The answer
St. Peter rebuked Ananias and said to him, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God” (Acts 5:3–4).
Jesus affirmed that the Holy Spirit is a divine Hypostasis when He said, “For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” (Luke 12:12). St. Cyril the Great says, “It is as if He says that He is a Teacher who lives in us.” And Christ calls Him “another Helper” (John 14:16) who “will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13); for He is sent by the Son and He proceeds from the Father.
In 381 A.D. the Second Ecumenical Council convened in Constantinople to confront the heresy of Macedonius, who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
409 St. Athanasius of Alexandria, The Letters of Saint Athanasius Concerning the Holy Spirit to Bishop Serapion, trans., C. R. B. Shapland, (Epworth Press, 1951) 1.24: pp. 126–127.
410 St. Cyril of Alexandria, De Trinitate 7 (PG 75.1101).