Thank you.
And the Spirit of truth?
I'll try to explain that the Spirit of truth is God, is Jesus. First, it will be about "The birth of Jesus", second, it will be about "Jesus' promise not leave us as orphans".
The birth of Jesus; Matthew and Luke,
Matthew 1:20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because
what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
Luke 1:35 The angel answered, “
The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
Matthew 1:20 is contradicting Luke 1:35 because who come "from the Holy Spirit" is not the Holy Spirit, and in the other side, Luke 1:35 declares that the Holy Spirit comes upon the Virgin Mary.
Based on Luke 1:35, I like to say that Mary conceived the Holy Spirit and Mary delivered a baby named Jesus; therefore, it might be concluded that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are one.
For me, both Matthew 1:20 and Luke 1:35 are true. But, it need long explanation. Shortly and "hypothetically", Joseph was being at the lower step of the staircase. Joseph could not comprehend nor accept that God is conceived by a human; Mary had no filter to accept God's will. Catholic teaches that Mary is immaculate which means (in my believe) May was at the highest step of the staircase, Mary had no filter to accept God's will, that she was able to say,
Luke 1:38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.”
Jesus' promise "not leave us as orphans"
John 14:17 "the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."
We see, Jesus promised to the disciples (and us) that He would not leave them (and us) as orphans. Jesus also promised to come back. Look to what Jesus said: “I will come to you. (18)” Jesus did not say that He will send others. Look also to the sentence that follows, Jesus repeated His promise,
John 14:28 "... I am going away and I will come back to you. ...."
What is the meaning of “to you” in John 14:28? Are the words addressed to His disciples or to the Church's members in the coming days? If it were addressed either to the disciples and to the Church's members, it means till now Jesus has not come back, because until now neither the disciples nor the Church's members witnessed Jesus has come back.
Or, shall we conclude that Jesus has come back based on John 20:11-29, Luke 24:13-49, Mark 16:9-18, Matthew 28:16-20 (after resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples)? I don’t think so. Because, Jesus did ascend to the place He came from (Mark 16:19, Luke 24:50-51), and, since the time He has never come back.
Is it possible that Jesus does not keep His promise? Is it possible that Jesus has come back, but we make mistake to understand? If Jesus has not come back, it significantly shows that Jesus left the disciples as orphans, and it is unmatched to His promise.
Standing on my believe in Jesus, I believe Jesus always keeps His promises. It means, Jesus has come back.
We will try to find the supporting statement for this.
Before going further, I like to note again based on Luke 1:35 that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one, and, the Acts (Acts 2:1-40) tells us about the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Re-quote,
(John 14:17) ....
the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.
In my opinion, our thought and expectation likely are biased by an expectation to see the returning of Jesus in a figure as seen every day by the disciples. So, we failed to recognize that Jesus has come back, not in the appearance like the one usually seen by the apostles, but, He has come back as the Holy Spirit.
What Jesus means by
the world in John 14:17?
As are the many words of Jesus, the word “world” here may have multiple interpretations. I take two. The first meaning, “world” in the meaning of people in general. The second meaning, “world” in the meaning
with physical eyes.
Here with the second, it means that with our naked physical eyes we cannot see Him.
We are expected to change over from the level of physical eyes to the level of soul’s eye. At the soul level, we may see and recognize Him. At the soul level, we may believe that Jesus has come back. Only, what we do not realize is, Jesus has come back as the Holy Spirit.
Jesus and the Father are one (John 10:30). Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one (Luke 1:35, John 14:17-18, John 14:28).
I believe, Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit are one.
Thank you.