Introduction
Mission
theologies simply mean the fundamental process of supporting, integrating and
contextualizing the Christian element through experience and encounter,
proclamation, fellowship and dialogue. In this post we will discuss
"mission and pneumatology" and mission and the soteriological
understanding: salvation as humanization, the salvation of all creation.
The
word pneumatology simply means the study of the Holy Spirit and the term
soteriological means the doctrine of salvation.
1.
Mission and pneumatology
1.1.
Jesus' mission and the Holy Spirit:
Holy
Spirit. A symbol of intense purity - a symbol of boundless grace. The Old
Testament linked the two together only three times, and even then with the note
of holiness that determined the meaning of the title. It was left to the New
Testament to bring forth a new revelation of the Holy Spirit, a revelation that
was only possible through the union of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit in the
person and activity of Jesus Christ.[1]
In
Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus withdraws into the desert and stands before the Holy One.
Its mission is to be based on the word of the Holy One, worshiping the Holy
One, waiting for the Holy One. Yet when he returns in the power of the spirit,
he declares his mission in the sense of the great declaration of Isaiah 61:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim
the year of the Lord's favor." And all marveled at the gracious words that
proceeded from His mouth. .[2]
Simply,
the two-sidedness of the Holy Spirit is constantly demonstrated in the life and
ministry of Jesus. There was no doubt that he was the authoritative
representative of the Holy God and the God who examines the perversity and
unrighteousness of mankind by his fire of judgment. At the same time, there
could be no doubt about the fact that he was an authentic bearer of the divine
spirit, a spirit that bandages the wound of humanity with its grace. Only with
the nature of the Holy Messiah was it possible for the Christian missionary
vocation to receive its classic expression: “Receive the Holy Spirit. As the
Father sent me, so I send you."[3]
1.2.
The Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostle:
The
importance of the Holy Spirit in the mission is clearly revealed in the
apostolic act. The author of the Acts of the Apostles must be considered a
leading interpreter of the work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian mission.
Right from the beginning, he shows that the mission of witnessing is entirely
dependent on the coming of the Holy Spirit in new power. What could be more
powerful than Acts 1:8 “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come
upon you; and will you be my witness in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria
and to the ends of the earth?" What could be more obvious than the
fulfillment of the promise of Acts 2:1-11?[4] The coming of the Holy Spirit or
this event is also known like the day of Pentecost. It was the event when the
disciples of Jesus received the Holy Spirit and began to speak in another
language. And this is the event when Jesus sends his disciple on a mission to
the four corners of the earth.
The
key note or idea behind the Act of the Apostle is the expansion or expansion of
the church by the power of the Holy Spirit. The course of the missionary task
of the church was set and was to hold together the two entities that God always
moves toward man as a saint and God still moves toward man as a servant. But if
we look into the perspective of the epistle of St. Paul, another aspect of the
work of the spirit appeared. Through the letter of St. Paul we see the
sanctifying work of the spirit in progress. The Holy Spirit is constantly
working to create a pattern of communal life in the Church that is in harmony
with that which was revealed once and for all in the incarnate life of Jesus
Christ.
1.3.
Church mission and the Holy Spirit:
The
great tragedy of the church is that the Holy Spirit is often left out of the
ongoing life of the congregation, so we settle for the ordinary. God expects us
to look for something extraordinary as we focus on the Holy Spirit working in
the assembly of the saints. It is important that we understand that the Holy
Spirit is the empowerment of the church.[5]
In 1
Corinthians 12-14 there is clear evidence of churches living in the abundant
diversity of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The New Testament churches seem deeply
committed to the exercise of spiritual gifts. Paul emphasizes the spiritual
gift a lot in the mentioned chapter. “He makes it clear that he is talking
about worship in the church. "When you gather together" and "In
church," he said. When the church gathers for worship, it gathers as a
community of spirit.” [6] Paul meant that the mission in the church cannot
reach its full potential without the help of the Holy Spirit.
Paul
in 1 Corinthians empowers our hearts to the presence of the Holy Spirit for the
ministry and manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the church. We must become a
truly charismatic assembly where the Holy Spirit bestows gifts on the local
church. We can then expect that the church will act in a supernatural
empowerment of the spirit and escape the ordinary.[7]
1.4.
