Why did Jesus say he had to leave in order to send the Holy Spirit?
Que the flood of people claiming convenience for the Churches to make him disaappear into heaven as he was dead etc etc. I would rather have some not so predictable replies, preferably theological.

Just guessing here but the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus as John baptized Him. So it was with Him during His ministry when Jesus was the teacher. And became the teacher in spirit when Jesus returned to be with the Father.

I never could understand this. The spirit descended on particular people during old testament days, but the reasoning why it was nesessary for Jesus to leave in order to send the Spirit 'enmass' so to speak evades me.
What you have said Irish does not really address the question,-or am I missing your point?

My point is that as all three are One (the Trinity) They serve different purposes Jesus was the physical incarnation of both the Father and the Spirit, in order to fulfill prophesies a physical incarnation was a necessity. After the resurrection and ascension the Spirits purpose was to affirm and teach what had taken place.

Could he not have stayed on earth in conjunction with the Spirit?

Good point, I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for that.

I suspect this is a distinction we might not have the proper context to understand. We can't really grasp God's nature, and different divisions of Christianity interpret things like the exact nature of Jesus very differently. There's quite a lot of differing opinion around to confuse the issue from the perspective of someone looking for the facts.

Some might even say it's beyond us to understand, which might also be true, but I usually regard that statement as a copout and don't generally use it.

Are u saying that it has something to do with the fundamental nature of Christ/God?

Well, I think that if we could reach a consensus on what the fundamental nature of Christ/God was, it would certainly make discussion easier. I've heard Jesus described as an embodiment of the Holy Spirit before, as an embodiment of God, and as a completely separate entity...not to mention the offshoots and blends of these.

So really, how one defines Jesus's nature in a sense determines how one will answer the question you posed.

are you talking about John 14? this describes the holy spirit as a broker of the Father's favor, a role that Jesus was fufilling while on earth. i guess it would have just been overredundant to have two entities fufilling the same purpose at the same time.

This will not do. Redundant to have God in bodily form and spiritual form on earth together, how could this be ?

Maybe it has something to do with the process of salvation. That the physical proof of Jesus may infact hamper faith. Would an ever present Jesus really make it any easier to believe?

Irish: Why wouldn't the Holy Spirit have entered Jesus at conception?

It would be reduntant to have Jesus and the Spirit both playing the broker to the Father's favor at the same time. the way i read that passage, it seems that Jesus is saying that he wont be around to teach and broker the Father's favor and he is sending a replacement to do that.

also, it looks like the Spirit will only be brokering favor for Jesus' group and not with just anyone that shows up.