Jesus rebukes those who seek access to God elsewhere
“According to Thomas, Jesus rebukes those who seek access to God elsewhere, even—perhaps especially—those who seek it by trying to "follow Jesus" himself. When certain disciples plead with Jesus to "show us the place where you are, since it is necessary for us to seek it," he does not bother to answer so misguided a question and redirects the disciples away from themselves toward the light hidden within each person: 'There is light within a person of light, and it lights up the whole universe; If it does not shine, there is darkness.' In other words, one either discovers the light within that illuminates 'the whole universe' or lives in darkness, within and without.”- Elaine Pagels
Beyond Belief
The Secret Gospel of Thomas
by Elaine Pagels
published 2003 by Random House, New York
Elaine Pagels, professor of religion at Princeton University, became
famous — well, at least well known — with the publication of her
book, The Gnostic Gospels, in 1979. She has written several other
books as well on the history of Christianity, establishing her as the
foremost popular scholar in the field.
Beyond Belief, published in 2003 by Random House, is a sort of sequel
to The Secret Gospels, in that it incorporates the new scholarship
that has come to light since that book was published. Since Ms.
Pagels' infant son was diagnosed with fatal pulmonary hypertension,
her pursuit of knowledge about who Jesus really was has become a
question of personal urgency for her. This need is reflected in the
text and transforms the book into much more than a scholarly treatise
for the curious. She wants to know what Christ meant to his followers
before doctrine and dogmas, in other words, before Christianity was
invented by the Church.
The discovery of the Gospel of Thomas, along with other early
Christian texts, offers revealing clues. Pagels compares Thomas's
gospel (which claims to give Jesus' secret teaching, and indicates an
affinity with the Kabbalah) with the canonic texts to show how the
early Church chose to include some gospels and exclude others from
the collection we know as the New Testament — and why. During the
time of persecution of Christians, the church fathers constructed the
canon, creed and hierarchy, suppressing many of its spiritual
resources in the process, in order to avoid conflict with Roman law
and religion.
A prime example is the label of heresy attached to the Gospel of
Thomas, and its subsequent suppression. If a copy hadn't been found
by accident (or destiny?) in the caves of Nag Hammadi, along with
many other documents during the middle of the twentieth century, we'd
have never even known of its existence. Such secret writings had been
denounced by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon (c.180) as "an abyss of
madness, and blasphemy against Christ.”Pagels had therefore expected
to find madness and blasphemy in these texts, but when she first
studied them in Harvard graduate school she found the contrary in
sayings such as this from Thomas.”Jesus said: If you bring forth
what is within you, what you will bring forth will save you. If you
do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth
will destroy you. Pagels found that.”.the strength of this saying is
that it does not tell us what to believe but challenges us to
discover what lies hidden within ourselves; and, with a shock of
recognition, I realized that this perspective seemed to me to be self-
evidently true.”
However, certain church leaders from the second through the fourth
centuries rejected many of these sources of revelation and
constructed instead the New Testament gospel canon of Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John, which has defined Christianity to this day. The Gospel
of John is of special importance in church dogma, and its basic
tenets seem to be in direct opposition to Thomas. John says that he
writes "so that you may believe, and believing may have life in
[Jesus'] name.” Thomas's gospel, however, encourages us not so much
to believe in Jesus, as John demands, as to seek to know God through
one's own, divinely given capacity, since all are created in the
image of God.”For Christians of later generations, the Gospel of
John helped provide a foundation for a unified church, which Thomas,
with its emphasis on each person's search for God, did not.”
According to Pagels, John is the only evangelist who actually states
that Jesus is God incarnated. But not only Pagels says so. In one of
his commentaries on John, Origen — a church father, (c.240) - writes
that while the other gospels describe Jesus as human, "none of them
clearly spoke of his divinity, as John does.” One may object that the
other three, synoptic ("seeing together") gospels call Jesus "son of
God", and this is virtually the same thing. But such titles (son of
God, messiah) in Jesus' time designated human, not divine roles. When
translated into English fifteen centuries later, these were
capitalized — a linguistic convention that does not occur in the
original Greek. When all four gospels, together with Paul's letters,
were united in the New Testament (c. 160 to 360) most Christians had
come to read all four through John's lens, that Jesus is "Lord and
God.”
