Do the Holy Spirit and the trinity show up in the Old Testament?

Having published my paper on the Holy Spirit, it was clear that I had made my point that the Holy Spirit does not leave the earth with the church at the rapture. However, it raised another question:

Do the Holy Spirit and the trinity show up in the Old Testament?

The short answer is yes, but yes is a pathetic answer.

I pointed this out in the paper on the Holy Spirit but here it is again.

Genesis 1:2 NASB “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”

Spirit is the Hebrew word rûach and means wind, breath, mind, and spirit.

Mind you, this is the Spirit of the living God, and, a part of the trinity. So let's see if I can find proof of this statement.

Genesis 1:2 demonstrates that God has a Spirit, or like Jesus, represents the Father/God as a Son.

Isaiah declared that there was a Spirit working through him alongside the Father.

Isaiah 48:16 NLT  “Come closer, and listen to this. From the beginning, I have told you plainly what would happen.” And now the Sovereign LORD and his Spirit have sent me with this message.”

The Book of Genesis, chapter 6, in talking about the coming destruction of the earth, spells out how God fully intended to kill everything human that had the “breath of life” in them.

Genesis 6:17 MKJV  “And behold! I, even I, am bringing a flood of waters upon the earth in order to destroy all flesh (in which is the breath of life) from under the heavens. Everything which is in the earth shall die.”

If you are not careful, you could read this as God killing off the small handful that has the breath, or spirit of God, within them; that is not the case, for every human has the rûach of God within them.

Genesis 6:5 NASB Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

As you can surmise from the Genesis scenario, not everyone gives that spirit free reign over their mind, tongue, and actions.

Job 26:13a tells us that “His Spirit made the heavens beautiful.

Isaiah, speaking of Jesus, declared that God would put His spirit upon Him, and He did it in the present tense, as though it was already done.

Isaiah 42:1 NASB "Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.

As we move into the New Testament the terminology shifts to Greek.

Matthew 3:16 NASB After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him,

Why is it important to understand that with a migration into the New Testament we are now looking at the Greek word for Spirit?

In trying to find answers to the questions is the Holy Spirit and the Trinity in the Old Testament. I have the understanding that Greek does not translate well into Hebrew, and so I have to try to find a relationship that will assist me to find answers from the Old Testament.

The word that Matthew used for Spirit is pneúma; and like the Hebrew word rûach, means breath. While that seems like a fantastic find and a solid parallel, it may not answer the questions.

In Revelation 1:10 John says “ I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.” When I look at the Word Study Dictionary I get an in-depth explanation, and one of those explanations leans toward words like this: a feeling, a moment, or an emotion. Since the Spirit of God, as defined by rûach, is the breath of God, what does that feel like? For me, this kind of moment happens during “worship.” It is during these times that it feels as though the Spirit takes my breath away; not in a bad way, but as in an unexplainable excitement. Maybe it is like that first good kiss you got from someone you loved.

So John was lost in the moment, and he uses the phrase, on the Lord’s day. Stuck on this island, he had kept track of the Sabbath days. (I thought I would point that out as we tend to believe this bible of ours is a Gentile invention; it is not.) No longer aware of his surroundings, he heard a voice behind him saying, “Write in a book what you see.” This moment, which started as an undefined period of being lost in God's presence, was about to become very real as John is about to see, in a vision, the end of the age of grace and the catching away of the church, God's judgment coming upon Israel and the nations, and the eternal kingdom finally arrives as Jesus comes back on a white horse with all the saints.

I often say that the New Testament was birthed out of the Old. Is that the case with Revelation 1:10?

It is, and Ezekiel had a similar experience.

Ezekiel 37:1 NASB “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones.”

John told us that he was in the Spirit, while Ezekiel says that the hand of the Lord was upon him. In both cases, the men saw very vivid visions. Ezekiel, like Abraham, was inserted into the vision as the main character.

Indeed, the Spirit can be seen interacting with man and being described as abiding in man, which we saw in Isaiah’s description of Jesus.

Now, as to the trinity, or the three personas of God, or perhaps characteristics of God’s nature. Again we turn to Isaiah.

Isaiah 6:8 CJB  Then I heard the voice of Adonai saying, "Whom should I send? Who will go for us?" I answered, "I'm here, send me!"

Pay attention to both the singularity when Isaiah says, I heard the voice of Adonai saying, whom should I send; and almost immediately, Adonai then says,” who will go for us?”

Did you note the plurality about God in the same sentence?

