The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Who is the Paraclete?

Theology Biblical Theology
#1

Who is the Paraclete (Advocate, Encourager, Comforter)?

He who does not love Me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26)

This passage clearly states that the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit, right? Right. Unequivocally right.

Then we have this passage to consider:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. (1 John 2:1)

This passage just as clearly states that the Paraclete is Jesus Christ. Do Jesus’ words disagree with those of John? The apostle John wrote both passages, didn’t he? There’s no way to harmonize these passages. Or is there?

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:12-18 ESV)

Paul here indicates that through Christ the veil is removed when the Jews read Moses’ writings. He says that when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. He begins to refer to Christ as “The Lord”.
Then he says twice that “The Lord is the Spirit.”

If Jesus IS the Spirit, then our problem is solved.

The Paraclete is Jesus, Jesus is the Spirit, and the Paraclete is the Spirit.

There is no difference between saying that the Paraclete is Jesus and that the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit.

#2

Here’s a diamond truth the Holy Spirit taught me Himself:

I am in the Father, the Father is in Me, the Son is in Me and I in the Son. That is why I am called “the Spirit of [the] Father” or “the Spirit of God” (referring to God the Father) and “the Spirit of the Son” or “the Spirit of Jesus Christ”. We are one, yet three different personalities. One Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father.

#3

Paraclete is a technical term in legal situations, such as being described at 1 John: it means a trusted associate who stands with the accused for defense before the judge.

That isn’t (mostly) the context in GosJohn where the more basic meaning of comforter must be in view. (Although this comforter is also someone who convicts the world of sin and judges even believers, which isn’t the legal role of a paraclete per se.)

John 14:26 unequivocally states that the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit (as you agree), but Jesus also speaks of the Spirit distinctly in relation to both the Father and Himself. Jesus speaks of the Spirit so distinctly in regard to Himself that I have seen other non-trinitarians trying to argue that the Spirit must be a reference to the Father!

The Paraclete is spoken of, by Jesus, as being sent “in my name” (thus not Jesus personally) and in the third person (usually a neutral “it” in the Final Discourse, including in this verse, although usually a personal “he” elsewhere and sometimes even in the Discourse).

Relatedly, just as at 14:26 Jesus says the Father will send the Spirit, Jesus says He Himself will send the Spirit from the Father at 15:6.

16:5-10 details three persons again (with personal pronouns for the comforter this time):

  1. “But now I am going to Him Who sent Me, and none of you are asking Me, ‘Where are You going?’” – Obviously the Father isn’t the one stating that He is going away from the apostles to the One Who sent Him; Jesus is stating this in relation to the Father. Two persons so far.

  2. “But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.” – still Jesus speaking, by all grammatic and logical appearances.

7a. “But I tell you the truth: it is expedient for you that I may be going [or coming] away.” – Who is going away? It was Jesus a moment ago. No indication that some other person is going away.

7b. “For if I do not go away, the consoler will not be coming to you.” – No indication yet that some other person than Jesus is going away. The consoler coming to the disciples, by contrast, must not be the same person as the one who is going away.

7c. “But if I go, I will send him to you.” – some person with a personal pronoun is being sent by Jesus after Jesus leaves. Jesus isn’t sending the Father, Jesus and the Father are sending someone or something called the spirit of truth and the holy spirit to be the comforter in 15:26 and 14:26 to bear witness of Jesus.

  1. This comforter (with personal pronouns still in reference) convicts the world of various things concerning Jesus because (verse 10) Jesus is going to the Father. This distinction keeps going out through 6:15.

This comforting spirit is, consequently, not the Father; and apparently not Jesus (the Son), either. Nor is it an impersonal force, despite neutral pronouns being used of “it” throughout most of the Final Discourse.

Or, if we remove the portion I underlined, for which there is no specific evidence in the scripture you quoted, Paul is talking about the Spirit as “the Lord” and is making sure readers know he is changing his usual habit of referring to Christ as the Lord by specifying He’s talking about the Spirit. (The reference to the events of Exodus 34:34-35 is certainly to the Shekinah/Presence of YHWH admittedly.)

Paul goes back to his usual habit of referring to Jesus Christ as Lord soon afterward in 4:6, but interestingly he hadn’t been referring to Christ as Lord for a while previously, although he had been referring earlier in chapter 3 to the dispensation of the spirit of the living God sent by God, and the dispensation of the new covenant of the spirit, which per 4:1 Paul was talking about in 3:12-18.

In 2 Cor 13:14 (as often happens in similar ways elsewhere in his epistles), Paul blesses his readers with the salutation, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” It is clear elsewhere that, whatever else their relation may entail, Jesus Christ is a distinct person compared to the Father (with Jesus normally being addressed by the title-name Lord and the Father normally being addressed by the title-name God). The structure of the blessing indicates three persons, then, in extension of referring to two persons.

#4

Why must it not be? Indeed if Jesus and the Consoler are two different Persons, then why couldn’t the Consoler come to them BEFORE Jesus went away? But if they ARE the same Person, then Jesus had to die and be resurrected before He could come to them. For while He still lived, His divine personality was confined to his earthly body.

