App
The Comforter
Fred R. Coulter—December 19, 1992
- PDF | Audio | [Up]
We've been going through the Bible to learn the truth of the Holy Spirit.
We covered the section in John 14-16. Remember that the term for comforter is 'parakletos,' which means helper, comforter, advocate, intercessor. Way back in ancient Greek, it used to mean the prosecutor. We'll look at the four places where it's used in John 14-16.
I hope you are able to go back and go over those things so you will understand what we were doing with the 'who,' the 'which,' and the 'it.'
- John 14:16: "And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another… [paraklete] …Comforter, that it… [I'm going to translate it the way it should be.] …may be with you throughout the age: Even the Spirit of the Truth, which the world cannot receive because it perceives it not, nor knows it…" ( vs 16-17).
That's the way it should be according to the Greek: 'auto,' as we covered in the Interlinear Greek-English New Testament by George Ricker Berry.
"…but you know it because it dwells with you, and shall be within you" (v 17).
- What is the difference between having the Spirit with you and in you?
- How does God call you? He calls you by sending His Spirit to be with you!
That calling is not finalized until you have repented, been baptized and received the laying on of hands for the receipt of the Holy Spirit to be in you. The difference is between near conversion and conversion.
Revelation 3:20[transcriber's correction], where Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock…. [that is the Spirit with those people] …If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him…" So, the difference is between near conversion and conversion.
- John 14:26: "But when the Comforter comes… ['paraklete'] …even the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in My name, that One… ['ekeinos': should be translated that One] …shall teach you all things…"
- John 15:26: "But when the Comforter has come, which I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of the Truth, which proceeds from the Father, that One…['ekeinos'] …shall bear witness of Me."
The only other place in the Bible where 'parakletos' is used, 1-John 2. In this particular case the meaning of 'parakletos' is self-evident from the Scripture itself. There does not have to be any great interpretation. In this case it is referring to Jesus Christ. The action of what Jesus is doing, not in this particular case as the Comforter, but in this case—as even the King James has translated correctly—an Advocate.
- 1-John 2:1: "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And yet, if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate …"—'parakletos'; or, as it is in this particular case, because it's in the accusative case: 'parakleton.' They changed the last letter of the word.
"…with the Father; Jesus Christ the Righteous" (v 1).
- Why could they not translate it Comforter, here?
- Is Jesus going to comfort us in our sins, if we sin? No!
- What is Jesus going to do? He's going to advocate for us that we may be led to repentance, that we will be forgiven our sins!
That's why He's called the Advocate!
There are the four places that 'parakletos' is used in the New Testament. Another strange phenomenom about this is that, John is the only one who writes of it, and the only one who uses it.
- Why is it only used in John's writing? With the exception of 1-John 2:1, it's used only on one night, referring to a time period of approximately three to four hours at the most.
- Why did John use it here? That's a question that I've never heard asked or answered.
- What are we going to get for the answer? Let's go back and we'll look at the context!
- What are some of the rules of Bible study? Read the verse before and behind it!
If that doesn't help, read the chapter before and the chapter after. That's what I did. Here's what I came up with. The definition of 'parakletos': helper, comforter, advocate, intercessor.
Why only in John's writing? Here are the things I found in the context:
- Christ was being betrayed (John 13:21).
Just think: The apostles, or the disciples, saw all the miracles that He did, everything, all the fantastic things that occurred. Peter, James and John saw Christ transfigured before them on the Mount of Transfiguration. He was the One they were all looking to, to save Israel. How could it be that the One Who is the Savior of the world was going to die? He had to tell them that He was going to be betrayed. That's why the Comforter had to come.
When, in your church experience, you became disillusioned in the church you were in:
- How did you feel? Pretty badly!
- How do you think the disciples would feel having been personally with Jesus, and then to see all these things take place? You'd feel miserable!
That's why it's called the 'parakletos,' the Comforter, they needed to be comforted.
- Christ was being betrayed (John 13:21) and arrested (John 18:1-12)
- going where they could not come (John 13:33 and 14:3)
- troubled hearts, mentally upset
John 14:1: "Let not your heart be troubled…."
If the One you had given up everything and followed for three and one-half years was going to go through what He was going through, would you not be troubled in heart and mind?
- What did Peter say after Christ was crucified? Let's go fishing!
- What happened to them while Jesus was in the grave? They went and hid for fear of the Jews!
