1.
Evangelicalism
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Its origins are usually traced back to English Methodism, the Moravian Church, and German Lutheran Pietism. While all these phenomena contributed greatly, John Wesley and other early Methodists were at the root of sparking this new movement during the First Great Awakening, today, Evangelicals are found across many Protestant branches, as well as in various denominations not subsumed to a specific branch. Among leaders and major figures of the Evangelical Protestant movement were John Wesley, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Billy Graham, Harold John Ockenga, John Stott and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. The movement gained momentum during the 18th and 19th centuries with the Great Awakenings in the United Kingdom. The Americas, Africa, and Asia are home to the majority of Evangelicals, United States has the largest concentration of Evangelicals in the world, its community forms a quarter of the population, is politically important and based mostly in the Bible Belt. In the United Kingdom, Evangelicals are mostly represented in the Methodist Church, Baptist communities, Evangelicalism, a major part of popular Protestantism, is among the most dynamic religious movements in the contemporary world, alongside resurgent Islam. While on the rise globally, the world is particularly influenced by its spread. The first published use of evangelical in English came in 1531 when William Tyndale wrote He exhorteth them to proceed constantly in the evangelical truth. One year later Sir Thomas More produced the earliest recorded use in reference to a theological distinction when he spoke of Tyndale his evangelical brother Barns, during the Reformation, Protestant theologians embraced the label as referring to gospel truth. Martin Luther referred to the evangelische Kirche to distinguish Protestants from Catholics in the Roman Catholic Church, into the 21st century, evangelical has continued in use as a synonym for Protestant in continental Europe, and elsewhere. This usage is reflected in the names of Protestant denominations such as the Evangelical Church in Germany, the term may also occur outside any religious context to characterize a generic missionary, reforming, or redeeming impulse or purpose. For example, the Times Literary Supplement refers to the rise, one influential definition of Evangelicalism has been proposed by historian David Bebbington. Conversionism, or belief in the necessity of being again, has been a constant theme of Evangelicalism since its beginnings. To Evangelicals, the message of the gospel is justification by faith in Christ and repentance, or turning away. Conversion differentiates the Christian from the non-Christian, and the change in life it leads to is marked by both a rejection of sin and a corresponding personal holiness of life. A conversion experience can be emotional, including grief and sorrow for sin followed by great relief at receiving forgiveness, the stress on conversion is further differentiated from other forms of Protestantism by the belief that an assurance of salvation will accompany conversion. Among Evangelicals, individuals have testified to both sudden and gradual conversions, biblicism is reverence for the Bible and a high regard for biblical authority. All Evangelicals believe in inspiration, though they disagree over how this inspiration should be defined
2.
Holy Spirit in Christianity
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For the majority of Christian denominations, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity, the Triune God manifested as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each person itself being God. The New Testament details a relationship between the Holy Spirit and Jesus during his earthly life and ministry. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke and the Nicene Creed state that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove during his baptism, the theology of the Holy Spirit is called pneumatology. The Holy Spirit is referred to as the Lord, the Giver of Life in the Nicene Creed, since the first century, Christians have also called upon God with the trinitarian formula Father, Son and Holy Spirit in prayer, absolution and benediction. The Koine Greek word pneûma is found around 385 times in the New Testament, Pneuma appears 105 times in the four canonical gospels,69 times in the Acts of the Apostles,161 times in the Pauline epistles, and 50 times elsewhere. These usages vary, in 133 cases, it refers to spirit in a general sense, around 93 times, the reference to the Holy Spirit, sometimes under the name pneuma and sometimes explicitly as the pneûma tò Hagion. It was generally translated into the Vulgate as Spiritus and Spiritus Sanctus, the English terms Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit are complete synonyms, one derives from the Old English gast and the other from the Latin loanword spiritus. Like pneuma, they refer to the breath, to its animating power, and to the soul. In particular, Another Stoic concept which offered inspiration to the Church was that of divine Spirit, cleanthes, wishing to give more explicit meaning to Zenos creative fire, had been the first to hit upon the term pneuma, or spirit, to describe it. The sacredness of the Holy Spirit is affirmed in all three Synoptic Gospels which proclaim blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the unforgivable sin. What the Hebrew Bible calls Spirit of God and Spirit of Elohim is called in the Talmud, although the expression Holy Spirit occurs in Ps.51,11 and in Isa. 63, 10–11, it had not yet acquired quite the same meaning which was attached to it in rabbinical literature, in Gen.1,2 Gods spirit hovered over the form of lifeless matter, thereby making the Creation possible. The most characteristic sign of the presence of the ruach ha-kodesh is the gift of prophecy, the use of the word ruach in the phrase ruach ha-kodesh seems to suggest that Judaic authorities believed the Holy Spirit was a kind of communication medium like the wind. The spirit talks sometimes with a masculine and sometimes with a feminine voice, the Holy Spirit does not simply appear for the first time at Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus, but is present in the Gospel of Luke prior to the birth of Jesus. In Luke 1,15, John the Baptist was said to be filled with the Holy Spirit prior to birth, and the Holy Spirit came upon the Virgin Mary in Luke 1,35. In Luke 3,16 John the Baptist stated that Jesus baptized not with water but with the Holy Spirit, in Luke 11,13 Jesus provided assurances that God the Father would give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. Matthew 10,20 refers to the act of speaking through the disciples
3.
Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
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Baptism
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Baptism is a Christian sacrament of admission and adoption, almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally. The canonical Gospels report that Jesus was baptized—a historical event to which a degree of certainty can be assigned. Baptism has been called a sacrament and an ordinance of Jesus Christ. In some denominations, baptism is also called christening, but for others the word christening is reserved for the baptism of infants, Baptism has also given its name to the Baptist churches and denominations. The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the candidate to be immersed, in v.16, Matthew will speak of Jesus coming up out of the water. The traditional depiction in Christian art of John the Baptist pouring water over Jesus head may therefore be based on later Christian practice, other common forms of baptism now in use include pouring water three times on the forehead, a method called affusion. Martyrdom was identified early in Church history as baptism by blood, later, the Catholic Church identified a baptism of desire, by which those preparing for baptism who die before actually receiving the sacrament are considered saved. Today, some Christians, particularly Christian Scientists, Quakers, The Salvation Army, and Unitarians, do not see baptism as necessary, among those that do, differences can be found in the manner and mode of baptizing and in the understanding of the significance of the rite. Most Christians baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, much more than half of all Christians baptize infants, many others hold that only believers baptism is true baptism. Some insist on submersion or at least partial immersion of the person who is baptized, others consider that any form of washing by water, as long as the water flows on the head, is sufficient. The term baptism has also used to refer to any ceremony, trial, or experience by which a person is initiated, purified. The Greek verb baptō, dip, from which the verb baptizo is derived, is in turn hypothetically traced to a reconstructed Indo-European root *gʷabh-, the Greek words are used in a great variety of meanings. John the Baptist, who is considered a forerunner to Christianity, the apostle Paul distinguished between the baptism of John, and baptism in the name of Jesus, and it is questionable whether Christian baptism was in some way linked with that of John. Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism, though whether Jesus intended to institute a continuing, the earliest Christian baptisms were probably normally by immersion, complete or partial. Though other modes may have also been used, at the hour in which the cock crows, they shall first pray over the water. When they come to the water, the water shall be pure and flowing, that is, then they shall take off all their clothes. The children shall be baptized first, all of the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, after this, the men will be baptized
5.
Jesus in Christianity
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Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah and believe that through his death and resurrection, humans can be reconciled to God and thereby are offered salvation and the promise of eternal life. The choice Jesus made thus counter-positions him as a new man of morality and obedience, most Christians believe that Jesus was both human and divine—the Son of God. Jesus, having become fully human in all respects, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, as fully God, he defeated death and rose to life again. According to the Bible, God raised him from the dead and he ascended to heaven to sit at the Right Hand of God, and he will return to earth again for the Last Judgment and the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the World to Come. Although Christian views of Jesus vary, it is possible to summarize key elements of the shared beliefs among major denominations based on their catechetical or confessional texts. Christian views of Jesus are derived from biblical sources, particularly from the canonical Gospels. Christians predominantly hold that these works are historically true and those groups or denominations committed to what are considered biblically orthodox Christianity nearly all agree on the following points, Christians believe that the mother of Jesus was a virgin. Christians believe that Jesus was a human being who was also fully God, Christians believe that Jesus came into the world as the son of only one earthly parent, Mary. Christians believe that Jesus never sinned or did anything wrong, Christians believe that Jesus was eventually martyred, was buried in a tomb, and then on the third day came back to life. Christians believe that because he rose from the tomb on the third day, Christians believe that Jesus eventually ascended back to God the Father. Christians believe that Jesus will come back to earth a second time, the five major milestones in the gospel narrative of the life of Jesus are his Baptism, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension. These are usually bracketed by two episodes, his Nativity at the beginning and the sending of the Paraclete at the end. The gospel accounts of the teachings of Jesus are often presented in terms of specific categories involving his works and words, e. g. his ministry, Christians not only attach theological significance to the works of Jesus, but also to his name. Devotions to the name of Jesus go back to the earliest days of Christianity and these exist today both in Eastern and Western Christianity—both Catholic and Protestant. Christians predominantly profess that through Jesus life, death, and resurrection and his death on a cross is understood as a redemptive sacrifice, the source of humanitys salvation and the atonement for sin which had entered human history through the sin of Adam. But who do you say that I am, only Simon Peter answered him, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God — Matthew 16, 15-16 Jesus is mediator, but…the title means more that someone between God and man. He is not just a third party between God and humanity…, as true God he brings God to mankind. As true man he brings mankind to God, most Christians generally consider Jesus to be the Christ, the long awaited Messiah, as well as the one and only Son of God
6.
