The Godhead

"Another Comforter" in Greek is allos parakletos (para=beside, kletos=one who comes)
That is, "one who comes to stand beside" Advocate, Intercessor, Helper, Standby

"All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ. It was the Son of God that gave to our first parents the promise of redemption. It was He who revealed Himself to the patriarchs." The Faith I Live By p. 47

"The life of Christ that gives life to the world is in His word. It was by His word that Jesus healed disease and cast out demons; by His word He stilled the sea, and raised the dead; and the people bore witness that His word was with power. He spoke the word of God, as He had spoken through all the prophets and teachers of the Old Testament. The whole Bible is a manifestation of Christ, and the Saviour desired to fix the faith of His followers on the word. When His visible presence should be withdrawn, the word must be their source of power. Like their Master, they were to live "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4." Desire of Ages p. 390

allos (another/more of the same kind, quantitative) vs heteros (of a different kind, qualitative)

John 14:17__You know him for he is with you and will be in you

Jesus the parakletos of flesh is with them; in His human form
another parakletos of spirit will be in them in His spirit form, "more of the same"

We will still be ourselves only in a different form with the same character, memories, mind.

Paul begins his second letter to the Corinthians by introducing the two Great Comforters.
God the Father is the God of all comfort. And our comfort abounds by the Son.
This comfort we share with others.

Jesus is the true Noah

Gen 5:29__ And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us

Our Comforter shared the same temptations, the same sufferings that we experience in His human body

Heb 2:17,18__in all things…made like unto his brethren, that He might be…able to help them

Jesus didn't partake of the human experience just to send somebody else, He is our Helper

Jesus Speaks of Himself as He
Jesus frequently spoke of Himself (not someone else) as He and Him rather than I and Me

Use of the third person does not mean that Jesus was referring to someone else.

Jesus will come
John 14:17__You know him [the Spirit of truth]; for he dwells with you.

Jesus is already known and with them now, but He will be in them in the future.

"Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He [Christ] should leave them, go to His [Christ's] Father, and send the Holy Spirit to be His [Christ's] successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself [Christ] divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He [Christ] would represent Himself [Christ] as present in all places by His [Christ's] Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent." Manuscript Releases, v14, p. 23.

"The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity."
Divest means to remove or withdraw, the opposite of invest.
Since the Spirit never had a human personality to divest, the "Himself" in this passage must refer to Christ who could divest His human personality in sending His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. "He" and "His" in the last sentence of the quotation above must refer to the same antecedent: Christ.

not to a surrogate husband but to Himself.
If we are dealing with two persons (Spirit and Jesus) it's polygamy.
As Laban substituted Leah for Rachael, "another" would be substituted for Christ

"The Holy Spirit is the breath of spiritual life in the soul. The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ… The Holy Spirit will enter the heart that can boast of nothing. The love of Jesus will fill the vacuum that is made by the emptying out of self. Those who see Christ in His true character, and receive Him into the heart, have everlasting life. It is through the Spirit that Christ dwells in us; and the Spirit of God, received into the heart by faith, is the beginning of the life eternal." The Faith I Live By p. 57

The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ and dwells in us, because we are the temple of God.
The LORD puts His Spirit in us; He abides in us by the Spirit which He has given us.
The Holy Spirit is the life of Christ, the attributes of Christ.
The Holy Spirit enters our heart and the love of Jesus fills us. Christ lives in us.
Through the Spirit Christ dwells in us as the Spirit of God is received into the heart.

God, the Father of all, is above all;
as Jesus Christ the mediator He is through all; (no one comes to the Father but by Jesus)
and as His Spirit He dwell in us all.

Rom 11:36 expresses the same thought: "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things"
All things, all blessings come from God, through Jesus;
and all praise and worship return, through Jesus to God.
This includes His Spirit.

"The Comforter is called "the Spirit of truth." His work is to define and maintain the truth. He first dwells in the heart as the Spirit of truth, and thus He becomes the Comforter. There is comfort and peace in the truth" Desire of Ages p. 671

"When Christ is in the heart, He is brought into the family. The father and mother feel the importance of living in obedience to the Holy Spirit so that the heavenly angels, who minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, will minister to them" Adventist Home p. 327

"you have a Comforter, the Holy Spirit, which Christ has appointed. You are never alone. If you will listen to the voice that now speaks to you, if you will respond without delay to the knocking at the door of your heart, 'Come in, Lord Jesus, that I may sup with Thee, and Thee with me,' the heavenly Guest will enter." Adventist Home p. 350

"Henceforth through the Spirit, Christ was to abide continually in the hearts of His children. Their union with Him was closer than when He was personally with them." Steps to Christ p. 75.

"Paul realized that his sufficiency was not in himself, but in the presence of the Holy Spirit, whose gracious influence filled his heart, bringing every thought into subjection to Christ." AA p. 251

"It is the Spirit of God that quickens the lifeless faculties of the soul to appreciate heavenly things, and attracts the affections toward God and the truth. Without the presence of Jesus in the heart, religious service is only dead, cold formalism. The longing desire for communion with God soon ceases when the Spirit of God is grieved from us; but when Christ is within us the hope of glory, we are constantly directed to think and act in reference to the glory of God." Review & Herald 1888, No. 16

"...the Holy Spirit is the comforter, as the personal presence of Christ to the soul." Review & Herald, Nov 39, 1892, Vol. 2 p. 617, col. 3.

