Pauline Epistle-Righteousness of God - Essay Example

Introduction The Bible teaches us many things. It brings peace into our lives by bringing us closer to God. We get closer to God by reading his scriptures, which guide us in the right way to follow. Paul has a great understanding of the Holy Spirit. He is confident spreading the gospel and preaching about it. He preaches about how the Holy Spirit comes to people. They are not born with it. It comes to them (Tan-Chow 20). Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit in different times; God’s time is the best time. Talking about Paul’s life Paul on the other hand has a different understanding of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. He considers the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as more than just coming to them; it gives them life. The Christians are filled with the love of God when they are poured with the Holy Spirit (Tan-Chow 25). Paul is one of the books that is mostly read by Christians because of the teachings of the Holy Spirit. Paul talks about the Christians being filled with the Holy Spirit after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit came to the disciples after the death of Jesus Christ in order to help them when He was gone. He had promised them that he will send them an assistant when He was gone and He kept His promise by sending the Holy Spirit to them. The disciples gained strength and courage to spread the gospel (Tan-Chow 17). The Holy Spirit enabled them to interpret the Bible and put it into a simpler language that the Christians could understand. Giving your thesis statement We are supposed to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit at all times. If the Holy Spirit could guide the disciples, it can also guide us as Christians. We tend to get lost most of the times. Support you thesis by giving upon verse by verse commentary of the text We forget that we need God in our lives. God does not leave us, we tend to run away from Him but He sends the Holy Spirit to us in order for it to guide us and bring us back to line; the right path, which is obeying the Ten Commandments. No one is perfect, we are all sinners and that is why we seek God’s forgiveness at all times. He is merciful God. He accepts us just as we are; sinful. He cleanses us with the Holy Spirit; giving us a second chance for us to repent and be close to him. When we repent, we get closer to God. He does not abandon His people just like His disciples; He filled them with the Holy Spirit so that they could gain the strength and courage to spread the Gospel (Beckford, 27). They were His students and they ought to continue from where they stopped when He died and resurrected. The Holy Spirit helped them in every stage of the way. Paul too spread the gospel about the coming of the Holy Spirit. According to him, the Holy Spirit was more than just a helper to the disciples was; it filled all the Christians with love of God. The Christians felt the presence of God even with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit was actually God in another form. The Holy trinity means God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit. They are one but divide into three parts. They represent each other. The believers can only feel the Holy Spirit; they believers could speak in tongues when filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the language of the Holy Spirit; only they knew what they were saying. The Holy Spirit is pure and strong, it inspires the weak to be strong (Evans, 37). It gives them courage to testify about their faith. Being drenched with the Holy Spirit means that God has filled you with the Holy Spirit and that you are free to follow the disciples’ ways; spreading the gospel of God. Paul teaches us to be followers of Jesus Christ. He encourages us to go to church often and listen to the word of God. The word of God guides in everyday life and the decisions the decisions that we make in life. With the Holy Spirit, we will always make the right choices in life; decisions that we will not regret later in life. For instance, a girl who goes to church regularly gets pregnant by mistake. The Bible forbids us from getting an abortion; that is murder. She will not think about making the mistake of aborting the child because she is filled with the Holy Spirit (Miller, 36). It will guide her into making the right decision and protecting her all through the tough journey. Christianity is a religion that dates back in the early centuries of AD and it simply implies refers to Jesus as the anointed one, according to the Greeks. It is the most common religion and it is centered in the life and teachings of Jesus as it is presented in the New Testament. Adherents of this religion (Christians) have a strong belief that Jesus is the Messiah as it was prophesied within the Hebrew bible. On the other hand, Pentecostalism is a movement that is made up of many different churches grouped together on the basis of similarities and especially in emphasis-normally a physical manifestation of the Holy Spirit that is signified by speaking in strange and hard-to-understand languages. Although these two religions are quite different from each other, the following discussion tries to compare some of the similarities that are certain commonalities between the two. Both believers and Christians share a common belief in an omnipotent, who is the true God. Both religions teach that the God in heaven sent his only son to die sacrificially, and it happens that after three days Jesus was able to conquer death in the grave. This, according to both religions, was an indication that all those who believed in Jesus would also conquer death and have everlasting life. A common belief between the two is also that Jesus will return for his followers as promised in the Bible. These beliefs are expected to transform the lives of both the Christians and the believers (Miller, 32). Some of the Holy Spirit gifts mentioned in the New Testament apply to both Christians and believers as a common belief. The most common gift is that of “speaking in tongues” which is expected to be utilized to build up of the body of Christ as well as to glorify God. These gifts, according to both religions, are an appropriate manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit. However, some believers go out of the belief by using some of these gifts for self- gain which is very contrary to the expectation of its actual purpose. Jesus’ Salvation according to all religions also share a common preaching that salvation of any Christian should be achieved through faith in Jesus Christ. They also both agree that faith alone cannot signify salvation hence they believe that faith should be accompanied by good deeds. Moreover, both religions believe that through salvation, one’s life is dedicated to sharing and spreading the gospel message that God (the father) sent His son to die for the sins of each and every individual and that through faith, that person is reconciled to God (Evans, 35). Establish the relationship of the passages to each other by the same authors on a similar theme Believers and Christians believe in God. They believe that somehow there is God; God who is powerful above anyone or anything that has ever existed. God protects His people by ensuring that they follow the right path always. Evil is not a good thing but God uses it to ensure that His people do not go astray like Satan. The evil is used in form of temptation in order to test their faith and whether it is strong enough (Evans & Manis, 43). For instance, in the Bible he