Pagels feels that if the Gospel of Thomas were included in the New
Testament instead of that of John, or even if it were included along
with John, the development of Christianity would have been quite
different. Whereas Mark, Matthew and Luke identify Jesus as God's
human agent, John and Thomas characterize him as God's own light in
human form. Both claim to reveal, at least to a certain extent,
Jesus'"secret teachings", and assume that their readers are already
familiar with the synoptic gospels.
Despite their similarities, John and Thomas point the secret
teachings in sharply different directions. John claims that we can
experience God only through the divine light embodied in Jesus, while
Thomas says that the divine light embodied in Jesus is already shared
by humanity since we are all made "in the image of God.” Thomas thus
expresses what would become a central theme of Jewish, and later
Christian, mysticism a thousand years later: that the"Image of God"
is hidden within everyone, and it is a question of recognizing this
and finding it through one's own efforts.
At one point in her description of the dispute among the early
Christians about who Jesus really was, Pagels quotes Mark: ...he asked
his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told
him, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; and others, one of the
prophets.”And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter
answered him, “You are the messiah.”In view of this passage, it has
always seemed contradictory to me the contention that Christianity —
and Judaism — do not embrace the idea of reincarnation, even reject
it, when these first Jewish Christians seem to act as though it were
common knowledge.
The synoptic gospels claim that Jesus' teaching predicted the coming
of the kingdom of God some time in the future, an interpretation
still adhered to by many Christians. However, both John and Thomas
say something different, the latter very specifically: Jesus said, If
those who lead you say to you, 'Look, the kingdom is in the sky',
then the birds of the sky will get there before you....If they say to
you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will get there before you.
And: His disciples said to him, 'When will the resurrection of the
dead come, and when will the new world come?' He said to them, 'What
you look forward to has already come, but you do not recognize it.'
Though the Gospel of Luke includes an alternative version of the same
idea (.“..the kingdom of God is within you"), Luke later retreats from
this position and concludes with the apocalyptic warning that the Son
of Man is not a divine presence in us all but a terrifying judge.
A century ago Leo Tolstoy, in his monumental The Kingdom of God is
within you, urged Christians to give up coercion and violence in
order to realize God's kingdom here and now. Thomas Merton, the
twentieth century writer and Trappist monk, agreed with Tolstoy but
interpreted his kingdom mystically rather then practically. We are
confronted here with the Catholic church's insistence that humanity
is sinful, base and unworthy by nature and that salvation from the
pangs of hell is only possible through faith in Jesus and, by obvious
extension, his church, and his representative on earth, the pope. But
the Gospel of Thomas leaves spiritual destiny up to each individual.
There Jesus treats us as equals, or at least as struggling siblings:
“According to Thomas, Jesus rebukes those who seek access to God
elsewhere, even—perhaps especially—those who seek it by trying
to "follow Jesus" himself. When certain disciples plead with Jesus
to “show us the place where you are, since it is necessary for us to
seek it," he does not bother to answer so misguided a question and
redirects the disciples away from themselves toward the light hidden
within each person: 'There is light within a person of light, and it
lights up the whole universe; If it does not shine, there is
darkness.' In other words, one either discovers the light within that
illuminates 'the whole universe' or lives in darkness, within and
without.”
Finally, after so many centuries, the heretics are having their say.
Another most interesting document found at Nag Hammadi is the Gospel
of Philip, who explains baptism. Sometimes the person who receives
baptism "receives the holy spirit...this is what happens when one
experiences a mystery.” Divine grace, this implies, isn't sufficient;
the initiate's capacity for spiritual understanding is also a
factor. Faith is our earth, in which we take root; hope is the water
through which we are nourished; love is the air through which we
grow; gnosis is the light through which we become fully grown.
Beyond Belief
The Secret Gospel of Thomas
>
> Then a most important realization came before the inaugural
> celebration of Divine Feminine Day 13 November 2008. It was as if
> the Adi Shakti has given me this realization as a blessing to our
> pending celebrations of the Divine Feminine - after nearly 15 years
> it finally dawned on me that Kash was first shown the Light, the
> presence of God Almighty within us ......... before being shown His
> Power, the Adi Shakti, the next day!
