A Response To Thomas/Alexander, 'and the Signs Are Following' (Mark 16.9-20)

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Wall

AbstractThis response to Thomas and Alexander affirms their effort to argue, from a Pentecostal perspective, for the canonical authority of the longer ending of Mark's Gospel (16.9-20). Notwithstanding the text-critical evidence for accepting this text as a secondary addition to the original Gospel narrative, Wall considers it a significant test case for addressing the tensions between critical exegesis and Scripture's performance within the community of faith as its biblical canon (or 'rule of faith'). He argues for the priority of Scripture's formative role both to establish and subsequently to validate its continuing authority for the whole church. For this and other reasons, Wall concludes that faithful interpreters must approach the longer ending to Mark's Gospel, even though 'non-Markan', as inspired Scripture and formative of Christian faith. Moreover, when considered within the context of the fourfold Gospel witness, this text proffers a distinctive contribution to the ending of its authorized narrative of Jesus' life. Adding a number of observations in support of Thomas and Alexander's study, Wall's essay proceeds to push beyond their proposal to conclude that a 'Pentecostal' interpretation of Scripture extends meaning beyond Pentecostal readers to challenge and enrich the beliefs and practices of the church catholic.

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-256
Author(s):  
Joseph Bosco Bangura

Sierra Leone has seen the rise of Charismatic movements that are bringing about greater levels of co-operation with the state. This new church development aims at renewing the Christian faith and projecting a more proactive role towards public governance. This ecclesial development shows that African Pentecostal/Charismatic theology appears to be moving away from the perceived isolationist theology that once separated the church from involvement with the rest of society. By reapplying the movement's eschatological beliefs, Charismatics are presenting themselves as moral crusaders who regard it as their responsibility to transform public governance. The article probes this relationship so that the Charismatic understanding of poverty, prosperity, good governance and socio-economic development in Sierra Leone can be more clearly established.


Author(s):  
Timothy Larsen

This chapter explores the life and thought of John Stuart Mill’s father, James Mill. It seeks to unravel his journey from pursuing the calling of an ordained Christian minister in the Church of Scotland to parting ways with the Christian faith altogether. It will also seek to understand James Mill’s mature critique of religion, as well as that of his friend the Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham, the author of several works critical of traditional Christianity. The unhappy marriage of John Stuart Mill’s parents is presented as a vital background for understanding his future choices and convictions. The Christian identity of his mother and siblings are also presented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Hardi Budiyana

Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menggambarkan dan mengetahui Misi Pendidikan Kristen dalam Mewujudkan Murid Kristus, yang tentunya Murid Kristus yang memiliki karakter Kristiani dalam jemaat melalui proses pengajaran di gereja lokal. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian bersifat kualitatif dengan cara studi pustaka yakni mengkaji tentang Misi Pendidikan Kristen yang berpusat pada Kristus akan mewujudkan Murid Kristus yang memiliki wewenang untuk membangun karakter jemaat sesuai dengan ajaran iman Kristiani. Hasil penelitian ini memberikan pemahaman bahwa Misi Pendidikan Kristen berperan baik dalam Mewujudkan Murid Kristus yang memiliki pembentukan karakter kristiani dalam jemaat. Oleh karena itu, disarankan agar Para hamba Tuhan dalam hal ini Gembala Jemaat memiliki loyalitas yang tinggi dalam melaksanakan tugas dan tanggung jawab sebagai rekan kerja Allah yang bukan hanya berkotbah semata, tetapi juga menyampaikan pengajaran dengan hasil terwujud adanya murid Kristus yang memiliki karakter Kristiani nyata dalam diri Jemaat, sehingga jemaat mau melibatkan diri dalam pelayanan maupun dalam penginjilan baik dalam gereja maupun di luar gereja. Kata Kunci: Misi Pendidikan Kristen, Murid Kristus, Gereja Lokal. AbstractThis study aims to describe and know the Mission of Christian Education in Realizing Christ's Disciples, which is certainly Christ's Disciples who have Christian character in the congregation through the teaching process in the local church. This research is a qualitative study by means of literature study that examines the mission of Christian Education centered on Christ will realize Christ's Disciples who have the authority to build the character of the church in accordance with the teachings of the Christian faith. The results of this study provide an understanding that the Christian Education Mission plays a good role in realizing Christ's disciples who have the formation of Christian character in the congregation. Therefore, it is recommended that the pastors of the Church of the Church Shepherd have a high loyalty in carrying out their duties and responsibilities as partners of God who not only preach, but also deliver teaching with the results of the realization of disciples of Christ who have a real Christian character in themselves Congregation, so that the congregation wants to be involved in ministry and in evangelizing both in the church and outside the church. Keywords: Christian Education Mission, Christ Disciples, Local Church


