Revelation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Revelation - Essay Example To consider what it means for Jesus to be â€Å"the son of God† in Christian theology can lead to different interpretation based on the school or church which the believer belongs to or derives teachings from personally. To see Jesus as the son of God is to recognize him as the founder of one of the world’s great religions, a holy prophet with a divine mission and message. This view is also to see Jesus’ teachings as forming the basis of morality in human civilization and as a mediating agent of afterlife or heaven. To view Jesus as a direct son of God is one way to approach and understand the power and majesty of his life, teaching, and ministry on earth, as well as to place faith in the heavenly afterlife where his full glory would be manifest in ways different than it can be experienced materially. To view Jesus as son of God is to view his teachings as proceeding from a source that is equivalent with the primordial force of creation in the universe, and the b eing that sustains all life through loving-kindness and care. As found in Matthew 1:1-2:12; Mark 1:1-20; Luke 1:1-2:52; John 1:1-18, and other scriptural chapters, to view Jesus as the Son of God awakens the soul of the individual to the ability to return to God’s full glory and grace through the purification of the being from sin. In viewing the soul as the vehicle of eternal life, and the universal love of God as the modality of the soul, Christian teaching can point a way to attain psychological and social states of awareness that lead to personal and collective good. II. The Gospel of John - Jesus' Command to Love One Another One of the deepest questions in Christianity is why it was necessary for Jesus to suffer and die on the cross, rather than using supernatural powers to escape this death and continue teaching on earth or vanquishing evil definitively and allowing for a world free from evil. From a theological standpoint, the Gospel of John is profound in meaning and proposes a solution related to these issues. For example, if God as understood in Christianity through the human experience is omnipotent and the source of power for even the smallest activities of natural life, why is the crucifixion of Jesus required and planned in advance in a manner that is suggestive of fatalistic determination by God rather than free will? When Jesus submits his human life and will to follow a path of events that he knows will lead to his death by crucifixion, the Gospel of John identifies the devil as a cause of Judas’ behavior. From this there arises the theological question of the nature or modality of evil in the world, and whether Christianity is fundamentally a dualist religion or a unitary one. In the passage John 13:1-5, the foot-washing ceremony appears at a critical point in Jesus’ life and teaching to the disciples after the Last Supper, and this passage is rich in both practical and theological meaning. The foot-washing ceremony is al most completely foreign to modern individuals in the West, though may be still practiced ritually in some Catholic, Baptist, and other congregations. On one level it means absolute humility through service, which Jesus is not only asking of the disciples but is actually giving to them through his example. The taboo against touching the feet of another person or the association of the feet with filth and defilement is common in the Arab world of the Middle East even today. By washing