>
> Kash, Arwinder and Lalita have all claimed that this extremely
> bright Light is always above Shri Mataji's abode. But it was Lalita
> who revealed that this Light is God Almighty:
>
> Tue Mar 15, 2005 2:59 pm
>
> A few months ago I asked my ten-year-old daughter Lalita what that
> immensely brilliant Light above the Adi Shakti in her Sahasrara is.
> She replied"God!"
>
> I remained silent for a long time to absorb the immensity of that
> single word answer.
>
antar jot pargat paasaaraa.
Deep within the self is the Light of God; It radiates throughout the expanse of His creation.
gur saakhee miti-aa anDhi-aaraa.
Through the Guru's Teachings, the darkness of spiritual ignorance is dispelled.
kamal bigaas sadaa sukh paa-i-aa jotee jot milaavani-aa.
The heart-lotus blossoms forth, and eternal peace is obtained, as one's light merges into the Light.
Guru Granth Sahib, p.126
"The most magnetic of all religious symbols is the light, the light that radiates everywhere within and without — the light that never was on land or sea. Great mystics have realised the Peerless One in the form of Light. Moses saw the burning bush and received the word of God. The Upanishad seers saw It as Jothi Aham — the Splendour in the self.
In many a Devaram and Tiruvacagam, and the lyrics of Tayumanavar and Ramalinga Swamigal, we have allusions to light as the symbol of the formless God; and Light also indicates goals and the radiance of Wisdom, as well as the illumination of Supreme Awareness.
Gleaming as the earth and all the spheres
Oh Thou expanse of matchless Effulgence!
In radiant forms of Light art Thou beheld
Oh Formless One!
Tiruvacagam 22.8.9.
Hinduism Today
"As Jesus talks with his three chosen disciples, Matthew asks him to show him the "place of life," which is, he says, the "pure light.” Jesus answers, "Every one [of you] who has known himself has seen it.”53 Here again, he deflects the question, pointing the disciple instead toward his own self-discovery.”
Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels
Random House, New York, 1989, p. 131.
(53. Dialogue of the Savior 132.15 — 16, in NHL 233.)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him;
And without Him was not anything made that was made.
In Him was life; and the life was the Light of men.
And the Light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehend it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for a witness,
To bear witness to the Light that all men through him might believe.
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness to that Light.
That was the true Light,
Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
John 1:1-10
“The Bible is seen to be full of terms about light. Lossky tells us that "for the mystical theology of the eastern Church these are not metaphors, rhetorical figures but words expressing a real aspect of godliness.” "The godly light does not have an abstract and allegorical meaning. It is a data of the mystical experience.” The author then referred to "Gnostics", the highest level of godly knowledge [that] is an experience (a living) of the noncreated light, where the experience itself is the light: in lumine tuo videbimus lumen (in Your Light we shall see light.)"
Eternal, endless, existing beyond time and space, it appeared in the theophanies of the Old Testament as the Glory of God. The Glory is "the Uncreated Light, His Eternal Kingdom.” Being bestowed to the Christians by the Holy Spirit, the energies appear no longer as external causes but as grace, as inner light.” Makarius the Egyptian wrote: "It is ... the enlightenment of the holy souls, the steadiness of the heavenly powers" (Spiritual Homilies V.8.)
"The godly light appears here, in this world, in time. It is disclosed in the history but it is not of this world; it is eternal, it means going out from the historical existence: 'the secret of the eight day', the secret of the true knowledge, the fulfillment of the Gnosis ... It is exactly the beginning of parousia in the holy souls, the beginning of the revealing at the end of times, when God will be disclosed to everyone in this distant Light.”
Dan Costian, Bible Enlightened
Computex Graphics, 1995, p.415
"This universal symbol of Light is surely one of the best symbols Man has found to express the delicate balance that almost all cultures have tried to maintain, with varying success, between a merely this- worldly or atheistic attitude and a totally otherworldly or transcendent attitude. There must be some link between the world of Men and the world of the Gods, between the material and the spiritual, the immanent and the transcendent. If this link is of a substantial nature, pantheism is unavoidable. If the link is exclusively epistemic, as Indian and many other scholasticisms tend to affirm, the reality of this world will ultimately vanish. The symbol of Light avoids these two pitfalls by allowing for a specific sharing in its nature by both worlds or even by the"three worlds.”