New Testament
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The New Testament is the second major part of the Christian biblical canon, the first part being the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew Bible. The New Testament discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity, Christians regard both the Old and New Testaments together as sacred scripture. The New Testament has frequently accompanied the spread of Christianity around the world and it reflects and serves as a source for Christian theology and morality. Both extended readings and phrases directly from the New Testament are also incorporated into the various Christian liturgies, the New Testament has influenced religious, philosophical, and political movements in Christendom and left an indelible mark on literature, art, and music. In almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books, John A. T. Robinson, Dan Wallace, and William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD. Others give a date of 80 AD, or at 96 AD. Over time, some disputed books, such as the Book of Revelation, other works earlier held to be Scripture, such as 1 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Diatessaron, were excluded from the New Testament. However, the canon of the New Testament, at least since Late Antiquity, has been almost universally recognized within Christianity. The term new testament, or new covenant first occurs in Jeremiah 31,31, the same Greek phrase for new covenant is found elsewhere in the New Testament. Modern English, like Latin, distinguishes testament and covenant as alternative translations, John Wycliffes 1395 version is a translation of the Latin Vulgate and so follows different terms in Jeremiah and Hebrews, Lo. Days shall come, saith the Lord, and I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel, for he reproving him saith, Lo. Days come, saith the Lord, when I shall establish a new testament on the house of Israel, use of the term New Testament to describe a collection of first and second-century Christian Greek Scriptures can be traced back to Tertullian. In Against Marcion, written circa 208 AD, he writes of the Divine Word, by the 4th century, the existence—even if not the exact contents—of both an Old and New Testament had been established. Lactantius, a 3rd–4th century Christian author wrote in his early-4th-century Latin Institutiones Divinae and that which preceded the advent and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets—is called the Old, but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. The canon of the New Testament is the collection of books that most Christians regard as divinely inspired, several of these writings sought to extend, interpret, and apply apostolic teaching to meet the needs of Christians in a given locality. The book order is the same in the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, the Slavonic, Armenian and Ethiopian traditions have different New Testament book orders. Each of the four gospels in the New Testament narrates the life, death, the word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell, meaning good news or glad tidings. The gospel was considered the good news of the coming Kingdom of Messiah, and the redemption through the life and death of Jesus, Gospel is a calque of the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, euangelion
7.
Jesus
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In Christology, the Person of Christ refers to the study of the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ as they co-exist within one person. There is no discussion in the New Testament regarding the dual nature of the Person of Christ as both divine and human. Hence, since the days of Christianity theologians have debated various approaches to the understanding of these natures. In the period following the Apostolic Age, specific beliefs such as Arianism and Docetism were criticized. On the other end of the spectrum, Docetism argued that Jesus physical body was an illusion, docetic teachings were attacked by St. Ignatius of Antioch and were eventually abandoned by proto-orthodox Christians. However, after the First Council of Nicaea in 325 the Logos, historically in the Alexandrian school of christology, Jesus Christ is the eternal Logos paradoxically humanized in history, a divine Person who became enfleshed, uniting himself to the human nature. The views of these schools can be summarized as follows, Alexandria, Antioch, Logos assumes a specific human being The First Council of Ephesus in 431 debated a number of views regarding the Person of Christ. At the same gathering the council debated the doctrines of monophysitism or miaphysitism. The council rejected Nestorianism and adopted the term hypostatic union, referring to divine, the language used in the 431 declaration was further refined at the 451 Council of Chalcedon. However, the Chalcedon creed was not accepted by all Christians, because Saint Augustine died in 430 he did not participate in the Council of Ephesus in 431 or Chalcedon in 451, but his ideas had some impact on both councils. On the other hand, the major theological figure of the Middle Ages. The Third Council of Constantinople in 680 held that both divine and human wills exist in Jesus, with the divine will having precedence, leading and guiding the human will. John Calvin maintained that there was no element in the Person of Christ which could be separated from the person of The Word. Calvin also emphasized the importance of the Work of Christ in any attempt at understanding the Person of Christ, the study of the Person of Christ continued into the 20th century, with modern theologians such as Karl Rahner and Hans von Balthasar. Balthasar argued that the union of the human and divine natures of Christ was achieved not by the absorption of human attributes, thus in his view the divine nature of Christ was not affected by the human attributes and remained forever divine
8.
Nicodemus
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Nicodemus is a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin mentioned in three places in the Gospel of John, He first visits Jesus one night to discuss Jesus teachings. The second time Nicodemus is mentioned, he reminds his colleagues in the Sanhedrin that the law requires that a person be heard before being judged. Finally, Nicodemus appears after the Crucifixion of Jesus to provide the customary embalming spices, an apocryphal work under his name—the Gospel of Nicodemus—was produced in the mid-4th century, and is mostly a reworking of the earlier Acts of Pilate, which recounts the harrowing of Hell. The first time Nicodemus is mentioned, he is identified as a Pharisee who comes to see Jesus at night, John places this meeting shortly after the Cleansing of the Temple and links it to the signs which Jesus performed in Jerusalem during the Passover feast. Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him. Then follows a conversation with Nicodemus about the meaning of being born again or born from above, Nicodemus explores the notion of being literally born again from ones mothers womb, but most theologians recognise that Nicodemus knew Jesus was not speaking of literal rebirth. Theologian Charles Ellicott wrote that after the method of Rabbinic dialogue, presses the impossible meaning of the words in order to exclude it and you cannot mean that a man is to enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born. What is it, then, that you do mean, Jesus expresses surprise, perhaps ironically, that a teacher of Israel does not understand the concept of spiritual rebirth. James F. Driscoll describes Nicodemus as a learned and intelligent believer, in Chapter 7, Nicodemus advises his colleagues among the chief priests and the Pharisees, to hear and investigate before making a judgment concerning Jesus. Their mocking response argues that no prophet comes from Galilee, nonetheless, it is probable that he wielded a certain influence in the Sanhedrin. Finally, when Jesus is buried, Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh, Nicodemus must have been a man of means, in his book Jesus of Nazareth, Holy Week, Pope Benedict XVI observes that, The quantity of the balm is extraordinary and exceeds all normal proportions. Nicodemus is venerated as a saint in the various Eastern Churches, the traditional Roman Catholic liturgical calendar lists the same feast of the finding of their relics on the following day, August 3. In the current Roman Martyrology of the Catholic Church, Nicodemus is commemorated along with Saint Joseph of Arimathea on August 31, the Franciscan Order erected a church under the patronage of Saints Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea in Ramla. Nicodemus figures prominently in medieval depictions of the Deposition in which he and Joseph of Arimathea are shown removing the dead Christ from the cross, like Joseph, Nicodemus became the object of various pious legends during the Middle Ages, particularly in connection with monumental crosses. He was reputed to have carved both the Holy Face of Lucca and the Batlló Crucifix, receiving angelic assistance with the face in particular and thus rendering the works instances of acheiropoieta. Both of these date from at least a millennium after Nicodemus life. In the Lutheran prescribed readings of the 18th century, the text of the meeting of Jesus and Nicodemus at night was assigned to Trinity Sunday. Ernst Pepping composed in 1937 an Evangelienmotette Jesus und Nikodemus, in popular music, Nicodemus name was figuratively used in Henry Clay Works 1864-written Civil-War-Aera piece Wake Nicodemus, which at that time was popular in minstrel shows
9.
Word play
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Word play or wordplay is a literary technique and a form of wit in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Word play is common in oral cultures as a method of reinforcing meaning. Examples of text-based word play are found in languages with or without alphabet-based scripts, for example, linguistic fossils and set phrases are often manipulated for word play, as in Wellerisms, Well have to rehearse that, said the undertaker as the coffin fell out of the car. Another use of fossils is in using antonyms of unpaired words – I was well-coiffed and sheveled, most writers engage in word play to some extent, but certain writers are particularly committed to, or adept at, word play as a major feature of their work. Shakespeares quibbles have made him a noted punster, wodehouse was hailed by The Times as a comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce for his own acclaimed wordplay. James Joyce, author of Ulysses, is another noted word-player, an epitaph, probably unassigned to any grave, demonstrates use in rhyme. Here lie the bones of one Bun He was killed with a gun and his name was not Bun but Wood But Wood would not rhyme with gun But Bun would. Crossword puzzles often employ wordplay to challenge solvers, cryptic crosswords especially are based on elaborate systems of wordplay. Young Thug used a play on words in his verse on Sacrifices by Drake featuring 2 Chainz, Ima use her name, like, Who is he. I said Ima username, like, Who is he, word play can enter common usage as neologisms. Word play is closely related to games, that is. See also language game for a linguists variation, etymology Figure of speech List of forms of word play Metaphor Simile A categorized taxonomy of word play composed of record-holding words
10.
New Revised Standard Version
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The New Revised Standard Version of the Christian Bible is an English translation released in 1989. It is a revision of the Revised Standard Version, which was itself an update of the American Standard Version. The NRSV was intended as a translation to serve devotional, liturgical, the full translation includes the books of the standard Protestant canon as well as the books traditionally included in the canons of Roman Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity. Special editions of the NRSV employ British spelling and grammar, the New Revised Standard Version was translated by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches. The group included scholars representing Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Christian groups as well as Jewish representation in the responsible for the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament. The mandate given the committee was summarized in a dictum, “As literal as possible, the NRSV was intended to take advantage of this and other manuscript discoveries, and to reflect advances in scholarship. The RSV retained the second person familiar forms when God was addressed but eliminated their use in other contexts. The NRSV eliminated all such archaisms, the RSV observed the older convention of using masculine nouns in a gender-neutral sense, and in some cases used a masculine word where the source language used a neuter word. The NRSV by contrast adopted a policy of inclusiveness in gender language. ”The following scholars were active on the NRSV Bible Translation Committee at the time of publication. The New Revised Standard Version is the version most commonly preferred by biblical scholars, many of the older mainline Protestant churches officially approve the NRSV for both private and public use. The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion in Canon II.2 added the NRSV to the list of translations approved for church services, in accordance with the Code of Canon Law Canon 825. The NRSV, along with the RSV, is one of the texts adapted and quoted in the English-language edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In Coogan, Michael D. Brettler, Mark Zvi, Newsom, ehrman, Bart D. Jesus, Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. The Complete Guide to Bible Translations, sweeney, Marvin A. Isaiah 1 –39, with an introduction to prophetic literature. Official website Text of the NRSV at the Oremus Bible Browser Religion, Farewell To Thees and Hes, Time magazine
11.
King James Version
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The King James Version, also known as Authorized Version or simply King James Bible, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. The books of the King James Version include the 39 books of the Old Testament, a section containing 14 books of the Apocrypha. It was first printed by the Kings Printer Robert Barker and was the translation into English approved by the English Church authorities. The first had been the Great Bible, commissioned in the reign of King Henry VIII, the translation is noted for its majesty of style, and has been described as one of the most important books in English culture. The translation was done by 47 scholars, all of whom were members of the Church of England. In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from Greek, the Old Testament from Hebrew and Aramaic, and the Apocrypha from Greek and Latin. In the Book of Common Prayer, the text of the Authorized Version replaced the text of the Great Bible for Epistle and Gospel readings, over the course of the 18th century, the Authorized Version supplanted the Latin Vulgate as the standard version of scripture for English-speaking scholars. Today the unqualified title King James Version usually indicates that this Oxford standard text is meant, the title page carries the words Appointed to be read in Churches, and F. F. For many years it was not to give the translation any specific name. In his Leviathan of 1651, Thomas Hobbes referred to it as the English Translation made in the beginning of the Reign of King James. Similarly, a History of England, whose edition was published in 1775, writes merely that new translation of the Bible, viz. that now in Use, was begun in 1607. King Jamess Bible is used as the name for the 1611 translation in Charles Butlers Horae Biblicae and this name was also found as King James Bible, for example in a book review from 1811. The phrase King Jamess Bible is used as far back as 1715, the use of Authorized Version or Authorised Version, capitalized and used as a name, is found as early as 1814. For some time before this, descriptive phrases such as our present, and only publicly authorised version, our Authorised version, the Oxford English Dictionary records a usage in 1824. In Britain, the 1611 translation is known as the Authorised Version today. As early as 1814, we find King James version, evidently a descriptive phrase, the King James Version is found, unequivocally used as a name, in a letter from 1855. The next year King James Bible, with no possessive, appears as a name in a Scottish source, in the United States, the 1611 translation is generally known as the King James Version today. The followers of John Wycliffe undertook the first complete English translations of the Christian scriptures in the 14th century and these translations were banned in 1409 due to their association with the Lollards
12.
