as illuminator. Overall though this is a good book, very edifying to read by Christians no matter what is one theological persuasion.