The Kingdom of God

2020 ◽  
pp. 85-102
Author(s):  
Michael Hubbard MacKay
Keyword(s):  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
The Other ◽  
Church Administration ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Unique Position ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church ◽  
Continuous Chain

This chapter explores Joseph Smith’s overarching narrative of priestly power by identifying a continuous chain of authority back to Adam in Mormon scripture. A crucial component of that chain was the idea of administrative keys that link priestly authority among the New Testament apostles with priestly authority in Joseph Smith’s church. The chapter focuses on how an emerging narrative about Peter, James, and John determined Mormon administration and the ecclesiastical hierarchy. This apostolic narrative enabled Joseph Smith to empower the Mormon clergy with authority without compromising his unique position within the church as its president and prophet. On the one hand, Smith centralized power in himself, like a monarch over the kingdom of God. He alone held all of the keys of full church administration. On the other hand, he empowered regional parallel sites of authority of priests and high priests by distributing some keys freely to others, who also distributed them regionally. The chapter further explores the notion of the Mormon kingdom of God and how the apostolic mythos about Peter, James, and John enabled and maintained a long-lasting Mormon hierarchy. The chapter explores the mythos historically as an evolving narrative, to demonstrate how it came to represent the foundations of Mormon authority.

scholarly journals Jewish fish (ΙΧΘΥΣ) in post-supersessionist water: Messianic Judaism within a post-supersessionistic paradigm

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Willitts
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
New Testament ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Messianic Judaism ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

This article defines, explains and argues for the necessity of a post-supersessionistic hermeneutical posture towards the New Testament. The post-supersessionistic reading of the New Testament takes the Jewish nature of the apostolic documents seriously, and has as its goal the correction of the sin of supersessionism. While supersessionism theologically is repudiated in most corners of the contemporary church through official church documents, the practise of reading the New Testament continues to exhibit supersessionistic tendencies and outcomes. The consequence of this predominant reading of the New Testament is the continued exclusion of Jewish ethnic identity in the church. In light of the growing recognition of multiculturalism and contextualisation on the one hand, and the recent presence of a movement within the body of Messiah of Jewish believers in Jesus on the other, the church’s established approach to reading Scripture that leads to the elimination of ethnic identity must be repudiated alongside its post-supersessionist doctrinal statements. This article defines terms, explains consequences and argues for a renewed perspective on the New Testament as an ethnic document; such a perspective will promote the church’s cultivation of real embodied ethnic particularity rather than either a pseudo-interculturalism or the eraser full ethnicity.

scholarly journals Three perspectives on the Sabbath

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francois P. Möller
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Law ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

There is still confusion in theology and especially among members of the church concerning the fourth commandment and its observance. The following questions could be asked: What is the meaning of the Sabbath? What is the intention of rest on this day? Ought this commandment still be honoured like the other nine commandments of the Law? Does it still have any meaning for the church, or is Sunday a replacement for the Sabbath? The objective is to obtain greater clarity concerning the meaning, contents and application of the Sabbath as presented in both the Old and the New Testament. This is done from a dogmatic emphasis by dividing the Sabbath into three perspectives: The Creation Sabbath (God’s identification with it), the Covenant Sabbath (Israel’s identification with it), and the Atonement Sabbath (the church’s identification with it). This division does not assume three separate Sabbaths, but they are perspectives on the one Sabbath of God. The threefold perspective will contribute to a universal view on the Sabbath as presented in the creation narrative, the nation of Israel, and the church of the New Testament. This universal view is grounded in Christ who is the focal point, contents and connection between the three given perspectives. It is a Christocentric point of view that gives perception on the meaning, observance, application and message of the Sabbath for the church and every believer of our day.