Gospel of John
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The Gospel According to John is one of the four canonical gospels in the New Testament. It traditionally appears fourth, after the gospels of Matthew, Mark. John begins with the witness and affirmation of John the Baptist and concludes with the death, burial, resurrection, although the Gospel of John is anonymous, Christian tradition historically has attributed it to John the Apostle, son of Zebedee and one of Jesus Twelve Apostles. C. K. Barrett, and later Raymond E. Brown, suggested that a tradition developed around the Johannine Community, and that this tradition gave rise to the gospel. The discovery of a number of papyrus fragments of manuscripts with Johannine themes has led more scholars to recognize that the texts were among the most influential in the early Church. The discourses contained with this gospel seem to be concerned with issues of the debate at the time of composition. It is notable that in John, the community appears to define itself primarily in contrast to Judaism, though Christianity started as a movement within Judaism, it gradually separated from Judaism because of mutual opposition between the two religions. The Gospel of John can be divided into four sections, a prologue, a Book of Signs, a Book of Glory, the narrative of Jesus public ministry, beginning with the introduction of the first disciples of Jesus. It consists of seven miracles, or signs, interspersed with long dialogues, discourses, Amen, amen sayings, in John it is this, and not the cleansing of the Temple, that prompts the authorities to have Jesus executed. The narrative of Jesus Passion, Resurrection, and post-Resurrection appearances and this is followed by Jesus Farewell Discourse, an account of his betrayal, arrest, trial, death, burial, post-Resurrection appearances, and final commission for his followers. Jesus mocking and crowning with thorns, the Ecce homo, the discovery of the empty tomb, the noli me tangere, the Great Commission, and the incredulity of Thomas. The section ends with a conclusion on the purpose of the gospel, that may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, a large majority of scholars believes this chapter to be an addition to the gospel. The Gospel of John is anonymous, traditionally, Christians have identified the author as the Disciple whom Jesus loved mentioned in John 21,24, who is understood to be John son of Zebedee, one of Jesus Twelve Apostles. These identifications, however, are rejected by the majority of biblical scholars. Nevertheless, the author of the fourth Gospel is sometimes called John the Evangelist, a significant minority consider the traditional account of John the Apostles authorship to be genuine. In addition, the ancient external attestation for Johannine authorship is strong, John is usually dated to AD 90–110. It arose in a Jewish Christian community in the process of breaking from the Jewish synagogue, scholars believe that the text went through two to three redactions, or editions, before reaching its current form. John, which regularly describes Jesus opponents simply as the Jews, is more hostile to the Jews than any other body of New Testament writing
13.
Koine Greek
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It was based mainly on Attic and related Ionic speech forms, with various admixtures brought about through dialect levelling with other varieties. Koine Greek displayed a wide spectrum of different styles, ranging from more conservative literary forms to the vernaculars of the time. As the dominant language of the Byzantine Empire, it developed further into Medieval Greek, Koine Greek remained the court language of the Byzantine Empire until its dissolution in 1453, while Medieval and eventually Modern Greek were the everyday language. Literary Koine was the medium of much of post-classical Greek literary and scholarly writing, such as the works of Plutarch, Koine is also the language of the Christian New Testament, of the Septuagint, and of most early Christian theological writing by the Church Fathers. In this context, Koine Greek is also known as Biblical, New Testament and it continues to be used as the liturgical language of services in the Greek Orthodox Church. The word koinē is the Greek word for common, and is understood as referring to the common dialect. The word is pronounced /kɔɪˈneɪ/, /ˈkɔɪneɪ/ or /kiːˈniː/ in US English, the pronunciation of the word in Koine gradually changed from Greek pronunciation, to Greek pronunciation. Its pronunciation in Modern Greek is, the term was applied in several different senses by ancient scholars. Others chose to refer to Koine as the Alexandrian dialect or the dialect of Alexandria, the former was often used by modern classicists. Koine Greek arose as a dialect within the armies of Alexander the Great. Under the leadership of Macedon, their newly formed common variety was spoken from the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt to the Seleucid Empire of Mesopotamia and it replaced existing ancient Greek dialects with an everyday form that people anywhere could understand. The passage into the period, known as Medieval Greek. The post-Classical period of Greek thus refers to the creation and evolution of Koine Greek throughout the entire Hellenistic, the linguistic roots of the Common Greek dialect had been unclear since ancient times. During the Hellenistic period, most scholars thought of Koine as the result of the mixture of the four main Ancient Greek dialects, ἡ ἐκ τῶν τεττάρων συνεστῶσα. The view accepted by most scholars today was given by the Greek linguist Georgios Hatzidakis, who showed that, despite the composition of the Four, the stable nucleus of Koine Greek is Attic. In other words, Koine Greek can be regarded as Attic with the admixture of elements especially from Ionic, the degree of importance of the non-Attic linguistic elements on Koine can vary depending on the region of the Hellenistic World. The literary Koine of the Hellenistic age resembles Attic in such a degree that it is mentioned as Common Attic. Koine Greek was therefore considered a form of Greek which was not worthy of attention
14.
Revised Version
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The Revised Version or English Revised Version of the Bible is a late 19th-century British revision of the King James Version. It was the first and remains the only authorised and recognised revision of the King James Version in Britain. The work was entrusted to over 50 scholars from various denominations in Britain, American scholars were invited to co-operate, by correspondence. The New Testament was published in 1881, the Old Testament in 1885, the best known of the translation committee members were Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort, their fiercest critic of that period was John William Burgon. The New Testament revision company was commissioned in 1870 by the convocation of Canterbury, to those ends, the Greek text that was used to translate the New Testament was believed by most to be of higher reliability than the Textus Receptus. The readings used were compiled from a different text of the Greek Testament by Edwin Palmer, while the text of the translation itself is widely regarded as excessively literal and flat, the Revised Version is significant in the history of English Bible translation for many reasons. At the time of the RVs publication, the nearly 300-year-old King James Version was still the only viable English Bible in Victorian England, the RV, therefore, is regarded as the forerunner of the entire modern translation tradition. And it was considered more accurate than the King James Version in a number of verses, the revisers were charged with introducing alterations only if they were deemed necessary to be more accurate and faithful to the Original Greek and Hebrew texts. In the New Testament alone more than 30,000 changes were made, the work was begun in 1879, with the entire work completed in 1885. In the United States, the Revised Version was adapted and revised as the Revised Version, the American Standard Version is largely identical to the Revised Version of 1885, with minor variations in wording considered to be slightly more accurate. The Revised Version are some of the Bible versions that are authorized to be used in services of the Episcopal Church, the American Standard Version was the basis for many revisions in the first hundred years after it was released. The RV itself has never been the basis for any revision except for the American Standard Version and the Apocrypha in the Revised Standard Version. As the Revised Version is out of copyright worldwide, it is available online. However, it is not widely available in published form today with only Cambridge University Press publishing it in the form of a KJV/RV interlinear, American Standard Version The New Testament in the Original Greek Marlowe, Michael D. History of the English Revised Version, the Greek Testament with the Readings Adopted by the Revisers of the Authorised Version. The Word of God in English, Cambridge, At the University Press,1896. Ix,175 p. Wegner, Paul D, journey from Texts to Translations, The, The Origin and Development of the Bible, Baker Academic, ISBN 978-0-8010-2799-4 – The Revised Version is described in pages 314ff. Editors, Moulton, W. F. 1835-1898, Moulton, James Hope, 1863-1917, Greenup, A. W. 1866-1952, Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose, 1813-1891
15.
First Epistle of Peter
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The First Epistle of Peter, usually referred to simply as First Peter and often written 1 Peter, is a book of the New Testament. The letter is addressed to various churches in Asia Minor suffering religious persecution, the authorship of 1 Peter has traditionally been attributed to the Apostle Peter because it bears his name and identifies him as its author. Although the text identifies Peter as its author the language, dating, style, many scholars are convinced that Peter was not the author of this letter because the author had to have a formal education in rhetoric/philosophy and an advanced knowledge of the Greek language. Current scholarship has abandoned the persecution argument because the described persecution within the work does not necessitate a time period outside of the period of Peter, others argue that it makes little sense to ascribe the work to Peter when it could have been ascribed to Paul. One theory used to support Petrine authorship of 1 Peter is the secretarial hypothesis, on the one hand, some scholars such as Bart D. On the other hand, some argue that there is not enough evidence to conclude that Peter did not write 1 Peter. For instance, there are similarities between 1 Peter and Peters speeches in the Biblical book of Acts, and the earliest attestation of Peters authorship comes from 2 Peter, ultimately, the authorship of 1 Peter remains contested. 1 Peter is addressed to the “elect resident aliens” scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, the five areas listed in 1,1 as the geographical location of the first readers were Roman provinces in Asia Minor. The order in which the provinces are listed may reflect the route to be taken by the messenger who delivered the circular letter. The recipients of this letter are referred to in 1,1 as “exiles of the Dispersion. ”In 1,17, while the new Christians have encountered oppression and hostility from locals, Peter advises them to maintain loyalty to both their religion and the Roman Empire. David Bartlett lists the following outline to structure the literary divisions of 1 Peter, based on such internal evidence, biblical scholar John Elliott summarizes the addressees’ situation as one marked by undeserved suffering. Verse, Spirits in prison, is a theme in Christianity. A number of verses in the epistle contain possible clues about the reasons Christians experienced opposition, however, scholars differ on the nature of persecution inflicted on the addressees of 1 Peter. Some read the epistle to be describing persecution in the form of social discrimination, some scholars believe that the sufferings the epistles addressees were experiencing were social in nature, specifically in the form of verbal derision. Internal evidence for this includes the use of words like “malign” and it is significant to him that the author notes that “your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering”, indicating suffering that is worldwide in scope. On the other hand, scholars who support the official persecution theory take the exhortation to defend ones faith as a reference to court proceedings. They believe that these persecutions involved court trials before Roman authorities, one common supposition is that 1 Peter was written during the reign of Domitian. Domitians aggressive claim to divinity would have rejected and resisted by Christians
16.