"But no distance, no circumstances can separate us from 'the Comforter.' Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is there, always a Presence, a Person connected with heaven, One given us in Christ's place, to act in His stead." Manuscript Releases Vol. 2 p. 32 (Letter 89b, 3-22-1987).

"The Holy Spirit is the vital presence of God, and if appreciated will call forth praise and thanksgiving, and will ever be springing up unto everlasting life." YRP 284

The Holy Spirit is sometimes referred to as "he" in Scripture because the Spirit of God is not just a "Force" but the actual, personal presence of both the Father and the Son.

2Cor 3:17__Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son are with us. They promise to never leave us.
But they dwell in us in an invisible, intangible yet very real and personal spiritual form.
Because the presence of God is holy, His Spirit is holy. It is the Holy Spirit.

"Christ gives them the life of his life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in mind and heart." EG White, Review and Herald, January 5, 1911 par. 6.

"Christ gives them the breath of His own spirit, the life of His own life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in heart and mind." EG White, The Desire of Ages, p. 827.

"The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ." EG White, The Desire of Ages, p. 805.

This explanation of the Godhead fits all the facts.
God has a Son. God has a Spirit. Both proceed from Him.

"The Holy Spirit, as His representative, and the heavenly angels, as ministering spirits, are sent forth to aid those who against great odds are fighting the good fight of faith. Ever remember that Jesus is your helper. No one understands as well as He your peculiarities of character." Amazing Grace Chapter 188

The Son is a separate being from the Father because He has a human nature.
But the Holy Spirit is an extension of the Father.
It is His Spirit by which He is present everywhere.

Ps 139:7__Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Where can I flee from Thy presence?

The Father dwells in His Son by His Spirit. Thus, they are one.
The Son dwells in us by the same Spirit. Thus, we are one with God, as they are one.

Notice "glory" is given to also achieve "oneness". God's glory is His Spirit.

Rev 18:1__Another angel comes down with great power and the earth is lightened with his glory.

We understand this to mean the outpouring of the Latter Rain, the Holy Spirit.

Three in One
But what about the text that says "these three are one" ?

Many read this to say "these three are one God."
But the oneness is concerning the record.
Look at the context of the surrounding verses.

They are in one agreement. They have a unified witness. And what is the witness?

The witness of God, the record, the testimony is that Jesus is the Son of God.

The Father Himself made this witness.
At the baptism…
Matt 3:17__And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

And on the mount of transfiguration…
Matt 17:5__a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

The Son of God testified:
John 10:36__I said, I am the Son of God

All four gospels record this event. All four list the Son, the voice of God, and the Spirit of God.
There were three manifestations representing two Persons.

"Never before had angels listened to such a prayer as Christ offered at his baptism, and they were solicitous to be the bearers of the message from the Father to his Son. But, no! direct from the Father issues the light of his glory. The heavens were opened, and beams of glory rested upon the Son of God and assumed the form of a dove, in appearance like burnished gold. The dove-like form was emblematical of the meekness and gentleness of Christ. While the people stood spell-bound with amazement, their eyes fastened upon Christ, from the opening heavens came these words: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" Review & Herald Jan 21, 1873

But there are also serious questions as to whether 1John 5:7 was actually written by John.
This text is called the Comma Johanneum and is only found in early Latin texts
and is not in Greek manuscripts until after the 15th century.

"I saw that God had especially guarded the Bible; yet when copies of it were few, learned men had in some instances changed the words, thinking that they were making it more plain, when in reality they were mystifying that which was plain, by causing it to lean to their established views which were governed by tradition. But I saw that the Word of God, as a whole, is a perfect chain, one portion linking into and explaining another." Early Writings pp. 220, 221

The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary agrees:

"The passage as given in the KJV is in no Greek MS earlier than the 15th and the 16th centuries. The disputed words found their way into the KJV by way of the Greek text of Erasmus (see Vol. V, p. 141). It is said that Erasmus offered to include the disputed words in his Greek Testament if he were shown even one Greek MS that contained them. A library in Dublin produced such a MS (known as 34), and Erasmus included the passage in his text. It is now believed that the later editions of the Vulgate acquired the passage by the mistake of a scribe who included an exegetical marginal comment in the Bible text that he was copying. The disputed words have been widely used in support of the doctrine of the Trinity, but, in view of such overwhelming evidence against their authenticity, their support is valueless and should not be used. In spite of their appearance in the Vulgate A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture freely admits regarding these words: "It is now generally held that this passage, called the Comma Johanneum, is a gloss that crept into the text of the Old Latin and Vulgate at an early date, but found its way into the Greek text only in the 15th and 16th centuries" (Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1951, p. 1186) The SDA Bible Commentary, comments on 1 John 5: 7

Earlier Greek manuscripts have the following:

6 houtos estin ho elthon ...di hudatos kai haimatos, Iesous Xristos ouk en to hudatu monon,
....this ....is ...the coming thru ..water .and ..blood, .....Jesus ..Christ ..not .by the water ..only,

all en ..to hudati kai en to haimati kai to pneuma eston to marturoun,
but by the water and by the blood and the wind .....is ..the witness

hoti ......to pneuma esto he aletheia. [hudatos (hydro), haimatos (heme)]
because the wind ....is ..the truth

7 hoti ....treis ...eistun ...hoi ....marturountes
Because three they-are the-ones witnessing

8 to pneuma kai to hudor kai ..to haima, kai hoi treis eis to .hen eistin.
..the wind ...and the water and the blood and the three in the one they-are

No mention of the Father, the Word, or the Holy Spirit.
The subject is Jesus Christ coming through water and blood and wind (breath, spirit).
These are said to be three witnesses that are united, not conflicting in their testimony.

Witness of the Water
How did Jesus coming through water to witness that He was the Son of God?

Jesus dispenses the living water of His Spirit.

He comes as the Latter Rain.

And He changed water into wine as a demonstration of His creative power.

Witness of the Blood
How did Jesus coming through the blood to witness that He was the only Son of God?

Witness of the Wind
How did Jesus coming through the wind to witness that He was the Son of God?

The water and the blood and the wind all testify that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.
He is the Water of Life, and the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.
And He is the breath of life, breathing new life into our souls which are dead in sin.

As Michael, the Archangel, He was first mediator between God and angels.
As Christ He is our mediator.

"No middle-man comes between the sinner and Christ." Signs of the Times, June 28, 1899

"We have only one channel of approach to God. Our prays can come to him through one name only,--that of the Lord Jesus our advocate. His Spirit must inspire our petitions. No strange fire was to be used in the censers that were waved before God in the sanctuary. So the Lord himself must kindle in our hearts the burning desire, if our prayers are acceptable to him. The Holy Spirit within must make intercessions for us." Revier & Herald Feb 9, 1897

Humanity needs to hear from God and we need to go to God;
we need a Word from Him and a Way to Him.
We need a revelation from God and reconciliation with God.
Jesus provides both as our High Priest.
God met this need in the Old Testament by providing the Levitical Priesthood.

The high priest's robe was composed of four colors: gold, blue, purple, and scarlet.
This represented Christ's Deity, His heavenly origin, His royal mediatorship, and His sacrificial sufferings.
The Hebrew word for priest (cohen) describes one who stands up for another and mediates in their behalf.
While both Christ and the Spirit intercede and stand by us (parakleteis) there is also an independence..

Christ and the Holy Spirit intercede in different directions.
Christ intercedes on our behalf to those in heaven;
His Spirit intercedes on the behalf of heaven in our hearts.

"Christ, our Mediator, and the Holy Spirit are constantly interceding in man's behalf, but the Spirit pleads not for us as does Christ, who presents His blood, shed from the foundation of the world; the Spirit works upon our hearts, drawing out prayers and penitence, praise and thanksgiving." 1 Selected Messages, p. 344.

"While Jesus, our Intercessor, pleads for us in heaven, the Holy Spirit works in us, to will and to do of His good pleasure." Signs of the Times (Oct 3, 1892) Vol. 2 p. 516 col 3. DA p. 671

"Through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the heart. Thus He exposes error, and expels it from the soul. It is by the Spirit of truth, working through the word of God, that Christ subdues His chosen people to Himself." "Every sincere prayer is heard in heaven. It may not be fluently expressed; but if the heart is in it, it will ascend to the sanctuary where Jesus ministers, and He will present it to the Father without one awkward, stammering word, beautiful and fragrant with the incense of His own perfection." Desire of Ages p. 666

"The angels of God are ascending, bearing the prayers of hte needy and distressed to the Father above." Desire of Ages p. 143

Distinctions: Firm and Fuzzy
Jesus and the Father are clearly distinct and separate individuals.
Jesus prays to His Father, He does what the Father does,
He receives life, power, authority, his name and judgment from the Father.

The Spirit and the Father, however, are not clearly distinct and separate.
This is why there are so many references to the Spirit of God, Spirit of the Father, His Spirit, Spirit of Christ,
Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit and to God at the same time, because the Spirit is God's Spirit.

Likewise, the Spirit and Christ are not clearly distinct and separate.
They often appear to be one and the same.

Jesus is our Advocate (parakletos); the Holy Spirit is also our Comforter (parakletos).
Jesus is the Truth; the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.
Jesus is the Life of every man; the Holy Spirit is the quickening, life-giving Spirit.
Jesus promises to be with us always; the Holy Spirit is to dwell with us forever.
Christ is to be in us, live in us, abide in us;
God sends the Spirit of Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit, into our hearts.

These verses feature two distinct manifestations of the Godhead

Father, Son & Holy Spirit
A smaller number of texts include the Spirit as the bonding agent, the communication link

The Spirit addresses God as Father, because the Spirit is the Father's Son.
Jesus called God, Father. So does the Spirit of Jesus.