This is the supreme light spoken of in the Rig Veda and in the Brahmanas; it is mentioned also in the Chandogya Upanishad and in the well-known prayer of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: "Lead me from darkness to light!" It is also the refulgent light of the golden vessel stationed in the dwelling place of the Divine: "The impregnable stronghold of the Gods has eight circles and nine gates. It contains a golden vessel, turned toward heaven and suffused with light.” This light is neither exclusively divine nor exclusively human, neither merely material nor merely spiritual, neither from this side only nor from the other. It is precisely this fact that "links the two shores.” This light is cosmic as well as transcosmic.”
Professor Raimundo Panikkar, The Vedic Experience
"Cultivating the Awareness of the Light within
The heart and mind can find peace and harmony by contemplating the transcendental nature of the true self as supreme effulgent light.
From the Yoga Sutra of PATANJALI, second century B.C.
Patanjali is often called the father of yoga because he was the first person to codify and write down yoga practices. In this meditation instruction, he is telling us to let go of all distracting sights, smells, and sounds and meditate on our spiritual nature, our luminous true self. He is telling us to look inside and experience the radiance within.
All cultures, peoples, and religious groups through all times have talked about the phenomena of light in the context of the religious or mystical experience. Those who have seen visions of holy beings typically see them surrounded by white light. People have always described going to the light, finding the light, being called by the light, dissolving in the light. We read about light in The Egyptian Book of the Dead as well as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Men, women, and children who have had classic near-death experiences vividly describe arriving in a place of white light; they speak of themselves and others as being bathed in white light.
Prior to being described as the light of any religion, light was just light. Light is a part of the primary source material. Later, as the history of mankind developed, the concept of light became institutionalized; it was then interpreted according to cultural and religious beliefs. Pure light thus became light of God, light of truth, light of Buddha, light of Jesus, cosmic light, and ocean of light depending upon where you were born and what you were taught. Light, however, is constant. It is fundamental energy.
The New Testament, referring to John the Baptist, reads: "He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light that all might believe through him.”Later Jesus says, "Put your trust in the light while you have it so that you may become sons of light.”...
British mystic George Fox, who founded the Quaker religion, used the term "Inner light" to describe our ability to personally experience God within ourselves. He himself had such an experience, which left him with the lifelong conviction that everyone can hear God's voice directly without mediation by priests or church ritual. This is the central tenet of the Society of Friends.
According to Buddhism, all beings are imbued with a spark of inner divine light. In describing our original Buddha-nature, we use such phrases as innate luminosity, primordial radiance, the unobscured clear natural mind, and the clear light of reality.... The Jewish mystics use similar words when they speak of the inner spark or the spark of God. The Koran, referring to man, talks about the little candle flame burning in a niche in the wall of God's temple.
Almost inevitably a spiritual search becomes a search for divine or sacred light. By cultivating our inner core, we search for this light in ourselves as well as the divine.”
Lama Surya Das, Awakening to the Sacred
“ "Lead me from darkness to light, from death to immortality.” This famed Vedic prayer proclaims the human urge to survive, to conquer death and to know the joys of illuminated consciousness. People often pilgrimage to an isolated place in expectation of a vision, be it a jungle of fauna and foliage or cement and glass. Every person is on a vision quest. But for all souls, at the time of the great departure, mahaprasthana, a vision comes as a tunnel of light at the end of which are beings of divine nature. Many having had the near-death experience have sworn their testimony of such transforming encounters. An American woman who "died" during childbirth, but was brought back to life by quick medical action, recounted: “It was an incredible energy — a light you wouldn't believe. I almost floated in it. It was feeding my consciousness feelings of unconditional love, complete safety and complete, total perfection. And then, and then, a piece of knowledge came in — it was that I was immortal, indestructible. I cannot be hurt, cannot be lost, and that the world is perfect.”Hundreds of people report similar experiences, affirming what Hinduism has always taught — that death is a blissful, light- filled transition from one state to another, as simple and natural as changing clothes, far from the morbid, even hellish alternatives some dread. A Vedic funeral hymn intones: “Where eternal luster glows, the realm in which the light divine is set, place me, Purifier, in that deathless, imperishable world. Make me immortal in that realm where movement is accordant to wish, in the third region, the third heaven of heavens, where the worlds are resplendent." (Rig Veda, Aitareya Aranyaka 6-11).”