Saint Peter
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Saint Peter, also known as Simon Peter, Simeon, or Simōn pronunciation, according to the New Testament, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, leaders of the early Christian Great Church. Hippolytus of Rome, a 3rd-century theologian, gave him the title of Apostle of the Apostles, according to Catholic teaching, Peter was ordained by Jesus in the Rock of My Church dialogue in Matthew 16,18. He is traditionally counted as the first Bishop of Rome and by Eastern Christian tradition also as the first Patriarch of Antioch. The ancient Christian churches all venerate Peter as a saint and as founder of the Church of Antioch. The New Testament indicates that Peter was the son of John and was from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee or Gaulanitis and his brother Andrew was also an apostle. According to New Testament accounts, Peter was one of twelve apostles chosen by Jesus from his first disciples, originally a fisherman, he played a leadership role and was with Jesus during events witnessed by only a few apostles, such as the Transfiguration. According to the gospels, Peter confessed Jesus as the Messiah, was part of Jesuss inner circle, thrice denied Jesus and wept bitterly once he realised his deed, according to Christian tradition, Peter was crucified in Rome under Emperor Nero Augustus Caesar. It is traditionally held that he was crucified upside down at his own request, Tradition holds that he was crucified at the site of the Clementine Chapel. His remains are said to be contained in the underground Confessio of St. Peters Basilica. According to Catholic doctrine, the direct successor to Saint Peter is the incumbent pope. Two general epistles in the New Testament are ascribed to Peter, the Gospel of Mark was traditionally thought to show the influence of Peters preaching and eyewitness memories. Peters original name was Shimon or Simeon and he was later given the name Peter, New Testament Greek Πέτρος derived from πέτρα, which means rock. In the Latin translation of the Bible this became Petrus, a form of the feminine petra. Another version of this name is Aramaic, , after his name in Hellenised Aramaic. The English, Dutch and German Peter, French Pierre, the Italian Pietro, the Spanish and Portuguese Pedro, the Syriac or Aramaic word for rock is kepa, which in Greek became Πέτρος, also meaning rock. He is also known as Simon Peter, Cephas and Kepha, both Cephas and Kepha also mean rock. In the New Testament, he is among the first of the disciples called during Jesus ministry, Peter became the first listed apostle ordained by Jesus in the early church. Peter was a fisherman in Bethsaida and he was named Simon, son of Jonah or John
17.
Seed of Abraham
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Abraham, originally Abram, is the first of the three patriarchs of Judaism. His story features in the texts of all the Abrahamic religions and Abraham plays a prominent role as an example of faith in Judaism, Christianity. The biblical narrative revolves around the themes of posterity and land, Abraham is called by God to leave the house of his father Terah and settle in the land originally given to Canaan, but which God now promises to Abraham and his progeny. Various candidates are put forward who might inherit the land after Abraham, Abraham later marries Keturah and has six more sons, but on his death, when he is buried beside Sarah, it is Isaac who receives all Abrahams goods, while the other sons receive only gifts. Terah, the ninth in descent from Noah, was the father of three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran, Haran was the father of Lot, and died in his native city, Ur of the Chaldees. Abram married Sarah, who was barren, Terah, with Abram, Sarai, and Lot, then departed for Canaan, but settled in a place named Haran, where Terah died at the age of 205. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and the substance and souls that they had acquired, and traveled to Shechem in Canaan. There was a famine in the land of Canaan, so that Abram and Lot and their households. On the way Abram told his wife Sarai to say that she was his sister, however, God afflicted Pharaoh and his household with great plagues, for which he tried to find the reason. Upon discovering that Sarai was a woman, Pharaoh demanded that they and their household leave immediately. When they came back to the Bethel and Hai area, Abrams and this became a problem for the herdsmen who were assigned to each familys cattle. But Lot chose to go east to the plain of Jordan where the land was well watered everywhere as far as Zoar, Abram went south to Hebron and settled in the plain of Mamre, where he built another altar to worship God. During the rebellion of the Jordan River cities against Elam, Abrams nephew, the Elamite army came to collect the spoils of war, after having just defeated the king of Sodoms armies. Lot and his family, at the time, were settled on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Sodom which made them a visible target, one person who escaped capture came and told Abram what happened. Once Abram received this news, he immediately assembled 318 trained servants, Abrams force headed north in pursuit of the Elamite army, who were already worn down from the Battle of Siddim. When they caught up with them at Dan, Abram devised a plan by splitting his group into more than one unit. Not only were able to free the captives, Abrams unit chased and slaughtered the Elamite King Chedorlaomer at Hobah. They freed Lot, as well as his household and possessions, upon Abrams return, Sodoms king came out to meet with him in the Valley of Shaveh, the kings dale
18.
Charles Hodge
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Charles Hodge was a Presbyterian theologian and principal of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1851 and 1878. He was an exponent of the Princeton Theology, an orthodox Calvinist theological tradition in America during the 19th century. He argued strongly for the authority of the Bible as the Word of God, many of his ideas were adopted in the 20th century by Fundamentalists and Evangelicals. Charles Hodges father, Hugh, was the son of a Scotsman who emigrated from Northern Ireland early in the eighteenth century, Hugh graduated from Princeton College in 1773 and served as a military surgeon in the Revolutionary War, after which he practiced medicine in Philadelphia. He married well-born Bostonian orphan Mary Blanchard in 1790, the Hodges first three sons died in the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 and another yellow fever epidemic in 1795. Their first son to survive childhood, Hugh Lenox, was born in 1796, Hugh Lenox would become an authority in obstetrics, and he would remain especially close with Charles, often assisting him financially. Charles was born on December 27,1797 and his father died seven months later of complications from the yellow fever he had contracted in the epidemic of 1795. They were brought up by relatives, many of whom were wealthy, Mary Hodge made sacrifices and took in boarders in order to put the boys through school. She, with the help of the familys minister Ashbel Green, also in 1812, Ashbel Green, the Hodges old minister, became president of the college. At Princeton, the first president of the new seminary, Archibald Alexander, took a special interest in Hodge, assisting him in Greek, Hodge would name his first son after Alexander. Hodge became close friends with future Episcopalian bishops John Johns and Charles McIlvaine, in 1815, during a time of intense religious fervor among the students encouraged by Green and Alexander, Hodge joined the local Presbyterian church and decided to enter the ministry. Shortly after completing his studies he entered the seminary in 1816. Professors Alexander and Samuel Miller also inculcated an intense piety in their students, following graduation from Princeton Seminary in 1819, Hodge received additional instruction privately from Hebrew scholar Rev. Joseph Bates in Philadelphia. In 1820 he accepted an appointment as assistant professor at Princeton Seminary to teach biblical languages. In October of that year he traveled throughout New England to speak with professors and ministers including Moses Stuart at Andover Seminary, financially stable, Hodge married Sarah Bache, Benjamin Franklins great-granddaughter in the same year. In 1824, Hodge helped to found the Chi Phi Society along with Robert Baird and he founded the quarterly Biblical Repertory in 1825 to translate the current scholarly literature on the Bible from Europe. Hodges study of European scholarship lead him to question the adequacy of his training, the seminary agreed to continue to pay him for two years while he traveled in Europe to round out his education. He supplied a substitute, John Nevin on his own expense, there he also became personally acquainted with Friedrich Schleiermacher, the leading modern theologian
19.
John Wesley
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John Wesley was an Anglican cleric and theologian who, with his brother Charles and fellow cleric George Whitefield, founded Methodism. Educated at Charterhouse School and Christ Church, Oxford, Wesley was elected a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford in 1726, after an unsuccessful ministry of two years at Savannah in the Georgia Colony, Wesley returned to London and joined a religious society led by Moravian Christians. On 24 May 1738 he experienced what has come to be called his evangelical conversion and he subsequently departed from the Moravians, beginning his own ministry. A key step in the development of Wesleys ministry was, like Whitefield, to travel, in contrast to Whitefields Calvinism, Wesley embraced the Arminian doctrines that dominated the Church of England at the time. Moving across Great Britain and Ireland, he helped form and organise small Christian groups that developed intensive and personal accountability, discipleship, most importantly, he appointed itinerant, unordained evangelists to travel and preach as he did and to care for these groups of people. Under Wesleys direction, Methodists became leaders in social issues of the day, including prison reform. Although he was not a theologian, Wesley argued for the notion of Christian perfection and against Calvinism—and, in particular. He held that, in life, Christians could achieve a state where the love of God reigned supreme in their hearts. Throughout his life, Wesley remained within the established Church of England, in 2002, he was placed at number 50 in the BBCs poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. John Wesley was born in 1703 in Epworth,23 miles north-west of Lincoln, as the child of Samuel Wesley. Samuel Wesley was a graduate of the University of Oxford and a poet who and he married Susanna, the twenty-fifth child of Samuel Annesley, a dissenting minister, in 1689. Ultimately, she bore nineteen children, of nine lived beyond infancy. She and Samuel Wesley had become members of the Church of England as young adults, as in many families at the time, Wesleys parents gave their children their early education. Each child, including the girls, was taught to read as soon as they could walk and talk and they were expected to become proficient in Latin and Greek and to have learned major portions of the New Testament by heart. Susanna Wesley examined each child before the meal and before evening prayers. Children were not allowed to eat meals and were interviewed singularly by their mother one evening each week for the purpose of intensive spiritual instruction. In 1714, at age 11, Wesley was sent to the Charterhouse School in London, apart from his disciplined upbringing, a rectory fire which occurred on 9 February 1709, when Wesley was five years old, left an indelible impression. Some time after 11,00 p. m. the rectory roof caught on fire, with stairs aflame and the roof about to collapse, Wesley was lifted out of a window by a parishioner standing on another man’s shoulders
20.