Admittedly, Isaiah 6:8 does not define who makes up the members of the team, and far too many of us have become very comfortable with the terminology “trinity” even though that word cannot be found in the Bible, just like rapture. However, the idea, concept, and theme that backs up the trinity are all over the Bible.

Example? Just go to Genesis chapter one.

Genesis 1:1-2 CJB  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  (2)  The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water.

Without any additional information, we can identify two individuals, God and the Spirit (of God.) Now, if we take this one more research step further, we can find Jesus; but we have to go to the Gospel of John.

John 1:1-4 CJB  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  (2)  He was with God in the beginning.  (3)  All things came to be through him, and without him nothing made had being.  (4)  In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.”

Initially, it sounds like God was alone, but that perception quickly changes as you see that the Word was with God. Okay, great, I got it, but how do I explain the Word being with God and yet the Word was God.

If I take the information from Genesis 1:1-2, where I see God and the Spirit, alongside John's gospel I have the full integration, or as some would say, the trinity in action. Either way, they are all God and we need to adjust our thinking.

If I chose to be argumentative and say that Jesus has been active in the Old Testament, I could do a search for “the angel of the Lord.” Genesis 18 is one of those places.

Genesis 18:1-2 NASB Now the LORD appeared to him (Abraham) by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. (2) When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth,

The passage tells us that the Lord appeared to him, but what does Abraham describe? He describes three men (angels) and says this to them.

Genesis 18:3 NASB and said, "My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by.

Abraham addresses them as My Lord as if there is only one that needs addressing.

Half the translators put Lord in the lower case, and the Hebrew word for Lord, in this case, is 'âdôn. Strong's tells us it is from an unused root (meaning to rule); sovereign, that is, controller (human or divine): - lord, master, owner. Compare also names beginning with “Adoni-”.

Hagar, the servant of Sarah and the mistress of Abraham, met the Lord.

Genesis 16:6-9 NASB But Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight." So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence. (7) Now the angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. (8) He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from and where are you going?" And she said, "I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai." (9) Then the angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority."

Interesting that Hagar used a different Hebrew word to address this angel that is speaking to her.

The Hebrew is y^ehôvâh and means (the) self Existent or eternal; Jehovah.

How would she know to call Him this?

I don't really know the answer to this question, but it is fascinating how Jesus shows up in the dreams of Muslims and they know that it is Him.

The Book of Exodus opens another can of worms.

Exodus 23:20-21 NASB "Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. (21) "Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him.

In this case, it merely says “an angel.” That in itself, would not necessarily make me think that it is the Son of God, a Christophany, but if you pay attention to verse 21, it says, “since My name is in Him.” As Adam Clarke said, “this statement indicates that He is not one to trifle with.”

Deuteronomy 6:4 NASB "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

Why would God feel the need to define that He is one?

Look at this passage with the Strong's numbers.

Hear,^H8085 O Israel:^H3478 The LORD^H3068 our God^H430 is one^H259 LORD:^H3068 

Hear is the Hebrew word shâma‛ (shema). It is a primitive root and means to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience.

The Lord y^ehôvâh. (The) self Existent or eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God:

Our God is the Hebrew word 'ĕlôhı̂ym. It is the Plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used in the plural of the supreme God;

Genesis 1:26a tells us that God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

“The word "Elohim" and the pronoun “us” are plural forms, definitely referring in the Hebrew language to more than two. While this is not an explicit argument for the Trinity, it does denote the aspect of plurality in God. The Hebrew word for "God," "Elohim," definitely allows for the Trinity.” What does the Bible teach about the Trinity? | GotQuestions.org

What does the Bible teach about the Trinity? | GotQuestions.org What does the Bible say about the Trinity / Triunity? Is the doctrine of the Trinity found in the Bible? How is ...

I am calling it quits here, not that I am done because I am never done, but I have demonstrated that God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, have been active in both the Old Testament and the New. You may have realized that this treatise was not meant for the non-Christian, nor the new believer, as they often have no knowledge of these things and, as yet, see no need to pursue such an understanding.

This “study” came out of conversations with Christian brothers who should know these things; and a brief experience with a false teacher, who on a weekly basis berated the morning Bible study with “your sins will send you to hell.” So, after years of hearing this confusion, it is not surprising to find out that some have no hard-fast understanding of what their relationship with God is, and they are still struggling with basic concepts about this life in Christ.

If you have accepted Christ in your life, then you should know that He has tattooed you on the palm of His hands and will not let you go. If, you thought you were a believer, and have found yourself stuck in the time of God's wrath where the church is gone; then I would suggest that you get serious about faith, the Holy Spirit, and the name of Jesus. All these things will continue to work alongside your momentary salvation. In time, they will get you, especially if you are holding to the testimony of Jesus Christ they will kill you; but rejoice, for to absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

If you have no assurance of your salvation, that is only because you played instead of praying. It's time to get serious. Ask Him into your life before the wrath comes.

