Research Paper on "Holy Saturation"

Research Paper 11 pages (4689 words) Sources: 8

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Holy Saturation

The traditional, or Orthodox view, is that the church is a necessary medium between the laity and God, and that without the church and the hierarchy of clergy, the congregation would be unable to attain the wisdom of God. They saw the coming of god's kingdom as a literal event. They also saw it preposterous thought to separate the body from human life. That is, they saw Jesus as both flesh and spirit that were inseparable. The Orthodox considered the crucifixion of Jesus as a historical account. They viewed Jesus as a martyr that sacrificed his life so that we may live. It was believed that the martyrdom of Jesus allows for the forgiveness of sins and ensures resurrection and our life everlasting; this sacrifice allowed us to release our guilt and receive forgiveness for our sins.

Spiritual gifts, the gift of communion with the Holy Spirit, the gift of melding, or saturation, with the Holy Spirit, are, for some denominations special and more suited to the infancy of Christendom. For others, spiritual gifts are divine, entranced, and are representative, not exhaustive. The emphasis on the gifts from the Holy Spirit, though, derived from several sources, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and Corinthians 12:27-30 being the most predominant (Carraway, 2005, 2-29). The table below represents an overview of these gifts, and is a useful tool prior to a detailed analysis of Christology.

The Father

The Son

The Holy Ghost

Operative Gifts

Administrative Gifts

Charismatic Gifts

Romans 12:6-8

Ephesians 4:11

1 Corinthians 12:1-14

Prophecy

Apostolic Focus

Wisdom

Ministry

Prophectic Goals

Knowledge

Teaching

Evangelism

Discerning of Spirits

Exhortation

Pastoralism

Speaking & Interpreting Tongues

Giving

Teaching

Prophecy

Leading

Examples

Faith

Compassion

Empathy

Faith

Hierarchy

Egalitarian

Subserviant

Contemporary scholarship on the subject breaks down the gifts and transient saturation into four broad paradigms that, if taken as a whole, help round out a more definitive template for spiritual living:

Receiving saturation with the Holy Spirit enables the individual to witness the validity of Christ with supernatural workings that could only be possible from the Son of God. Christ commands us to continue witnessing for Him; spiritual gifts are divinely inspired and Christ's ministry on earth the basis for all of this that unravels (Acts 2:22). As Christ travelled through the known world performing miracles, demonstrating faith, healing and discerning spirits for his testament and ministry, so too much we emulate that within our own world (Greig, G. And K. Springer, eds., 1993).

With the acceptance of saturation, comes edification of the person, and therefore, the Body of Christ. Christ asks that we edify ourselves and use these gifts for the benefit of mankind. The uniqueness of these individual gifts are unquantitative, and thus non-duplicating, so they must be used by the receiver. Benjamin Franklin even said, "Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What is a sundial in the shade?" The body is part of this process, too, and must be revered toward the standards set forth (Chadwell, 1991, 4-37).

The external often bring unity and stability to the Church. This is analogous to the Church as the core body, and the members the core functions; neither words without the other, and the synergism in the bond transcends the self. When all parts come together and work well, the optimism and love exist; without this mitigation, it is only lust, terror, and a complete lack of moral values and centeredness (Hastings, 2007).

For the contemporary Christian, the saturation is a process to become ready to carry out the mission of the Church as outlined in Matthew 28:19 and in Acts 1:8. The mission of the Church has not ceased, only evolved over time. It still requires personal edification, Christ centered services, and worldwide evangelism. Indeed, if Christ still calls us to carry out His mission, would he not continue to give us the gifts which we need (Limm, 2007, 457-88).

The Gnostic sect split with Orthodoxy over the initial question of who Jesus was. Gnostics were more than historical realists, believing that Christ, as part of the Holy Trinity, was much more than just a human martyr. Instead, they were a bit more literal vis-a-vis the Biblical story of Jesus born as a human, but receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit and then becoming a greater being, the Christ (Lowe, 2000, 314-6). Then, at the Crucifixion, Jesus' spirit was transfigured into something different, a unique spiritual being who embedded the sins of mankind so that humans had the possibility of salvation. The Church and the Gnostics also disagreed over the suffering of Jesus -- or the Passion of Christ. The Church, this time, took the more literal approach, the Gnostics completely separated out the body vs. The spirit, and believed that only the physical nature of Jesus suffered, not the divine part -- but the steps were necessary in order to allow for ascension into heaven (O'Collins, 1995, Chapter 4; Clark, 1967, 18-65).

This disagreement bled into each division's basic theory of God. For the Gnostics, the Creator of the Old Testament was interpreted more as a stern manager who created the world, set to organizing it, and punished those who did not follow its path. The New Testament God, however, was loving, forgiving, and benevolent in granting humans more freedom to choose good or evil (the absence of good). The had difficulty reconciling a Supreme Being who could be spiteful, kill, maim, or starve while at the same time preaching the doctrine of universal forgiveness and love. The Orthodoxy, however, believed in "one God, the father almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and all that was part thereof" (Ibid., 188-94).

An additional point of contention was the process of salvation. Partially because of their conception of God, the Orthodoxy believed it was necessary to overtly praise their belief in a creed of one God. The Gnostics were far more inward-thinking and meditative, separating their spiritual belief system from the political and cultural ties that were becoming so linked with the early Church. In fact, it was in the best interests of the Orthodoxy to create the message that the Gnostics were heretics. Gnosticism believed that humans should demonstrate their visage of Christianity through living well, doing good works, and having faith. This did not include an intermediary (the Papacy), tithing, nor an official organized structure to manage the Church. The Gnostics, in turn, believed that their position was more in line with the teachings of Jesus; that anyone could proclaim a creed, but one had to demonstrate it to prove that one had accepted it. Since the ultimate goal was salvation, this disagreement had very serious consequences for Gnosticism as the early Church became more organized and politicized (Williams, 1996, 44-89.)

After the Crucifixion, both sides also claimed to be the true witnesses, and thus inheritors, of Christ's tradition. The Orthodoxy claimed they alone say the physical reappearance of Christ and foretold the importance of such as Gospel. Gnostics believe that the relationship between salvation and humans was far more personal and individualistic. The Crucifixion was symbolic and merely an encounter between Jesus' spirit and humanity -- it was the self-knowledge and interpretation of that event that allowed a Gnostic to attain union with Christ. This also led to a schism in which the Gnostics held that they belonged to a "truer" Church, one of the minorities who could understand just what was necessary to attain enlightenment (Perkins, 1984, 500-6).

For Christians, the Doctrine of the Trinity is part of the basis for the realization of the divinity of Christ -- it teaches that there are three parts to God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all united into one Godly force. This doctrine purports that the Christian God is the Triune God -- the Greek hypostases, an amalgamation of the ancient mystical three into one.

As a central dogma of the Christian Church, and a main tenet of Eastern Orthodoxy, the idea of the Trinity as dogma originated in the 3rd century; debated, postulated, organized and agreed upon along with numerous other doctrine at the Council of Nicea.

Additionally, the Papacy has long embraced the use of the Trinity as both the methodological precept of salvation and the manner in which God chose to organize and communicate his message to mankind. This makes the Trinity the mediation of salvation -- occurring not just through the ministry, but through all members of the Church -- the Church's being constituted by the Holy Spirit.

Interestingly enough, there is no formalized doctrine of the Trinity within the New Testament, although there are several references to the idea of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as a way to understand the overwhelming nature of God. The formal use of the concept developed out of Matthew 28:19 (Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit), and was embellished up until the formulation of the… READ MORE

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