The Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John Essay Example for Free

The Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John Essay This paper will analyze the elements of the Gospel of John. Specifically, it will deal with the specific primary texts in the Gospel that deal with the Holy Spirit, and afterwards, will deal with the secondary literature on this topic. The basic argument here is that the purpose of the Sprit is to head the church and to guide the faithful to truth, avoiding heresy and schism. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy Trinity: while the father is the uncreated hypostasis, he, outside of time, begets the Son, and the Holy Sprit proceeds from the father and rests in the Son. The Father is the principle of creation, the Son its Logos, its reason and interconnectedness, and it is sacralized through the church by the action of the Spirit. These are three persons to be found in a single God, a God with one nature. I. â€Å"And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. † This is the first mention of the Spirit in John’s Gospel. He seems to ratify the baptism of Christ, showing very quickly in the first chapter that Christ is indeed God, and the Tripartite nature of the Godhead is being revealed to the world for the first time. The Spirit here acts as an autonomous entity (i. e. it is not a â€Å"part of† either the Father or the Son). Christ is to be bathed in the Spirit so as to show that He is the New Covenant: as the spirit (as yet unknown) descended upon the Ark in the Old Covenant, and rested upon Mary at the Annunciation, the Spirit again shows the divinity of the New Covenant, Christ, by descending at his baptism. In Christ’s conversation with Nikodemus, Christ speak of being born again. Making reference to the sacrament of baptism, Christ says that â€Å"unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. † Just as Christ revealed Himself as the Son of God through the descent of the Spirit, so too Christians must show themselves to the world as adopted sons of God through baptism. The spirit is present in both, with Christ as the prototypical baptism. â€Å"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life. † So says Christ in John 6: 63. Christ is speaking here both of the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual life of man. The Spirit is contrasted with the flesh, itself having two meanings: first, the life of the world, the world of power, of ego of sin, and hence, death. But it also refers to the passions and drives of individuals, the passions for lust greed and hatred that are the symptoms of living in a diseased world. Hence, the â€Å"Spirit,† when it is used in Scriptre, can mean one of two things: the soul of man, or the Spirit of God. These two are related in that the Spirit could not rest in something that did not have the ontological structure to receive it. In other words, man, in some fashion, has to be created in such a way so as to receive the Spirit of the father, and this is the soul, the immaterial principle of man, the form of the body, to use Aristotelian language. In John 7, Christ says: In the last day, that great [day] of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet [given]; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. ) This is a complex passage dealing with the Holy Spirit. First, Christ is identifying himself with the God of the Old Testament, for he says â€Å"as the scripture has said† in reference to Himself. Of course, he’s talking about the Old Covenant. But, as is so common in the Gospel of John, Christ is making a distinction between the life of the world and the life of the Spirit. The life of the world can never provide satisfaction: actual water, or food, or any natural desire of man is only of a temporary satisfaction. Only the spirit of God can give eternal satisfaction. The fact that Christ is referring top â€Å"water† here is important. First, water is a primary component of man’s physiology. Second, water can give life, it can cleanse, it can help things grow, but it can also drown if not used properly. â€Å"Water,† while not only a natural component of man, but an important desire, is only a figure. The figure is important, but it is only the â€Å"matter. † The â€Å"form† is the Holy Spirit itself. In other words, the only proper use of water, ritualistically speaking, is when it is used for baptism, but a baptism is not such unless the water be saturated with the Holy Spirit. When a man is baptized, he is now a stream of living water: he becomes an image, an icon, of the Son, in turn the image of the father. The man becomes a Christian through baptism, this is done through faith in the Spirit under the figure of water. He becomes an icon of he Son, and he becomes a preacher of the Spirit, hence, a flowing river that cleanses all it touches. Now the comment that the Spirit was not yet given refers to Pentecost. The Spirit works in the world, He worked in the Old Testament, but He has not been given in order to create the vessel of the final revelation: the church. This was to come only after Christ is â€Å"glorified,† that is, Transfigured, Murdered and then resurrected. As Christ goes to the father, Christ will pray to the Father than the Holy Spirit be sent to the infant church at Pentecost, institutionalizing (so to speak) the final revelation in spirit and truth. â€Å"[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. † This is one of the most powerful statements about the Spirit in all of Scripture. It needs to be treated in