The Presence of God

There are several layers of understanding God's presence. For Catholic, the presence of God is centered in what we called as Eucharist whereas in protestant understand God's presence in the proclamation of the Gospel. Many has emphasis the differences between them. One in ritual one in Doctrine. Nevertheless, both are share a similar idea of God's presence which undeniably is fully expressed in a person of Chris or in relationship of the God of the Son with the other God head in the perichoresis life in the unity of Trinity. Through Christ, we can see the deity of God the Father that cannot be fathomed now can be seen fully in the light of Christ. ''No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known'' [John 1:18].

Here, we are not talking only about strict monotheism of Judaism.Somehow, the monotheism of Judaism has been expanded into the category we call as Christological-Monotheism, as it was revealed by incarnated Jesus. This binitarian mutation of monotheism was already warranted in the writing of Jews in the Second temple. Yet, the concept of Christological monotheism still keep the ''one-ness'' dimension between God the Father and God the Son. Christ and God is not two separate entity. Thus, Christian does not worship two Gods, like for instance Zoroastrianism [Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu; I aware there are ongoing debate whether Zoroastrianism is dualistic or monotheistic].

There is an interesting passage also from the Gospel John 14:9 whereby he wrote, [Jesus says] ''He Who Has Seen Me Has Seen The Father.'' This verse tell us on how close the relation between them. Commenting on verse 9-11 there is authors [Ted Cabal, Chad Owen Brand, E. Ray Clendenen ] who says, ''Two errors are guarded against here. Verse 9 by itself could suggest that the Son is the Father incarnate, that there are no distinctions between the two persons. But verses 10–11 make it clear that is not the case. These verses also guard against fully separating the Father and the Son into distinct gods. Each interpenetrates the other—what the ancient Greeks called perichoresis'' 

Nonetheless, For who does not believe in the close relationship of God the Father and the Son in unity, they will interpret this passage as saying that Jesus is the embodiment of the ethics of God, not God Himself. Scholar like Bultmann did not see Jesus as the historical embodiment of the fullest of God. For Bultmann, Jesus was being seen only as eschatological prophet and kerygmatic Christ. Yet, looking of the Theology of the gospel of John as a whole, it is quite difficult to set our foot into Bultmann's idea of Jesus. What Bultmann does it to inject the existential and modernism ideology into the text. 

In the preface of the book of John we can see that in the beginning was Logos and the Logos which is Christ, was together with God in eternity and creating the world together [John 1:1-2]. And this Logos is dwell in us, or using the more accurate translation, ''tabernacling'' among us [John 1:14]. It is actually an interesting move made by John, it shows how the presence of God somehow fully expressed and resides in the presence of  Christ Jesus, the incarnated God. 

Conclusion was made base on the Theology [typology] of tabernacle in the Old Testament. Tabernacle is the place whereby heaven and earth are met, it is a place where God or YHWH met His own covenant people-Shekinah glory was shown most clearly in the very person of Jesus Christ. To affirms that Jesus is God is a gateway to be aware God's presence and encounter with His presence. Princeton Theologian by the name of Chales Hodge best wrote this in his systematic Theology, 

''The Scriptures, with equal clearness, declare that Christ was truly God. ... All divine names and titles are applied to him. He is called God, the Mighty God, the Great God, God over all; Jehovah; Lord; the Lord of Lords and the King of kings. All divine attributes are ascribed to him. He is declared to be omnipresent, omniscient, almighty, and immutable, the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is set forth as the creator and upholder and ruler of the universe. All things were created by him and for him; and by him all things consist. He is the object of worship to all intelligent creatures, even the highest; all the angels (i.e., all creatures between man and God) are commanded to prostrate themselves before him. He is the object of all religious sentiments; of reverence, love, faith and devotion. To him men and angels are responsible for their character and conduct. He required that men should honour him as they honored the Father; that they should exercise the same faith in him that they do in God. He declares that he and the Father are one; that those who had seen him had seen the Father also. He calls all men unto him; promises to forgive their sins; to send them the Holy Spirit; to give them rest and peace; to raise them up at the last day; and to give them eternal life. God is not more, and cannot promise more, or do more than Christ is said to be, to promise, and to do. He has, therefore, been the Christian’s God from the beginning, in all ages and in all places.''