My issue had been accepting the Old Testament as the true word of God unadulterated by human inaccuracy, political and historical agendas, and the misconstruction of centuries of translation.
My concerns on this front were answered by two elements from the readings. First, as I mentioned before, I found the correspondence of the prophecies of Christ in the Old Testament and the fulfillment of those prophecies in the New Testament to be very powerful proof of the connection between the two books, and I knew that if I accepted the New Testament as the revelation of God, I must accept the Old Testament as well to be consistent within my own faith. The fact that other prophecies were also borne out by history, like the prophecies concerning Cyrus and Josiah, and the prophecies concerning Babylon, only furthered my conviction of the divine source of the Bible.
I was also deeply impressed by the acknowledgement of dual authorship and the argument of the unity of the message of the Bible. I used to consider the variety of authors, voices, conventions, and dictates in the Old Testament to be a weakness and a sign of its human origins, but I see now that the unity of God's message in the Old Testament is even more compelling precisely because of the difference in these authors. The chances that they would have told the same message over thousands of years without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit seem slim.
The Life of a Christian
This last topic was the one whose deep consideration has had the most impact on the way I view and live my faith. It has been tempting on many occasions to think of myself as saved simply by virtue of my acceptance of Christ as my savior, and to downplay the role of my own actions in my salvation....
Section A 1. Each edition of The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church since 1972 has contained the formulation that has come to be widely known as the “Wesleyan [or Methodist] Quadrilateral”— the claim that “the living core of the Christian faith is revealed in Scripture, illumined by tradition, vivified in personal experience, and confirmed by reason.” At the conclusion of their “conference” about the Quadrilateral, published as
book of Matthew is theology. The book, written by an unknown evangelist, is dedicated to the truth of Jesus Christ as the son of the living God. It is without a doubt that the author believed the truth of the conception of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Matthew 1:16, 18-25 is clear about this conception. However, there are numerous views negating this belief. Brown, claims that it is unrealistic to believe
Wellness The Inventories Inventories and self-reflection surveys can be tremendously helpful for encouraging honesty and self-awareness. The "Are You Burned Out?" survey focuses specifically on stress and burnout issues, which can be detrimental to overall well-being as well as to one's ability to be helpful to others. The "Emotionally Healthy Church Inventory" is broader in scope, taking into account one's spiritual, emotional, and cognitive states of mind. These states of mind
Origination and Growth of Sufism The word Sufism came in use in the second century of Hijrah. Historians have intensely contested the etymology and source of the word Sufi. Numerous people say that this word is used from Suffah. Some Sahabah used to spend their time in Prophet's mosque devout to learning in regard to their religion and to prayers. Consequently, they claim that later people who succeed the People of the
" Moreover, Malachi Martin describes the theology as "a freeing from political oppression, economic want, and misery here on earth. More specifically still…a freeing from political domination by the capitalism of the United States." Furthermore, though it grew out of the unrest in Latin America "with its political domination by strong-arm leaders and monopolistic oligarchies," viewed by members of the Church as a direct result of American capitalism, the events in Latin
" It caused missionaries to deal with peoples of other cultures and even Christian traditions -- including the Orthodox -- as inferior. God's mission was understood to have depended upon human efforts, and this is why we came to hold unrealistic universalistic assumptions. Christians became so optimistic that they believed to be able to correct all the ills of the world." (Vassiliadis, 2010) Missiology has been undergoing changes in recent years
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now