geoff said...
When James calls the Holy Spirit another comforter, what was the understanding of his readers and the church at that time? "Though Christ's visible presence is not discerned, yet the workers may claim the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." CH 248. We agree with James, it is not Christ in His visible bodily form, but another comforter, in the form of the Holy Spirit, bringing Christ's invisible presence. As spelt out by the prophet and his own son, and other contemporaries.
Further evidence for the concept,To answer these comments....
"But Jesus had assured them that he would send the Comforter, as an equivalent for his visible presence."
3 SP 256.
"Our sanitariums are to show forth to the world the benevolence of heaven; and though Christ's visible presence is not discerned in the building, yet the workers may claim the promise: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 6T 227.
"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 would not come, but that if He went away, He would send it. It was a representation of Himself, and after He was glorified it was manifest." {ST, May 17, 1899 par. 3}
Yes agree Geoff that you could read these last comments to infer that Christ and the Spirit were the one person. You could also infer from words like "as an equivalent" and "a representation of Himself" that it was indeed another person.
Which inference is correct?
I'm going to go through "The Godhead in Black & White" using James White's rule to work that out. It should be interesting.
To answer your opening question:
When James calls the Holy Spirit another comforter, what was the understanding of his readers and the church at that time?
Thanks for bringing this point up, once again your comments have spurred further learning. Unfortunately, and it brings me no joy to say this, you really are shown to be completely out of step with James White on the topic of the Comforter. This must be disheartening, so I will try to be gentle.
The understanding of the church at the time was as you suggest, the figurative personhood of the Holy Spirit.
But what about his readers?
Many would have been Seventh-day Adventists. In his introduction to "Bible Adventism" (the book the quotes come from), James says of the SDA church, "We are gathered from Methodists, Regular Baptists, Free-will Baptists, Seventh-day Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Disciples, Dutch Reformed, Christians, Lutherans, Catholics, United Brethren, Universalists, worldlings and infidels." p 11.
From this list only the Disciples and Christians would have had similar beliefs to James regarding the Godhead.
Some readers would have been from the "religious world" outside the SDA church. On pages 7 and 8 James says, "...We are fully aware that much prejudice exists in the religious world against many of our opinions of Bible truth. This, however, exists mainly for want of information as to our real positions, and probably in some degree, for the want of intelligence and piety on the part of some who have represented our view. May God help us overcome this prejudice by a clear and intelligent defense of the truth, and by well ordered lives, and the spirit of humility and love that shall melt its way into the hearts of the people." pp7,8
So James' intention is to make a "clear and intelligent defense of the truth" to overcome the prejudice of "the religious world against many of our opinions of Bible truth".
So to answer your questions:
1. At least some, probably many, readers would have been trinitarian, and this "prejudice" would not have been threatened at all by this book.
2. If James is defending your view of the Comforter, he is being clearly deceptive rather than "clear and intelligent". You would make James' mean "one" when he said "two", "both" and "more than one", "the same" when he said "the other"; "present" when he said "absent". If what you say is true, then James either made a poor choice of words or is setting out to deceive.
3. Despite the fact that the religious world would disagree with your view of the Holy Spirit, James never defends this view. I know he says he is talking about "many", not all, of "our opinions" in this particular book, so maybe he "clearly and intelligently" defends his supposed view on the Spirit elsewhere. I would love to see that book or article. Even an article where he shows new converts "his opinion" on the Comforter would suffice.
Unfortunately for you Geoff, James seems reluctant to "clearly and intelligently" defend his acknowledged view on "Sonship" to the trinitarian public or new convert, let alone his alleged view on the Holy Spirit.
Sadly your case slowly crumbles. I'm sorry mate, but further research shows that you clearly disagree with James White's view of the Comforter.
