A witness presupposes a person, object, content, or event concerning which testimony is given. The NT makes it clear that the primary witness of the Spirit is to Christ, and not to Himself or initially to a body of doctrine (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7-15; cf. Matt 16:16, 17; 1 John 2:20-22). Though the Spirit’s witness focuses upon the person and work of Christ, it moves out from that central point to incorporate (a) the totality of God’s saving acts for man, (b) the intrinsic and instrumental authority of Scripture, (c) the nature of fallen man and his response to God, and (d) a ministry of assurance and instruction to God’s own.

The center of the NT revelation is that Jesus is Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). It is this truth which the Antichrist denies, but which the Christian affirms having been “anointed by the Holy One” (1 John 2:20-22; cf. Matt 16:16, 17; Rom 10:9, 10). In such a confession, the Spirit witnesses to the significance of the total redemptive program of God and believers’ eyes are opened to understand (1 Cor 2:10-16; 2 Cor 3:12-18). Having inspired selected men to write the truth of God (2 Tim 2:16; 2 Pet 1:21), the Spirit gives an accompanying inward illumination enabling men to appreciate the objective revelation as God’s truth and to apprehend its meaning (1 Cor 2:10-16; 2 Cor 3:12-18). The Spirit also convicts men of their sin and of righteousness, warning of coming judgment (John 16:8-11), and ministers to believers, assuring them of their relationship with God (Rom 8:15, 16; Gal 4:6) and granting them spiritual discernment (1 Cor 2:15, 16; cf. Rom 12:2; Phil 1:10; Col 1:9).

Bibliography A. Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit (1900); H. B. Swete, The Holy Spirit in the Ancient Church (1912); C. W. Hodge, “The Witness of the Holy Spirit to the Bible,” PTR, XI (1913), 41-84; B. Ramm, The Witness of the Spirit (1960).