To those that live by the letter of the law, that means nothing! John 1:14

Is was not that long ago that my fiancee's mom died. Fortunately, she had a living trust put in place, and with only two siblings it was to be a clean 50/50 split. Being the novice that I am, I assumed that everything would go just peachy; it did not, and the brother quickly demanded the sale of the house so that he could get his half. I don't know what motivated him; I can speculate but that rarely produces any positive outcome on my part, so I stay out of that realm as much as possible. I just know that with my fiancee as the “executor,” she had little power. The position primarily it forced her and me to work fast. We had to work quickly for two reasons:

1. There are time frames you must work within. The time frames are liberal enough, but anything with stress added can have you pulling your hair out.
2. We live in California, and California seems to have gone crazy as far as housing costs go. Rentals can easily cost you two thousand dollars a month. Housing, on the other hand, is averaging $460,000 for the smallest of homes. We were lucky as the assessment used for trust purposes came in low and we got to split that amount, minus expenses. That creates another problem because you are not going to buy much of anything out right anymore.

Am I just whining again? No, there is a point to this.

Even though there was a “living trust” there were problems with interpretation, and, there was an addendum, a handwritten note from grandma expressing desires that were not included in the trust. Now, to those that wish to live by the letter of the law, that means nothing, and the result was that we had to live by the legal and binding document.

Hopefully, you are beginning to catch on to the theme at hand – God's written word and the importance of that Word.

Typically I use the New American Standard Bible translation when I am quoting verses. Is it the best? Well, it is a far sight better than some. However, wisdom tells me to do my homework when I am doing Bible study, and one of the ways I can do that is to compare translations.

John 1:14 NASB “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Let's take little bites at a time.

• “the Word became flesh.”
  What kind of assumptions can I make from this?
  • That Jesus was the Word.
  • That Jesus was not flesh in the beginning.
  • And that there was no way of distinguishing much difference between God, the Word, and Spirit. Each of them, no matter what their form, was present at the beginning of creation.
  • This act of becoming flesh was not simply some genetic blob that evolved into man, the Word, an entity separate and yet in every way an aspect of God, became a man.
  Most of you know this story line.

Did Christ, in his grand entrance into the world, merely step into it as a full grown man? The answer is, NO. He came as a newborn child. How and why would that present a problem?

How and why would that present a problem?

If you have grandchildren, then you know that some can be a blessing, while others can make you want to pull your hair out. Jesus had the potential for being one of the two options; however, God bypassed the broken nature of man by injected his sperm into the woman, eliminating Jesus being born with a sin nature.

What does that mean?

It means that sin was not the driving force behind everything He did. A marked contrast to the struggles we humans always deal with. 

(Get a grip! Just because you are not an alcoholic does not mean you don't have SIN issues. In other words, you miss the mark, just as I do. Perhaps yours, like the Apostle Paul and I, is anger. Maybe you are unfortunate enough to struggle with codependency issues – those are large enough to debilitate you.)

So the bottom line here is that we all have issues that push us just hard enough to miss the bulls-eye. If you are foolish enough to try to tell me that you don't have any problems, then chalk your maladjustment up to pride.

You, being knowledgeable in the scriptures, know that the Bible tells us that Jesus never sinned. Since we also know that sinning is merely missing the mark - an easy issue when target shooting, then we can say that Jesus never missed the mark.

To be honest, I struggle with this story when I read it because Jesus intentionally made a whip of cords so that he could drive the money changers and vendors out of the Gentile court of the temple. How do I justify what looks like anger and its associated level of violence, especially when I struggle with such things?

Still, He never sinned. If He had, he could not have been the spotless lamb sacrificed on the cross, at the hands of the high priest that day.

Okay, let's settle some arguments because they will come.

• Who spoke with Abram, telling him that he would be the father of many nations?
  The answer is the pre-incarnate Jesus. I realize that is a religious word, but all it means is the embodiment of Jesus before his birth. Egad, how does that happen? In this case two ways:

1. Probably because the dream/vision that Abram had was so vivid that it had no distinction from reality. No one seems to pay attention to that aspect, and if you get involved with most any church, and they talk about this moment in time, they will relate it as though Jesus/God actually did this. I know that is what I thought.
2. Another possibility is that God works in dimensions of space and time that are outside of our comprehension. Mind you that statement is not such a stretch, as Albert Einstein also theorized that these dimensions exist. A Jewish Rabbi and thinker from the fifteenth century, named Maimonides came up with these same concepts using the Law and the Prophets (The Torah and the Talmud.) Therefore it is feasible that God operates within the realm of reality as He invades your dreams.
   Another example: Many within the Muslim world, having never opened a Bible, are having dreams in which Jesus shows up and speaks to them. Since they have nothing which might give them a preconceived idea of what Jesus looks like, how is it that they know who He is?