Bart D. Ehrman
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Bart Denton Ehrman is an American professor and scholar, currently the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is one of North Americas leading scholars in his field, having written and edited 30 books and he has also achieved acclaim at the popular level, authoring five New York Times bestsellers. Ehrmans work focuses on criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus. Ehrman grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, and attended Lawrence High School and he began studying the Bible and the Biblical languages at Moody Bible Institute, where he earned the schools three-year diploma in 1976. He is a 1978 graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois, where he received his bachelors degree and he received his PhD and M. Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, where he studied under Bruce Metzger. He received magna cum laude for both his BA in 1978 and PhD in 1985, in Misquoting Jesus Ehrman recounts becoming a born-again, fundamentalist Christian as a teenager. He recounts being certain in his enthusiasm that God had inspired the wording of the Bible. His desire to understand the words of the Bible led him to the study of ancient languages. During his graduate studies, however, he convinced that there are contradictions. He remained a liberal Christian for 15 years but later became an agnostic atheist after struggling with the problems of evil. Ehrman has taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 1988, at UNC he has served as both the Director of Graduate Studies and the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies. Wallace, Richard Swinburne, Peter J. Williams, James White, Darrell Bock, Michael L. Brown and Robert M. Price. In 2006 he appeared on The Colbert Report and The Daily Show, to promote his book Misquoting Jesus, and in 2009 reappeared on The Colbert Report with the release of Jesus, Interrupted. Ehrman has written widely on issues of the New Testament and early Christianity at both an academic and popular level, much of it based on criticism of the New Testament. His thirty books include three college textbooks and five New York Times bestsellers, Misquoting Jesus, Jesus, Interrupted, Gods Problem, Forged and his books have been translated into 27 languages. In The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, Ehrman argues that there was a relationship between the social history of early Christianity and the textual tradition of the emerging New Testament. He examines how early struggles between Christian heresy and orthodoxy affected the transmission of the documents, Ehrman is often considered a pioneer in connecting the history of the early church to textual variants within biblical manuscripts and in coining such terms as proto-orthodox Christianity. In Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code, Ehrman expands on his list of ten historical and factual inaccuracies in Dan Browns novel, in Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman introduces New Testament textual criticism
21.
General Social Survey
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The General Social Survey is a sociological survey used to collect information and keep a historical record of the concerns, experiences, attitudes, and practices of residents of the United States. Since 1972, the GSS has been monitoring societal change and studying the complexity of American society. S. GSS results are made available to interested parties over the internet. The GSS was recently linked to the National Death Index and this freely available dataset allows researchers to explore the association between variables in the General Social Survey and human longevity. For instance, it is possible to explore the association between happiness and life expectancy, the dataset and codebook are available for download by the public. Compare the United States to other societies to place American society in comparative perspective, make up-to-date, important, high-quality data easily accessible to scholars, students, policy makers, and others with minimal cost and waiting. The GSS was first conducted in 1972, until 1994, it was conducted almost annually. Since 1994, the GSS has been conducted in even numbered years, in 1984 the GSS was a cofounder of the International Social Survey Programme, a collaboration between different nations conducting surveys covering topics for social science research. The first ISSP questions were asked as part of the GSS, since 1985 the ISSP has conducted an annual cross-national survey and the GSS has participated in each ISSP round. In 1991, the first auxiliary study to the GSS, the National Organizations Study, was conducted, in 1998, the second auxiliary study to the GSS, the National Congregations Study, was conducted. In 2002, the survey moved its questionnaire to computer-assisted personal interviewing methods from the method of paper-based questionnaires. Also in this year, the second National Organizations Study was conducted, in 2006, a large part of the GSS was administered in Spanish for the first time. In addition, the National Voluntary Associations Study, which gathered its sample from the GSS by asking respondents about the voluntary associations in which they took part, was conducted. Also in this year, the wave of the National Congregations Study was conducted. Also in this year, the full GSS interview was translated into, in 2012, the third wave of the National Congregations Study was conducted, its sample again built using the GSS. The target population of the GSS is adults living in households in the United States, the GSS sample is drawn using an area probability design that randomly selects respondents in households across the United States to take part in the survey. Respondents that become part of the GSS sample are from a mix of urban, suburban, participation in the study is strictly voluntary. However, because only about a few thousand respondents are interviewed in the main study, the survey is conducted face-to-face with an in-person interview by NORC at the University of Chicago
22.
Billy Sunday
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Born into poverty in Iowa, Sunday spent some years at the Iowa Soldiers Orphans Home before working at odd jobs and playing for local running and baseball teams. His speed and agility provided him the opportunity to play baseball in the leagues for eight years, where he was an average hitter. Converting to evangelical Christianity in the 1880s, Sunday left baseball for the Christian ministry, Sunday held widely reported campaigns in Americas largest cities, and he attracted the largest crowds of any evangelist before the advent of electronic sound systems. He also made a deal of money and was welcomed into the homes of the wealthy. Sunday was a supporter of Prohibition, and his preaching likely played a significant role in the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919. Despite questions about his income, no scandal ever touched Sunday and he was sincerely devoted to his wife, who also managed his campaigns, but his three sons disappointed him. His audiences grew smaller during the 1920s as Sunday grew older, religious revivals became less popular, nevertheless, Sunday continued to preach and remained a stalwart defender of conservative Christianity until his death. Billy Sunday was born near Ames, Iowa and his father was the son of German immigrants named Sonntag, who anglicized their name to Sunday when they settled in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. William Sunday was a bricklayer who worked his way to Iowa, where he married Mary Jane Corey, daughter of Squire Martin Corey, a farmer, miller, blacksmith. William Sunday enlisted in the Iowa Twenty-Third Volunteer Infantry on August 14,1862 and he died four months later of pneumonia at an army camp in Patterson, Missouri, five weeks after the birth of his youngest son, William Ashley. Mary Jane Sunday and her children moved in with her parents for a few years, Mary Jane Sunday later remarried, but her second husband soon deserted the family. At the orphanage, Sunday gained orderly habits, a decent primary education, by fourteen, Sunday was shifting for himself. In Nevada, Iowa, he worked for Colonel John Scott, the Scotts provided Sunday a good home and the opportunity to attend Nevada High School. Although Sunday never received a school diploma, by 1880 he was better educated than many of his contemporaries. In 1880, Sunday relocated to Marshalltown, Iowa, where, because of his athleticism, in Marshalltown, Sunday worked at odd jobs, competed in fire brigade tournaments, and played for the town baseball team. In 1882, with Sunday in left field, the Marshalltown team defeated the state champion Des Moines team 13–4, in 1883, on Ansons recommendation, A. G. Spalding, president of the Chicago White Stockings, signed Sunday to the defending National League champions. Sunday struck out four times in his first game, and there were seven more strikeouts, during his first four seasons with Chicago, he was a part-time player, taking Mike King Kellys place in right field when Kelly served as catcher. Sundays speed was his greatest asset, and he displayed it on the basepaths, in 1885, the White Stockings arranged a race between Sunday and Arlie Latham, the fastest runner in the American Association
23.
Dwight L. Moody
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Dwight Lyman Moody, also known as D. L. Dwight Moody was born in Northfield, Massachusetts, to a large family. His father, Edwin J. Moody, a farmer and stonemason, died at the age of 41. They had five sons and a daughter before Dwights birth, with twins, a boy and his mother struggled to support the family, but even with her best effort, some of her children had to be sent off to work for their room and board. Dwight too was sent off, where he received cornmeal, porridge and he complained to his mother, but when she found out that he got all that he wanted to eat, she sent him back. Even during that time she continued to send them to church, together with his eight siblings he was raised in the Unitarian church. His oldest brother ran away and was not heard from by the family many years later. When Moody turned 17, he moved to Boston to work in a shoe store. One of the requirements was that Moody attend the Congregational Church of Mount Vernon where Dr. Edward Norris Kirk served as the pastor. In April 1855 Moody was then converted to evangelical Christianity when his Sunday school teacher, Edward Kimball and his conversion sparked the start of his career as an evangelist. However, his first application for membership, in May 1855, was rejected. He was not received as a member until May 4,1856. The first meeting I ever saw him at was in an old shanty that had been abandoned by a saloon-keeper. Mr. Moody had got the place to hold the meetings in at night, I thought, If the Lord can ever use such an instrument as that for His honor and glory, it will astonish me. As a result of his tireless labor, within a year the attendance at his school was 650. It became so known that the just-elected President Lincoln visited. Moody could not conscientiously enlist in the Union Army during the Civil War, on August 28,1862, he married Emma C. Revell, with whom he had a daughter, Emma Reynolds Moody, the growing Sunday School congregation needed a permanent home, so Moody started a church in Chicago, the Illinois Street Church. In June 1871 at an International Sunday School Convention in Indianapolis, Dwight Moody met Ira D. Sankey, up to then a single-gospel-singer, with whom he soon began to cooperate and collaborate
24.
Pope John Paul II
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Pope Saint John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła, was Pope from 1978 to 2005. He is called by some Catholics Saint John Paul the Great and he was elected by the second Papal conclave of 1978, which was called after Pope John Paul I, who had been elected in August after the death of Pope Paul VI, died after thirty-three days. Cardinal Wojtyła was elected on the day of the conclave. John Paul II is recognised as helping to end Communist rule in his native Poland, John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Churchs relations with Judaism, Islam, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. He upheld the Churchs teachings on such matters as artificial contraception and the ordination of women and he was one of the most travelled world leaders in history, visiting 129 countries during his pontificate. By the time of his death, he had named most of the College of Cardinals, consecrated or co-consecrated a large number of the worlds bishops, a key goal of his papacy was to transform and reposition the Catholic Church. His wish was to place his Church at the heart of a new alliance that would bring together Jews, Muslims. He was the second longest-serving pope in history after Pope Pius IX. Born in Poland, John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope since the Dutch Pope Adrian VI, John Paul IIs cause for canonisation commenced in 2005 one month after his death with the traditional five-year waiting period waived. A second miracle attributed to John Paul IIs intercession was approved on 2 July 2013, John Paul II was canonised on 27 April 2014, together with Pope John XXIII. On 11 September 2014, Pope Francis added John Paul IIs optional memorial feast day to the worldwide General Roman Calendar of saints, in response to worldwide requests. It is traditional to celebrate saints feast days on the anniversary of their deaths, Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in the Polish town of Wadowice. He was the youngest of three born to Karol Wojtyła, an ethnic Pole, and Emilia Kaczorowska, whose mothers maiden surname was Scholz. Emilia, who was a schoolteacher, died in childbirth in 1929 when Wojtyła was eight years old and his elder sister Olga had died before his birth, but he was close to his brother Edmund, nicknamed Mundek, who was 13 years his senior. Edmunds work as a physician led to his death from scarlet fever. As a boy, Wojtyła was athletic, often playing football as goalkeeper, during his childhood, Wojtyła had contact with Wadowices large Jewish community. School football games were organised between teams of Jews and Catholics, and Wojtyła often played on the Jewish side. I remember that at least a third of my classmates at school in Wadowice were Jews
25.
