GOD ALMIGHTY AND HIS SPIRIT
Father and Messiah (Paraclete)
The Good News Of The Decreed Resurrection
"The Paraclete will come (15:26; 16:7, 8, 13) as Jesus has come into the world (5:43; 16:28; 18:37)... The Paraclete will take the things of Christ (the things that are mine, ek tou emou) and declare them (16:14-15). Bishop Fison describes the humility of the Spirit, 'The true Holy Spirit of God does not advertise Herself: She effaces Herself and advertises Jesus.' ... It is by the outgoing activity of the Spirit that the divine life communicates itself in and to the creation. The Spirit is God-in-relations. The Paraclete is the divine self-expression which will be and abide with you, and be in you (14:16-17). The Spirit's work is described in terms of utterance: teach you, didasko (14:26), remind you, hypomimnesko (14:26), testify, martyro (15:26), prove wrong, elencho (16:8), guide into truth, hodego (16:13), speak, laleo (16:13, twice), declare, anangello (16:13, 14, 15). The johannine terms describe verbal actions which intend a response in others who will receive (lambano), see (theoreo), or know (ginosko) the Spirit. Such speech-terms link the Spirit with the divine Word. The Spirit's initiatives imply God's personal engagement with humanity. The Spirit comes to be with others; the teaching Spirit implies a community of learners; forgetful persons need a prompter to remind them; one testifies expecting heed to be paid; one speaks and declares in order to be heard. The articulate Spirit is the correlative of the listening, Spirit-informed community. The final Paraclete passage closes with a threefold repetition of the verb she will declare (anangello), 16:13-15. The Spirit will declare the things that are to come (v.13), and she will declare what is Christ's (vv. 14, 15). The things of Christ are a message that must be heralded...
The intention of the Spirit of truth is the restoration of an alienated, deceived humanity... The teaching role of the Paraclete tends to be remembered as a major emphasis of the Farewell Discourses, yet only 14:26 says She will teach you all things. (Teaching is, however, implied when 16:13-15 says that the Spirit will guide you into all truth, and will speak and declare.) Franz Mussner remarks that the word used in 14:26, didaskein, "means literally 'teach, instruct,' but in John it nearly always means to reveal."" (Stevick 2011, 292-7)
"For thousands of years the Jewish people has longed for messianic deliverance; sustained by this belief the community has endured persecution and suffering, confident that they will ultimately be rescued from earthly travail. Yet with the rise of science and the growth of secularism, this fervent conviction has lost its force for many modern Jews. No longer does it seem conceivable that a divinely appointed redeemer will arise to deliver the Jewish nation and bring about the transformation of history. Nonetheless, for some members of the community the belief in the coming of the Messiah continues to retain its hold on Jewish consciousness." (Cohn-Sherbok 2000, xv)
"The general view in the Rabbinic literature is undoubtedly of a personal Messiah... Orthodox Jews continue to believe in the coming of a personal Messiah who will lead all mankind back to God, even while acknowledging, as did Maimonides, that the details must be left to God." (Jacob 1995, 342)
"The doctrine of the Messiah, who will be sent by God to redeem Israel and usher in a new era in which all mankind will worship the true God, is one of the most distinctive of Judaism's teachings. With the strongest antecedents in the Bible, the doctrine was developed, elaborated upon, and given a variety of interpretations throughout Jewish history, but its basic affirmation is that human history will find its culmination and fulfilment here on earth. Ultimately, the doctrine declares, God will not abandon His world to moral chaos. Eventually He will intercede directly in order to call a halt to tyranny, oppression and the pursuit of evil so as to restore mankind to the state of bliss here on earth that is described at the beginning of the book of Genesis, where Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden. The whole of human history is seen as reaching from the Paradise Lost of Adam to the Paradise Regained in the Messianic Age." (Jacobs 1973, 292)
"The Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel, signed by David Ben Gurion and members of the provisional council of state and members of the provisional government, reads in part:
'Eretz-Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books ... On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel ... Placing our trust in the Almighty, we affix our signatures to this proclamation at the session of the provisional Council of State on the soil of the homeland, in the city of Tel Aviv, on this Sabbath eve, the 5th day of Iyar, 5708 [14 May 1948].