Paul's Opponents in II Corinthians

1971 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. K. Barrett
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
The Other ◽  
Full Understanding ◽  
Look Back ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Church

The continuing stream of hypotheses with regard to the Corinthian opposition to Paul will serve as a reminder that this opposition constitutes one of the crucial questions for the understanding of the New Testament and the origins of Christianity. It is not too much to say that a full understanding both of New Testament history and of New Testament theology waits on the right answering of this question. We can see pretty clearly that the development of Christianity in the first three decades after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus moved about two poles: on the one hand, the church of Jerusalem, some at least of whose leaders could probably look back to their association with Jesus during his ministry in Palestine, and, on the other, Paul, apostle as he himself but by no means all his contemporaries believed him to be, and the churches he founded in the non-Jewish world. How were these two groups related to each other? Did they act in concert or in opposition? These alternatives are far too simply put, and fail to do justice to the complexity of the facts; but the facts to which justice must be done include the data of II Corinthians, where Paul appears to be confronted by a rival apostolate.

scholarly journals The kingdom, Israel and the church. Paul's thoughts on the relevance of God’s promises to Israel (Romans 9-11)

2001 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
M.C. Mulder
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
The Other ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

In Paul’s eschatology the kingdom of God is concentrated in Jesus Christ. In and through Him the kingdom has come and will come. Does this, however, imply that the old covenantal tradition has come to an end? If being in Christ is decisive for belonging to the eschatological kingdom of God, what then is the enduring relevance of the promises of God to his covenantal people, Israel? Romans 9-11 deals with these questions. Many scholars explain Romans 9-11 as an attempt to combine these two conflicting religious concepts, namely, on the one hand, the old covenantal tradition and on the other, the new eschatological soteriology, in which belonging to Christ is decisive. According to this viewpoint, different soteriologies clash in these chapters. Romans 11 represents the old covenantal tradition. Romans 9 cannot be compromised with this as a predestinational soteriology. In Romans 10 faith in Christ is decisive – faith which implies personal responsibility. Is it true that Romans 9-11 clearly demonstrates, as many scholars assert, that in Paul’s conception there cannot be a unanimous answer to these questions about belonging to the kingdom of God? In this article it is attempted to indicate that there is in fact more unity in Romans 9-11 than is frequently assumed. This unity can be demonstrated by especially paying attention to the background of the citations that Paul quotes from the Old Testament.

scholarly journals WeSterN AND NOrtHerN LANDS

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-228
Author(s):  
Wojciech Kucharski
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
The Other ◽  
World War ◽  
Church Administration ◽  
Holy See ◽  
Reason Of State ◽  
Polish Culture ◽  
The One ◽  
Second World ◽  
The Church

Primate Stefan Wyszyński engaged in a series of administrative and diplomatic activities related to the institution of the Polish Church organisation in the Western Lands. In the years 1948-1967 he exercised his authority over the Church in this area. He initially supervised apostolic administrators in Wrocław, Opole, Gorzów Wielkopolski, and in Olsztyn and Gdańsk, and after their removal in 1951 he sanctioned vicar capitulars elected by the state authority to preserved unity of the Church in Poland. In 1956 his attempts resulted in the restoration of the relevant bishops to their posts. In 1967 at his request the Pope Paul VI excluded the Church organisation in the Western Lands from the jurisdiction of Primate of Poland and subordinated it directly to the Holy See, instituting apostolic administrations there. primate repeatedly conducted negotiations with the Holy See in case of the institution of the Polish Church organisation in this area, which ended only after the ratification of the Polish-German treaty in 1972 by the announcement of the apostolic constitution Episcoporum Poloniae coetus. During the entire period Primate repeatedly visited archdiocese of Wrocław and supported the activities of the hierarchs governing this area, initially priest Karol Milik, and subsequently priest Kazimierz Lagosz and since 1956 bishop Bolesław Kominek. Primate Wyszyński repeatedly emphasised the rights of Poland to these lands in his speeches and sermons delivered in Wrocław. He proved that they resulted, on the one hand from their historical embeddedness in the Polish culture (he was referring to the relations of Silesia with Poland in the Piast period), and on the other hand he pointed to the re-Catholising mission of the Church in these lands. He also indicated that these lands are the peculiar compensation for the losses incurred by the Polish nation during the Second World War. He perceived the tasks of the Church in this area during the period of the stabilisation of the Polish Church administration as the Polish reason of state. 

Ordo

1956 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
Canon S. L. Greenslade
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church ◽  
Apostolic Church

The Church Militant, living and working in history as an organic and visible society, must have a structure and organs which express its nature and enable it to be what it is and to fulfil its function or mission. Whatever might be argued a priori about this structure and these organs, and whatever might be learned from the experiences of history through the centuries, it is plain from the New Testament that the apostolic church possessed institutions which were part of its structure and which existed in order to further its mission. Among these was a ministry of men distinguishable qua ministers from the other members of the body, a special organ of, and therefore within, the one body.