Reflection on life today:
When Jesus was crucified, the disciples must
have felt like soldiers during a lull on the battlefield after losing their
general. They did not know what to do, where to go, and what was next until
Jesus Christ rose from the dead and walked among them again, but the greatest
gift they could receive was the gift of the Holy Spirit. Today we face the same
basic problem that the disciples faced in trying to fight spiritual battles
with human resources. Most Christians live and serve as if Pentecost never
happened. He valiantly strives to obey Christ's command by his own strength;
yet they wonder how Satan often outwits and overpowers them. They ignore the
mission of the Holy Spirit who came to take the place of Jesus to inspire,
empower and guide them. For them, the Holy Spirit is almost an "unknown
God" or just another way to express the omnipresence of God. The answer
lies in actually experiencing the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, as the
disciples did at Pentecost. Pentecost cannot be repeated any more than Calvary,
but the power of Pentecost can be appropriated as surely as the redemption of
Calvary.[8] In order to experience a massive missionary movement, the power
must be motivated by the power of the Holy Spirit filling God's people.
2.0 Mission
and soteriological understanding
The
concept of "salvation" is a common phenomenon in all religions.
Salvation is neither an act nor an event, but a continuous process that has a
reason, a beginning, and an end. It is a change of the whole being and it
becomes a new creation. The Hebrew words for salvation have the following
meanings as to deliver, to bring to safety, to redeem, and the main terms are
Galia (to redeem, redeem, restore, defend or deliver). The word
"Soteria" occurs 46 times in the New Testament, 2 times in Paul's
letters, and 10 times in the Book of Mormon[9]. In Hebrew, a whole collection
of roots that all relate to the same basic experience: to be saved is to be
brought out of a dangerous situation in which one risks perishing. According to
the nature of the danger, the act of rescue manifests itself in protection,
deliverance, ransom, healing and health, victory, peace.... Taking such human
experience as a starting point and borrowing the very terms in which it was
expressed, revelation explained one of the most essential aspects God's action
on earth: God saves people, Christ is our savior (LK 2:11), the gospel brings
salvation to every believer. We have here; then the key word in the biblical
language; but its ultimate overtones must not make us forget its slow process
of development.[10]
2.1
GOD'S SALVATION IN HISTORY AND ESCHATOLOGY
The concept of God saving his faithful is
common to all religions in the OT, it is a recurring and venerable theme; make
sure of proper names with a root to save in their composition: (Joshua, Isaiah,
Elisha and Hosea, to mention only the main root, yasa'). But the historical
experience of God's people gives this word a special color, which partly
explains its use in prophetic eschatology. He experiences "divine
salvation" when a human leader is sent with him to do something miraculous
or to lead him to victory. The siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib is a classic
example of such a situation: the Assyrian king dares Yahweh to save Israel (2
Kings 18:30-35). certainty, for the support of which one can remember the
conquest (Ps 44,7). It is useless to have presumptuous trust in human strength
(Ps 33:16-19): the salvation of the righteous comes from Yahweh (Ps 37:39); He
alone is salvation.[11]
2.2 Jesus
, savior of men.
It
is primarily by significant acts that Jesus reveals Himself as Savior. He saves
the sick by curing them (Mt 9:21; Mk 3:4) ; He saves Peter walking on the water
and the disciples caught in the storm (Mt 8:25). The essential thing is to have
faith in Him : it is their faith which saves the sick; the disciples find
themselves reproached for having doubted (Mt 8:26). These facts already revealed
the plan of salvation; yet, we must look beyond mere physical salvation. Jesus
brings to men a much more important kind salvation: the sinful woman is saved
because He remits her sins (Lk 7:48), and salvation enters the house of the
penitent Zacheus. as for Jesus, salvation is His life’s purpose: He has come to
the earth to save that which was lost to save the world and not to condemn it
(Jn 3:17). If He speaks, it is to save men (Jn).