In this historic document, visionary and noble in its aims and comparable to the American declaration of Independence, there can already be heard echoes of the older conflict between Jewish secular nationalism and Judaism as a religion. It is not necessary to see the words 'placing our trust in the Almighty' as a sop to the religious and it was certainly intended as a sincere declaration of religious faith, whether or not a faith subscribed to by all the signatories. Yet it is significant that, perhaps to appease the secularists, very little is said about religion and it is the Jewish people, not God who shaped their 'spiritual, religious and political identity, and it is they 'who gave to the world the eternal Book of Books'. This ambivalence was inevitable granted that some Jews saw Israel as a modern, democratic, secular State while others saw it in semi-numinous terms as, in the language of the religious Zionists, 'the beginning of the Redemption', that is, as paving the way for the coming of the Messiah."
Louis Jacob, The Jewish Religion
Oxford University Press (Feb. 18 2003) p. 273-4
"The teaching of the Paraclete, as the continuation of Jesus' teaching, must also be understood as the fulfillment of the promise of eschatological divine instruction"
Stephen E. Witmer, Divine instruction in Early Christianity
"Jesus therefore predicts that God will later send a human being to Earth to take up the role defined by John .i.e. to be a prophet who hears God's words and repeats his message to man."
M. Bucaille, The Bible, the Qur'n, and Science
"And when Jesus foreannounced another Comforter, He must have intended a Person as distinct and helpful as He had been."
F. B. Meyer, Love to the Utmost
"The Paraclete has a twofold function: to communicate Christ to believers and, to put the world on trial"
Robert Kysar, John The Meverick Gospel
"But She—the Spirit, the Paraclete...—will teach you everything."
Danny Mahar, Aramaic Made EZ)
"Grammatical nonsense but evidence of the theological desire to defeminize the Divine."
Lucy Reid, She Changes Everything
"The functions of the Paraclete spelled out in verses 13-15... are all acts of open and bold speaking in the highest degree."
David Fleer, Preaching John's Gospel: The World It Imagines
"The reaction of the world to the Paraclete will be much the same as the world's reaction was to Jesus."
Berard L. Marthaler, The Creed: The Apostolic Faith in Contemporary Theology
Bultmann calls the "coming of the Redeemer an 'eschatological event,' 'the turning-point of the ages."
G. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament
"The Paraclete equated with the Holy Spirit, is the only mediator of the word of the exalted Christ."
(M.E. Boring) Benny Thettayil, In Spirit and Truth
"The divine Paraclete, and no lessor agency, must show the world how wrong it was about him who was in the right."
Daniel B. Stevick , Jesus and His Own: A Commentary on John 13-17
Stephen Smalley asserts that "the Messiah-Paraclete ... in John's Gospel is understood as personal, indeed, as a person."
Marianne Meye Thompson, The God of the Gospel of John
"The Messiah will come and the great age of salvation will dawn (for the pious)"
Eric Eve, The Jewish context of Jesus' Miracles
"The remembrance is to relive and re-enact the Christ event, to bring about new eschatological decision in time and space."
Daniel Rathnakara Sadananda, The Johannine Exegesis of God
"The Spirit acts in such an international situation as the revealer of 'judgment' on the powers that rule the world."
Michael Welker, God the Spirit
The Paraclete's" appearance means that sin, righteousness, and judgment will be revealed."
Georg Strecker, Theology of the New Testament
"While the Messiah-Paraclete is the true broker, the brokers they rely on are impostors."
T. G. Brown, Spirit in the writings of John
"The pneumatological activity ... of the Paraclete ... may most helpfully be considered in terms of the salvific working of the hidden Spirit."
Michael Welker, The work of the Spirit
"The pneuma is the peculiar power by which the word becomes the words of eternal life."
Robert Kysar, Voyages with John: Charting the Fourth Gospel
"The gift of peace, therefore, is intimately associated with the gift of the Messiah-Paraclete"
Francis J. Moloney, The Gospel of John
"This utopian hope, even when modestly expressed, links Jesus and the prophets to a much wider history of human longing."
Harvey Cox, The Future of Faith
"Because of the presence of the Paraclete in the life of the believer, the blessings of the end-times—the eschaton—are already present"
Robert Kysar, John
"They are going, by the Holy Spirit's power, to be part of the greatest miracle of all, bringing men to salvation."
Robert E. Picirilli, The Randall House Bible Commentary
"The Kingdom of God stands as a comprehensive term for all that the messianic salvation included... is something to be sought here and now (Mt. 6:33) and to be received as children receive a gift (Mk. 10:15 = Lk. 18:16-17)."