So we have multiple incursions by Jesus, before His birth through Mary, into the world. Many of these are designated as the angel of the Lord, and Jacob is a good example of that. (You can read about Jacob and this incident in Genesis 28.)

• “and dwelt among us”

The Complete Jewish Bible translated this verse as:

(CJB) The Word became a human being and lived with us, and we saw his Sh'khinah, the Sh'khinah of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.

The thing I want to focus on is the phrase, “and dwelt among us.”

The words seem simple enough, but consider that we have people who live next door to us, and yet, we never know them. To comprehend that God lived with us in an intimate way, one that touchable, just seems incomprehensible, doesn't it?

Was Jesus life some secret that proves to the world that He is merely some fairy tale and therefore unknowable? NO, everybody knew he was here. Why could they not say, I did not know He was here? Because of the message he spoke and the things he did. What Jesus said and did got spread throughout the villages and remote places to the point that people came from everywhere to hear Him and get whatever they could from Him. True, many came just because of what they could get from Him. Others, especially the Pharisees, came to fight and eventually to kill Him – or so they thought, while an ever increasing number chose to be disciples alongside the original 12.

To say He dwelt among us could imply someone aloof and unreachable, and that is why translations such as the Complete Jewish Bible, or Darby's translation which says he, dwelt among us. Give us the idea that He was here because God had an intent or plan.

That plan included the demonstration of who He was. If that is the case, what did God demonstrate about Himself? (To comprehend a question like this requires your submission to the idea that Jesus was God.)

If you, like the Jews, are not convinced, what would it take to convince you, which is one of the main reasons John wrote this gospel? 

Jesus himself said, “if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” That should have been enough, but he also told the critics that he only did what He saw the Father do. How would any of that have taken place without being before the Father in glory? That is why apologists, like Lee Stroebel, make bold statements like Jesus was either a bold faced liar or He was the Son of God, as He said because no man would have given himself willingly to such torture and death for such a lie.

You can begin by turning your life over to Him.

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I can understand Thomas. Part 5 of 5

This section on Thomas seems like it could stand alone, we often get sermons that do just that, and yet it is deeply intertwined on the basis of belief, doubt, and mercy. Thomas, it seems, is unfairly singled out, for he believed no more or less than the others. No doubt, Thomas was very open with his thoughts, that does not necessarily make you a dissenter. Historically we know that Thomas died a martyr in the service of Christ, proving his loyalty to the master.

In John's gospel, chapter 11, verses 1-54, despite imminent danger at the hands of hostile Jews, Jesus declared His intention of going to Bethany to heal Lazarus,....

John 11:8 NASB The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?"

Thomas alone opposed the other disciples who sought to dissuade Him, and protested,

John 11:16 NASB Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, so that we may die with Him."

I can understand Thomas; I relate to him easily. He sees things in black and white, this is the kind of reaction you get from someone who has experienced grief and pain. I know, I have been there.

John 20:24 NASB But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

I made an assumption once again. I assumed that Thomas was with them in the house. Every flannel graph I ever saw as I was growing up in church school, showed Thomas there with them. Truth is we do not know where Thomas was; perhaps he was with his own family. He does not come back into the picture for eight days.

John 20:25 NASB So the other disciples were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."

Thomas had not gone to the tomb; he did not hear Mary's testimony of how Jesus appeared to her; he was not there when Jesus appeared in the closed room with them, and showed them the wounds in his wrists and feet.

John left off the part where none of them believed upon seeing the wounds, wounds that the people in that room knew would have been there, and they failed to mention that when Jesus spoke to them about all the things written about Him in scripture, things He had previously told them about Himself, still did not convince them. It was only after he asked for and ate some broiled fish that their eyes were open and they believed.

There is that word again, believe.

How many times now, in this twentieth chapter have we seen this concept?

What did they believe this time?

John 20:26 NASB After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."

Eight days after the first appearance of Jesus He appears again.