Those three days and nights in which the disciples and apostles were left alone, were probably the saddest, the most hollow, the most troubling three days and three nights that they every went through. The other verse is:
Verse 27: "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give it to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it fear."
That's why when they saw the resurrected Christ, He said, 'When I'm dead the world is going to rejoice, but you will be sad, but I will come to you and your sorrow shall be turned to joy.'
I'm going to depend on you reading all of John 13-17, because all of those things are contained in there. That's why John used the word, 'paraklete' for Comforter.
- What would it do?
- Now that Jesus was going to be gone, what are we going to do?
- Who's going to teach us?
- would teach in His absence, 'guide in all Truth', would show things to come (John 14:26; 16:13)
- the world hated Christ and He said, 'If they hate Me, they will hate you' (John 15:18). Then He gave them the good news (John 16).
- you will be killed:
- Isn't that wonderful news?
- Don't you think you would need a Comforter if someone told you, you were to be killed? Yes!
- What made it so that in the face of death?
- they could witness
- they could preach
- they could understand
- they could convict
- Who was full of the Spirit of God? Stephen (Acts 7)!
Read the whole account of Stephen. That is tremendous!
John 16:1—Jesus said: "I have spoken these things to you so that you will not be offended. They shall cast you out of the synagogues; furthermore, the time is coming that everyone who kills you will think that he is rendering service to God" (vs 1-2).
Would you not need a little comfort if someone told you that? Sure you would! That's why it's called the 'parakletos.'
Let's just kind of put ourselves in their shoes for a minute. Sometimes it's good to do this. What if waiting right out here were a troop of soldiers with machine guns? Or, they were with machine guns and right out there in the parking lot was a guillotine, because He says they're going to loose their heads for the witness of Christ. We were all told we have five minute. Here we are, we are in our last five minutes together. What do you think that we would do?
- we would pray
- we would ask for God's Spirit
- we would comfort each other
- What would we say? I'll see you in the Kingdom!
- Could we march out there and say, 'All right, do what you have to do, but God is going to hold you in account'? Yes, we could!
- Is that not what the apostles had to do?
- Did not Jesus tell each one of them that they were going to die the same death He did? Yes, He did!
They needed comfort. When John was writing this, about 90A.D.—let's put it in the timeframe of when John was writing:
- Did he not see the whole Church deteriorating? Yes, he did!
- Was he not himself arrested?
- Was he not thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil to martyr him?
He came out alive and then was exiled to Isle of Patmos! Now you know why God inspired John to write Comforter here—'parakletos.' Sometimes if we just ask simple questions, we'll get profound answers.
- Just add John 16:3-13. It's not a person called the Holy Spirit coming down here convicting the world:
- because of sin
- because of righteousness
- because of judgment
- it's convicted of sin because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
- it's convicted of righteousness because of what Jesus did; then He went to the Father
- it's convicted of judgment because Satan has already been judged
Who are the ones to preach that and have the power of that? Ministers and followers of Christ! Yes, indeed!
I have a little bit from the Greek text. I think you'll find this most interesting. This is just in the way of review. Remember how that we went through and saw in almost every place were it talks about the Holy Spirit where the definite article the is used in the King James, it's not used in the Greek. Here are the basic rules for 'the article' or 'no article.'
There is no indefinite article in Greek. An indefinite article is a in the English language. Here is a cup. Did you see a cup?—indefinite. In the English, if you what to emphasize the definite, you say, 'the cup,' or you can add other words to describe it. In this case, there is no definite article in the Greek. So, 'adelphos' means either brother or a brother, usually the latter. Greek, however, has a definite article., and where the Greek article does not appear, the definite article should not be inserted into the English translation, which is what is done with Holy Spirit.
We went through and saw that the disciples were filled with 'Holy Spirit.' 'Adelphos' does not mean the brother. When you go through the concordance study that I gave you to go through and look up every place where the Holy Spirit is used, look at where they've got those little key numbers. You will see in many places, the definite article is not there, showing that Holy Spirit is a substance from God!
The Use of the Article:
The use of the article in Greek corresponds roughly to the use of the definite article in English. Thus, 'logos' means a word. 'Ho logos' means the word.
- 'logoi' means words
- 'hoi logoi' means the words
The difference between the Greek and the English use of the article must be learned by observation as they occur for the present. The presence or absence of the Greek article should always be carefully indicated in the English translation.
We will have some substantiation of what I told you that the masculine articles in the Greek, when it's pertaining to a thing, should not be referred to in the gender if it is not in the English.
