During elders quorum today, the instructor commented that Jesus is the Second Comforter. It seemed a bit odd to me, but the Bible Dictionary supports this idea.
It seems at odds with a couple of other scriptures. Consider John 14:16:
I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter
If the first comforter is the Holy Ghost, why does Jesus refer to him as another comforter? Another implies that a comforter already existed.
How do we reconcile this apparent discrepancy?
John 14:16-18
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Doctrine and Covenants 93:26
26 The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth;
So, here we have Jesus self-identifying as the Spirit of Truth, and explaining he will come to the believer. Indeed, we already know Jesus is the truth, the way, and the life (John 14:6).
The Holy Ghost, in other words, *is* the first comforter; the Lord himself is the second comforter.
We were discussing this at a bible group last month and the general conclusion was that the ‘Holy Ghost’ is indeed the first comforter and the Lord is the second comforter. I was certainly happy with that explanation.