Christian Universalism Christian universalism is a school of Christian theology focused on the doctrine of universal reconciliation – the view that all human beings will ultimately be saved and restored to a right relationship with God. Christian universalism and the belief or hope in the universal reconciliation through Christ can even be understood as synonyms. Opponents of this school, who hold that...
Trinitarian Universalism Trinitarian universalism is a variant of the belief in universal salvation, the belief that every person will be saved, that also held the Christian belief in Trinitarianism (as opposed to, or contrasted with, liberal Unitarianism which is more usually associated with Unitarian Universalism). It was particularly associated with an ex-Methodist New England minister, John Murray, and after...
Human Fall Human Fall or The Fall of Man, also called simply The Fall, is a theological doctrine describing the change of humankind’s state from sinlessness to depravity. In Christian tradition, the Fall took place when Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit and were expelled from the Garden of Eden, as recorded...
Justification In Christian Theology Justification in Christian theology is God’s righteous act of removing the condemnation, guilt, and penalty of sin, by grace, while, at the same time, declaring the unrighteous to be righteous, through faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice. The means of justification is an area of significant difference amongst the diverse theories of atonement defended within...
What Is Contrition? This article covers the meaning of contrition (Latin contritio–a breaking of something hardened). In Holy Writ nothing is more common than exhortations to repentance: “I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezekiel 33:11); “Except you do penance you shall...
Fate Fate (Latin fatum, from fari, to tell or predict) is almost redundant in the vocabulary of a Catholic as such, for its meaning as the prime cause of events is better expressed by the term Divine Providence, while, as a constant force at work in the physical universe, it is nothing more nor less than natural law. Hence St. Augustine says (City...
What Is Fate? Fate or Destiny refers to a predetermined course of events, which may be conceived as affecting the world in general or a specific individual. It is a concept based on the belief that there is a fixed order to the universe. That order can be seen as the product of...
Angels are … The word angel arrives from Latin angelus; Greek aggelos; the Hebrew mal’āk̠ ‘ĕlōhîm (“one going” or “one sent”; messenger). Angels are generally supernatural being found in various religions and mythologies. It is used in Hebrew to denote indifferently either a divine or human messenger. The Septuagint renders it by aggelos which also has both...
Who Is An Angel? An angel (Greek: ἄγγελος, ángelos, meaning “messenger”) is a supernatural and ethereal being found in many religions, whose duty is to serve and assist God. Angels typically act as messengers but can perform other tasks such as keeping records of humans’ actions, acting as guardians, announcing God’s decrees,...
What About The Angel Of Death? This article covers the angel of death. Since all angels were created from light, they can be present in any place and in any form simultaneously. They also can perform countless tasks at the same time. Therefore, Azrael can take millions of souls simultaneously...
Satan And His Contemporary Followers This article covers Satan and his contemporary followers. Satan is a miserable and accursed one, who has fallen away from God’s Mercy, whose task is to go astray and to lead astray, who continues his existence around the axis of sedition, incitement, hypocrisy, and discord....
Satan And The Whispering Of Satan This article covers Satan and the Whispering of Satan (Involuntary Thoughts Occurring to Man). What Satan Is and Why He Was Created? Satan was, like the jinn with whom he mostly kept company, was also created from ‘fire’. Before he was put to the test...
Who Is Satan? Satan (meaning “accuser”) represents the arch enemy of God in the Abrahamic religions, who personifies evil and temptation, and is known as the deceiver that leads humanity astray. The term is often applied to an angel who fell out of favor with God, seducing humanity into the ways of sin, and who now rules over the...
The World Wide Messianic Mission Attributed To Jesus Christ Toward The End of Time This article covers The World Wide Messianic Mission Attributed To Jesus Christ. Some of the first converts to Islam were subjected to the severest persecutions in Makka. They bore them patiently and never thought of retaliation,...
The Blessed Trinity The gift of grace renders the Blessed Trinity present to the soul in a new manner: that is, as the object of direct, though inchoative, knowledge and as the object of experimental love. This article is divided as follows: Dogma of the Trinity Proof of the doctrine...
The Virgin Birth: Birth of Jesus Without A Biological Father There is consensus among the great majority of Christians and Muslims that Jesus came to earth by means of a virgin birth. And the virgin birth of Jesus was a miracle. Human development begins at fertilization when a male gamete...
The Miracles Of Jesus Addressing human intelligence and will, the Quran frequently mentions many miracles performed by prophets. While it would not be possible to mention them all in one article, I would like to relate some of them in order to give an idea about some of these miracles,...
Pentecost The Christian holiday of Pentecost is celebrated on the 50th day (the seventh Sunday) from Easter Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1–31). The holiday is also called “Whit Sunday”, “Whitsunday” or...
Muhammad And Jesus Two Great Prophets Of God Though Islam is often criticized as being oppressive to women, the fact is that the teaching and example of Prophet Muhammad demonstrate something quite the opposite. Muhammad, like Jesus, was very counter-cultural in championing the rights of women. Yet it has often...
Jesus And Muhammad: Commonalities of Two Great Religions A pleasing coincidence of mutual thought has occurred because some years ago your correspondent was asked why he had not embraced Islam. My reply was that had Jesus and Muhammad ever met they would have got along splendidly. Here is the book...