How would you like a church calling where the bishop says, "Oh and by the way, as a result of accepting this call, the people are going to kill you?" For years, evangelicals have persecuted the church, even lied about the church, in an effort to bring it down in people's eyes for the very reason the Savior gives that people will kill the apostles, because they think they are doing a service to God.
Verses 27 and 28 sum up much of this chapter and once again show to me that the Father and the Son are separate beings. He came from the Father and soon he's going to go back to the Father. If, as the doctrine of the trinity asserts, the Father and Son are the same God, how does he leave and return to himself? He doesn't say, "I'm going to return to heaven and be the Father." He says throughout the gospels that he's been taught by the Father, he's prayed to the Father, he's observed the actions of the Father, he does the will of the Father, he's been in the presence of the Father and created with the Father. He always acquiesces to the Father, always puts the Father above him. The only thing that is confusing at times is he now can carry the title of a Father because he has created also, So he can be a Father to earth or a Father to the church. In a similar manner, I was only a son until I married. Once we had children, I became a father. But Christ isn't THE Father. In verse 32, he says the Father is with me. He doesn't say I am also the Father
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I like how in this chapter the Savior talks of the Comforter. I like how he says that his disciples have not yet known the Comforter because he has been with them. I find it reassuring to know that we have also been blessed with that gift through baptism and confirmation. So that we too are not left alone, but can be guided by the Comforter.
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