Here Jesus tells his disciples that there are some things they are not ready to hear now, but they will hear them from the Spirit once he had ascended. Since the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, He can grasp what no more human can, and we are bound to give assent to Him, even if we cannot fully understand – it is like Our Lord and Nicodemus, when the latter wondered how a man could be born again. In our regeneration we receive faith, but perfect understanding is not ours. The Spirit, Hilary of Poitiers reminds us, listeth where He will, and He is not beholden to us or required to explain himself. So, in the words of the Creed, we confess we believe in the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, and we hold firm in that faith. The Infinite is not to be understood fully by the finite, and if we think we fully understand it, then it is not the Infinite Mystery of the Trinity which we grasp but a phantasm of our own devising.
One of those things which the disciple grasped when the Spirit came was that the Spirit was Divine. (St Gregory of Nazianzus).
We are, St Augustine reminds us, to grow in all love, that love which is nurtured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It is through the workings of the Spirit that our understanding will become spiritual and surpass the carnal understanding of men. In this life we shall not enter into all truth, but we can be prepared for it. Now we can know only in part, as through a glass darkly, but hereafter we shall know as we are fully known, and we shall see Him face to face. This is what the Lord means when he tells us that the Spirit will guide us into all truth.
St Ambrose comments that the Spirit speaks in the name of the Father and the Son, because they are one God. What the Son said was from the Father, and what the Spirit says is,.likewise from the Father and Son. The Son is biorn of the father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, but only the Father, St Augustine reminds us, is ‘not of another’. But we should not therefore think there is any disparity in the Trinity, for the Son and the Spirit are equally one God with the Father. The distinction is that the Son is born of the Father and the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, but that does not make any difference between them as to substance, for they are consubstantial. The Spirit is not inferior to the Father, any more than the Son is, and these errors are heresy and condemned by the Church. This is, of course, extremely hard for us to comprehend, and we see it as through a glass darkly, but since the Church has declared it to us, and the Church is guided by the Spirit, we accept His word in faith.
As St Gregory Nazianzus expresses it:
All things that the Father has are the Son’s. And … all that belongs to the Son is the father’s. Nothing then is peculiar [to any one Person] because all things are in common. For their being itself is common and equal, even though the Son receives it from the Father.
Now we can know only in part, as through a glass darkly, but hereafter we shall know as we are fully known, and we shall see Him face to face. This is what the Lord means when he tells us that the Spirit will guide us into all truth.
You are suggesting that we have to wait for the hereafter for the Holy Ghost to show us all things? How about the Spirit teaches us now….while we are on earth and need it?
John 14:26New King James Version (NKJV)
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
Jesus says that the Comforter will teach us(the saved) all we need to know, as much as he can, to each saved person. Im here to tell you He does. Some false cults and religions go against that and say that only their costumes can teach the ways of God. Not surprising. What are false religions good for if it wasn’t to spread forth lies.
All the disciples got water baptized, but none were baptized with the holy ghost. This tosses out the phony notion that water baptize also give rebirth of the spirit. Once the spirit is reborn, then the person can understand the ways of the spirit. Lets hear it from the Masters mouth;
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth…..Acts Cp 1
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I almost forgot…….I am now pretty sure good brother Peter died in Rome. I thought id tell you first, because of the headache I gave you about this. But……Peter was taken there as a prisoner and executed….he was not free to wear a shiney robe and fish hat and sit on a bejeweled throne as bishop of Rome. He went in shackles and was executed…how, use your imagination. Fed to lions, used as a street light. And he was not given a big prominent grave up in the circus maximus. His body was probably fed to lions or something.
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I am glad you admit you were wrong. If you could just show where anyone has alleged the other things you write about, it might explain why you bother to mention them.
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Most catholics allege that good brother Peter was Bishop of Rome. You are one of those. The bible was silent on Peters death, I thought. It was brought to my attention that Jesus said how he will die. And if we use our thinking caps, we can come up with that he was taken to Rome and killed. Cunningly devised fables arise out of false religions with agendas to elevate man and keep people from Christ. That’s fine with me. Mans probation is nearing an end. Those who love the ways of men will continue to love fables.
Its time to believe the gospel.
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What we say is that Peter was head of the Church in Rome. Just stop and engage your thinking equipment Bosco. Here you have in Rome the man who is mentioned more times in the Gospels than any other disciple – do you suppose he was not treated with the respect that commanded from the Christians in Rome.
As you say, the evidence is he was killed there. So why spit at a gnat having swallowed the camel?
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He was a prisoner. No evidence he was heading any group. You can believe anything you want. Just get saved is the bottom line. I used to believe music was magic.. Im no one to talk about false ideas.
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There is no physical evidence Peter was in Rome. No real written history. My evidence is from scripture, which you and others claim is all allegory, when it suits your needs. But, all that matters is Christ and him crucified. Who cares where people died. Time to ask Jesus to show himself. Let the dead bury the dead. Come and follow Jesus. That doesn’t mean lighting a candle and say you are following Jesus. It means get born again, and follow in his footsteps of spreading the Good News.
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