Section B: Page 48:
The Greek means: I remain in the house and know it. 'Here oiko' is the antecedent of 'auton.'
it precedes
Since 'oiko' is of the masculine gender and singular number, 'auton' is the masculine singular.
In English, the neuter pronoun, it is used for house, because the noun house, like all nouns denoting inanimate objects, is neuter in English. English is really by far a much more preferable language because we're not encumbered with all of these artificial genders.
'ho cosmos' means the world and 'hee ge' means the earth. One is masculine and one is feminine. In English they said, 'Let's get away from all of these genders.' Whatever is an inanimate object, is going to be it.
Like all nouns denoting inanimate objects is neuter in English, but in Greek the word for house is masculine and, therefore, the masculine pronoun is used in referring to it. Hence the translation he, she, it. But more specifically he and she given in the paradigm above for the masculine and feminine of the Greek pronoun of the third person are correct only when the antecedents are nouns denoting persons.
Which is saying that anything in the Greek that is in the masculine or feminine gender because of the Greek language, when they are referring to inanimate things/objects in the English, should not be translated he or she, but should be translated it.
In other words, the pronoun will be neuter in English even when they are masculine or feminine in Greek. It will be observed further that this pronoun does not agree with the antecedent in case but only in gender and number. In the sentence, it gives the antecedent 'oiko' as dative after the preposition in. Whereas, 'auton' has it's own construction, being the object of the verb 'ginosko.'
What they are saying in elementary, fundamental, Greek is that if you want a proper translation from Greek to English when you translate into English the inanimate objects or the neuter should always remain so in English. That's why I said last week that 'ho parakletos' being masculine should be translated as it; 'ekeinos' should be translated as that. This is substantiation for it. Someone's going to say, 'I want you to prove it.' There's proof from the basic Greek.
Now, we're going to look at a couple of things in Rom. 8. We have two occurrences that are correctly and properly translated. Rom. 8, really tells the functioning and the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, once the Spirit is in us, and what it does to us in seeking God's ways.
Romans 8:16: "The Spirit itself…" That is very emphatic! They had to translate it that way even in the King James because of the Greek construction, which we'll see in just a little bit.
"…bears witness conjointly with our own spirit, testifying that we are the children of God." (v 16). We'll get into it in the Greek in just a little bit.
Verse 26: "Now in the same way also, the Spirit is conjointly helping our weaknesses because we do not fully understand what we should pray for, according as it is necessary, but the Spirit itself makes intercession… [a function of the 'parakletos'] …for us with groaning that cannot be expressed by us."
Which means that when we pray, the Holy Spirit does the function of filtering out all the nonsense, which may be going through our mind, which we really don't want to have it going through our mind, but occasionally will interrupt us when we're praying. Those things don't go to God's throne.
This is not, by the way, speaking in tongues. Why is this not speaking in tongues? All tongue-speaking believers turn there and say that this is speaking in tongues. Why is this not speaking in tongues? It says that it can't be uttered! It's so simple. It's right there before your very eyes. That means you cannot speak with the Spirit when it intercedes to God on your behalf for. Because God in our prayers, by giving us the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit communicates to God our entire feeling and our entire meaning, drops aside and filters out all the nonsense that shouldn't go to God. Isn't that wonderful?
I will just have to say that the New International Version, New King James and all of them, have the word himself, and so forth for the Holy Spirit. The Living Bible is the most heretical Bible on the face of the earth, which I call the 'dead Bible.' It says:
1-John 2:4 (LB): "If someone claims, 'I know God'…" and also says they're going to heaven. That'll set anyone who knows Greek on edge.
Do you know how the Living Bible was done? Some Baptist minister had to commute all the way across town on the elevated train in Chicago, and he paraphrased the Bible every day while going to his church.
Romans 8:16 (LB): "For His Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are really God's children." That is bad! What an utterly blasphemous translation this is! That isn't what it says in the Greek at all.
I will have to say that with the information that I have on the New International Version, and so forth, that is not a Bible to study or use. I won't use it! It's interesting to have at hand but it's not a Bible to authoritatively establish Scripture on and neither is the New King James Version, though it's much better than the regular King James Version, namely because of the thing concerning the Holy Spirit. Howbeit though, there are so many people, in particularly ministers, that have never studied Greek. So, they don't know what on earth their talking about.