Why couldn’t Jesus be sending His Spirit, His extended Personality to them? And since that is personal, why not call it “He”?
And why did Jesus have to SEND the Spirit? If the Spirit is a separate Person, why couldn’t He simply have come? However, if the Spirit is the extended Personality of Jesus, the Jesus had to send that Personality.

By the way, “πεμψω αυτον” doesn’t have to be translated, “I will send him”. It could be translated “I will send it.” Though “αυτον” is masculine, it refers back to “παρακλτος” (paraclete). In Greek a pronoun must be in the same gender as its antecedant.

Jesus also said:

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:18 )

How did Jesus come to them? Was it not His spirit (which is Himself as I think I have shown)?

#5

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)

I think that this sufficiently answers both your points. The Holy Spirit is ‘another’ Paraclete, meaning that Jesus being the first is implied. Also it is obvious from the above verses that the Holy Spirit is already with the disciples, “because He dwells with” them. The difference is that soon He will be in them, that is what Jesus means by giving us the Spirit of truth. Of course He is the Spirit of God and Christ, but the Father is seated on the throne in heaven, and the Son is standing before the Father making intercession on our behalf day and night. Jesus Christ is our Paraclete in heaven, and the Holy Spirit is our Paraclete on the earth.

#6

How does it sufficiently answer the scriptural statements that the Lord (Jesus) IS the Spirit?

In Greek there are two words for “other”: 1. ἀλλος (allos) and 2. ἑτερος (heteros).

“ἀλλος” means “another of the same kind” and “ἑτερος” means “another of a different kind.”

Suppose I reach into my left pocket and show you a photo of myself. Then I reach into my right pocket, and say, “Now I will show you another photo of myself”. The second photo I show you had been printed from the same negative. You might say, “That’s the same picture!” I could reply, "No, it isn’t. Look! In my left hand is a picture of me, and in my right hand there is another picture of me. Here is a clear case of an ἀλλος picture. It is “another” in one sense, but the “same” in a different sense.
If the second photo had been taken on a different occasion, it would have been a “ἑτερος” picture.

Jesus didn’t say a “ἑτερος” Paraclete, but an ἀλλος Paraclete. This was another instance of the same kind, that is, Jesus was the Paraclete even when He was on earth. But He would send a different instance of Himself, namely His Spirit. It was different in one sense, but yet was the same divine Individual, namely Jesus. If Jesus had been sending a different divine Person, He would have been sending a “ἑτερος” Paraclete, and there would be no reason why He would have to go away before that Paraclete would come.

When Jesus said, “You know him, for he dwells with you,” He was talking about Himself. He was dwelling WITH His disciples.
But He would be IN His disciples after He died and was resurrected, and became a life-giving Spirit. (I Cor.15:45)

#7

I actually think this supports the Trinity even more. If Jesus said that He would send another Paraclete of the same kind, it only makes sense that He means One who is “another” yet is of the same essence as Him, a separate Paraclete (a different Person) yet fully divine and of the same substance. Just a thought. Paidon it is not hard to believe in the Trinity, it’s actually quite powerful and sublime. God is spirit, meaning you cannot fully understand Him but spiritually, as Paul wrote,

For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:11)

At one time we knew Jesus after the flesh (the natural), but now no longer, we have freely been given the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. He bears witness to Himself, to who Jesus Christ is, and to the reality of the Trinity. As it says in the word, “Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). As it has been said elsewhere: the Father is the source of this fire, Christ its light, and the Holy Spirit its heat. This is the Scriptural picture of God in trinity. I think it is very important that we understand this, because the height of human thought and understanding is our conception of God. As to your question (one you stated on another thread),

And as you say a bit further along,

It is actually clear that Paul has this very thing in mind when he wrote to the Christians at Colossae,

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9)

Christ is the bodily form of all the fullness of Deity. When He walked the earth the Father and the Spirit were in Him, and He in Them. So I would say that when we speak of Jesus we do indeed have the perfect picture of the Trinity. Just some thoughts.

#8

Do you know what? I believe every word of the above quote except that which is in parentheses. But to be “One who is another” is not tantamount to being another divine Person.

The verse you quoted above supports my position exactly. The spirit of a person “George” who knows his own thoughts is not a different Person from George himself, is it? It follows that the Spirit of God who knows the thoughts of God is not a different Person from God Himself.

#9

I believe I see the same way that you do Paidion. Jesus said He was “the way, THE TRUTH and the life” and he calls the comforter (holy spirit) “the spirit OF TRUTH”… starts out by saying “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you ANOTHER COMFORTER”, but goes on to say: "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, AND I IN YOU.

The holy spirit = the spirit of Truth = the spirit of Christ = the spirit of God…

The same spirit that was in Jesus is given to us to make us a “son of God”

Scriptures, indeed, says “the Lord is that spirit”.

Paul speaks of “the second man” (that inward man, that heavenly man, that man that is born of God and created in the image of God) as “the Lord from heaven”.

Jesus is “King of kings and Lord of lords”… as he is so are we, in this world. :smiley: