Tuesday, April 12, 2016

An email on the Comforter

Hello brother.

I’ve listened to the video. I appreciate your concern. I guess it’s too late for you to find the other video you mentioned a while back. Every time I heard Elder Spears quote about the Spirit, I saw the Father, either through Christ, or acting alone. “The Holy Ghost” is “the power of the Highest.” Elder Spears refutes the idea that the Spirit is an impersonal power or energy or influence. I agree. The Holy Ghost is not power or energy or influence. He is the Highest. He is the power of the Father, He has a personality because He is God Himself, He is God’s presence through His Son. He is the Spirit of His Son; He gave His Son His Spirit without measure. “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Gal. 4:6). That Spirit is the “Spirit of promise”, the “promise of the Spirit”, “the earnest of our inheritance”, so that later, for all eternity, we will have the Father’s very presence in all of its fullness. But, for now, if we don’t have the earnest of His Son’s Spirit we are “none of His” (Rom. 8:9) and we cannot be sealed.

I’m not writing all this to debate what Elder Spears said, although I am disappointed that he quoted only select verses that give the impression that the Spirit is other than what the Bible said of it. Unless I am way off track.

Jesus repeated a lesson three times in a row. John 14:15-23 shows Jesus explaining to His disciples that His Father would send another Comforter (verse 16,17). And to leave a hint of who He meant, He clarified to them, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (verse 18). If that is all that He said on this matter, it could be still skewed back to a third person of the Godhead. But He explained two more times.

Then, Judas (not Iscariot) inquired, “Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?” (John 14:22). Judas heard Jesus clearly say that He would be the one coming to them, manifesting Himself, (speaking to them?) as the Comforting Holy Spirit/Ghost. But, Jesus wouldn’t come to the worldlings. Why not? Because the world, including the sin-loving multitudes in Israel, did not love to hear the Word who had become flesh and was walking among them and speaking words that were quickening Spirit (John 6:63).

Each of the three times in verses 15, 21, and 23 Jesus explained that whoever keeps His commandments or words will find that Himself and His Father would come to him and make him Their habitation. The Father and Son filling your habitation is the Holy Ghost, the Comforter that Jesus promised. J____, haven’t you found the word of God to do as Jesus was explaining to His disciples? I know you have. Don’t the promises and commands of the written word grab hold of your conscience? That’s Jesus and the Father drawing close. For in Them we live and move and have our being. “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.” (Jer. 23:24). In verse 17 Jesus said the Comforter dwelled with them because Jesus had been walking with them. And the Comforter would be in them. In what way? Jesus and His Father would dwell in them (verses 21, 23).
 
Joh 14:15  If ye love Me, keep My commandments.
Joh 14:16  And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever;
Joh 14:17  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.
Joh 14:18  I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Joh 14:19  Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also.
Joh 14:20  At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.
Joh 14:21  He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.
Joh 14:22  Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
Joh 14:23  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.
Joh 14:24  He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father’s which sent Me.
 

In His presence is fullness of joy. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” (Rev. 1:10). Being in Jesus’ glorified presence is the sealing and is what makes prophets. This is what Jesus said to Jeremiah.

“Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before Me: and...thou shalt be as My mouth.” (Jer. 15:19).

Being in Jesus’ presence, standing before Him, sitting at His feet and hearing Him, is what Ellen White describes in her visions and dreams. She was in the Spirit; she was sealed. In the sealing, we have an example in her and all the prophets of what to expect for us if we are in the Latter Rain.

Elder Spears quoted from Hebrews 4:12, and I’m glad he did because that verse again links the words of Jesus to the Spirit, that if we keep them despite their sharpness and pointedness, cutting away our flesh from us and leaving our spirit purified, then we have cooperated with Jesus to prepare for Him a habitation. This is how essential the scripture is to not only our salvation, but also to be part of the 144,000 and take part in the sealing. I foresee the day when water baptism will go the way of circumcision, and the sealing will become the new requirement of God. This is not because baptism is wrong, any more than circumcision is wrong, but because baptism has lost the original significance and it no longer distinguishes those who are God’s from those who aren’t. Many who have been baptized will realize the need for something more; and many others will be satisfied to be submerged in water and nothing more.

Correctly understanding the doctrine of the Spirit is utterly essential for receiving the seal because being sealed and having the Comforter require a desperate love for the word of God. Today most people don’t understand the Bible, and don’t try to understand it. “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63). How can people be fortified by the sealing if they don’t “keep” (John 14:15, 21, 23) [G5083 tereo, “guard against the loss of”] the word of God? Its not possible to be sealed if they repeatedly turned down Bible study when they had the opportunity. They will hear, “Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him”. But they will have a lamp with no oil. The word of God, which is the main authorized source of light to the conscience through the oil of the Spirit of God, is not filling the conscience, and therefore neither is God and His Son, together being the other Comforter, both filling them, according to the context of John 14:21, 23.

It was the wrong assumptions of the rabbis that led them further and further away from the truth, so far that when Jesus reset their understandings they called Him a deceiver. His words were incomprehensible to them, unacceptable, just plain not true. How could so many rabbis, venerable men of God, be wrong? “Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.” (John 7:47-49).

Maybe I am cursed. Maybe I am deluded. But I will say that either the Spirit of the Lord or the Spirit of Satan keeps moving me in this direction and making this subject clearer to me. And at the same time, those who hold to the Trinity and Spiritual Formation are leading people to worship and pray to “the Spirit”, when we both know that that Spirit is not from God, per Great Controversy, page 464.

“The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children. At that time many will separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted love for God and His word. Many, both of ministers and people, will gladly accept those great truths which God has caused to be proclaimed at this time to prepare a people for the Lord’s second coming. The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it by introducing a counterfeit. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power he will make it appear that God’s special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit. Under a religious guise, Satan will seek to extend his influence over the Christian world.  
     In many of the revivals which have occurred during the last half century, the same influences have been at work, to a greater or less degree, that will be manifest in the more extensive movements of the future. There is an emotional excitement, a mingling of the true with the false, that is well adapted to mislead. Yet none need be deceived. In the light of God’s word it is not difficult to determine the nature of these movements. Wherever men neglect the testimony of the Bible, turning away from those plain, soul-testing truths which require self-denial and renunciation of the world, there we may be sure that God’s blessing is not bestowed.”
 
Brother, again I want you to know that I don’t write these things to be combative. We are beloved brethren, and always will be. We will march together in the Latter Rain. We may die together before Jesus returns. To die together would be my greatest privilege. But, I also see a soon-coming collision in the Advent movement over this very issue. The collision must come.

“The Lord gives a special truth for the people in an emergency. Who dare refuse to publish it? He commands His servants to present the last invitation of mercy to the world. They cannot remain silent, except at the peril of their souls. Christ’s ambassadors have nothing to do with consequences. They must perform their duty and leave results with God.” Great Controversy, p. 610. If Christ’s words in John 14 and elsewhere regarding the Spirit make any impression on your mind, then you know why I remain confident to be anti-Trinitarian.

Love you, brother,

David

Dear blog reader, if you want to hear the video, its through Amazing Facts, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYVGnGfEgf4&feature=youtu.be

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