2.3 The
gospel of salvation
After
the resurrection and Pentecost, the message of the apostolic community has for
its object salvation achieved in accordance with the Scriptures. By His
resurrection Jesus has been established by God as “prince and Savoir” (Acts
5:31). The miracles performed by the apostles confirm their message: if the
sick have been saved in virtue of the name of Jesus, it is because there is no
other name by which we can be saved. The gospel defines itself as the “Word of
salvation “(Acts 13:26). The condition for salvation is faith in the Lord Jesus
and the invocation of His name.[12]
2.4 A
CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY OF SALVATION
Although
the apostolic writings have recourse to a varied vocabulary in describing the
redemptive work of Jesus, we can still attempt to construct a synthesis of
Christian doctrine around the idea of salvation.
Meaning
of the life of christ. “God desires the salvation of all men” (1 Tim
2:4). For this reason He has sent His Son as Savior of the world . When “our
God and Savior” who came to save sinners appeared here on earth, the grace and
love of God our Savior were make known; for Christ, therough His death and
resurrection, became for us the “ principle of eternal salvation” (Heb 5:9),
savoir of the body which is the church . The title of Savior thus
suits equally well the Father and Jesus. Once the gospel is proposed to men by
the preaching of the apostles , the former have a choice which will determine
their lot: salvation or doom, life or death. Those who believe and confess
their faith are saved their faith having been sealed, besides, by baptism, an
actual experience of salvation. God saves them purely out of mercy without
considering their works by means of grace, giving them the Holy Spirit. From
this moment, the Christian must guard faithfully the Word which can save his
soul; he must nourish his faith through acquaintance with the Scriptures and he
must make it bear fruit in good works (Jm 2:14); he must labor with fear and
trembling “to accomplish his salvation.[13]
3.0 Salvation
as humanization
The salvation that Christ brought and in which we share offers
comprehensive wholeness in this divided life. It can be understood as the
newness of life, the development of true humanity in the fullness of God. It is
the salvation of soul and body, of the individual and of society, of mankind
and of the "groaning creature." Just as evil works both in personal
life and in exploitative social structures that degrade humanity, so God's
justice is manifested both in the justification of the sinner and in social and
political justice.
Humanization was thus an attempt to 'understand the gospel in
terms of human struggles, the mission thus interpreted as an invitation to
emerge from humanity into a new humanity and Jesus Christ as a new man;
Salvation was understood as this state of full or New Humanity, perfect peace
and prosperity as Shalom. [14]
4.0 Salvation of all creation
Within the starting God made the sky and the soil. In both the Old
and New Testaments, the term heaven is used to denote the material heaven,
firmament, heaven, and also the holy region of the spiritual realm—the throne
of Almighty God. In the Old Testament, the same Hebrew word is used for heaven
and for the place of God's throne. In the New Testament, the same Greek term is
used for heaven and for the place of God's throne.
We understand that the "heavens" that were created
"in the beginning" were the physical heavens, the firmament, not the
spiritual heaven. The physical sky, the firmament, is part of physical
creation. Place the sun, moon and stars on celestial bodies. This is all part
of the "creation" of Romans 8:20-21. Creation also includes the
waters under and above the sky, the earth and its vegetation, animals, man,
wind and all other things. Creation is described in Genesis 1. We use the word
"creation" to refer to what God created at the beginning of the world
through the Lord Jesus for eternity. When we use this term, creation angels do
not include angels, seraphim, or other spirits. Even if they were created, we
do not believe that Genesis 1 speaks of them. Therefore, they do not include the
salvation proclaimed in Romans 8:21, but the Lord Jesus Christ will be at the
center and around all salvation, whether in body or spirit. The Scriptures
teach that all the material kingdom that God deems worthy of salvation,
together with the elect of the spiritual kingdom, will become one Kingdom in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is what God has been saying by mouth through all his
holy prophets since he created the world. (Acts 3:21)
The Garden of Eden was located on the material earth – the earth
we walk on today. The tree of life grew from our land. Eating the fruit of the
tree of life causes the eater's body to live forever. Here is another example
of the Presence of the Life of Christ in the original creation; for only eating
Christ can give us eternal life. But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God,
everything changed. The presence of God in Christ has withdrawn from creation.
The Father and the Son separated themselves from what they had created.