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
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It was founded as the Knights Hospitaller circa 1099 in Jerusalem, Kingdom of Jerusalem, by the Blessed Gerard, making it the worlds oldest surviving chivalric order. It operated from Cyprus, Rhodes, Malta, over which it was sovereign until the French occupation, the order venerates as its patroness Mary, mother of Jesus, under the title Our Lady of Mount Philermos. The Order retains sovereignty under international law, including United Nations permanent observer status, issuing its own passports, currency, the orders military corps, three brigades, are stationed throughout Italy, liaisoned with the Italian Armed Forces. Through its worldwide relief corps, Malteser International, the order aids victims of disasters, epidemics. In several countries, including France, Germany and Ireland, local associations of the order are important providers of emergency services. In the ecclesiastical heraldry of the Roman Catholic Church, the Order of Malta is one of two orders whose insignia may be displayed in a clerical coat of arms. The shield is surrounded with a rosary for professed knights. Members may also display the Maltese cross behind their shield instead of the ribbon, in order to protect its heritage against frauds, the order has legally registered 16 versions of its names and emblems in some 100 countries. The birth of the dates back to around 1048. The Order of St. John of Jerusalem–the monastic community that ran the hospital for the pilgrims in the Holy Land–became independent under the guidance of its founder, by virtue of the Papal Bull, the hospital became an order exempt from the control of the local church. All the Knights were religious, bound by the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The order thus added the task of defending the faith to that of its hospitaller mission, as time went on, the order adopted the white eight-pointed Cross that is still its symbol today. The eight points represent the eight beatitudes that Jesus pronounced in his Sermon on the Mount, when the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land fell after the Siege of Acre in 1291, the order settled first in Cyprus. In 1310, led by Grand Master Fra Foulques de Villaret, in the early 14th century, the institutions of the Order and the knights who came to Rhodes from every corner of Europe were grouped according to the languages they spoke. Each Langue included Priories or Grand Priories, Bailiwicks, and Commanderies, the Order was governed by its Grand Master, the Prince of Rhodes, and its Council. The senior positions of the Order were given to representatives of different Langues, after six months of siege and fierce combat against the fleet and army of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the Knights were forced to surrender in 1523 and left Rhodes with military honours. The Reformation which split Western Europe into Protestant and Roman Catholic states affected the knights as well, in several countries, including England, Scotland and Sweden, the order was disestablished. In others, including the Netherlands and Germany, entire bailiwicks or commanderies experienced religious conversions and it was established that the order should remain neutral in any war between Christian nations
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Lutheranism
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Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestant Christianity which identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German friar, ecclesiastical reformer and theologian. Luthers efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched the Protestant Reformation in the German-speaking territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Lutheranism advocates a doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Scripture alone and this is in contrast to the belief of the Catholic Church, defined at the Council of Trent, concerning authority coming from both the Scriptures and Tradition. In addition, Lutheranism accepts the teachings of the first seven ecumenical councils of the undivided Christian Church, unlike Calvinism, Lutherans retain many of the liturgical practices and sacramental teachings of the pre-Reformation Church, with a particular emphasis on the Eucharist, or Lords Supper. Lutheran theology differs from Reformed theology in Christology, the purpose of Gods Law, the grace, the concept of perseverance of the saints. Today, Lutheranism is one of the largest denominations of Protestantism, with approximately 80 million adherents, it constitutes the third most common Protestant denomination after historically Pentecostal denominations and Anglicanism. The Lutheran World Federation, the largest communion of Lutheran churches, Other Lutheran organizations include the International Lutheran Council and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, as well as independent churches. The name Lutheran originated as a term used against Luther by German Scholastic theologian Dr. Johann Maier von Eck during the Leipzig Debate in July 1519. Eck and other Catholics followed the practice of naming a heresy after its leader. Martin Luther always disliked the term Lutheran, preferring the term Evangelical, which was derived from euangelion, the followers of John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, and other theologians linked to the Reformed tradition also began to use that term. To distinguish the two groups, others began to refer to the two groups as Evangelical Lutheran and Evangelical Reformed. As time passed by, the word Evangelical was dropped, Lutherans themselves began to use the term Lutheran in the middle of the 16th century, in order to distinguish themselves from other groups such as the Philippists and Calvinists. In 1597, theologians in Wittenberg defined the title Lutheran as referring to the true church, Lutheranism has its roots in the work of Martin Luther, who sought to reform the Western Church to what he considered a more biblical foundation. Lutheranism spread through all of Scandinavia during the 16th century, as the monarch of Denmark–Norway, through Baltic-German and Swedish rule, Lutheranism also spread into Estonia and Latvia. Since 1520, regular Lutheran services have been held in Copenhagen, under the reign of Frederick I, Denmark-Norway remained officially Catholic. Although Frederick initially pledged to persecute Lutherans, he adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran preachers and reformers. During Fredericks reign, Lutheranism made significant inroads in Denmark, at an open meeting in Copenhagen attended by the king in 1536, the people shouted, We will stand by the holy Gospel, and do not want such bishops anymore. Fredericks son Christian was openly Lutheran, which prevented his election to the throne upon his fathers death, however, following his victory in the civil war that followed, in 1537 he became Christian III and advanced the Reformation in Denmark-Norway
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Thirty-nine Articles
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The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion are the historically defining statements of doctrines and practices of the Church of England with respect to the controversies of the English Reformation. The Thirty-nine Articles form part of the Book of Common Prayer used by both the Church of England and the Episcopal Church. When Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church and was excommunicated, he formed a new Church of England, at this point, he needed to determine what its doctrines and practices would be in relation to the Roman Catholic Church and the new Protestant movements in continental Europe. These positions began with the Ten Articles in 1536, and concluded with the finalisation Thirty-nine articles in 1571, the Thirty-nine articles ultimately served to define the doctrine of the Church of England as it related to Calvinist doctrine and Roman Catholic practice. The articles went through at least five major revisions prior to their finalisation in 1571, the first attempt was the Ten Articles in 1536, which showed some slightly Protestant leanings—the result of an English desire for a political alliance with the German Lutheran princes. The next revision was the Six Articles in 1539 which swung away from all reformed positions, and then the Kings Book in 1543, during the reign of Edward VI, Henry VIIIs only son, the Forty-Two Articles were written under the direction of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1552. It was in this document that Calvinist thought reached the zenith of its influence in the English Church and these articles were never put into action, due to Edward VIs death and the reversion of the English Church to Roman Catholicism under Henry VIIIs elder daughter, Mary I. The articles pulled back some of the more extreme Calvinist thinking. The Thirty-nine articles were finalised in 1571, and incorporated into the Book of Common Prayer, the Ten Articles were first published in 1536 by Thomas Cranmer. They were the first guidelines of the Church of England as it became independent of Rome, the Institution of the Christian Man, published in 1537, was written by a committee of 46 divines and bishops headed by Thomas Cranmer. The purpose of the work, along with the Ten Articles of the year, was to implement the reforms of Henry VIII in separating from the Catholic Church. It was considered reformatory in basic orientation, though it was not strongly Lutheran, the work functioned as an official formulary of the reformed Anglican faith in England. It was later superseded by other creedal and official statements during the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I. It would evolve into the Kings Book, the work was a noble endeavor on the part of the bishops to promote unity, and to instruct the people in Church doctrine. The Germans presented, as a basis of agreement, a number of Articles based on the Lutheran Confession of Augsburg, bishops Tunstall, Stokesley and others were not won over by these Protestant arguments and did everything they could to avoid agreement. They were willing to separate from Rome, but their plan was to unite with the Greek Church, the bishops also refused to eliminate what the Germans called the Abuses allowed by the Anglican Church. Stokesley considered these customs to be essential because the Greek Church practised them, in opposition, Cranmer favoured a union with German Protestants. The king, unwilling to break with Catholic practices, dissolved the conference, Henry had felt uneasy about the appearance of the Lutheran doctors and their theology within his kingdom
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Anglican Church
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The Anglican Communion is an international association of autonomous churches consisting of the Church of England and national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with it. Full participation in the life of each church is available to all communicant Anglicans. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England, has a place of honour among the bishops of the Anglican churches and he is recognised as primus inter pares. The archbishop does not exercise authority in the provinces outside England, the churches of the Anglican Communion considers themselves to be part of the nicos one, holy, catholic and apostolic church and to be both Catholic and Reformed. For some adherents, Anglicanism represents a non-papal Catholicism, for others a form of Protestantism though without a dominant guiding figure such as Luther, Knox, Calvin, for others, their self-identity represents some combination of the two. The communion encompasses a spectrum of belief and practice including evangelical, liberal. With a membership estimated at around 85 million members, the Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Some of these churches are known as Anglican, such as the Anglican Church of Canada, some, for example the Church of Ireland, the Scottish and American Episcopal churches, and some other associated churches have a separate name. The Anglican Communion has no legal existence nor any governing structure which might exercise authority over the member churches. There is an Anglican Communion Office in London, under the aegis of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Communion is held together by a shared history, expressed in its ecclesiology, polity and ethos and also by participation in international consultative bodies. Early in its development, Anglicanism developed a vernacular prayer book, unlike other traditions, Anglicanism has never been governed by a magisterium nor by appeal to one founding theologian, nor by an extra-credal summary of doctrine. Instead, Anglicans have typically appealed to the Book of Common Prayer and its offshoots as a guide to Anglican theology and this had the effect of inculcating the principle of Lex orandi, lex credendi as the foundation of Anglican identity and confession. These parameters were most clearly articulated in the rubrics of the successive prayer books. With the expansion of the British Empire, and hence the growth of Anglicanism outside Great Britain and Ireland, the first major expression of this were the Lambeth Conferences of the communions bishops, first convened by Archbishop of Canterbury Charles Longley in 1869. One of the influential early resolutions of the conference was the so-called Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1888. Its intent was to provide the basis for discussions of reunion with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, the Apostles Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol, and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith. The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself - Baptism and the Supper of the Lord - ministered with unfailing use of Christs Words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by Him. The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the needs of the nations
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Dutch Reformed Church