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, January 1997
"As Jesus talks with his three chosen disciples, Matthew asks him to show him the."place of life," which is, he says, the "pure light.” Jesus answers," Every one [of you] who has known himself has seen it.”53 Here again, he deflects the question, pointing the disciple instead toward his own self-discovery.”
(53. Dialogue of the Savior 132.15 — 16, in NHL 233.)
Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels,
Random House, New York, 1989, p. 131
“It is such a powerful Light. You can verify it whether it is eternal or not. You have to see for yourself you have such a unique Light within you. In the history of spirituality of this world so many have got Realization — such a Light in them. How could these stupid, flimsy, useless conditionings dominate you now, when you are the carrier of Eternal Light?”
The Paraclete Shri Mataji
Being The Light Of Pure Compassion, Istanbul, Turkey
November 6, 1994
“One has to know on this point that you have got the Light... It is such a powerful Light. You can verify it whether it is eternal or not. You have to see for yourself you have such a unique Light within you. In the history of spirituality of this world so many have got Realization — such a Light in them. How could these stupid, flimsy, useless conditionings dominate you now, when you are the carrier of Eternal Light.”
The Paraclete Shri Mataji Being The Light Of Pure Compassion,
Istanbul, Turkey — November 6, 1994
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Apokalypsis: The fulfillment of eschatological instruction by the Paraclete in the Age to Come promised by Jesus at the Last Supper
An apocalypse (Greek: apokalypsis meaning “an uncovering”) is in religious contexts knowledge or revelation, a disclosure of something hidden, “a vision of heavenly secrets that can make sense of earthly realities.” (Ehrman 2014, 59)
“An apocalypse (Ancient Greek: apokalypsis ... literally meaning "an uncovering") is a disclosure or revelation of great knowledge. In religious and occult concepts, an apocalypse usually discloses something very important that was hidden or provides what Bart Ehrman has termed, "A vision of heavenly secrets that can make sense of earthly realities". Historically, the term has a heavy religious connotation as commonly seen in the prophetic revelations of eschatology obtained through dreams or spiritual visions.” Wikipedia 2021-01-09
Total number of recorded talks 3058: Public Programs 1178, Pujas 651, and other (private conversations) 1249
“The Paraclete will come (15:26; 16:7, 8, 13) as Jesus has come into the world (5:43; 16:28; 18:37)... The Paraclete will take the things of Christ (the things that are mine, ek tou emou) and declare them (16:14-15). Bishop Fison describes the humility of the Spirit, 'The true Holy Spirit of God does not advertise Herself: She effaces Herself and advertises Jesus.' ...
It is by the outgoing activity of the Spirit that the divine life communicates itself in and to the creation. The Spirit is God-in-relations. The Paraclete is the divine self-expression which will be and abide with you, and be in you (14:16-17). The Spirit's work is described in terms of utterance: teach you, didasko (14:26), remind you, hypomimnesko (14:26), testify, martyro (15:26), prove wrong, elencho (16:8), guide into truth, hodego (16:13), speak, laleo (16:13, twice), declare, anangello (16:13, 14, 15). The johannine terms describe verbal actions which intend a response in others who will receive (lambano), see (theoreo), or know (ginosko) the Spirit. Such speech-terms link the Spirit with the divine Word. The Spirit's initiatives imply God's personal engagement with humanity. The Spirit comes to be with others; the teaching Spirit implies a community of learners; forgetful persons need a prompter to remind them; one testifies expecting heed to be paid; one speaks and declares in order to be heard. The articulate Spirit is the correlative of the listening, Spirit-informed community.
The final Paraclete passage closes with a threefold repetition of the verb she will declare (anangello), 16:13-15. The Spirit will declare the things that are to come (v.13), and she will declare what is Christ's (vv. 14, 15). The things of Christ are a message that must be heralded...