I know in talking to Carl Franklin we were discussing this a little bit and he said that too many people that were in the Church of God, those scholars, studied Greek for themselves and for their degrees. and to please other scholars rather than to study Greek to understand the Bible. There's a vast difference. You can read all day long of things people have written about the Bible, but that's not what the Bible says. What you have to do is to go with what the Bible says.
You can do certain things in the Greek that you cannot do in English. In this case, this is an intensive pronoun. We will really understand the effect of it. This is from my Moulton second year Greek text:
Grammar of New Testament Greek by James Hope Moulton:
The Intensive Pronoun: The intensive pronoun is 'autos.'
which is the masculine: 'autos, autae, auton'
It is the most frequently used of all the pronouns in the New Testament and is the most varied in use, being employed as personal, possessive and demonstrative, as well as intensive pronoun. It is its distinctive use as intensive pronoun, which we consider here. The function of the intensive pronoun is to emphasize identity.
In English, if we want to intensify something, how can we do it very conveniently today? We can use adverbs and adjectives! How can we intensive it in English? With our modern printing techniques, we can use italicized letters, we can use bold letters or if you have a typewriter that doesn't have it, you underline! That intensifies. In Greek the pronoun has the function of intensity.
It is the demonstrative force intensified. There are two uses of the intensive pronoun distinguished by the attributive and predicate position.
The Attributive Position: When 'autos' is used in the attributive position, it means the same. So you have, having the same spirit of faith.' In the predicate use, when 'autos' is used in the predicate position it means self.
Now then, what do we have? We have one of the verses we are studying! Notice how it's translated here, Himself with a neuter pronoun and a neuter noun. It should not be. It shows the intensive:
Romans 8:16: "The Spirit itself bears witness conjointly with our own spirit…"
I just wanted to get that section to you and show you how that once they have studied the doctrine of the trinity and have accepted it, it is almost impossible to extirpate it from the Truth of the text.
You know a little bit about Greek now, so you understand that 'auto' is the neuter and that the words itself the Spirit—in the Greek, the 'auto' is that intense pronoun meaning: The Spirit itself—'auto tau pneuma.' That's why they had to translate it that way. In the King James they did it correctly.
The Faithful Version Bible is used here instead of the Interlinear Greek-English New Testament:
Romans 8:26: "Now, in the same way also, the Spirit…"—'tau pneuma.'—you can recognize that. The next word in the English says helps or:
"…is conjointly helping our weaknesses…" (v 26). The long Greek word means is jointly helping, working together. What did Jesus say concerning the spirit and the flesh? The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak!
- Do we all have weaknesses? Yes!
- Is the Spirit there to help us? Yes!
- How is it there to help us? Let's see!
"…because we do not fully understand what we should pray for according as it is necessary, but the Spirit itself…" (v 26)—'auto tau pneuma,' itself, the Spirit, which means that this is intensifying. The message that Paul is teaching us here, is that the Spirit itself that comes from God the Father, that is directed by Jesus Christ, is helping us. That becomes really profound!
We need to cover just a couple of other things here. The Greek that we have here that we read in English: 'If anyone should sin we have a 'parakletos,' which means Christ.
1-John 5:7: "And it is the Spirit that bears witness because the Spirit is the Truth. For there are three that bear witness on the earth the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three witness unto the one Truth" (vs 7-8).
This is the verse to which many people will go to substantiate a trinity. It doesn't exist! That's why they had to add it. They couldn't find it in the Bible. What do you do? If you can't in the Bible, add it! They got caught!
Verse 8: "For there are three that bear witness on the earth…"
- What was the Holy Spirit to do?
- Where was it to convict because of sin? On the earth!
- Where was it to convict because of righteousness? On the earth!
- Where was it to convict because of judgment? On the earth!
- How was it done? Through Christ! The life and death and resurrection of Christ!
So, John says, v 8: "For there are three that bear witness on the earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three witness unto the one Truth." As it is in the Greek, there: "…unto the to one…" Who are they pointing to? Christ! That's the verse that should be there.
Matthew 28:18: "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.'"
- Can God help you? Yes!
- Does He have the power? Yes!
Verse 19: "Therefore, go and make disciples in all nations, baptizing them…" It says in the King James, '…in the name of the Father…'. The English there, should read into, because the Greek is the three letter word meaning into—'eis.'
"…into the name of the Father…" (v 19).
- Why? Because we're His children!
- What name to the children bear? The name of the Father!
It has been translated correctly in the King James. Let's read the next parts of this.
"…and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…" (v 19).
(go to the next track)
What is specifically missing in relationship to "…and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit"?
