Five Solae The five solae (Anglicized to five solas) of the Protestant Reformation are a foundational set of principles held by theologians and clergy to be central to the doctrine of salvation as taught by the Reformed branches of Protestantism. Each sola represents a key belief in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions in...
Nicene Christianity Nicene Christianity is a set of Christian doctrinal traditions which reflect the Nicene Creed, which was formulated at the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 and amended at the First Council of Constantinople in AD 381. History Main articles: First Council of Nicaea, Church Fathers, Nicene Creed, Trinity...
Visions of Jesus and Mary Since the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Calvary, a number of people have claimed to have had visions of Jesus Christ and personal conversations with him. Some people make similar claims regarding his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Discussions about the authenticity of these visions have often invited...
Trinitarianism in The Church Fathers Whether the earliest Church Fathers believed in the Trinity or not is a subject for debate. Some of the evidence used to support an early belief in the Trinity are triadic statements (referring to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) from the New Testament and the Church Fathers. The...
Christophany A Christophany is an appearance or non-physical manifestation of Christ. Traditionally the term refers to visions of Christ after his ascension, such as the bright light of the Damascus Christophany. Also, following the example of Justin Martyr who identified the Angel of the Lord with the Logos, some appearances of angels in the Hebrew...
Pre-existence of Christ The pre-existence of Christ asserts the existence of Christ before his incarnation as Jesus. One of the relevant Bible passages is John 1:1–18 where, in the Trinitarian interpretation, Christ is identified with a pre-existent divine hypostasis (substantive reality) called the Logos or Word. There are nontrinitarian views that question the aspect of personal pre-existence or the...
Rejection of Jesus This article relates to a number of episodes in the New Testament in which Jesus was rejected in accordance with the Jewish tradition which was followed during his lifetime. New Testament Hometown rejection See also: Mark 6, Pauline Christianity, and Paul the Apostle and Judaism In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of...
Messiah in Judaism The Messiah in Judaism (מָשִׁיחַ, māšîaḥ; χριστός, khristós, ‘anointed, covered in oil’) is a savior and liberator figure in Jewish eschatology, who is believed to be the future redeemer of the Jewish people. The concept of messianism originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible a messiah is...
Jewish Christian Early Christianity had its roots in Hellenistic Judaism and the Jewish messianism of the first century and Jewish Christians were the first Christians. Christianity started with Jewish eschatological expectations, and it developed into the veneration of a deified Jesus after his earthly ministry, his crucifixion, and the post–crucifixion experiences of his followers. The inclusion of gentiles led to a growing split...
Old Testament Messianic Prophecies Quoted in The New Testament The New Testament frequently cites Jewish scripture to support the claim of the Early Christians that Jesus was the promised Jewish Messiah, but only a handful of these citations are actual predictions in their original contexts.[1] The majority of these quotations and references are taken from the Book of Isaiah,...
Messianic Age In Abrahamic religions, the Messianic Age is the future period of time on Earth in which the messiah will reign and bring universal peace and brotherhood, without any evil. Many believe that there will be such an age; some refer to it as the consummate “kingdom of God” or the...
Gnosticism Gnosticism (from gnostikos, “having knowledge”, from γνῶσις gnōsis, knowledge) is a modern name for a variety of ancient religious ideas and systems, originating in Jewish-Christian milieux in the first and second century AD. These systems believed that the material world is created by an emanation or ‘works’ of a lower god (Demiurge),...
Man And Religion-2 At birth man has no conscious knowledge about himself or about the environment around him; nevertheless, he is not an alien but fitted for the world into which he is born. To begin with, his body is made up of the same elements as exist in nature:...
History of Christianity The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, Christendom, and the Church with its various denominations, from the 1st century to the present. Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus in the 1st century Roman province of Judea. According to the Gospels, Jesus was a Jewish teacher and...
Messianic Judaism Messianic Judaism is a modern syncretic[1] religious movement that combines Christianity—most importantly, the belief that Jesus is the Jewish messiah—with elements of Judaism and Jewish tradition.[2] It emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.[6] Messianic Jews believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and “God the Son” (one person of the Trinity), and that the Tanakh and New Testament are the...
Christian Pacifism Christian pacifism is the theological and ethical position that any form of violence is incompatible with the Christian faith. Christian pacifists state that Jesus himself was a pacifist who taught and practiced pacifism and that his followers must do likewise. Notable Christian pacifists include Martin Luther King, Jr., Leo Tolstoy, and Ammon Hennacy. Hennacy believed that adherence to...
Impeccability Impeccability is the absence of sin. Christianity teaches this to be an attribute of God (logically God cannot sin, it would mean that he would act against his own will and nature) and therefore it is also attributed to Christ. Roman Catholic teaching Impeccability and Heaven Early Christians questioned whether the victorious saints in heaven could sin....
Christ The Power of God and The Wisdom of God Christ Crucified Is God’s Power and Wisdom – 1 Corinthians 1.18—2.5 ‘Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom; but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to who are called, both Jews and...
Two Kinds of Wisdom Teachers Wisdom concerns a way of life, a path, a way of seeing reality. Wisdom is a way of seeing ourselves and our lives in relation to reality. ~ Marcus Borg Wisdom comes in two forms: conventional and alternative. Wisdom teacher as a cross-cultural religious personality Wisdom teachers are...
Christ, Our Wisdom Israel’s Wisdom and Its Fulfillment in Christ Wisdom in the New Testament The word wisdom in the Bible is a technical term whose meaning we easily take for granted. The problem arises when we define biblical terms on the basis of our own human experience and use...
