What is the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit?

The eternal procession of the Holy Spirit is a biblical teaching that explains the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the other Persons of the Trinity. The doctrine of eternal procession is grounded in Scripture and affirmed by several ecumenical church councils.

The idea of the “procession” of the Spirit is that the Holy Spirit emanates or radiates from the Father, and He does so perpetually. The idea of His “eternal” procession is that He has continuously emanated from the Father for all eternity without change. There has never been a time when the Spirit has not radiated from the Father.

According to some theologians, the relationships among the Persons of the Trinity are based on personal properties: the Father is distinguished in the Godhead by paternity (He is unbegotten), the Son is distinguished by generation (or filiation), and the Spirit is distinguished in His procession (or spiration). Without paternity, generation, and procession, there is no Trinity. If the personal properties of Father, Son, and Spirit exist eternally, then the three Persons of the Godhead have eternal paternity, eternal filiation, and eternal procession, respectively.

The concept of the procession of the Holy Spirit comes directly from Jesus’ words in John 15:26: “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (ESV; cf. John 15:26). Other translations say that the Spirit “goes out from” the Father (NIV) or “comes from” the Father (NASB).

The Spirit is said to be given by the Father at the request of the Son (John 14:16) and sent by the Father in Jesus’ name (John 14:26). He is also sent by the Son (John 15:26; 16:7). According to Acts 2:33, the Son “received” the Spirit from the Father and then “poured out” the Spirit in the miracle of Pentecost.

Reformer Theodore Beza explained the relationships within the Trinity this way: “Those individual Persons are one and the same perfect God, coeternal, coessential, coequal, although in order (not degree) the Father is first, who is from none: the Son is second, who is from the Father: the Holy Spirit is third, who is from the Father and the Son, each indescribably by the eternal Communication of the whole Essence of God, the former indeed begotten, but the latter emanating” (Quæstionum et Responsionum Christianarum libello, Tractationum Theologicarum, vol. I, p. 670).

Beza’s description of each Person of the Trinity existing “indescribably” is about as close as we can come to explaining the divine relationships among Father, Son, and Spirit. We accept the truth that the Spirit proceeds from the Father, but there is no way we can truly explain it.

The eternal procession of the Spirit is also found in the Nicene Creed as revised at the Council of Constantinople: “And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the prophets” (Schaff, P., The Creeds of Christendom, 1877).

The sun is sometimes given as an illustration of the relationship between the Father and the Spirit. Just as the rays of light perpetually stream from the sun, so the Spirit streams from the Father eternally. Just as the sun and its rays co-exist, and one is not before the other, so the Father and Spirit co-exist eternally. One is not temporally prior to the other.

Not every Christian theologian accepts the doctrine of the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit. Some point out that the biblical texts that describe the Holy Spirit as “proceeding” from the Father could be simple statements of actions done in time. For example, in John 15:26, when Jesus tells the disciples that He will send the Holy Spirit “who proceeds from the Father” (ESV), is the Lord explaining an eternal relationship between the Father and Spirit? Or is He simply telling the disciples that the Spirit will come to them from the Father? To put it another way, did the Spirit only “proceed” from the Father at Pentecost when He was sent into the world, or has He always been proceeding?

The inner workings of the Trinity are a profound mystery. The teaching of the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit has its basis in the revealed Word of God. We accept it by faith, even though we cannot fully comprehend it. Since the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father (and the Son), we know that He shares the same nature and essence as the Father and the Son.