detail. First, the Spirit of Truth: the Spirit proceeds from the father and rests upon the Son, glorifying him on Tabor, and raising Him up at his Resurrection. He is the truth for no other reason than he is the love that unites the father and the son in the embrace of love and truth. The Father is the principle of creation, the Being beyond being, the ultimate unity in all things, while Christ is the Logos, the principle of reason that identifies all things as they are and interconnects them with the father and with each other. The spirit is the image of this connection: of singularity and multiplicity, image and prototype. The Spirit is the sanctifier, he shows the connection between the Father and the Son for all who believe. But just as important, the Spirit here is both the truth of nature and its relation to God as creator, but he will come to speak the truth to the church. He will guide the church in all its actions, providing a means to tell the true church from the false, the true preacher from the hireling. But that’s just the problem: the world’s authorities, the people who they worship, are in fact hirelings in their actions. The â€Å"world† here refers to the system of power, of empire and the state, the economic elitism of Israel that has rejected the prophetic equalitarian economics so important to Amos and Hosea. The world cares about passion, greed and gain, it cares about the lower passions of self-importance and the Pharaseeism of â€Å"correctness. † It cares not for truth, but only for power. Hence, when the Spirit will show Himself, only a few will be able to recognize Him. The Spirit, animating the Apostles, will preach pain and suffering: the narrow path of self-denial and martyrdom. The false preachers, the wolves among the sheep, will preach the broad path: easy and full of physical satisfaction. This passage holds that the true Church of Christ will always be small, it will not recognize the world (and vice versa) and that this Spirit, when it takes possession of a man, will re-create the remnant, the true Israelites without guile. This passage is nothing more than the preaching of the Church, its future and the means whereby it can be known. For added emphasis, Christ says this a few verses later: â€Å"But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. † The passage above was the general idea: this is the specific application. The Spirit, here again shown as coming from the Father and not the Son (though it speaks of the Son), acts as the relation between the two: the Spirit is the relation of universal and particular: the unity of God and the incarnated Logos, the principle of logic and reason in nature, its ordered existence, including that of mankind and their relation to the creator. The father will send the â€Å"Spirit in my name,† that is, it will preach the doctrine of the Son. One mark of the true spirit is that it will never deviate from the teachings of Christ as found in the Scriptures. As the Trinity contains three persons, it has a single essence. As far as we are concerned, there is a single teaching, a single doctrine, a single nature, and hence, there can be only one Truth, only one true Church. Because of the single essence of the Trinity that is expressed in three persons, there can only be one teaching. The Spirit cannot go where the Son is not. The Sprit cannot preach any doctrine that the Son has not made manifest. And again: â€Å"But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, [even] the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. † Here, the idea that the Son is not the ontological source of the Spirit is reiterated. The Spirit, like the Son, derives from the same source, the Being of Being, the Father. The truths above are reiterated for extra emphasis: first, that the comforter is from the Father, the Principle, that He will teach only truth, and hence, sects that do not preach Christ in the Scriptures are not grace filled, they do not have the Spirit in them. The Spirit, as far as men are concerned, is the very â€Å"content† of the Truth, or true doctrine. But as Christ has said in the last chapter, the demons are already working within the infant church, and we can interpret this with ease as that they are spreading falsehood under the name of â€Å"christ. † But in this passage, the actions of the apostles (the first bishops and leaders of the church) are given a role. The Spirit will animate them to preach and travel throughout the globe bringing Christ to the gentiles who are unspoiled by the Pharisees and their â€Å"legalism. † The Truth is an animating Sprit, it is at the root of the proper teaching of the gospel, and importantly, eliminating any heresies that are bound to develop. This passage in many ways is also a commission for the apostles to being writing down what they have witnessed. The Truth of the Spirit will be verified by the apostolic teaching in that the apostles have witnessed the preaching and actions of Jesus. Hence the witness of the apostles is central to verifying the truth as preached by their successors. Many will come claiming to have Christ or the spirit or the apostolic mandate, but it is only the witness of the apostles that serves as the benchmark for having the Spirit. This is of immense importance. In Chapter 16, Christ says: Nevertheless I tell you the truth; 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. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. . . .Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that] shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you. There is a curious connection between Christ’s leaving (so to speak), and the Spirit’s coming. Christ will leave the world bodily, but the Spirit will be sent from the father to maintain His teaching. But the spirit is seen as a successor to Christ in the flesh doing through spirit what Christ was able to do in his sinless flesh. This may be interpreted as a means of Christ saying to the apostles that what was preached in the flesh now must be acted out in spirit. Christ laid the groundwork for salvation, giving his blood and death on the cross, but now, the spirit will act as a means to assist the new covenant to preach the word as the apostles see fit under the circumstances. The Spirit is seen as having a function. First, to bring Truth to the church (and nowhere else), and, equally as important, to condemn the world. Christ will not do that, but the Spirit will. The Spirit has no room for the flesh except the life of the church, which is a spiritualized flesh, the self-denial of the narrow path. Christ’s mission will be sanctified and glorified by the action of the spirit: the spirit is not a new revelation, but will assist the church in important ways: iin doctrine, in apologetics, in spiritual approach and the very construction of the Scriptures, which are spirit filled. The spirit will not offer new doctrine, but will complete what Christ has started by bringing his teaching to the world and to generations to come. The fulfillment of this promise will occur at Pentecost, but a foretaste of this occurrence can be found in John 20, where Christ imparts the Spirit to the apostles in the upper room: â€Å"And when he had said this, he breathed on [them], and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; [and] whose soever [sins] ye retain, they are retained. † This is the final mention of the Spirit in John’s gospel. It is important because it includes the apostolic mandate to forgive sins. The Spirit will be the action that forgive sins, so to speak â€Å"applying† the blood of Christ to those who seek forgiveness. The apostles will receive the spirit, and the first thing that is said once this is done is that they are to forgive sins with this new power. But, as hinted above, the judgement is up to the church, the church founded on the scriptures by the apostles: the apostles can withhold the spirit if the person in question does not seem properly disposed to receive it. The church is given a mandate that it can forgive sins through the imparting of the spirit, but that the church is able to give the judgement as to how, when and where this is to be used. This is the issue: Christ will not be among them any more, they will no longer be pupils, but masters of the spirit. They are now called upon to make a judgement as to the use of this gift, and this is the role of the church in the day to day life of the community of Christ.

Downloading Music on the Internet Essay -- Argumentative File Sharing

Who’s downloading? Throughout many years of the computer age there has been much advancement in computer technology. It first began with the people getting the Internet, then people began to understand the Internet, and then lastly people learned to overpower the Internet. Within the past several years the downloading music factor strongly took effect. To the majority of the internet population they tend to believe there’s nothing wrong with getting free tunes, but there is the select few who believe it is morally wrong. Overall, I truly enjoy having the free access to music; it enables you to try new music without bother making purchases and having a poor after effect. This is an excellent way to save money, as well as making your music selection more diverse. I can consider myself a good example of the music downlaoder; I have been around the computer age for several years and have learned a tremendous amount towards the Internet and its downloading. For recent experience I have gained a lot of information towards why music downloading is a great process. Most of the information presented here is mostly from experience and from recent article placed on the Internet. If you were to ask the average American if they believed downloading music is a good advancement toward the Internet society, in response you would get a 70% of the people agreeing with it. One person said, â€Å"Ever since downloading is begun, I have not only learned of new music, but have found bands I never thought I could get.†(Discovering computer 2003) From a typical user you can learn a whole lot when you’re not up to today’s status. A major reason why downloading is great is because it’s free, accessible and everyone can join in on it. All it consi... ... is the freedom of press and I acknowledge this and so does the law, therefore let this be and everyone will be happy. Money and time should not be wasted in the court systems anymore. Works Cited: Coates, J. (2002, October 28) Find song files from Napster by using .MP3. Chicago Tribune. pp. B19 Kloer, P. (2002, September) Celebrity TV ads will fight music downloading. Retrieved November 17, 2002 from http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/living/music/0902/27piracy.html McDonald, T. (2001, June) Bad News Keeps on Coming for Napster Users. Retrieved Novemeber 16,2002 from http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/11667.html Shelly, G., & Cashman, T., & Vermaat, Misty. (2002). Discovering Computers 2003. Boston: Thomson Course Technology. Weber, L. (2002, November 4). CD burning, song-swaps slow online music. Chicago Tribune. pp. A6.