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The Dutch Reformed Church was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation until 1930. It was the foremost Protestant denomination, and—since 1892—one of the two major Reformed denominations along with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and it spread to the United States, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Brazil, and various other world regions through the Dutch colonization. The allegiance to the Dutch Reformed Church was a common feature among Dutch immigrant communities around the world and it developed during the Protestant Reformation, being shaped theologically by John Calvin, but also other major Reformed theologians. At the time of the merger, the Church had 2 million members organised in 1,350 congregations, a minority of members of the Church chose not to participate in the merger and instead formed the Restored Reformed Church. The Reformation was a time of violence and persecution by the established Catholic Church and governments. The first Synod of 23 Dutch Reformed leaders was held in October 1571 in the German city of Emden, the Synod of Emden is generally considered to be the founding of the Dutch Reformed Church, the oldest of the Reformed churches in the Netherlands. The Synod both affirmed the actions of the earlier Synod of Wesel, as well as established presbyterian church government for the Dutch Reformed Church, the first Synod to be located in the Dutch Republic was held in Dordrecht in 1578. This synodical meeting is not to be confused with the better known Second Synod of Dort of 1618, large groups of Marranos settled in Emden and converted to Christianity. Mostly all Marranos, many Jewish groups converted to Christianity around 1649 to the Nederduitsche, Niederdeutsche church later on Dutch Reformed Church, in the latter meeting, the Church fathers expelled Arminians and added the Canons of Dort to the Confessions. The Canons of Dort, together with the previously adopted Belgic Confession, most conflicts and splits in the Church arose because of disagreement over the substance and interpretation of these doctrinal documents. The government of the Dutch Republic, which had instigated the Arminians expulsion, no Synod was held in the Netherlands until after the end of the Republic in 1795. Before the demise of the Dutch Republic in 1795, the Dutch Reformed Church enjoyed the status of public or privileged church, though it was never formally adopted as the state religion, the law demanded that every public official should be a communicant member. Consequently, the Church had close relations with the Dutch government, a privilege of members of the Dutch Reformed Church was that they could have their businesses open on Sundays, otherwise considered a religious day and not one for business. The 17th and early 18th centuries were the age of the Dutch Nadere Reformatie, led primarily by Gisbertus Voetius and Wilhelmus à Brakel, in the 19th century, theological liberalism led to splits in the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1834, the minister Hendrik de Cock of the town of Ulrum was told by leaders that he could not preach against certain colleagues. He and his congregation seceded from the Dutch Reformed Church, in time, the Afscheiding led to the departure of 120 congregations from the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1886, another separation, the Doleantie, occurred, led by Dutch Reformed businessman, theologian and politician Abraham Kuyper. The Dutch Reformed Church remained the largest church body in the Netherlands until the middle of the 20th century, the rapid secularisation of the Netherlands in the 1960s dramatically reduced participation in the mainstream Protestant church
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Methodism
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Methodism, or the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity which derive their inspiration from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and Johns brother Charles Wesley were also significant leaders in the movement and it originated as a revival within the 18th century Church of England and became a separate Church after Wesleys death. Because of vigorous missionary work, the movement spread throughout the British Empire, Wesleys theology focused on sanctification and the effect of faith on the character of a Christian. Distinguishing Methodist doctrines include an assurance of salvation, imparted righteousness, the possibility of perfection in love, the works of piety and the primacy of Scripture. Most Methodists teach that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for all of humanity and that salvation is available for all, in theology and this teaching rejects the Calvinist position that God has pre-ordained the salvation of a select group of people. However, Whitefield and several others were considered Calvinistic Methodists and held to the latter position, Methodism emphasises charity and support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the works of mercy. These ideals are put into practice by the establishment of hospitals, orphanages, soup kitchens and schools to follow Christs command to spread the gospel, the movement has a wide variety of forms of worship, ranging from high church to low church in liturgical usage. Denominations that descend from the British Methodist tradition are generally less ritualistic, Methodism is known for its rich musical tradition and Charles Wesley was instrumental in writing much of the hymnody of the Methodist Church. In Britain, the Methodist Church had an effect in the early decades of the making of the working class. In the United States, it became the religion of many slaves who later formed black churches in the Methodist tradition. The Methodist revival began with a group of men, including John Wesley and his younger brother Charles, the Wesley brothers founded the Holy Club at the University of Oxford, where John was a fellow and later a lecturer at Lincoln College. The club met weekly and they set about living a holy life. They were accustomed to receiving Communion every week, fasting regularly, abstaining from most forms of amusement and luxury and frequently visited the sick, the fellowship were branded as Methodist by their fellow students because of the way they used rule and method to go about their religious affairs. John, who was leader of the club, took the attempted mockery, unsuccessful in their work, the brothers returned to England conscious of their lack of genuine Christian faith. They looked for help to Peter Boehler and other members of the Moravian Church, at a Moravian service in Aldersgate on 24 May 1738, John experienced what has come to be called his evangelical conversion, when he felt his heart strangely warmed. Charles had reported an experience an few days previously. Considered a pivotal moment, Daniel L. John Wesley came under the influence of the Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius, Arminius had rejected the Calvinist teaching that God had pre-ordained an elect number of people to eternal bliss while others perished eternally. Conversely, George Whitefield, Howell Harris, and Selina Hastings, George Whitefield, returning from his own mission in Georgia, joined the Wesley brothers in what was rapidly to become a national crusade
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Articles of Religion (Methodist)
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The Articles of Religion are an official doctrinal statement of Methodism. John Wesley abridged the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, removing the Calvinistic parts among others, the Articles were adopted at a conference in 1784 and are found in paragraph 103 of the United Methodist Church Book of Discipline. They have remained unchanged since 1808 by Methodists worldwide. And in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Article IV - Of the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the Old, all the books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive and account canonical. Wherefore they are not to be heard who feign that the old fathers did look only for transitory promises. Article IX - Of the Justification of Man We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, wherefore, that we are justified by faith, only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort. Article XI - Of Works of Supererogation Voluntary works—besides, over and above Gods commandments—which they call works of supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy, article XII - Of Sin After Justification Not every sin willingly committed after justification is the sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore, the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after justification. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and, by the grace of God, rise again and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned who say they can no more sin as long as they live here, there are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel, that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about, but that we should duly use them. And in such only as worthily receive the same, they have an effect or operation. The Baptism of young children is to be retained in the Church, the body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith, the Sacrament of the Lords Supper was not by Christs ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshiped. Every particular church may ordain, change, or abolish rites and ceremonies, and the said states are a sovereign and independent nation, and ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction. Article XXIV - Of Christian Mens Goods The riches and goods of Christians are not common as touching the right, title, notwithstanding, every man ought, of such things as he possesseth, liberally to give alms to the poor, according to his ability
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Believer's baptism
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Believers baptism is the Christian practice of baptism as this is understood by many evangelical denominations, particularly those that descend from the Anabaptist and English Baptist tradition. According to their understanding, a person is baptized on the basis of his or her profession of faith in Jesus Christ and as admission into a local community of faith. The contrasting belief, held in other Christian churches, is infant baptism, baptisms are performed in various ways, believers baptism by immersion or pouring and infant baptism by affusion, aspersion or immersion. Believers baptism is often referred to as adult baptism, even though children may be baptized so long as they are old enough to earnestly profess their faith. The oldest surviving manual of church discipline, the Didache, envisions the baptism of adults, in many instances, citizens of a nation were required under penalty of law to belong to the state church. Infant baptism marked the infant as a citizen of the nation, however, his mother, Monica, was a Christian. St. Augustine was baptized at the age of 30 by St. Ambrose, in addition, earlier patristical writings such as Didache and Tertullian prescribe baptismal candidates to fasting, prayer, confessions, etc. before being allowed to be baptized. Tertullian writes, Christians are made, not born, on the other hand, Tertullian acknowledges that infant baptism was a common practice in his day. Tertullian later in life became a Montanist and the views on post-baptismal sin which that sect took affected some of his writing. Several ecclesiastical histories seem to omit any discussion of infant baptism, Eusebius of Caesarea gives ample discussion of baptisms, but makes no reference to the baptism of infants. Instead, Eusebius discusses the positions, particularly during the time of Cyprian. Likewise, the history of Socrates Scholasticus mentions a handful of examples of baptisms. However, by time the practice of baptizing infants was common. Similarly, the history written by Evagrius Scholasticus also provides descriptions of baptisms. The book Martyrs Mirror documents the history of credobaptists through 1660, the early church witness is mixed with respect to an age of baptism, with some references to infants being baptized and others indicating that the spirit and body mature together. Beginining with Augustine, the Catholic Church solidified the practice of infant baptism, in the early 16th century, the Anabaptist movement began demanding that baptismal candidates be able to make a confession of faith that is freely chosen, thus rejecting the baptism of infants. This and other differences led both Catholics and Protestants to persecute the Anabaptists, executing them by fire or sword or drowning. These groups sprang up across Europe and later spread to Russia, in 1609, the Baptist movement applies this practice in all its churches
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Baptism with the Holy Spirit
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In Christian theology, baptism with the Holy Spirit is distinguished from baptism with water. It is frequently associated with incorporation into the Christian Church, the bestowal of spiritual gifts, the term baptism with the Holy Spirit originates in the New Testament, and all Christian traditions accept it as a theological concept. Nevertheless, different Christian denominations and traditions have interpreted its meaning in a variety of ways due to differences in the doctrines of salvation and ecclesiology. In Christian theology, the work of the Holy Spirit under the Old Covenant is viewed as less extensive than that under the New Covenant inaugurated on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit was restricted to certain chosen individuals, such as high priests and prophets. Often termed the “spirit of prophecy” in rabbinic writings, the Holy Spirit was closely associated with prophecy and it was anticipated that in the future messianic age God would pour out his spirit upon all of Israel, which would become a nation of prophets. The baptism was spoken about by John the Baptist, who contrasted his water baptism for the forgiveness of sins with the baptism of Jesus. In Mark and John, the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus will baptize in Holy Spirit, while in Matthew and Luke, he will baptize with Holy Spirit, Jesus is considered the first person to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus during his baptism and anointed him with power, afterward, Jesus began his ministry and displayed his power by casting out demons, healing the sick, and teaching with authority. The phrase baptized in the Holy Spirit occurs two times in Acts, first in Acts 1, 4-5 and second in Acts 11,16, other terminology is used in Acts to indicate Spirit baptism, such as filled. Baptized in the Spirit indicates an outward immersion into the reality of the Holy Spirit, both terms speak to the totality of receiving the Spirit. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is described in various places as the Spirit poured out upon, falling upon, to pour out suggests abundance and reflects John 3,34, God gives the Spirit without limit. Another expression, come upon is related to a statement by Jesus in Luke 24,49, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. The language of come on and clothed with suggest possession by, the narrative of Acts begins after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. After his ascension, he was given authority to pour out the Holy Spirit, in the New Testament, the messianic expectations found in early Judaism were fulfilled on the day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts. The Christian community was gathered together in Jerusalem when a sound from heaven like rushing wind was heard and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues, miraculously praising God in foreign languages. He then explained how the Spirit came to be poured out, recounting Jesus’ ministry and passion and then proclaiming his resurrection, in response, the crowd asked Peter what they should do. He responded that they should repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins in order to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter finished his speech stating that the promise is for you and for children and for all who are far off
