Question
Gramps,
Was the Holy Ghost present while Christ was on the earth?
Steve
Answer
Steve,
Thank you for your question. The simple answer to your question is yes. Please stay with me as I go into more detail to show some examples.
Christ’s Birth
We’ll start out right before Christ was born.
Matthew 1:18 says,
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
Bruce R. McConkie said this regarding this event,
“Just as Jesus is literally the son of Mary, so he is the personal and literal offspring of God the Eternal Father, who himself is an exalted personage having a tangible body of flesh and bones…Matthew’s statement, ‘she was found with child of the Holy Ghost,’ properly translated should say, ‘she was found with child by the power of the Holy Ghost.‘” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 1:82.)
Baptism of Jesus Christ
Now let’s move on to the baptism of Jesus Christ.
Luke 3:22 states,
22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.
Again from Bruce R. McConkie,
“By way of interpretation, the Prophet Joseph Smith said that ‘the sign of the dove’ was given as a witness that the baptism had divine approval. ‘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,’ he said. ‘The Holy Ghost is a personage, and is in the form of a personage. . . . 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 dove is an emblem or token of truth and innocence.’ (History of the Church 5:261.)” (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1985], 255.)
Led Into the Wilderness
Luke 4:1 states,
1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
So as you can see from these examples, the Holy Ghost was present when Christ was on the earth. In fact, Christ relied heavily on the Spirit of the Holy Ghost to guide him just as we rely on the Holy Ghost in our own lives.
Gramps
