1 John

The idea seems important to Jesus though because he compared us with salt and light. 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. In these verses Jesus talks about how pointless non salty salt is and how pointless a hidden light would be. I think these verses show how much Jesus wants us involved in our lives and our faith. Jesus doesn’t want us to be useless and bland. Jesus wants us to make the world better and show the world love and compassion through out good deeds. Paul in Romans twelve gives a more specific call to use our gifts for the church but the message is very similar. They both just want christians to answer the call and to live in the body and serve with whatever they

“Those who contemplate a rare and excellent object are pleasantly surprised by the astonishment and admiration they experience at the first sight of the object, even before they recognize in detail the particularities of the subject they are contemplating” (pg 114). And this seems to become the weakness for the soul but it actually becomes the strength and energy. The soul gets its strength from its weakness, elevating itself to a higher standard or greater light. Due to the sacred mystery of Incarnation we are touched by the great importance of this and we, according to the author, believe that we have to lift ourselves to God and praise him in the unique work of his and to take in the secrets and the depth of the mystery. In the same way, we leave the earthly things and contemplate the “true sun of the world” the one that enlightens us. “For the sun is the image of God, the Father of nature, the universal source of life.” (pg 115). And through this Jesus is his image in both natures divine and humanity. The sun was formed in the midst of days set aside for creation. The sun became the source of light for both heaven and earth similar to the eternal

John continued his journey the Place of the Gods, continuously he found out more truths. Spirits drew his spirit from his body, he could see his own body lying on the ground asleep. The spirits showed John what it was like when the gods lived. They did not sleep when the sun went down, for they made their own light. Their chariots blocked the streets, it was

The purpose of John’s life is to discover his real identity. He realizes that his desire and goals are different from what his family expects him to do. “Everyone had always said that John would be a preacher when he grew up, just like his father. It had been said so often that John, without ever thinking about it, had come to believe it himself”. John wants his father’s love, but there is a part of him that feels hatred for his father. “He lived for the day when his father would be dying and he, John, would curse him on his death-bed”. Despite John struggles with uncertainty about his salvation, he finally had his first religion experience. “Elisha,' he said, 'no matter what happens to me, where I go, what folks say about me, no matter what anybody says, you remember - please remember - I was saved. I was there.” John has chosen the path of religion, and now he is unlikely to remain under

"It appears, that of all the apostle John was especially favoured with our Lord's regard and confidence, so as to be called the

In these brief three pages, there is a bold calling for spiritual authority, and ways friends of Jesus can authentically experience and acquire that authority. In the beginning, Anderson explained that spiritual authority is manifested from personal experiences and not “secondhand authorities” (pages 50-51). Next, he addressed certain characteristics that “make one fit to be a minister of the gospel” (pg. 51). Finally, he provided a glimpse on what it takes to be an Authentic Child of Light by walking well in the Light. In these three pages, I felt like Margaret Fall in which these words cut to my heart and I wept.

John was trying to create a new world through his writing. Claiming “that the ultimate glory and victory belong to God”4 She continues to go on to show how the book of Revelation is about a redeeming quality created by God in his control over all things, and the call of Christians to resist oppressive powers.

This leads us to question the source of light. It seems that the light is referring to Jesus Christ according to John. Mouw then began to find the similarities and differences between the description of the Holy City in both Isaiah and Revelation. John speaks in general terms of “the glory and honor of the nations,” while Isaiah describes the processional in considerable detail, identifying animals and vessel’s commercial goods (Mouw 99). Both Isaiah and John describe the Holy City as a placed where darkness and distress will be banished. Isaiah believes that “the glory of the Lord” or “light” has risen upon the City. Mouw states that God created us to subdue the earth and incorporate our filling in it. He believes God incorporates our history and culture with us to the new age. Mouw explains that most Christians are unaware of the importance of this life and unconcerned with cultural issues. He says that the individualistic aspects of Christ’s work is not a bad thing, but can become dangerous: “There is nothing that is intrinsically inappropriate, then, about an understanding of the gospel that strongly emphasizes the individualizing love of God” (Mouw 109). Mouw then starts talking about the difference between individual and structural sin. He believes that the God sees institutionalized sin and individual sins the same and the church should be concerned with both. Mouw

I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin.” (page 240) John has seen what the ‘civilized’ world had to offer but he found that all of this was not what he wanted. Everyone in this society isn’t aware of themselves they are constantly being intoxicated they just don’t know much of anything, but John is different he knew more than them.

After knowing the truth John feels the need and excitement that it is his destiny to spread the truth and what is actually right. Upon returning and spreading the new truth John thinks, “And yet not all they did was well done... their wisdom could not but grow until all was peace” (pg.320, line 329-330). Even though the Gods were described as wise and great their civilization still failed and perished, this is because you can’t get knowledge when conflict is present because it is hard for humans to accept the truth. John finds out that he was taught things that weren’t even true, but this excites him because he is ready to spread knowledge of his own and let out the real truth.

Scene 1 (The people make their way to the wilderness to see and hear John) John comes on stage preaching to the people….” Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Prepare the way of the new king. Make His paths straight.

These events in John’s life plainly represent the modernity processes of secularisation and rationalisation. John lived in a very strict religion where prayer and church events where apart of every aspect of your life. At age 16 John left the church as he was not satisfied with just accepting what he was taught without questioning it and questioning denoted a lack of conviction in the faith (Nester, 2016). Secularisation is a drop in formal religious influence over people’s lives and further reliance on technology and science to explain the world (Giddens 2009, p. 695). John eventually returned to having a faith of his own form in which god was all loving and inclusive not what he was taught. This loss of religion and foundation of new religion now that he has gained more knowledge is a classic example of the secularisation

Too poor to afford private health care insurance coverage, but lucky enough to qualify for Medicaid John Q faces yet another challenge. John’s father recently suffered a heart attack which brought into question his own mortality. John like many Americans is a working class man who works full time but still under the poverty level and into a substandard and overworked Medicaid system. He like many others has high blood pressure and with his father recent heart attack he would like to be checked out. Due to John’s low income he qualifies for Medicaid coverage, but also has work within his restraints. John lives in

As briefly stated in the previous section of this paper, John was writing to both Jewish and Gentile Christians, post the First Jewish-Roman war. The era of his writing and the audience to which he was writing greatly affected what he was communicating with this passage of Scripture. The logos in the 90’s CE would have been understood by Greeks through a Platonic and Stoic worldview as a mediatory means between the divine and human realms or as the “reason”, the force by which the universe was structured. Philo, a first-century philosopher combined this understanding of the logos with the Jewish conception of “wisdom personified.” Before the writings of John’s Gospel, the Jewish writings personified Wisdom as a divine mediator of God’s person and intent (see Proverbs 8:27; 29-30; 35-36). One can see how language like this shapes and forms the understanding of Jesus that John wanted to convey to his audience. The Hellenistic audience, influenced by Plato would see Jesus as the mediating agent between heaven and earth, which was confirmed by Jesus in John 1:51, while Jewish readers would understand the Word of God through an Old Testament worldview as God in action, specifically in creation, revelation and deliverance. Craig Keener talks of John’s usage of logos in this way,

“The gospel gives away more to as who Jesus was as person and telling of his teachings in the ministry. John takes us behind Jesus’s ministry, where we get a glimpse of what it means to believe in Jesus as flesh of the eternal and living God, as the source of light and life, and for a believer to be a ‘Son of God.” (Sparknotes