- “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 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. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” {John 14:16-20}
Who is our another Comforter? What das it mean the word “another”? Other Being or other form?
- “I, even I, am he that comforteth you.” {Isaiah 51:12}
- “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” {2 Corinthians 1:3-5}
- “Let them study the seventeenth of John, and learn how to pray and how to live the prayer of Christ. He is the Comforter. He will abide in their hearts, making their joy full.” {Ellen White: RH, January 27, 1903, Art. A, par. 13}
- ”The Saviour is our Comforter. This I have proved Him to be.” {Ellen White: Manuscript Releases Volume 8, par. 49.3, July 16, 1892}
- “Christ is to be known by the blessed name of Comforter.“ {Ellen White: Manuscript 7, par. 10, January 26, 1902}
- “He has sought to shut Jesus from their view as the Comforter, as one who reproves, who warns, who admonishes them, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” {Ellen White: RH, August 26, 1890
- “Jesus says, ‘I will send you the Comforter. My Spirit Alone is competent for the task of saving the world, if they will accept of the provisions of My grace. The Comforter shall convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.“ {Ellen White: Manuscript 40, p. 60}
- “After His inauguration, the Spirit came and Christ was indeed glorified, even with the glory which He had from all eternity with the Father. During His humiliation upon this earth, the Spirit had not descended with all its efficacy; and Christ declared that if He went not away, IT (holy Spirit) would not come, but that if He went away, He would send IT. It was arepresentation of Himself, and after He was glorified it was manifest.” {Ellen White: Signs of the Times, 17 May 1899, par. 3}
- “Christ comes as a Comforter to all who believe.” {Ellen White: 8MR 57}
- “He is coming to us by His holy Spirit today.” {Ellen White: RH, April 30, 1901, par. 8}
- “What saith our Saviour? ‘I will not leave thee comfortless; I will come unto you.’ ‘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.’ When trials overshadow the soul, remember the words of Christ, remember that He is an unseen presence in the person of the holy Spirit, and He will be the peace and comfort given you, manifesting to you that He is with you, the Sun of Righteousness, chasing away your darkness.“ {Ellen White: Letter 124, 7. March 1897}
- “That Christ should manifest Himself to them, and yet be invisible to the world, was a mystery to the disciples. They could not understand the words of Christ in their spiritual sense. They were thinking of the outward, visible manifestation. They could not take in the fact that they could have the presence of Christ with them, and yet He be unseen by the world. They did not understand the meaning of a spiritual manifestation.” {Ellen White: The Southern Review, September 13, 1898 par. 2}
- “To the poor and oppressed and downtrodden of earth, Christ says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth, (which is Christ formed within the hope of glory,) Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not: but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless.” {Ellen White: Manuscript 24, 22. February, 1898}
- “Christ declared that after His ascension, he would send to His church, as His crowning gift, the Comforter, Who was to take His place. This Comforter is the holy Spirit,—the soul of His life, the efficacy of His church, the light and life of the world. With His Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin.” {Ellen White, Review and Herald, May 19, 1904 par. 1}
- “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.” The divine Spirit that the world’s Redeemer promised to send, is the presence and power of God. He will not leave His people in the world destitute of His grace, to be buffeted by the enemy of God, and harassed by the oppression of the world; but he will come to them. The world cannot see the truth; they know not the Father or the Son, but it is only because they do not desire to know God, they do not wish to look upon Jesus, to see His goodness, His love, His heavenly attractions. Jesus is inviting all men to accept Him; and wherever the heart is open to receive Him, he will come in, gladdening the soul with the light and joy of His presence.” {Ellen White: Signs of the Times, November 23, 1891}
- “In giving His commission to His followers, Christ did not tell them they would be left alone. He assured them that He would be near them. He spoke of His Omnipresence in a special way. Go to all nations, He said. Go, to the farthest portion of the habitable globe, but know that My presence will be there. Labor in faith and confidence, for the time will never come when I shall forsake you.” {Ellen White: Manuscript 138, 1897}
- “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 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” [John 14:16, 17]. This refers to the omnipresence of the Spirit of Christ, called the Comforter.” {Ellen White: June 11, 1891, Manuscript Releases, vol.14, p. 179}
- “Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them, go to His Father, and send the holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent.” {Ellen White: Manuscript Releases, Vol. 14 [Nos. 1081-1135], p. 23}
- “We want to hear shouts of victory from those that have been overcome. We want to have the sweet Spirit of Christ come freely into our midst.” {Ellen White: Review and Herald, August 17, 1869 par. 10}
- “And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” {Matthew 28:20}
The above text, John 14:16-20 states that they know the Comforter, for He was dwelling with them and would be in them. Who had been dwelling with them? Christ Himself. Why then is Christ calling Himself “another” Comforter? This is so that the disciples would understand that He would not be with them in bodily form; indeed, He would no longer be physically present WITH them but rather IN them by His omnipresent Spirit. Jesus calls Himself the Comforter (original Greek: παράκλητος translation: paraklétos).
Jesus calls the holy Spirit another Comforter (original Greek: ἄλλος παράκλητος; transliteration: allon Paraklēton). The word “another” (ἄλλος) means another of the same kind, and not another of a different kind, which would be ´ἕτερος´. By this Jesus is also showing us that the holy Spirit belongs to Him and that in that sense it is not an independent being of a different kind, but rather the Spirit that proceeds from Him.
- “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. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 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. 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. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.” {John 14:21-29}
When Christ says “another” Comforter, the holy Spirit, does He mean a different being, or is He speaking of Himself, divested of a human body? We have just read that Jesus said to His apostles that they know Him (the holy Spirit), i.e. Jesus, Whom the world does not see nor know, and that He will not leave them (i.e. He will stay with them) and BE in them. Who do they already know if the holy Spirit has not been sent yet? Who was then with the apostles? We read clearly that the coming of the holy Spirit is announced, and that Jesus is saying at the same time that He will not leave them and will come to them.
It is true that He will not leave them and will come back to them, through His holy Spirit, which is Jesus Himself, His conscious personality, Omnipresent and independent of His physical bodily presence. If the holy Spirit were an independent being, then He couldn’t be the one that would not leave them (i.e. stay with them), because He had not yet come! “I will come to you” signifies the coming of Christ as the holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and not the second coming which is only mentioned after! That was the answer to Judas when he did not understand what Jesus was saying. To clarify this, Jesus said that He and His Father will personally come and dwell in all who accept Them! Who, then, lives in us? Only the holy Spirit and i.e. Christ’s Spirit!
This Text is part of the book First Commandment OR Trinity? – Encyclopedia of Evidences of the Old Trampled Truths of All Areas