requested Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac; He wanted to know how strong his faith was. Abraham passed the test. Those days the people of Israel, we true believers. Most of them would not dare go against the will of God. In the modern days, very few people are willing to do such a noble thing that Abraham was about to do until God gave him a lamb to sacrifice instead of his beloved son. God has His own ways of punishing those who are sinful (Evans & Manis, 51). The Bible says that only he has the power to punish for the sins. It could be the sinners themselves or the next generation. For instance, a woman could abort a child. Abortion is murder. God could decide not to punish the woman who has aborted but to punish their children. The girl she gets afterwards could be barren. In other words, God wants us to think about the people we care about before committing any sin. For instance, the brothers of Joseph in the Bible, wanted to kill him before they sold him to the Egyptians. They hated the way their father treated him better than them for he was the last born. Joseph was his father’s favorite son. That was not his fault but his brothers did not see it that way. They envied their brother and that is why they came to that decision; to end his life. That was wrong of them; that is evil. A good thing came out of it at last. Joseph was made of the seniors at Pharaohs kingdom because he managed to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. There happened to be drought and the brothers were sent by their father to look for food. A twist of things God can do. They were now seeking help from the man they wanted to kill. This teaches us that God is all powerful. He can twist evil to be good and make good thing come out of it (Evans & Manis, 41). Make a synoptic comparison (using parallels) God is good all the time (Miller & Jensen, 29). He does not fail His people even though He is said to be a jealous God. He does not like to be shared or put second in anything whatsoever. He punishes those who put Him in that situation. This does not mean that He is not good. He is good all the time. He rewards those who call upon His help and answers the prayers of those who pray to him. The Bible says that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one; the Holy Trinity. Jesus performed several miracles to believers. He gave life to the dead, he healed the sick and died for our sin. No man can be this good. We do not need another proof to know that God is good. For instance, there are few people who are willing to donate one of their organs to their loved ones (Miller & Jensen 39). They claim to love them but when the time comes to truly express that love, they are nowhere to be found. God is a faithful God. He does not let His people down. For such an incident, the believer should just ask for God’s help and chances are that a volunteer who is probably not related to him would be willing to donate the organ. This is how God works; He will come when you need Him the most. He will not fail you. There are three types of answers to our prayers; Yes, wait and no. God’s time is the best time; He has a reason for doing whatever He does. If He says wait then waiting is the best thing to do just continue believing in Him and He will not a shame you (Evans & Manis, 52). When He says no to a critical situation, it is probably because your time on earth is over. Accepting God’s wishes is the best thing to do because no one can fight God. They say God is a jealous God. He does not like it when there is competition. He is the creator and He likes it that way; recognizing that he is the most powerful. He will punish those who worship other Gods. When the people of Israel started worshipping earthly gods; when Moses went to get the covenant, God was not happy with them even for a bit. He had helped them leave Egypt and they were repaying Him by worshipping other gods. This teaches us that God exists and that we should only worship Him and not any other god that we create here on earth (Evans & Manis, 60). Evil is brought about by the devil. He was given his kingdom; hell in order to reign there and not on earth or in heaven. He is the most evil. The devil is so shameless. He tempted Jesus in the wilderness but Jesus did not fall into his trap. God wants us to take the example of Jesus. He wants us not to fall into the devils temptations. We should be able to overcome the temptations by the devil as Jesus did. God will always be there for us in everything we do. All we need is to seek God’s help and He will be there to help us out of it. Nothing that the devil does is good. No evil can be good. Everything that the devil does leads to no good. He makes one follow the wrong paths; away from God (Evans & Manis, 70). Note similarities and differences - how are they best explained situationally? developmentally? systematically? Evil exists even though most of us live as if it does not. It is always within us. That voice always directs us to do the wrong thing. It could be in us or use someone else to get to us (Miller & Jensen, 39). The evil is mostly interested in the Believers because they try as much as possible to keep away from the evil. It gets to them by tempting them even though true believers always persevere. It is good to believe in the existence of the evil so that you can work on how to avoid it. Reading the Bible is one of the ways of tackling the evil. The Bible will always guide you on how to handle situations that are clearly been brought up by the evil one. Reading the Bible and acting upon it is the right path to follow (Miller & Jensen 42). Conclusion In conclusion, God exists whether we like it or not. We cannot do away with God. The atheists do not believe in God but that does not mean that He does not exist. The Bible tells us about the beginning and God was there all along so we cannot get rid of his existence. The good and evil coexist in order for God to distinguish true believers and non-believers. The evil started when Eve ate the forbidden fruit. True believers will always seek the path of God but non-believers are always on the wrong path; the evil path. That is why it is important to read the Bible all the time in order to ensure that we are on the right track; following Jesus footsteps. The evil is associated with Satan. He was one of the angles of God but he went astray. He was then given his territory where he will rule and that is hell. Everyone who does bad things; going against the Ten Commandments is said to do evil. The bible says that no one is perfect; that no one can keep the Ten Commandments without breaking any of it. This does not mean that we should break the Ten Commandments knowingly. We should try as much as we can to keep the Ten Commandments; breaking them should be unknowingly. To give a theodicy means showing you believe that: God is powerful, God is good and that evil exists. The three aspects of theodicy coexist; like the holy trinity. The baptism of the Holy Spirit helps us in the everyday life. A baptized person is very different from an non-baptized person. The Holy Spirit is always helping the baptized Christians in making the right choices in life. Work cited Beckford, J. A., “Social Theory and Religion,” 2013 Cambridge University Press. Evans, C. S., & Manis, R. Z. Philosophy of religion: Problem of evil. 2010 InterVarsity Press. Miller, Ed L, and Jon Jensen. Questions That Matter: An Invitation to Philosophy. 2009 New York: McGraw-Hill. Tan-Chow, M. L. Pentecostal theology for the twenty-first century: Engaging with multi-faith Singapore. 2007 Aldershot: Ashgate. Read More