George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament
"The intention of the Spirit of truth is the restoration of an alienated, deceived humanity." (Stevick 2011, 296)
"When we portray the God of the Bible as hating everyone that the chosen people hate, is God well served? Will our modern consciousness allow us to view with favor a God who could manipulate the weather in order to send the great flood that drowned all human lives save for Noah's family because human life had become so evil God needed to destroy it? Can we imagine human parents relating to their wayward offspring in this manner? Can we really worship the God found in the Bible who sent the angel of death across the land of Egypt to murder the firstborn males in every Egyptian household in order to facilitate the release of the chosen people? Can the Bible still be of God when it portrays Joshua as stopping the sun in the sky for the sole purpose of allowing him the time to slaughter more of his enemies, the Amorites (Josh. 10:12-15)? Can the Bible be the "Word of God" when it has Samuel order King Saul in the name of God to "Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass" (1 Sam. 15:3)? Is it the "Word of God" when the Psalmist writes about the Babylonians who have conquered Judah: "Happy shall he be who requites you with what you have done to us! Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rocks" (Ps. 137:8-9)? These are but a few of the questions I want the Bible quoters to answer. Is Christianity somehow irrevocably linked to this mentality because of ..." (continue)
Israel becomes a Country
May 14, 1948 Israeli Newspaper "As we read and study the prophecies in the bible concerning the last days, we see that there are a number of signs which taken together strongly suggest the end of this age is drawing near. Grant R. Jeffrey, in his book," Prince of Darkness", lists 38 predictions that have been fulfilled or are in the process of being fulfilled in our generation. Jeffrey calculates the odds of just six of these predictions being fulfilled in one generation as 1 in 15.6 billion. The odds of all 38 being fulfilled is virtually beyond comprehension. The single event however, that cements all these things together and gives credence to the notion that they are indeed end time events, is the rebirth of Israel.
One essential ingredient for the fulfillment of bible prophecies in the last days that was not present until May 14th, 1948, is the nation of Israel. Without the existence of Israel, the presence of the other signs would mean very little. The end time events revolve around this little country, which seems to be constantly in the news. It is important to understand that the rebirth of Israel was a prophetic event, predicted in the Bible, and brought forth by the direct will of God. To see that this is so, we must examine who it was that scattered the Jewish people and who would bring them back to the Land of Israel ..." (continue)
NOTE: If this page was accessed during a web search you may wish to browse the sites listed below where "GOD ALMIGHTY AND HIS SPIRIT" or related issues are discussed in detail to promote global peace, religious harmony, and spiritual development of humanity:
WWW.ADISHAKTI.ORG/ — DIVINE MOTHER (HER ADVENT AND MESSAGE)
www.holyspirit-mother.org/ — Divine Mother (Christianity)
www.holyspirit-shekinah.org/ — Divine Mother (Judaism/Christianity)
www.ruach-elohim.org/ — Divine Mother (Judaism)
www.spirit-paraclete.org/ — Divine Mother (Christianity)
www.messiah-paraclete.org/ — Divine Mother (Judaism/Christianity)
www.moshiach-parakletos-ruh.org/ — DM (Judaism/Christianity/Islam)
www.ruh-allah.org/ — Divine Mother (Islam)
www.adi-shakti.org/ — Divine Mother (Hinduism)
www.lalita-devi.org/ — Divine Mother (Hinduism)
www.tao-mother.org/ — Divine Mother (Taoism)
www.prajnaaparamita.org/ — Divine Mother (Buddhism)
www.aykaa-mayee.org/ — Divine Mother (Sikhism)
www.great-spirit-mother.org/ — Divine Mother (Native Traditions)
"Now, the principle of Mother is in every, every scripture - has to be there." Shri Mataji, Radio Interview 1983 Oct 01, Santa Cruz, USA
"But today is the day I declare that I am the One who has to save the humanity. I declare I am the One who is Adi Shakti, who is the Mother of all the mothers, who is the Primordial Mother, the Shakti, the desire of God, who has incarnated on this Earth to give its meaning to itself; to this creation, to human beings and I am sure through My Love and patience and My powers I am going to achieve it. I was the One who was born again and again, but now in my complete form and complete powers I have come on this Earth not only for salvation of human beings, not only for their emancipation, but for granting them the Kingdom of Heaven, the Joy, the Bliss that your Father wants to bestow upon you."
The Adi Shakti Shri Mataji, 2 December 1979—London, UK
