|
DIRECTORY
Home
General LDS Information
Basic LDS Beliefs
LDS Videos
Critics' Questions
Submitted Questions
Scriptures/LDS Literature
Genealogy/Family
LDS Temples
Missionary
Music and Arts
LDS Online Stores
Priesthood, Humor, Miscel.
Site Map
Suggest a Site
Now accepting banner ads!
|
|
ANNVER - Need your help please with better understanding this verse.
John 7:39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
I was once told that this verse meant that the Holy Ghost was first given to Jesus Christ after his baptism and that the H.G wasn't necessary to be with those people at that particular time because he(Jesus) was on earth.
If this is true does that mean,
- all those whom were baptized before Jesus, never had a complete baptism? baptism by water and by fire?
- hence the necessity for Jesus to be baptized to show the exact way of how a baptism should be completed?
- Does the word glorified refer to after his baptism or after his resurrection?
- If it refers to after resurrection then why were those people kept from receiving the H.G until after he was to be resurrected?
- Can the H.G and Jesus physically be on Earth at the same time?
- or does one cancel out ones responsibility depending on whether one has more authority than the other?? e.g Jesus over-rides the H.G? (Jesus being higher in GodHead)
JOEL -
The members of the Godhead share some common attributes but they also have some specific functions. The Father and Jesus Christ have not nor ever will perform the function of the Holy Ghost (although I suppose they could). In the John 7:39 scripture it is speaking of the Gift of the Holy Ghost which had not yet been made avalable to man until after the coming of Jesus Christ and the day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost was sent from the Father. However, before that time anyone could temporarily experience the influence of the Holy Ghost which was the case with those saints and believers before Jesus left. For example when Jesus was still a child we read:
"And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name [was] Simeon; and the same man [was] just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him."
"And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ." (Luke 2: 25-26)
Evidently the Apostles had received the Holy Ghost from Jesus. President Harold B. Lee said:
"And He "breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:" (John 20:22), which in all likelyhood was the confirmation and the commission to receive the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of hands, for that was the procedure followed thereafter by His Disciples."
But as long as Jesus was with them, the actual enjoyment of the gift was withheld until Jesus was glorified (although they could still enjoy the influence of the Holy Ghost like Simeon). The word "glorified' probably refers to after Jesus was resurrected and once again received the glory he had when he was with the father. (John 17: 5)
Jesus and the Holy Ghost can indeed exist on the earth at the same time, as demonstrated at the moment he was baptized and the Holy Ghost came upon him (Luke 3: 22). One does not cancel out the other. The Holy Ghost has always been active in some form or another.
|
|
|
