|
DIRECTORY
Home
General LDS Information
Basic LDS Beliefs
LDS Videos
Critics' Questions
Submitted Questions
Scriptures/LDS Literature
Genealogy/Family
LDS Temples
Missionary
Music and Arts
LDS Online Stores
Priesthood, Humor, Miscel.
Site Map
Suggest a Site
Now accepting banner ads!
|
|
KEITH - Who has the Holy Ghost personally appeared to . I'm sure some one showed me a scripture years ago where he appeared in his spirit body to an individual.
JOEL - The short answer to your question is, Nephi in the Book of Mormon. Now for the long answer.
According to the Doctrine and Covenants the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit:
"The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us." (D&C 130:22).
And Jesus referred to the Holy Ghost as a male person. Speaking to his disciples, he said:
“… It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” (John 16:7)
The only recorded instance of the personage of the Holy Ghost actually appearing to someone in a way that they could tell what He looks like is that of the expereince of Nephi when he asked for an interpretation of the dream his father Lehi had. Nephi was caught away into a high mountain by the spirit of the Lord and after the spirit asked him what he wanted Nephi said:
11 "And I said unto him: To know the interpretation thereof—for I spake unto him as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another." (1 Nep 11:11)
There has been some debate in the past as to whether what Nephi saw was the pre-mortal spirit of Jesus Christ (eg. Ether 3: 14-17), or if it was the Holy Ghost. But most LDS scholars and past general authorities agree that it was indeed the Holy Ghost.
Elder James E. Talmadge said:
“That the [Holy Ghost] is capable of manifesting Himself in the form and figure of man, is indicated by the wonderful interview between the Spirit and Nephi, in which He revealed Himself to the prophet, questioned him concerning his desires and belief, instructed him in the things of God, speaking face to face with the man.
‘I spake unto him,’ says Nephi, ‘as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another.’ ” (Discourses on the Holy Ghost, comp. N. B. Lundwall, Bookcraft, Inc., 1959, p. 13.)
Joseph Smith said:
"The Holy Ghost is a personage, and is in the form of a personage." (TPJS p. 276)
Also, in most every instance in the Book of Mormon when the term "spirit of the Lord" is used the way Nephi did, the context is refering to the Holy Ghost (1 Nep 11:19, 29, Morm 2:26, Morm 5:16, Moroni 9:4, Mos 4:3, Hel 4:24. See also, Acts 2: 4, John 1:32, John 7:39, 1 Cor 12:3, D&C 36:2, D&C 121:26)
So there is a high probability that it was Nephi who saw the spirit body of the Holy Ghost.
|
|
|
