In what sense was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost a "Coming" of Jesus?
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, fifty day after the crucifixion, can be construed as a coming. For example, the Jews believed that Elijah was to come preceding the advent of the Messiah, based upon Malachi 4:5. (See Matthew 11:14; 16:14;
17:10-13; Mark 6:15; 9:12-13; Luke 1:17; John 1:21, 25.) In these Scriptures,
Jesus clearly stated that John the
Baptist was Elijah, so Elijah did come, although embodied as John the Baptist. Did He mean that John the Baptist was a reincarnation of
Elijah? No. He meant that the same Spirit that came upon and filled Elijah was
that which filled John the Baptist, (Luke 1:17).
In this same
sense, the coming of the Holy Spirit to fill all of the believers, was
the same Spirit that had filled Christ when He dwelt upon the earth in His
fleshly body. So, in the same sense that Elijah had returned in John the Baptist, so Christ returned in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Our essential identity is Spirit; we are a Spirit; we live in a body, and we have a soul. Jesus was with God before He was made flesh, and after His fleshly life, He still lives on as the Holy Spirit.
Opposing Views
This view is
opposed by most Evangelical teachers. I will use the article by Ian Macpherson as an example of the standard,
traditional teaching of these groups.[i]
Macpherson first argues against the idea of
realized eschatology which says that
Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God had come in His ministry
during His lifetime. Macpherson fails to deal with the fact that Jesus did
indeed teach this doctrine, (Matt. 12:28; Mark 1:14-15; 9:1; Luke 4:43; 6:20;
9:27; 10:9;
11:20; 17:21; 22:16-18; and many other passages too numerous to mention).
His second
argument has that Jesus’ promise
of another Comforter could not have
meant His own Spirit. Biblically, however, it must be so, for the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit are One God. Indeed, He claimed this identity when He said: “I will not leave you comfortless: I will
come to you,” (John 14:18). This is in the context of His promise
of the Holy Spirit in verses fifteen to seventeen of the same chapter. The Holy Spirit was to be the Comforter and Jesus said "I will not leave you comfortless."
Thirdly,
Macpherson argues that after the descent of
the Holy Spirit, the New Testament points forward to the Second Coming. Indeed, Jesus never did refer to a single Second Coming. It is therefore more
accurate to refer to His coming as
something that will happen often and repeatedly. There is nothing to prevent the
interpretation that the descent of the Holy Spirit was a coming which occurred after His bodily ascension. (Macpherson
admits that Biblical prophecy may have multiple fulfillments, p. 7).
Macpherson’s fourth argument is that the Second
Coming was not fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem, (p. 7). Jesus
had said that His coming would be
during the destruction of Jerusalem, Matthew 24:30, so that should settle it. Macpherson takes no account of Josephus’ record of the appearance in the clouds. He ridicules Thomas Waugh who
says: “Actually… the Rapture occurred on that occasion, and …
amid the cataclysmic struggles of the time the fact was not noted!” Macpherson
concedes however, that the Christians did indeed escape the overthrow, but
ignores the fact that their escape, under the circumstances, had to be
miraculous if not an actual bodily translation from one place to another. Jesus appeared "in the clouds" in judgment over the wicked city, Jerusalem during its destruction.
His fifth argument
that Christ’s
indwelling the believer does not qualify as the Second Coming is no argument at all. He does not deal with the
clear evidence of Scripture (John 14:18, 23). This coming was not something that the world
would see; nevertheless, He would be manifest,
that is, “be revealed,”[ii] to
everyone who truly loved Him and the Father:
20 At that day ye shall know
that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. 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 [reveal] myself to him.22 Judas saith unto him, not
Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto
the world? 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, (John 14).
As Immanuel, Christ is "with us," He isn't gone; He is here, abiding with us, indwelling the believers.
Macpherson’s sixth argument that Christ’s spiritual presence in the Church is not a Second Coming in that His physical body was not present on the
earth after His ascension, (Acts 3:20, 21; 7:55; 9:3). He does not allow for
the fact that Christ’s glorified body was not subject to the laws of physics,
that is, it was not physical;
however, His resurrected, glorified body was the same body that He had lived in and been
crucified in. His physical body had become His mystical Body. His mystical Body
does not require a physical presence. He could appear in a closed room while the doors were shut; a physical body cannot do that. His mortal body had taken on immortality, and death was swallowed up in victory. He can; He will; and He does "Come" when two or three are gathered together in His name.
Macpherson makes no notice
of the fact that Jesus said it was expedient for Him to go away. Christ therefore taught that His
presence in the unlimited and unconfined Spirit was more expedient than would be a physical presence at one particular point
in time and space. Macpherson argues that “it seems much easier to believe such
a visible, local reappearance of our Lord than His simultaneous manifestation
of Himself to His people in all parts of the world!” It may be easier for Macpherson
to believe, but that proves nothing about what Jesus said about it. Jesus indeed
makes clear that His salvation is available to “whosoever will” when they seek
Him with a whole heart. This must be a “simultaneous manifestation of Himself
to His people in all parts of the world.”
In his seventh
argument that Christ’s coming
at the death of the Christian does not qualify as a Second Coming, Macpherson admits that Christian biography
is full of examples of this experience. However, he uses the passage in John 21:20-23 to prove his point. Indeed, this Scripture could be used to prove the
opposite, for Christ said: “If I will
that he tarry till I come what is that to thee? Follow thou me.” The
disciples clearly misunderstood His saying, (v. 23), as has Macpherson, for
Christ indeed comes for His Saints at their death. For example, an appearance or
coming of “the Son of Man” was seen by the martyr Stephen, Acts 7:55-56:
But he, being full of the Holy
Ghost, looked up steadfastly into
heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said,
Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand
of God.
Macpherson cites Revelation 1:7 as proof that Christ’s Second Coming will be “a
personal, physical, local, visible reentry into human history,” (p. 8). The
rest of verse seven shows that it could not be too localized, for “every eye shall see Him.” It could not
have been too far distant in the future, for among those who see Him are “those which pierced Him.” This must also
be regarded as one fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy, (Daniel 7:13), and of Christ’s prophecy, (Matt. 24:30;
Mark 13:26; 14:62).
There was a
tradition among the Jews that:“If they are worthy, (i.e. the Israelites), then he shall come with the
clouds of heaven; but if they are not worthy, then he will come poor, and
riding upon an ass” (CNT, vol. 4, p. 90). Jesus came to the fleshly Jerusalem “poor and riding upon an ass,” but He came to the spiritual
Jerusalem, i.e. to saints such as Stephen, “with the clouds of heaven.”
This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book Revelation In Context.
My Book is available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and is also available online at www.amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com
Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net .
I just watched the last 3 videos you made and all I can say is amen.
ReplyDeleteSt John Chapters 3, 4, 7, 14 and 17 all tell who we are to listen to and how to see and enter Christ's kingdom, how to be one with Christ and his Father and that Jerusalem would no longer be a special place for worship and that we believers are no longer of this world.
Yes,how blessed we are to have the privilege to be one with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and in the Kingdom that is not of this world! Thanks for your comment.
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