Holy Ghost & Son are One.

Mark W. Bassett (mbasset@pcnet.com)
Wed, 27 Dec 1995 23:58:14 -0600 (CST)


Some comments lately suggested a focus on the problems of recognizing
the same identity in the Spirit of God, and the Lamb. Here is part of
conversation which might stimulate some valuable meditation.
------
DK wrote to JM:

JM> For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
JM> (COLOSSIANS 2:9) (KJV)

JM> Godhead means deity. So in Jesus, dwelt all the deity of God. He
JM> was God, and all that God has ever been.

 DK> Actually the word (theotes, in Col 2:9) means divinity, used
 DK> to indicate the divine essence and personality of God.

So, rendering again Col 2:9, the fullness of deity dwelled bodily in
Jesus Christ. We are NOT to assume multiple identities within the one
whose name calls out the container in whom is found the whole of
deity. Neither is division of God's being encouraged here. 

The question, as one man put it, is this:

   Is Jesus in the Godhead, or is the Godhead in Jesus? 

 DK> But during Christ' ministry, He was their (the disciples)
 DK> comforter as evidenced by their response to His announcement
 DK> of His impending death. When Jesus was speaking to the
 DK> disciples (John 14:16) the word He used for "another" was
 DK> the word "allos" meaning 'another of the same sort', the
 DK> indication being not He as the disciples knew him.

That is correct, the Holy Ghost is not know AS MEN KNEW Jesus in the
flesh.

2Co 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea,
though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know
we [him] no  more.

Jesus was blasphemed in the flesh and it was forgiven, however similar
sins against the Holy Ghost are unforgivable. Why? Because The Holy
Ghost in the church is God known spiritually. Jesus was perceived of
the senses, but not KNOW to those who were without spiritual insight.

1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
   God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them],
   because they are spiritually discerned.

Mt 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon
Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed [it] unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven.

Jesus specifies that He will be know by a means which exceeds the
limitations of
the senses. 

"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it
seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you."

In this era, for the first time, it is possible to know God by direct
contact, but this is through the presence of God tabernacling with man
through the Holy Ghost baptism.

He was comforting to His disciples, but when He went to the cross to
pay the terrible penalty of our sins, they were again afraid, and
alone.

Notice the difference in the way in which Jesus is with us today: 
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
   Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

FOREVER.

The effect of having Jesus in such manner as nothing can separate us,
should have extensive effects

Heb 13:5 ... and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath
said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Your evaluation of the adjective is good. It is opposed to "heretos."
"Heretos" would signify difference. "Allos" signifies commonality.

Jesus acknowledges himself as a comforter, but also that He, in the
form of the Lamb of God, ready to go to death bearing up his beloved
above the flood and away from judgement, is not able to provide the
abiding peace which a spiritual presence will soon.

The weaknesses which the unregenerate experience are sad indeed, for
the ONLY way to be assured of the reality of God is through the direct
experience of the Holy Ghost. Is is ANOTHER comforter. A superior
comforter.

To say that the use of ANOTHER distinguishes the Holy Ghost from Jesus
as a person, is to say that Jesus was and is inadequate as a person to
comfort his people. No, it is ANOTHER as it is MORE APPROPRIATE for
the need.

We may be cleansed by the power and value of the blood. But now that
it is shed, we must have abiding power over sin. This is "[Jesus]
Christ in you, the hope of glory." - Col 1:27

 DK> Would not logic dictate that if Jesus (during His earthly
 DK> ministry) repeatedly prayed, and/or referred to the Father
 DK> and Holy Spirit in the third person, that They did, and
 DK> indeed do exist as one God? 

Logic seems to cry out against several assumptions. Let me sort this
out for you.

1. Jesus did pray.
2. Jesus did refer to the Father in the third person.
3. Jesus did refer to the Holy Ghost in the third person.

Also, applauding your motive for a conclusion, if not the conclusion
itself, Jesus was indeed God. Is God a God of three intercommunicating
identities?

Logic does not "dictate" this, no. Neither does the record of the
Apostles.

1. The simple fact that Jesus was in himself, completely human,
attributes to the prayer. No further explaination is needed (though it
is not without further explaination).

2. Jesus' reference to "the Father" for the sake of the observer, and
the record, distinguishing Deity from flesh, is illuminating, and
contains much richer information than a division within God. As we
have outlined about, Jesus walked in a world that did not KNOW God,
but knew OF Him rather. It was needful that Jesus would make a second
person referece to Deity. Otherwise, he would have been pointing to
FLESH and indicating a worship of FLESH. Remember, men and women could
not perceive God in the natural, and in their sin.

Joh 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the
world    knew him not.

3. Reference to the Holy Ghost as personality is similarly needful.
Consider that it is God's eternal purpose to dwell with man. The
disciples were to know that the Holy Ghost was to be as fully
empowered and complete in the means to deliver as Jesus, standing
alone in flesh was. The promise of the Father and the power of
Pentecost is more than "a power from God". It is the VERY CREATOR
living within the believer.

 Joh 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me,
the  works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these
shall he   do; because I go unto my Father.

Joh 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye
in    me, and I in you.

1Jo 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them:
because    greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.


It is always strange to see that the Trinitarian, whose formal motive
is to retain rational proof that Jesus is God before monotheistic
Jews, despite his finite incarnation, START with the assumption that
Jesus is NOT God, and reason toward the opposite. The reveleation and
assumption of the Apostolic generation is that Jesus IS fully God in
great glory!


 DK> BTW, I wanted to mention that you only answered half the
 DK> question. So again, if the God of the Old Testament ceased
 DK> to exist in a celestial state when he became incarnate in
 DK> the person of Jesus Christ; who was it that Jesus prayed to
 DK> during His earthly ministry? 

The incarnate did NOT cause the minimzation of God, but was rather an
extention and expression of the eternal God.

Jesus lived AS a man, by the divine purpose. He experienced all that a
man experiences, by divine purpose. This is the wonder of it. Jesus
Christ  emptied his experiece of sovereignty to shoulder the sorrows
and diseases and weaknesses which humans could not bear. And, he did
it as man, so that we might walk free, as sons of God.




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