Again there is a significance and I missed it. Truthfully I am not getting it fully but here is what I am picking up on. While the death of Jesus put them into a depression, and sent everyone back to whatever they had known so that they could continue living. The disciples still had one common bond, and that was to meet together on the first day, Sunday. In that house, a place they have been so many times, they ate together, talked about what they saw and heard Jesus say that day; they talked about what was to become our life in Christ, and they bonded with each other. Do we see that directly by our casual glances at God's word? NO! We have to pay attention to details.

Apparently life was permitted to get in the way at times and that may be what we saw with Thomas. Jesus death was certainly a life event and none of us knows how deeply it affected Thomas.

(If you read this, thinking it's farcical conjecture, then I ask you to think about almost every event that centers on Jesus as you read the gospels. Where were they when these things took place? Jerusalem, near or in the temple or synagogues, or in the court-yard that women and gentiles had access to. The Sabbath is over and they are allowed to travel beyond the distance limit that Jewish law prescribed. And the fact that Sabbath ended at sunset making it the perfect time to recap a days events. This kind of thought opens all kinds of doors for speculation about how they lived their lives. They may have fished throughout the week and made the migration into Jerusalem before Sabbath began, making base camp at “the house”. Can you imagine what it would be like to spend even 24 hours in the presence of Jesus one day a week. I want so badly to say my life would be changed, but then the thought occurs to me, He lives in me!)

John MacArthur's commentary says this about Thomas, and I agree with his conclusion. "Thomas has already been portrayed as loyal, but pessimistic. Jesus did not rebuke Thomas for his failure, but instead compassionately offered him proof of His resurrection. Jesus lovingly met him at the point of his weakness (2Timothy_2:13). Thomas' actions indicated that Jesus had to convince the disciples rather forcefully of His resurrection, i.e., they were not gullible people predisposed to believing in resurrection. The point is they would not have fabricated it or hallucinated it, since they were so reluctant to believe, even with the evidence they could see.”

I am always battling past the voices in my head that try to tell me, “You have said enough already. No one needs to hear your rambling on anymore!” I could not tell you distinctly what a demon voice sounds like. (Well, there was that once when I was a child and I heard this distorted voice come out of a beautiful woman that the “men” of the church were praying over in an attempt to release her from demon possession. She sounded like some of those creepy voices they make up in the movies; you know the ones that make you lose sleep for weeks, as she said with a cackle, I know who you are.) Most of the time they are familiar voices; the same ones that sound like an old supervisor, your dad, your mom, an ex-wife; probably the same ones that told you cannot do it, make it, or succeed.) See, you are not so different from me. And we, are not so different from the disciples.

The next two passages really need no great discussion, for we have seen this, almost word for word when Jesus appeared in the closed room eight days earlier.

John 20:27-28 NASB Then He *said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing." (28) Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"

I will give Thomas this. At this gesture he believed. The rest of them had to sit through a foundational study given Jesus himself, and still could not believe. It was not until Jesus proved he was not a ghost by eating some fish, that they believed. Thomas bypassed two steps in his ascent to faith.

Perhaps we make the assumption that Thomas' statement was literal, and that he shoved his hands into the hole in Jesus side. Just the thought of that is disgusting. You ought to understand by now that Thomas was “Mr. Brash Statement” guy himself. Jesus, disgusted by the disciples lack of understanding, told the guys they were going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Thomas responds to all this with, “let's go to Jerusalem and die with him.” Everyone understood what he meant, and the possibilities were real. If that was to be their fate that day, it would have happened. But do you think Jesus was going to allow anything outside of the Father's will to happen?

John 20:29 NASB Jesus *said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."

I do not know if it is the emphasis that a preacher puts on this passage, but I cannot remember a time that it ever came across as a positive for Thomas.

Think about what John has shown us by word pictures. Jesus showed up in a closed room. Gives a common greeting of peace, and begins multiple attempts at proofs necessary for bringing them back to a foundation of belief. With Thomas, Jesus does the same thing, but does not have to go through every step, and Thomas believes. The other disciples, and those with them, DID NOT BELIEVE, and took so much more convincing.

(It may have been necessary, because the believer that has poured over scripture has seen that this foundation is rehashed many times in scripture, and is foundational to our belief as well. This may have been purposefully done this way as a way of establishing these concepts in them. I am glad they did.)

So, who believe without seeing could be directed at us. We only have the words on a page, and images those words build within us. Not seeing this Jesus, but trusting His words, I believe.

Perhaps it all boils down to this:

John 20:31 MSG These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.

If there was a person that could sell this to us, it would be John.

He had to work through all the unbelief and doubt,

He had to conquer his anger and rage,

He had to learn what love really was.

When you think about all the years of mellowing that God put him through, initiating him into manhood, it is easier to see more clearly what happened this day, as John did.

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