Creation became filled with vanity, corruption and death. But this salvation
has a price. It was necessary for Christ's blood to be sacrificed on the cross
as payment for the redemption of all creation. From God's point of view, Jesus'
blood is payment in full. Satan has lost all his authority over creation. Jesus
now has a physical body that he can use as he pleases. Eternal life to all you
give to him, just as you have given him authority over all bodies. (John 17:2)
Jesus came and said to them, All the laws in heaven and on earth have been
given to me. (Matthew 28:18)[15].
Conclusion
The
Holy Spirit in the Mission field cannot be ignored or the Holy Spirit and the
Mission cannot be separated because the Mission without the Holy Spirit will be
like a lost soldier with his general as disciples of Jesus Christ. We cannot do
spiritual warfare without the power of the Holy Spirit. The same applies to the
mission or operation of the church, Paul emphasizes the ultimate or shaping of
the gift of the spirit so that the church can fully realize the potential of
the Power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus
is the way to salvation, he died on the cross not only for, but for all
creation. It is to save the excluded, the exploited, the oppressed and the
hopeless people, in order to enable the realization of life and love of God to
all creation. We also understood that salvation is only for the Jewish
community, but it is for the whole community of the world and it is the
responsibility of every Christian to directly or indirectly embark on the
journey of spreading the universality of salvation. That God is the God of all
and Jesus came to this world to save the world as a whole and not just a
community that we can walk and preach with.
Bibliography
Jr Willis, Avery T. The Biblical Basis of Missions: Your Mission
as a Christian.North Tennessee: Convention Press,1987.
Anderson,Gerald
H. The Theology of the Christian Mission
.Tennessee:McGraw-Hill Book Company,1961.
Coffey,Smith
P. & Donna Tracy Paul.We the Church…
Studies in Mission & Evangelization.New Delhi: Christian World Imprint,
2017.
Lesquivit ,Colomban.Dictionary of Biblical Theology.Edit by
Xavier Leon-Dufour.London:Vocabulaire de theologie biblique,2004.
Web bibliography
https://rinfelazadeng.blogspot.com/2017/06/mission-and-soteriological.html?m=1 . retrieved on 18-07-19,
6:43 am.
https://rinfelazadeng.blogspot.com/2017/06/mission-and-soteriological.html?m=1 . retrieved on 18-07-19,
6:45 am.
http://www.wor.org/book/3971/the-redemption-of-the-creation
. retrived on 18-07-19, 7:55 am.
[1] F. W. Dillistone, The Theology
of the Christian Mission(edited by Gerald H. Anderson;New york:McGraw-Hill
Book Company,1961),270.
[2]Gerald H. Anderson, The
Theology of the Christian Mission (Tennessee:McGraw-Hill Book Company,1961),271.
[3]Gerald H. Anderson, The
Theology of the Christian Mission,272.
[4] Gerald H. Anderson,The
theology of the Christian Mission,272.
[5] Smith P. Coffey & Donna Tracy Paul ,We the Church… Studies in Mission & Evangelization(New Delhi:
Christian World Imprint, 2017), 135.
[6] Smith ,We the Church… Studies
in Mission & Evangelization,135.
[7] Smith, We the Church… Studies
in Mission & Evangelization,146.
[8] Avery T. Willis, Jr. The
Biblical Basis of Missions: Your Mission as a Christian(North Tennessee:
Convention Press,1987),58.
[9] https://rinfelazadeng.blogspot.com/2017/06/mission-and-soteriological.html?m=1 . retrieved on 18-07-19,
6:43 am.
[10] Colomban Lesquivit,Dictionary
of Biblical Theology(edit by Xavier Leon-Dufour,London:Vocabulaire de
theologie biblique,2004),518-519.
[11] Colomban Lesquivit,Dictionary
of Biblical Theology,519.
[12] Colomban Lesquivit,Dictionary
of Biblical Theology,520.
[13] Colomban Lesquivit,Dictionary
of Biblical Theology,521.
[14] https://rinfelazadeng.blogspot.com/2017/06/mission-and-soteriological.html?m=1 . retrieved on 18-07-19,
6:45 am.
[15] http://www.wor.org/book/3971/the-redemption-of-the-creation .
retrived on 18-07-19, 7:55 am.
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