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-54
Author(s):  
Yesri E. Talan

Syncretism is not just phenomenology in the church but is a real and serious problem. Syncretism is a mixture of Christian faith and culture that results in the congregation losing its identity as a believer, blurred beliefs and do not have absolute truth. Syncretism in the church is a real and serious problem in the life of the church because it negatively impacts spiritual growth.The church cannot grow in true knowledge about Jesus Christ because of the dualism of belief, so Jesus Christ is not the only way of truth and life. The method used in this paper is theological qualitative research. Qualitative is a research method that emphasizes an in-depth understanding of a problem with the process of observation and interview. Conducting literature review and exposition of verses related to the discussion material. This research is descriptive. The results obtained are found the danger of syncretism to the church, namely: the absence of absolute truth in Christ because of the dualism that affects the spiritual growth of the church. Abstrak Sinkretisme bukan hanya fenomenologi di gereja tetapi menjadi masalah nyata dan serius. Sinkretisme adalah percampuran antara iman Kristen dengan budaya yang mengakibatkan jemaat kehilangan identitasnya sebagai orang percaya, kepercayaannya kabur dan tidak memiliki kebenaran absolut. Sinkretisme adalah masalah serius dalam kehidupan gereja karena memiliki dampak negatif pada pertumbuhan rohani. Gereja tidak dapat bertumbuh dalam pengenalan yang benar akan Yesus Kristus karena dualisme kepercayaan, sehingga Yesus Kristus bukanlah satu-satunya jalan kebenaran dan kehidupan. Metode yang dipakai dalam peulisan ini adalah kualitatif teologi. Kualitatif adalah metode penelitian yang menekankan pada suatu pemahaman secara mendalam terhadap suatu masalah dengan proses observasi dan wawancara. Melakukan kajian pustaka dan eksposisi ayat-ayat yang berkaitan dengan materi pembahasan. Penelitian ini bersifat deskriptif. Hasil yang diperoleh adalah ditemukan adanya bahaya sinkretisme terhadap jemaat, yaitu: tidak adanya kebenaran mutlak di dalam Kritus karena adanya dualisme yang mempengaruhi pertumbuhan rohani jemaat.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Branckly Egbert Picanussa

Some Christian education experts have expressed their views on how the church should develop a curriculum to educate church members to achieve maturity in the Christian faith. This article purpose to develop a curriculum for Christian education in Church ministry. The method used is a literature study on the opinions of D. CampbellWyckoff and Maria Harris. The characteristics of Wyckoff and Harris's opinions and various responses in "imaginative dialogue", as well as modifications of the Christian education Foundations, Principles andPractices schemes of Robert W. Pazmino became a model to develop a Christian education curriculum in church life. The development of the Christian education curriculum begins with setting the goal of implementing Christian education for a group in the Christian community. Furthermore, curriculum development requires thecontribution of various development foundations, including biblical, theological, philosophical, educational, scientific and technological, historical, socio-cultural, ecclesiological and psychological.


Author(s):  
Paddy Musana

There is today a marked increase of reports on human sacrifice especially in the media and police. Accounting for these actions have been difficult given the secrecy that surrounds it especially given the fact that it is considered a „ritual‟ enacted for spiritual-magical benefits. The practice of human sacrifice has antecedents in most world religions, many times serving the ritual-magical purpose of setting and maintaining relationships with what humans in the respective belief systems consider as divine (supernatural). This paper seeks to investigate and relate the meaning of „sacrifice‟ from the Judeo-Christian faith in the Ugandan context, given the place and influence of Christianity in the Ugandan community. The conclusion of the evidence provided is that the new forms of sacrifice in Uganda today do not in any way conform to the Judeo-Christian form and understanding. In essence, the phenomenon confirms the fact that in spite of the spread of Christianity in the country, most of its adherents still conform to the indigenous beliefs and practices; as it (Christianity) serves as a veneer.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 174-196
Author(s):  
Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar ◽  
Krina Huisman

In this article the authors analyse a collection of essays written by young Dutch people who grew up in the Reformed Liberated Church, a small Christian denomination in the Netherlands. Traditionally, this church is characterised by its inwards nature: members strive to live their lives within the confinements that the church and its institutions stipulate. This has changed over the last few decades and the essays attest to the effects these changes have had on individual lives. We discuss the underlying narrative structure of their accounts and how the authors negotiate different lifestyles and interpretations of the Christian faith on either side of the borders that demarcate the Reformed Liberated tradition. We discuss if – and how – the essays work towards an outcome of ‘discordant concordance’ (Ricœur) where narrative identities remain whole, despite relatively drastic border crossings in the course of the lives that formed them. We address how these stories give insight into how people use the stories they tell to define what needs to be remembered and forgotten when we cross borders. Finally, we discuss the relevance of these essays and our analysis of them for our understanding of today’s globalised and multicultural societies in which many are in a permanent state of transition. This article was submitted to the European Journal of Life Writing on February 17th and published on August 28th 2017.


