As I said unto mine apostles, even so I say unto you, for ye are mine apostles. * * * Therefore, * * * I say unto you again, that every soul who believeth on your words, and is baptized by water for the remission of sins, shall receive the Holy Ghost.[A]
[Footnote A: Dov. and Cov. Sec. lxxxiv:65, 64.]
So to those who have faith in the revelations which the Lord has given through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the promise of the Holy Ghost is repeated, and assurance is made doubly sure.
5. Sign of the Holy Ghost: The descent of the Holy Ghost upon Jesus and its abiding with him, was to be John's sign that he it was who would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. He knew not who that divine person was in Israel until this sign should be given to him. Hence we have him saying, after the sign had designated Jesus as the one who would baptize with the Holy Ghost—"I knew him not; but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, 'Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptized with the Holy Ghost; and I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God."[A]
[Footnote A: St. John i:32, 34.]
In the Holy Ghost thus designating Jesus of Nazareth, we are informed, according to John's testimony, that he "saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him";[A] and to this the other evangelists agree, except that St. Luke emphasizes the account by adding "in bodily form." "The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him."[B] The incident has been the occasion of much and varied comment. Can it be that the Holy Ghost takes on varied and really physical forms? And is that "spiritual personage," such as we have represented the Holy Ghost to be in these Lessons, really a permanent, personal spirit-personage, or is he an evanescent one? Appearing now in this form, now in that? Now, perhaps, as "burning bush"; now as a "dove"; now as "cloven tongues as of fire"; and now "in form of a man?" It is more in keeping with the dignity of this Divine Personage, as I conceive the revelations describing him, to think of him as a spirit-personage, permanent as to his spirit, individual form; which would lead us necessarily to the conclusion that these other forms of "dove" and "cloven tongues as of fire," were but manifestations of his presence only, not really he, himself; these other forms were but insignia of him.
[Footnote A: St. John i:32.]
[Footnote B: St. Luke iii:22. The International Revision Commentary on the New Testament, says of the passage: "This statement, in which all four evangelists agree, is to be understood literally. A temporary embodiment of the Holy Spirit occurred to inaugurate our Lord as the Messiah."
"In bodily shape;" "that is," says the Commentary of Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, on the passage in Matthew iii:16—"that is, the blessed Spirit, assuming the corporeal form of a dove, descended thus upon his sacred head." "And in this form because the emblem of chastity, purity, meekness, gentleness, beauteousness," Dummelow's Commentary says: "As he (the Christ) rises from the baptismal waters, the Holy Ghost, the living bond of love and unity in the Godhead descends. The appearance of the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove was a symbolic vision, and, as spiritual things are spiritually discerned, the vision was probably seen only by our Lord and the Baptist. The dove is the type of the Spirit because of its innocence, gentleness and affection. (Dummelow Commentary, p. 632).]
To this conclusion one is helped by the teaching of the Prophet of the New Dispensation. Joseph Smith, in a discourse at the Nauvoo Temple, on the 29th day of January, 1843, said—and his remarks were especially prepared as he was answering some doctrinal questions about the mission of John, the Baptist, the greatness of it—"He was entrusted with the important mission to baptize the Son of Man," said the Prophet; "Whoever had the honor of doing that? Whoever had so great a privilege and glory? Whoever led the Son of God into the waters of baptism, and had the privilege of beholding the Holy Ghost descend in the form of a dove, or rather in the sign of the dove, in witness of that administration? The sign of the dove was instituted before the creation of the world, a witness for the Holy Ghost, and the devil cannot come in the sign of a dove. The Holy Ghost is a personage, and is in the form of a personage. It does not confine [conform?] itself to the form of a dove, but in sign of the dove. The Holy Ghost cannot be transformed into a dove; but the sign of a dove was given to John to signify the truth of the deed, as the above is an emblem or token of truth and innocence."[A]