God, through Jesus, has revealed the eschatological Temple of the Spirit

"Jesus' declaration of this new worship must have sounded radically enigmatic to the woman since he emphasized a different kind of worship in a new kind of Temple. True worshippers will no longer worship the Father in this mountain or in Jerusalem but now are required to worship in Spirit and truth Jesus' words about true worship have transferred the geographical location, such as Mt. Gerizim or Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, to a different Temple locale."

"The Jewish expectation of a structural, end-time Temple building is depicted by John as finding fulfillment in the new creational age when the true messianic Temple will represent the eschatological presence of God. Draper, similarly, sees that the central impulse of the Samaritan narrative in John is the question of the Temple: `What overcomes the traditional and deep rooted hostility [between Jews and Samaritans] is that the Jerusalem temple, which has in any case been destroyed at the time of the writing of the gospel, has been replaced by the heavenly temple.' Since Jesus speaks of himself as the eschatological replacement of the temporal, earthly sanctuary of the Jerusalem Temple (cf. 1.14; 2.13-22; 4:10; 7.37-39), he therefore has the authority to regulate its practices, which he demands must be done `in Spirit and truth'. The expression `for salvation is from Jews' in v. 22 is significant for two reasons: (1) The Samaritan woman initially introduces the reference to `the Jews' (`You are a Jew' (4.9); (2) Jesus uses these words to introduce the universal worship which breaks all cultural and ethnic barriers. If there is a polemic here, Jesus undercuts the notion by saying, `I am from this group, the group you have just identified', that is `the Jews', but eschatological worship in the new creation is not just for the Jews but for all nations and people (`Yet the hour is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth', (4.23). Worship is now more inclusive in this eschatological kingdom.

Jesus' declaration of this new worship must have sounded radically enigmatic to the woman since he emphasized a different kind of worship in a new kind of Temple. True worshippers will no longer worship the Father in this mountain or in Jerusalem but now are required to worship in Spirit and truth Jesus' words about true worship have transferred the geographical location, such as Mt. Gerizim or Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, to a different Temple locale. Ancient tradition of Jewish mythical geography located Judaea, and particularly mount Zion in Jerusalem on which the Temple stood, at the centre of the inhabited world. (see Ezek. 5.5; 38.12; Jub. 8.19; 1 En. 26.1; Rev. 20.8-9; b. Sanh 37a). Bauckham in describing the first-century Jewish worldview about the centrality of Jerusalem states:

Jews all over the Diaspora looked to Jerusalem as the symbolic centre of their universe, where their God's presence was uniquely accessible in his Temple. It was the centre to which they traveled on pilgrimage if possible, to which they sent their Temple tax contributions, to which some even returned to settle, and to which, they prayed and expected, the whole Diaspora would be regathered by God in the messianic age. Geography and religious meaning were deeply interconnected in this Jewish sense of the centrality of Jerusalem in the Diaspora and the world.

Thus, Jerusalem with its Temple was significantly important for the Jews just as the city of Jerusalem with its church was equally central for the Christian community in its Palestine setting. `The early Christian community had naturally to be at this centre of God's eschatological action. Indeed, it was itself the messianic Temple in which both returning Jewish exiles and repentant Gentile nations would find God's eschatological presence' as they came from all directions to worship God in Jerusalem and to participate in the messianic salvation (Isa. 2.2-3; Jn 4.23-24). The church as the new eschatological community of God was able to worship God freely without geographical limitations of a physical building because her worship was identified with a christological centre rather than with a geographical one. Jerusalem with its earthly Temple, as a geographical location, has now been transferred to the person of Jesus Christ as the new locus of eschatological worship. Jn. 4.23-24 does not allude to the Christian community as the messianic Temple, but it does present the True Temple as the central impulse of its whole narrative (4.10- 23-24). Although John's christological understanding is not the same as that of the Jerusalem church's ecclesiological understanding, the following parallel structure, however, does explicate this point concerning the new locus of worship;

A the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth
B for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks
B* God is Spirit
A* and his worshippers must worship in Spirit and truth

This parallelism stresses that true worship requires participation in God's own eternal life as the worshippers are identified with the means of that life which God has revealed in the eschatological Temple through the Spirit."

The Theme of Temple Christology in John's Gospel
Stephen T. Um, T&T Clark Int'l (October 31, 2006) pp. 186-188

Eschatology: " “Eschatology” is not exactly your everyday word. If you had read every word of this newspaper every day for the last five years, you would have encountered it fewer than 20 times. Half those times were somehow referring to fundamentalist religious beliefs about the final battles between good and evil, the coming of Jesus (or other messianic figures), the Last Judgment and the eternal assignment of the saved and the damned to heaven or to hell... In the 1960s, his “Theology of Hope,” subtitled “On the Ground and the Implications of a Christian Eschatology,” became one of the most widely translated and read theological works, stirring enthusiastic responses among Roman Catholics as well as Protestants, and among religious radicals in the developing world as well as dissident Marxists in Eastern Europe. At the core of this theology were the principles that human consciousness is not shaped only by the past and present but also by anticipation of the future, that biblical revelation is centered on God’s promises, and that hope for the future does not rest on extrapolations of past or present trends but on something truly beyond them, namely those divine promises... The goal of a final judgment, in this interpretation, is not reward and punishment but victory over all that is godless, which he calls “a great Day of Reconciliation.” Professor Moltmann argues for the universal preservation and salvation not only of humans, as individuals and as members of groups, but also of all living creatures. It has been “a fatal mistake of Christian tradition in doctrine and spirituality,” he argues, to emphasize the “end of the old age” rather than “the new world of God,” the beginning of the “life of the world to come.” "

Peter Steinfils, New York Times

"One of the most important results of the New Testament study that has gone on during the past generation is its realization that the theology of the New Testament is unintelligible outside the context of its eschatological message. The precise meaning of that message is still the subject of much investigation and controversy, but its importance has become a matter of general agreement among New testament students."