Vox Patrum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 315-325
Author(s):  
Mariusz Szram

The bishop of Brescia, Philastrius, author of the first Latin catalogue of he­resies, written between 380 and 388, presented in his treaty an extremely large number of heterodox movements: 28 within Judaism and 128 in early Christianity. This comes as a result of a wide understanding of the term heresis. For Philastrius this term was synonymous with the term error, recognized as any deviation from the universal truth in the history of the world, inspired by Satan as “the father of lies”, ocurring primarily in Judaism and Christianity. Among the early Christian views defined by the bishop of Brescia as heresy five groups can be distinguished. The first group includes mainly the erroneous views on fundamental theological questions contained in the rule of faith, such as the concept of a creator God and saviour Jesus Christ. The second set of he­resies, closely related with the previous one, contains the erroneous doctrines of anthropology, such as questioning the resurrection of the human body or the view of the materiality of the human soul. The third group includes the views related to the misinterpretation of Scripture, especially exaggerated literal interpretations of the texts of the Old Testament, as well as the cosmological views which do not agree with descriptions contained within the Bible. The fourth group contains the moral issues related to the based on laxism or rigorism way of life, as well as to the attitude of lack of deference to the laws of the Church, but non-threatening the primary truths of the Christian faith. The fifth group of heresies includes the movements defined by the authors of the late patristic period as a schizm, while the term schisma is not at all used by the bishop of Brescia in his work. The semantic scope of the term heresis in Philastrius’ treaty went beyond the noncompliance with the regula fidei. According to the bishop of Brescia each offense – whether in doctrinal teaching or practice of life, as well as with regard to the understanding of the text of Scripture – is a heresy because it offends God and the Church. Therefore, in Philastrius opinion one should not differentiate between superior and minor error, but equally condemn them as attitudes directed against God as the Father of Truth.


Author(s):  
I Putu Ayub Darmawan

Make Disciples: The Duty of Church Discipleship According to Matthew 28: 18-20. This article discusses the task of church discipleship according to Matthew 28: 18-20. The author conducted a literature study to understand the intent of Matthew 28: 18-20 and to carry out the construction of the task of discipleship in the church. The task of discipleship, Jesus addressed his disciples, then proceeded to their successors who lived in a community of faith to carry out the task of discipleship. In the task of discipleship, the community of faith in a church as an institution takes action to proclaim the good news so that every nation can be part of a community of faith in Jesus Christ. In discipleship, everyone who enters the community of faith in Christ is accepted without distinction, because this task is a multicultural task. Teaching is an important part of the discipleship task. Teaching is done in order to strengthen new believers or new students enter the community of faith in Jesus, then they become disciples of the Lord Jesus who can be sent to disciple others. Jadikanlah Murid: Tugas Pemuridan Gereja Menurut Matius 28:18-20. Artikel ini membahas tentang tugas pemuridan gereja menurut Matius 28:18-20. Penulis melakukan studi pustaka untuk memahami maksud Matius 28:18-20 dan melakukan konstruksi tugas pemuridan gereja. Tugas pemuridan, Yesus tujukan kepada para murid-murid-Nya, kemudian dilanjutkan oleh pada penerus mereka yang hidup dalam sebuah komunitas iman untuk menjalankan tugas pemuridan tersebut. Dalam tugas pemuridan, komunitas iman dalam sebuah gereja sebagai suatu institusi melakukan tindakan pergi untuk mewartakan kabar baik sehingga setiap bangsa dapat menjadi bagian dari komunitas iman pada Yesus Kristus. Dalam pemuridan, setiap orang yang masuk dalam komunitas iman pada Kristus, diterima dengan tanpa membedakan mereka, sebab tugas ini adalah tugas yang multikultural. Pengajaran merupakan bagian penting dalam tugas pemuridan. Pengajaran dilakukan agar dapat memantapkan orang-orang yang baru percaya atau murid-murid baru masuk ke dalam komunitas iman pada Yesus, kemudian mereka menjadi murid Tuhan Yesus yang dapat diutus untuk memuridkan orang lain.


1992 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-238
Author(s):  
Howard Clark Kee

“[T]he vitality of the church is regained when it recovers the revolutionary insights of its founders, Jesus and Paul. In the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century and in the renewal movements that have taken place in both Roman Catholic and Protestant circles in the present century, it has been the fresh appropriation of the insights of Jesus and Paul about the inclusiveness of people across ethnic, racial, ritual, social, economic, and sexual boundaries that has restored the relevance and vitality of Christian faith and has lent to Christianity as a social and intellectual movement a positive, humane force in the wider society.”


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