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Pentecostalism
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The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks. For Christians, this event commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus Christ, like other forms of evangelical Protestantism, Pentecostalism adheres to the inerrancy of scripture and the necessity of accepting Christ as personal Lord and Savior. It is distinguished by belief in the baptism in the Holy Spirit that enables a Christian to live a Spirit-filled and empowered life and this empowerment includes the use of spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues and divine healing—two other defining characteristics of Pentecostalism. For this reason, some Pentecostals also use the term Apostolic or Full Gospel to describe their movement, Pentecostalism emerged in the early 20th century among radical adherents of the Holiness movement who were energized by revivalism and expectation for the imminent Second Coming of Christ. In 1900, Charles Parham, an American evangelist and faith healer, the three-year-long Azusa Street Revival, founded and led by William J. While virtually all Pentecostal denominations trace their origins to Azusa Street, an early dispute centered on challenges to the doctrine of the Trinity. As a result, the Pentecostal Movement is divided between trinitarian and non-trinitarian branches, there are over 279 million Pentecostals worldwide, and the movement is growing in many parts of the world, especially the global South. Together, Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity numbers over 500 million adherents, Pentecostalism is an evangelical faith, emphasizing the reliability of the Bible and the need for the transformation of an individuals life through faith in Jesus. Like other evangelicals, Pentecostals generally adhere to the Bibles divine inspiration and inerrancy—the belief that the Bible, Pentecostals emphasize the teaching of the full gospel or foursquare gospel. The central belief of Pentecostalism is that through the death, burial and this is the Gospel or good news. The fundamental requirement of Pentecostalism is that one be born again, the new birth is received by the grace of God through faith in Christ as Lord and Savior. In being born again, the believer is regenerated, justified, adopted into the family of God, Pentecostal soteriology is generally Arminian rather than Calvinist. The security of the believer is a doctrine held within Pentecostalism, nevertheless, Pentecostals believe in both a literal heaven and hell, the former for those who have accepted Gods gift of salvation and the latter for those who have rejected it. For most Pentecostals there is no requirement to receive salvation. Baptism with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues are not generally required, a notable exception is Oneness Pentecostalism, most adherents of which believe both water baptism and Spirit baptism are integral components of salvation. Pentecostals identify three distinct uses of the baptism in the New Testament, Baptism into the body of Christ. Every believer in Christ is made a part of his body, the Holy Spirit is the agent, and the body of Christ is the medium. Baptism with the Holy Spirit, This is an experience distinct from baptism into the body of Christ
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Jehovah's Witnesses
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Jehovahs Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a membership of more than 8.3 million adherents involved in evangelism. Jehovahs Witnesses are directed by the Governing Body of Jehovahs Witnesses, a group of elders in Warwick, New York and they prefer to use their own translation, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, although their literature occasionally quotes and cites other Bible translations. The name Jehovahs witnesses was adopted in 1931 to distinguish themselves from other Bible Student groups, Jehovahs Witnesses are best known for their door-to-door preaching, distributing literature such as The Watchtower and Awake. and refusing military service and blood transfusions. They consider use of the name Jehovah vital for proper worship and they reject Trinitarianism, inherent immortality of the soul, and hellfire, which they consider to be unscriptural doctrines. They do not observe Christmas, Easter, birthdays or other holidays, adherents commonly refer to their body of beliefs as the truth and consider themselves to be in the truth. They consider secular society to be corrupt and under the influence of Satan. Congregational disciplinary actions include disfellowshipping, their term for formal expulsion, baptized individuals who formally leave are considered disassociated and are also shunned. Disfellowshipped and disassociated individuals may eventually be reinstated if deemed repentant, the religions position regarding conscientious objection to military service and refusal to salute national flags has brought it into conflict with some governments. Consequently, some Jehovahs Witnesses have been persecuted and their activities are banned or restricted in some countries, persistent legal challenges by Jehovahs Witnesses have influenced legislation related to civil rights in several countries. The organization has received criticism over issues surrounding biblical translation, doctrines, handling of abuse cases. The claims are rejected by the leaders, and some have been disputed by courts. In 1870, Charles Taze Russell and others formed a group in Pittsburgh, in 1876, Russell met Nelson H. Barbour, later that year they jointly produced the book Three Worlds, which combined restitutionist views with end time prophecy. Beginning in 1878 Russell and Barbour jointly edited a religious journal, from 1879, Watch Tower supporters gathered as autonomous congregations to study the Bible topically. Thirty congregations were founded, and during 1879 and 1880, Russell visited each to provide the format he recommended for conducting meetings, as congregations continued to form during Russells ministry, they each remained self-administrative, functioning under the congregationalist style of church governance. In 1881, Zions Watch Tower Tract Society was presided over by William Henry Conley, by about 1900, Russell had organized thousands of part- and full-time colporteurs, and was appointing foreign missionaries and establishing branch offices. By the 1910s, Russells organization maintained nearly a hundred pilgrims, Russell engaged in significant global publishing efforts during his ministry, and by 1912, he was the most distributed Christian author in the United States. He identified the movement as Bible Students, and more formally as the International Bible Students Association
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144,000
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It has significance in several religious movements. In the Mayan calendar, a baktun is a period of 144,000 days. Revelation 14,1 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, Revelation 14, 3–5 And they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth, for it is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes and these have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless. The numbers 12,000 and 144,000 are variously interpreted in traditional Christianity, some, taking the numbers in Revelation to be symbolic, believe it represents all of Gods people throughout history in the heavenly Church. One suggestion is that the number comes from 12, a symbol for totality, one understanding is that the 144,000 are recently converted Jewish evangelists sent out to bring sinners to Jesus Christ during the seven year tribulation period. They believe that people are anointed by God to become part of the spiritual Israel of God. Individual Witnesses indicate their claim of being anointed by partaking of the bread, nearly 12,000 Witnesses worldwide—an increase of more than 3,000 since 1995—claim to be of the anointed remnant of the 144,000. The Christian Skoptsy sect in Russia believed that the Messiah would come when there were 144,000 Skoptsy believers and he must find these people during his lifetime and lay the foundation of victory over Satans world. 144,000 is alleged to have been the number of Sahaba of Muhammad, the number is also given as the total number of prophets in Islam, although this has also been reported as 124,000 or 244,000. The actual number of prophets or Sahaba is not known, however,25 prophets are mentioned by name in the Quran, the number 144,000 is also significant in various New Age religious movements. The Church Universal and Triumphant teaches that Sanat Kumara and the Lords of the Flame also brought 144,000 souls with them from Venus, raëlism also states that there are 144,000 chosen people to continue humanity in case of an upcoming disaster. The satirical Church of the Subgenius believes that somewhere between 144 and 144,000 people will be taken with the Xists aboard the pleasure saucers, a Baktun is 20 Katun cycles of the ancient Maya Long Count calendar, which contains 144,000 days
37.
Wikiquote
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Wikiquote is one of a family of wiki-based projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, running on MediaWiki software. And to be as proper as possible in regard to the details of the quotations, though there are many online collections of quotations, Wikiquote is distinguished by being among the few that provide an opportunity for visitors to contribute. Wikiquote pages are cross-linked to articles about the personalities on Wikipedia. Initially, the project was created solely in English, an expansion to include additional languages was started in July 2004. As of September 2016, there are 89 versions, as of September 2016, thirty-one versions each have more than 1,000 articles. Sixty language versions have 100 or more articles, Wikimedia Foundation List of Wikiquote Projects by Language Official website
38.
Metaphor
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A metaphor is a figure of speech that refers, for rhetorical effect, to one thing by mentioning another thing. It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas, antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy and simile are all types of metaphor. The Philosophy of Rhetoric by rhetorician I. A. Richards describes a metaphor as having two parts, the tenor and the vehicle, the tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed, other writers employ the general terms ground and figure to denote the tenor and the vehicle. Cognitive linguistics uses the target and source, respectively. Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes, a simile is a specific type of metaphor that uses the words like or as in comparing two objects, whereas what is commonly referred to as a metaphor states that A is B or substitutes B for A. What is usually referred to as a metaphor asserts the two objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, a simile merely asserts a similarity, for this reason a common-type metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a simile. The metaphor category also contains these types, Allegory, An extended metaphor wherein a story illustrates an important attribute of the subject. Antithesis, A rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences Catachresis, A mixed metaphor used by design and accident. Hyperbole, Excessive exaggeration to illustrate a point Metonymy, A figure of speech using the name of one thing in reference to a different thing of which the first is associated, example, in lands belonging to the crown the word crown is metonymy for ruler or monarch. Parable, An extended metaphor narrated as an anecdote illustrating and teaching such as in Aesops fables, pun, Similar to a metaphor, a pun alludes to another term. However, the difference is that a pun is a frivolous allusion between two different things whereas a metaphor is a purposeful allusion between two different things. Metaphor, like other types of analogy, can usefully be distinguished from metonymy as one of two modes of thought. Thus, a metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas a metonymy relies on the links within them. A dead metaphor is one in which the sense of an image has become absent. Examples, to grasp a concept and to gather what youve understood use physical action as a metaphor for understanding, the audience does not need to visualize the action, dead metaphors normally go unnoticed. Some people distinguish between a dead metaphor and a cliché, others use dead metaphor to denote both. A mixed metaphor is one that leaps from one identification to a second identification inconsistent with the first, e. g. Checkmate
39.
Rite
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A rite or ritual is an established, ceremonial, usually religious, act. Within Christianity, rite often refers to what is called a sacrament. In Roman Catholicism, for example, the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is one of the three that are referred to as the last rites, because they are administered to someone who was dying. The other two are Penance and Eucharist, since the Second Vatican Council, Anointing of the Sick is administered to those who are seriously ill but not necessarily in immediate danger of death. The term rite became widely used after the Second Vatican Council when the traditional sacraments were done away with, while rite is often used synonymously with sacrament, it is technically incorrect to say that one received a rite because the sacrament is what is received. The ritual consists of the prayers and actions that the minister of the sacrament performs when administering a sacrament. Therefore, it is incorrect to say one has received the last rites as that person has really received the last sacraments by a minister following a ritual that has performed the sacramental rite. The word rite is often applied to what are sometimes known as the five lesser sacraments, confirmation, reconciliation, matrimony, holy orders. The term rite refers to a body of liturgical tradition usually emanating from a specific center. Examples include the Roman Rite, the Byzantine Rite, and the Sarum Rite, such rites may include various sub-rites. For example, the Byzantine Rite has Greek, Russian, for a full list of Christian liturgical rites, see Christian liturgy. Of these, the largest is the Latin Rite or Western Church, there are also several Eastern Catholic Churches or Rites. For a full list of Catholic liturgical rites, see List of Catholic rites and churches, in North America, Freemasons have the option of joining the Scottish Rite and/or the York Rite, two appendant bodies that offer additional degrees to those who have taken the basic three. Ambrosian Rite Ceremony Chaldean rite Process Art Rites, a Confucian philosophical concept Ritual Primitive Scottish Rite Rite of Spring
