Date Posted:15:54:27 06/05/02 Wed Author: Doug Subject: Re: The Holy Spirit In reply to:
David`
's message, "Re: The Holy Spirit" on 09:49:46 06/05/02 Wed
Hi David,
Well, I will simply agree to disagree with you.
I have explained that verse 39 indeed explains verse 38. That is, the "He that believeth on Me" of verse 38 is conveniently defined for us by the Holy Spirit, Himself, in verse 39, which literally states, "The ones now believing"
- that is, those that were present then and there - at that moment. It is not talking about all believers for all time. This is made clear, especially in the Greek (which is the language we need to consider first) by the future phrase, "which they that believed on Him (the ones now believing) WERE to receive." It is definitely pointing to a coming time that THESE folks would receive and that would be after Christ was glorified - and it all points to Pentecost (Acts 2). There are a number of translations, including Young's Literal Translation, that make this point very clear. To suggest that this verse is speaking of everyone, for all time, is certainly poor exegesis. It is reading something into to the text that is absolutely not there and that is called eisegesis. The problem is that you, and others, have a set of assumptions based upon Acts 2, and these assumptions are carried over to every other passage dealing with the Spirit, including John 7:38-39.
Furthermore, if you have read all the posts you would know that I do not and have not contended that this passage applies ONLY to the apostles. I have tried to make that point clear.
As for Acts 2 and the "ALL FLESH" I will address that, as well as other things, in a separate post because I do not believe that "ALL FLESH" is as inclusive as one might think it is. I simply wanted to respond to you about John 7:38-39 and only that, for the moment.