- When you read that whole thing across, what is specifically missing?
"…baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
- What is specifically missing in the latter two? The English word name!
- Why is it missing? Because it isn't in the Greek!
You're not baptized into the name of the Son and into the name of the Holy Spirit. That is incorrect! You're baptized
"…into the name of the Father and of the Son… [because through His crucifixion it's made possible] …and of the Spirit" (v 19)—because that is the begettal that comes from God the Father. This does not in any way show that there is a trinity!
Acts 2:38: "Then Peter said to them, 'Repent and be baptized each one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins…'" The typical thing that people do is say, 'How can you have it named one place and named not in the other place?'
When we examine the Greek in Acts 2:38, it is "…'Repent and be baptized each of you in… [the Greek there is 'epi'] …in the name of Jesus Christ…'"—by His authority.
What we do, instead of fighting one Scripture against the other, we add them both together. That's why in the proper baptismal situation, it is: 'I baptize you into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, that is by His authority.' They both come together that way. One does not contradict or conflict the other.
This shows the action and the function of the Holy Spirit working in many different ways, through many different people, to accomplish whatever God wants, in whatever particular circumstances that are necessary.
1-Corinthians 12:1: "Now brethren, I do not wish you to be ignorant concerning the spiritual gifts. You know that you were Gentiles, and were carried away with dumb idols, as you yourselves were led away again and again" (vs 1-2). That's what happens to people. They just get carried away with the deceptions. It's absolutely amazing.
Verse 3: "Therefore, I am letting you know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God… ['tau pneuma tau theou'] …calls Jesus accursed; and no one can say that Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are differences of gifts, but the same Spirit" (vs 3-4).
All the way through it's talking here about 'tau pneuma,' the neuter. These are gifts of the Spirit that show the power of God working in many different ways.
Verse 5: "And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are differences of operations, but it is the same God Who is working all things in all" (vs 5-6).
As we view the whole Body of Christ, we need to view it as God would see it. There are some people who would deny that there is any other church other than their own corporate structure, which is not true. It's wherever God's Spirit is, where there are those who do what God wants done for that particular group of people where God is working, whether it be in:
- America
- England
- Africa
- India
- China
They have found those that followed the Word of God and kept the Sabbath and Holy Days in China, cut off from anybody anywhere. They would have to be God's people.
In the past, when we belonged to one giant Church of God that said that only in that corporate organization were they the ones who were the true Church of God. They came in contract with some brethren down in South America who kept the Sabbath, kept the Holy Days and kept Pentecost on Sunday.
In their arrogance, they would not accept them because they kept a Sunday Pentecost, when that church was keeping a Monday Pentecost. Later they changed and kept a Sunday Pentecost because they saw they were wrong. In their arrogance, they did not accept any ministers that that congregation had as their ministers. What did they do? They destroyed and divided that church because of human arrogance and dictatorial power-play to try and run everything, where the Bible says:
Verse 6: "And there are differences of operations, but it is the same God Who is working all things in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit… ['tau pneuma'] …is given to each one for the benefit of all….[to profit the whole Body of Christ] …For to one, a word of wisdom is given by the Spirit; and to another, a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; and to a different one, faith by the same Spirit; and to another, gifts of healing by the same Spirit; and to another, the working of miracles; and to another, prophecy; and to another, discerning of spirits; and to a different one, various languages; and to another, the interpretation of languages. But the one and the same Spirit is operating in all these things, dividing separately to each one as God Himself desires" (vs 6-11).
Verse 11 says: "But the one and the same Spirit… ['tau auto pneuma,' the same Spirit]…" In this particular case the 'auto' comes after the definite article 'tau,' so it means the same.
"…is operating in all these things, dividing separately to each one as God Himself desires"… (v 11)—it determines. Who directs the Spirit? Jesus Christ directs the Spirit!
Verse 12: "For even as the body is one and has many members, yet, all the members of the one body, though many, are one body; so also is Christ. For indeed, by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free—and we were all made to drink into one Spirit" (vs 12-13). Wherever God's people are on the earth and whoever has the Spirit of God.
- Who gives the Spirit of God? God does!
- Who does the calling? God the Father!
- Who leads to repentance? God the Father!
- Who says that 'they won't take them out of Whose hand?' Jesus said that no one can pluck them out of My Father's hands!
- What does that do to any corporate structure, which arrogantly claims they are 'the one and the only?'