The intention of the Spirit of truth is the restoration of an alienated, deceived humanity... The teaching role of the Paraclete tends to be remembered as a major emphasis of the Farewell Discourses, yet only 14:26 says She will teach you all things. (Teaching is, however, implied when 16:13-15 says that the Spirit will guide you into all truth, and will speak and declare.) Franz Mussner remarks that the word used in 14:26, didaskein, "means literally 'teach, instruct,' but in John it nearly always means to reveal.” (Stevick 2011, 292-7)
The Holy Spirit as feminine: Early Christian testimonies and their interpretation,
Johannes van Oort, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Department of Church History and Church Polity, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
“The teaching of the Paraclete, as the continuation of Jesus' teaching, must also be understood as the fulfillment of the promise of eschatological divine instruction.”Stephen E. Witmer, Divine instruction in Early Christianity
“Jesus therefore predicts that God will later send a human being to Earth to take up the role defined by John .i.e. to be a prophet who hears God's words and repeats his message to man.”
M. Bucaille, The Bible, the Qur'n, and Science
“And when Jesus foreannounced another Comforter, He must have intended a Person as distinct and helpful as He had been.”
F. B. Meyer, Love to the Utmost
“The Paraclete has a twofold function: to communicate Christ to believers and, to put the world on trial.”
Robert Kysar, John The Meverick Gospel
“But She—the Spirit, the Paraclete...—will teach you everything.”
Danny Mahar, Aramaic Made EZ)
“Grammatical nonsense but evidence of the theological desire to defeminize the Divine.”
Lucy Reid, She Changes Everything
“The functions of the Paraclete spelled out in verses 13-15... are all acts of open and bold speaking in the highest degree.”
David Fleer, Preaching John's Gospel
“The reaction of the world to the Paraclete will be much the same as the world's reaction was to Jesus.”
Berard L. Marthaler, The Creed: The Apostolic Faith in Contemporary Theology
Bultmann calls the “coming of the Redeemer an 'eschatological event,' 'the turning-point of the ages.”
G. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament
“The Paraclete equated with the Holy Spirit, is the only mediator of the word of the exalted Christ.”
Benny Thettayil, In Spirit and Truth
“The divine Paraclete, and no lessor agency, must show the world how wrong it was about him who was in the right.”
Daniel B. Stevick , Jesus and His Own: A Commentary on John 13-17
Stephen Smalley asserts that “The Spirit-Paraclete ... in John's Gospel is understood as personal, indeed, as a person.”
Marianne Thompson, The God of the Gospel of John
“The Messiah will come and the great age of salvation will dawn (for the pious).”
Eric Eve, The Jewish context of Jesus' Miracles
“The remembrance is to relive and re-enact the Christ event, to bring about new eschatological decision in time and space.”
Daniel Rathnakara Sadananda, The Johannine Exegesis of God
“The Spirit acts in such an international situation as the revealer of 'judgment' on the powers that rule the world.”
Michael Welker, God the Spirit
The Paraclete's “Appearance means that sin, righteousness, and judgment will be revealed.”
Georg Strecker, Theology of the New Testament
“While the Spirit-Paraclete is the true broker, the brokers they rely on are impostors.”
T. G. Brown, Spirit in the writings of John
“The pneumatological activity ... of the Paraclete ... may most helpfully be considered in terms of the salvific working of the hidden Spirit.”
Michael Welker, The work of the Spirit
“The pneuma is the peculiar power by which the word becomes the words of eternal life.”
Robert Kysar, Voyages with John
“The gift of peace, therefore, is intimately associated with the gift of the Spirit-Paraclete.”
Francis J. Moloney, The Gospel of John
“This utopian hope, even when modestly expressed, links Jesus and the prophets to a much wider history of human longing.”
Harvey Cox, The Future of Faith
“Because of the presence of the Paraclete in the life of the believer, the blessings of the end-times—the eschaton—are already present.”
Robert Kysar, John
“They are going, by the Holy Spirit's power, to be part of the greatest miracle of all, bringing men to salvation.”
R. Picirilli, The Randall House Bible Commentary
“The Kingdom of God stands as a comprehensive term for all that the messianic salvation included... is something to be sought here and now (Mt. 6:33) and to be received as children receive a gift (Mk. 10:15 = Lk. 18:16-17).”
G. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament
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