Agricultural biology

Agriculture is a branch of biology that studies the wide scope of crops like rice, corn, cassava, etc. and its practical applications. Enormous issues related to agriculture have been raised daily by the community and some analysts. The most controversial among these is the continuing struggle of every nation on food shortage.Just last May, the issue about â€Å"rice shortage† alarmed the entire world including the United States of America. Rice producers and manufacturers jacked up the price of rice as an immediate response to the crisis. It must be clear though that rice or food shortage is also a global concern, may it be caused by the unusual climate changes or even the agriculture itself.  In an audio podcast of â€Å"A Farmers View on Food Shortage†, the speaker emphasizes that the food crisis could be brought by global warming and industrialization.This global warming could produce inconsistent climate conditions which affect weather patterns that may prolong d rought and cool seasons leading to a massive starvation even in the United States because of food crisis.On the latter part of the podcast, David Rai advises that in order to sustain and survive from the food crisis that the people are now facing, they must learn to conserve the use of rice by means of eating fruits, vegetables, and the like although rice has been considered by many as a staple food, highly demanded.The issue of rice, an agricultural aspect of biology, catches the attention of the people at large since it has been considered as the food of life among the greater half of the population located anywhere in the world. But whether or not the problem is about rice shortage or food crisis, the ones to blame are the people themselves and are expected to respond to this problem.And in order to conserve the supply of an agricultural crop like rice, these people should be guided to increase the production of rice, and provide agricultural assistance to those who are in dire n eed of the basic food of life, â€Å"rice.†

Pros and Cons of Teaching

Are you thinking about becoming a teacher? The career is not for everyone. As with any profession, there are many pros and cons. The truth is that teaching is a difficult job that most people are not capable of doing effectively. If you know that you would make a great teacher, carefully evaluate the positives and negatives to know what you are getting into. How you handle the negatives is a telling indication of how you will perform as a teacher. There are aspects of teaching that will quickly lead to burnout, stress, and resentment in people that are not right for the job. Pros Opportunity to Make a Difference As a teacher, you are afforded the opportunity to influence the worlds greatest resource: its youth. Teaching allows you to make a difference in the lives of young people who will shape the future. The profound impact of a teacher on their students cannot be overemphasized. Friendly Schedule When compared to other careers, teaching offers a fairly friendly and consistent schedule. Most schools have extended time off two or three times during the academic year and three months off during the summer. The average school is in session from approximately 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. during the week, leaving evenings and weekends free. Frequent Collaboration Teachers tend to collaborate with their students on a daily basis, but there is also a great deal of professional collaboration within the teaching profession. Working with parents, community members, and other teachers to help students can be a very rewarding aspect of the job. It takes an army to teach and most teachers have a team of people working with them to help their students reach their maximum potential. Daily Excitement While the weekly schedule of a teacher tends to look much the same, day-to-day life is quite the opposite and teachers are never bored. No two students are alike and no two lessons will go exactly the same way. This is challenging but keeps teachers on their toes. There are so many unpredictable variables in a classroom that make every class, day, and school year a little bit different from the last. Opportunities for Growth Teachers are learners too and no good teacher ever feels that they truly know everything there is to know. As a teacher, you never stop learning and should never grow too comfortable in one place. There is always room for improvement and responsive teachers grab hold of every opportunity to grow. Lasting Relationships Over the course of making your students your number one priority for almost 200 days a year, strong bonds are built with your learners that can last a lifetime. Teachers have the opportunity to become trusted role models to their students and help shape them into the people they will become. Good teachers encourage their