Jaroslav Pelikan, The Eschatology of Tertullian, p. 108

The Spirit-Paraclete Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Mar 21, 1923 – Feb 23, 2011
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi was
Christian by birth, Hindu by
marriage, and Paraclete by duty

"Today we are celebrating the opening of the Sahasrara. On this day I must say it was a great happening that took place on all the humanity. It was such an achievement, which I never realized before. Now I can see that without Self-Realization it would have been impossible to talk to people.

Then this happened! I thought that how I will talk to people about it because no one would understand Me and it would be a big mistake on My part to say something about Sahasrara because even about Sahasrara nowhere in the scriptures something was described. It was absolutely an ambiguous description I would say where people could not even have thought there is a realm beyond Sahasrara, and one has to enter that realm where is the Reality.

That time what I saw around Me was darkness and unless and until there are many lights, people will never realize that how important it is to have Light."

The Paraclete Shri Mataji
You Dissolve Into The Divine Power
Adi Shakti Puja, Cabella, Italy — June 9, 1996

"There has been nothing written about Sahasrara before. In none of the scriptures Sahasrara is described. Nobody knew anything about Sahasrara. They just left it at the Agnya Chakra — finished! They could only go until Agnya and nothing has been written about Sahasrara so far. And there is no mantra written about Sahasrara."

The Paraclete Shri Mataji
The Announcement, Sahasrara Puja, Fuiggi, Italy — May 6, 1990

"You have to take a stand in your family, in your surroundings, with your friends, and you have to tell them, "You better all get realized." The reason for that is that the Christ who crucified Himself is going to come back with his Eleven Forces of Destruction. And when He starts He is not going to ask you to take any Realization. No one is going to be bothered whether you are going to hell. He will just sort out. But those who have got Realization will enter into the Kingdom of God. You have to enter into the Kingdom of God here, as I say, in the Seventh Chakra."

The Paraclete Shri Mataji
The New Age Has Started, Houston, USA — Oct. 6, 1981

Paraclete: "In 14:26, Jesus says, “But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of all that I myself spoke to you.” (14:26). The teaching ministry of the Paraclete is presented as superior to that of Jesus because the Paraclete will teach them “all things” and will remind them of “everything” that Jesus said (14:26). The Paraclete’s ministry is set clearly in the future. Jesus again identifies this “Paraclete” with the Holy Spirit, whom the disciples would know from the Old Testament (Ps. 51:11; Is. 63:10,11): “But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit—the Father will send in My name” (14:26). This sending will fulfill Old Testament promises as well as Jesus’ request (14:16). The sending of the Paraclete in Jesus’ name not only links the sending to Jesus’ request but also supports the claim that the Paraclete comes to continue Jesus’ ministry.

The Paraclete’s ministry to the disciples both goes beyond and is limited by Jesus’ ministry. On the one hand, the Paraclete would teach the disciples “all things” (14:26), and so the disciples would know more from the Paraclete’s teaching than they knew from Jesus’ teaching (see 1 John 2:27)... The Spirit’s teaching went beyond what Jesus taught only in that it deepened their understanding of what He said.

Jesus’ statements in John 14:25-26 are closely paralleled by those in 16:12-15... What may be implicit in John 14:25-26, that Jesus had limited what He told the disciples because of their inability to understand, is made explicit in 16:12. They had trouble understanding what He did tell them, and now the reason for that is made plain: their abilities are limited."

James M. Hamilton, Jr., God's Indwelling Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments, B&H Academic (August 1, 2006), pp. 79-82

"The term occurs in one of the fullest descriptions of the nature and function of the Holy Spirit and is therefore more important than its limited use would suggest. If John was the last gospel written, as was suggested early by Clement of Alexandria (150-215 C.E.), then it is not surprising to find there a fuller expression of the nature of the spirit than was usually present in the OT or the synoptic Gospels (including Acts). In the Gospel and Letters of John, the spirit is described as being sent from the father to be in and with the believers, teaching them, and reminding them of Jesus’ words and deeds (John 14:15-26). The paraclete is identified with Christ (1 John 2:1) and with the spirit (John 14:26), is said to proceed from the father as “the spirit of truth,” and will guide Christians to the truth (John 15:26; 16:13)."

Watson E. Mills, Roger Aubrey Bullard, Mercer Dictionary of the Bible

NOTE: If this page was accessed during a web search you may wish to browse the sites listed below where this topic or related issues are discussed in detail to promote global peace, religious harmony, and spiritual development of humanity:

www.adishakti.org/
www.al-qiyamah.org/
www.adi-shakti.org/  — Divine Feminine (Hinduism)
www.holyspirit-shekinah.org/  — Divine Feminine (Christianity)
www.ruach-elohim.org/  — Divine Feminine (Judaism)
www.ruh-allah.org/  — Divine Feminine (Islam)
www.tao-mother.org/  — Divine Feminine (Taoism)
www.prajnaaparamita.org/  — Divine Feminine (Buddhism)
www.aykaa-mayee.org/  — Divine Feminine (Sikhism)
www.great-spirit-mother.org/  — Divine Feminine (Native Traditions)

"Now, the principle of Mother is in every, every scripture - has to be there." Shri Mataji, Radio Interview 1983 Oct 01, Santa Cruz, USA