This Greek word, Paráklētos, occurs 5 times in the New Testament in the writings of the Apostle John. This word is used to refer to the Holy Spirit of God as our Comforter and an advocate.
Understanding this word is the difference between eternal life and eternal destruction. It is by the Comforter that we know the truth given by God the Father about His Son. It is by the Spirit of God, the Comforter who advocates, that we know of the Gospel of Jesus, the only way by which we can be restored to the Father and have eternal life.
John tells us that this advocate is “Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 2:1) It’s not the least bit difficult to understand or unclear what John is saying. The Comforter, our advocate, is Jesus. However, the majority of the nominal Christian world asserts that the Comforter is not Jesus, that the Comforter is rather a separate and third god that is neither the Father nor the Son. One of these ideas is not true. One of these ideas is the foundation for our salvation. The other is a deception of Satan that will lead to a rejection of the true Son of God and a forfeiture of eternal life.
Only you can decide what you will choose to believe.
Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.
Martin Luther
Do not listen to anyone who tells you that it doesn’t matter what you believe. Do not listen to anyone who tells you that truth will be revealed after we get to Heaven. Truth has already been revealed. That’s the whole point of God giving us the Comforter, the “Spirit of truth”, to “teach you all things.” We must choose in whom we will believe. We will either believe the God of Creation as revealed to us now in His Word, or we will believe a deception that comes from Satan through the philosophies of men. Choose this day whom you will serve. Choose this day whom you will worship. Will you choose the mark of the beast or the seal of God? This is the most important choice you must make in this life. There will be no opportunity to change your mind in Heaven. It is this choice that determines whether you get to Heaven or not. It’s a simple but monumental choice. Who is your God?
Will you trust the Word of God? Will you let John’s words explain themselves or will you choose instead to believe other men who apply interpretations that do not fit the plainest understanding of the words found in Scripture. Will you have “itching ears” that hear not? Will you have eyes that do not see? Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. Spiritual things are foolishness to the world, to those who follow philosophies of men over the plain revealed Word of God. God’s Word gives truth. “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
If you choose to accept the Word of God as it is plainly given, to believe that our advocate and Comforter is “Jesus Christ the righteous,” you will find yourself in a scorned minority in this world, a remnant. Will you stand in defiance of an order to bow to a false god and risk ridicule, rejection and persecution to be faithful to God’s Word? The reward for faithfulness to God’s Word is eternal life. What in this life is worth exchanging for eternal life with bodies made new that live forever with all the wealth of Heaven? Seriously, what is worth denying the revealed Word of God? “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.” (1 Corinthians 2:14) You can’t receive the things of the Spirit of God if you reject the Spirit of God by believing that the Comforter is anyone but Jesus Christ the righteous. If you reject Jesus, you reject life. If you deny that Jesus is our Comforter, you reject life. Consider this most carefully.
The Apostle John’s use of the word Paráklētos occurs in the following five texts. These instances have been translated in the King James Version using the words ‘Comforter’ and ‘advocate.’ It is the same word in each case – Strong’s number G3875. It is the Apostle John and his use of the word that we must look to for understanding its meaning. Faith in the Bible includes faith in the truth and consistency of the Bible.
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter (G3875), that he may abide with you for ever;
John 14:26 But the Comforter (G3875), 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.
John 15:26 But when the Comforter (G3875) is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter (G3875) will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate (G3875) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
People get confused about who the Comforter is, not because it isn’t clear, but because people have allowed their minds to be weakened through lazy personal study and development preferring instead to rely upon what other people tell them. God has designed life to require effort. We do not reap what we do not sow. God will reward us not based upon the level of our accomplishments but rather by the degree to which we stand in our God given personalities doing our very best. God isn’t looking for greatness. God is looking for faithfulness. Do we accept His Word or not?
It is a lazy interpretation to believe that the use of the third person pronoun “he” used in John 14:16 in reference to the Comforter means that the Comforter is a literal third being separate from Christ. Such an interpretation is inconsistent with other Scripture which would render God’s Word inconsistent and unreliable. John 14 also speaks of the actions of the Comforter in first person grammar when Jesus uses the pronoun “I.” John 14 clearly reveals that Judas, not Iscariot, understood that it was Jesus who would manifest Himself to his followers but that the world would not see Him. Judas knew full well the identity of the Comforter but could not understand the nature of the Comforter. 1 John 2:1 explicitly says that the “Paráklētos/advocate” is Jesus.
In taking on humanity, Jesus took on a second personality. Jesus is both divine and human. In His human capacity He cannot be our Comforter. Jesus was resurrected and glorified having His divinity unveiled/restored by His Father thereby making Himself available to mankind as the Comforter in His divine capacity. Jesus the human remains in Heaven as our High Priest and will only reveal Himself as the human victor of this world when He comes a second time to redeem the righteous. Jesus Christ our Comforter is present now to each person who chooses to invite Him into their hearts. It is by the power of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Christ in us, that we can be transformed and redeemed from sin. There is no other way. The idea of a third god being is a deceptive misdirection to lead us away from Jesus our Comforter and the eternal life that comes through Him alone. If we believe in the true only begotten Son of God, we will not perish. (John 3:16) If we reject Christ as the Son of God and as our Comforter, we will perish. To persist in rejecting Jesus as the Holy Spirit is to reject, i.e. to grieve, the Holy Spirit.
We are faced with the exact same decision Eve was presented with at the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Obey God, or not. Believe what God says because He’s God, or not. By rejecting God’s Word as He has revealed it, we reject God. By rejecting God, we reject life. God is the only source of life.
If you want to know truth, it’s there for your understanding. You must submit to God’s Paráklētos to understand truth. If you submit to philosophies of men instead, you will not find truth no matter how much you want to believe that you know truth. God tells us truth. You either accept it or not. If you are of the world, you will not see/recognize the true Holy Spirit. That’s what John 14 is telling us. If you can’t see that the Comforter is Jesus Christ, you are of the world. It’s all an exercise of freewill choice. Make your choice. Accept the consequences. To believe that the Holy Spirit, Paráklētos, is someone other than Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God is to believe in a false god.