students and build them up as they learn and achieve success together. Benefit Plans Great health insurance and decent retirement plans are well-known perks of being a teacher. Do not take this pro for granted. Having these benefits provides you with  peace of mind should a health issue arise and as retirement gets closer. High Demand For Teaching Teachers are a necessary part of society and will always be in high demand. This is one job that isnt going anywhere. There may be a lot of competition for a single opening depending on your specialty areas and qualifications, but flexible teachers should never have much trouble finding a job. Cons Unappreciated One of the most substantial cons of teaching is that teachers are undervalued and unappreciated. The belief that teachers become teachers simply because they cant do anything else is a very real and very discouraging trope that educators hear all too often. The profession is not usually taken seriously by others and those that teach might begin to feel beaten down by the many negative stigmas surrounding their profession. Low-Paying Teaching will never bring you wealth because teachers are grossly underpaid. For this reason, do not go into teaching for the money. Many teachers are forced to work part-time positions during the school year and/or find jobs over the summer to supplement their meager income. Many states offer first-year teacher salaries that are below their state’s poverty level, so only those that really want to be teaching should teach. Trendy Best practices in education change like the wind.  Some trends are readily accepted while others are dismissed as pointless by most teachers. Policymakers and administrators often force teachers to change up their practice and this can be particularly frustrating. Teachers have to invest enough time into planning, instruction, and assessment without having to also learn and implement new approaches. Standardized Testing The emphasis on standardized testing in the United States increases each year. Teachers are judged and evaluated on the test scores of their students and these evaluations carry more and more weight in measuring a teachers overall performance and effectiveness. You are considered a great teacher if your students score well, terrible if they fail or perform below average—no matter how students usually do. Lack of Support Parents and families of students determine how easy a teachers year will be. The best parents respect your expertise and are supportive and engaged in their child’s education, but unfortunately, this is not often the norm. Many parents complain about the choices you have made, argue with you rather than support you, and are not involved in their childs academic life. All of this reflects poorly on you. Behavioral Management Classroom management and student discipline take up disproportionate amounts of a teachers time and energy. Many students take advantage of their teachers and test their limits. Teachers must be careful that their methods of discipline cannot be perceived as unfair or too harsh by anyone, especially families and administrators, while also demanding the respect of their students. Those uncomfortable with discipline are not right for this job. Political Politics play a key role in local, state, and federal levels of education. The majority of political decisions concerning education are made with cutting costs in mind and budget slashes have huge impacts on how effectively schools run. Politicians constantly push mandates on schools and teachers without seeking input from educators themselves or considering the impact on education. Politics within schools also make a teachers life much more difficult than it should be. High Stress Teaching comes with surprisingly high levels of stress. There is so much that teachers are expected to accomplish each year and curricula are often unrealistic about goals. In the end, a teacher has to figure out how to get the results they are expected to get within a system that regularly works against them while juggling more external factors than most people can handle. Paperwork Grading and lesson planning are both time-consuming and monotonous activities that teachers must make time for. On top of these, teachers have to complete paperwork for absences, classroom level reporting, personalized learning plans, and discipline referrals. Prep hours never give teachers enough time to get everything done. Time Consuming As mentioned, a teachers work is not confined to the hours that school is in session. Many teachers arrive early, stay late, spend time working on the weekends and evenings, or some combination of these. A great deal of preparation goes into each day and the work doesnt stop when the school year ends. Summers are spent organizing and cleaning the room and/or attending professional developments.