It's going to be like we said many times, 'Elijah's story: Lord I'm the only one left on earth.' God said, 'I've got 7000 Elijahs that haven't bowed the knee to Baal.' Even Elijah had a surprise.
2-Corinthians 3:14: "But their minds were blinded; for to the present hour the same veil has not been removed, but remains at the reading of the Old Covenant…"
This is so true with people today. They may claim to be the best 'so-called Christians' in the world and the minute they hear that you follow any laws in the Old Testament, the veil falls down like an iron curtain.
"…which veil is removed in Christ. For to this day, when Moses is read, the veil lies upon their hearts. But when their hearts turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now, the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (vs 14-17). Freedom from what? From that confounded veil! Liberated from the veil.
Verse 18: "But we all, with uncovered faces beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
Now, let's analyze these verses:
Verse 14: "But their minds were blinded; for to the present hour the same veil has not been removed, but remains at the reading of the Old Covenant …" Very interesting. Not Moses, but the Old Covenant. We'll get to Moses in just a minute.
"…which veilis removed in Christ. For to this day, when Moses is read, the veil lies upon their hearts. But when their hearts turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now, the Lord is the Spirit" (vs 14-17)—which means that Christ is a Spirit being but the Spirit in this particular case is 'the Spirit' that removes the veil.
"…and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (v 17). The only personification of 'tau pneuma' in the Bible is of Christ. He says that:
- He will direct it
- it comes from God the Father
- it will do God's will
We know that the Church is a spiritual organism, or a spiritual body of Christ. In the first chapter of Rev. we have the vision of the seven candlesticks. The seven candlesticks are the seven Churches. We see Jesus in His spirit glorified form described for us as the sun in full strength. The seven stars are the seven angels. They bring the message.
- Whose message is it?
- Who is in the midst of the Church? Christ!
Revelation 2:7: "The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit… ['tau pneuma'] …says to the churches. To the one who overcomes I will give…" Whose going to do the giving? Christ is!
The long and the short of it is that Jesus Christ is not the Holy Spirit, but when the term 'tau pneuma,' the Spirit, is used in a personified way, Who is doing the speaking? Christ! You have that after every one: He that overcomes let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches'—'tau pneuma' all the way through.
Now, let's come to Rev. 22 and we will see once again, here, very clearly, the Spirit, 'tau pneuma,' is personified in Christ. That is the only personification of 'tau pneuma.' If you're going to honestly go through the Bible and study all of it concerning the Scripture, you have to go to these. It does say right here:
Revelation 22:16: "'I, Jesus, sent My angel to testify these things to you in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star.' And… ['tau pneuma'] …the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who thirsts come; and let the one who desires partake of the water of life freely" (vs 16-17). The Church is going to marry Christ.
- What does the Church do today? The Church is the one that preaches the Truth!
- What inspires that? Christ does!
- How does He inspire it? With His Holy Spirit!
So, He is personified here as the Spirit, 'tau pneuma.' We've gone through a very lengthy study into the Holy Spirit in the Bible and we have seen that:
- it is not under any circumstances a third person in a trinity at all whatsoever
- the Holy Spirit is the power of God
- the Holy Spirit is directed by Jesus Christ
- the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father
- it is given as a begettal of the power to each one of us
- the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God
There are some other Scriptures that I haven't covered. I'll let you do that in your study.
I think we've covered everything in sufficient detail that we will be able to understand that there is no such thing as the doctrine of the trinity! We saw how that that came out of the philosophy of men. If there's any personification of the Spirit at all, it refers to the work of Jesus Christ.
All Scripture from The Holy Bible In Its Original Order, A Faithful Version (except where noted)
Scriptural References:
- John 14:16-17
- Revelation 3:20
- John 14:26
- John 15:26
- 1-John 2:1
- John 14:1, 27
- John 16:1-2
- Romans 8:16, 26
- 1 John 2:4
- Romans 8:16
- 1-John 5:7-8
- Matthew 28:18-19
- Acts 2:38
- 1-Corinthians 12:1-13
- 2-Corinthians 3:14-18
- Revelation 2:7
- Revelation 22:16-17
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- John 13:21
- John 18:1-12
- John 13:33
- John 14:3
- John 16:13; 17
- John 15:18
- Acts 7
- John 16:3-13
Also referenced: Books:
- Interlinear Greek-English New Testament by George Ricker Berry
- Grammar of New Testament Greek, 1963 ed., by James Hope Moulton
FRC:nfs
Transcribed:09-10-17
Proofed: bo—9-13-17