Christus Virgo

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-27
Author(s):  
Sissel Undheim
Keyword(s):  
Moral Status ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The description of Christ as a virgin, 'Christus virgo', does occur at rare occasions in Early Christian and late antique texts. Considering that 'virgo' was a term that most commonly described the sexual and moral status of a member of the female sex, such representations of Christ as a virgin may exemplify some of the complex negotiations over gender, salvation, sanctity and Christology that we find in the writings of the Church fathers. The article provides some suggestions as to how we can understand the notion of the virgin Christ within the context of early Christian and late antique theological debates on the one hand, and in light of the growing interest in sacred virginity on the other.

Solidaritas Sebagai Norma Dasar Dalam Etika Paulus

1970 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-100
Author(s):  
Martin Harun
Keyword(s):  
Community Building ◽  
Lord's Supper ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Central Elements ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Unity In Diversity ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church ◽  
Different Parts

Abstract: Solidarity, a modern word and concept, has old roots in the concept of koinonia (fellowship) as it is understood in the New Testament. David G. Horrell even maintains that what we now call solidarity, functions as a meta norm in Paul’s ethics, since phenomena of solidarity are clearly present in the central elements of Paul’s community building. Reference is made to the two basic rituals, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which build unity in diversity; to the most frequently used form of address, adelphoi/brothers, which asks for familial treatment of one another; also to the special way in which Paul often tries to restore unity in the middle of conflicts; and especially to his metaphor of the Church as the one body of Christ with many different parts that need and support one another. When speaking about the collections as a sign of the Greek community’s solidarity with the poor community in Jerusalem, Paul refers to Christ’s solidarity as the source of solidarity within and among communities. Keywords: Solidarity, fellowship, David Horrell, Paul, Ethics, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, brothers, Body of Christ, Christ’s solidarity. Abstrak: Solidaritas, sebuah kata dan paham modern, memiliki akar yang lama, antara lain dalam paham koinonia (persekutuan), sebagaimana digunakan dalam Alkitab Perjanjian Baru. David G. Horrell mempertahankan bahwa apa yang sekarang kita sebut solidaritas, merupakan norma dasar (meta norm) dalam etika Paulus, sebab fenomen-fenomen solidaritas tampak dalam unsur-unsur sentral pembinaan jemaatnya, antara lain dalam kedua ritual paling dasar, baptisan dan perjamuan Tuhan, yang membina kesatuan dalam perbedaan. Solidaritas juga muncul dalam sebutan paling frekuen, saudara-saudara (adelphoi), yang menuntut suatu etos kekeluargaan. Solidaritas juga tampak dalam banyak seruan Paulus untuk memulihkan kesatuan apabila ia berhadapan dengan perpecahan, dan teristimewa dalam menggambarkan jemaat sebagai satu tubuh Kristus dengan banyak anggota yang berbeda dan saling membutuhkan serta memberi. Dalam konteks kolekte-kolekte sebagai tanda solidaritas antarjemaat, Paulus secara eksplisit menunjuk kepada solidaritas Kristus dengan kita sebagai dasar terdalam dari solidaritas antarumat. Kata-kata kunci: Solidaritas, persekutuan, David Horrell, Paulus, etika, baptisan, Perjamuan Tuhan, saudara-saudara, Tubuh Kristus, solidaritas Kristus.

The Christian Church in the Last Seventy Years

1943 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-34
Author(s):  
Kenneth Scott Latourette
Keyword(s):  
Large Volume ◽  
The Other ◽  
Recent History ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

A strange contrast exists in the status of the Christian Church in the past seventy years. On the one hand the Church has clearly lost some of the ground which once appeared to be safely within its possession. On the other hand it has become more widely spread geographically and, when all mankind is taken into consideration, more influential in shaping human affairs than ever before in its history. In a paper as brief as this must of necessity be, space can be had only for the sketching of the broad outlines of this paradox and for suggesting a reason for it. If details were to be given, a large volume would be required. Perhaps, however, we can hope to do enough to point out one of the most provocative and important set of movements in recent history.

Charismata: Gifts, Enablements, or Ministries?

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Benny Aker
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Spiritual Gifts ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Church Culture ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

AbstractIn the midst of a growing awareness of spiritual gifts in contemporary church culture and in the academy, much confusion exists. The use of the term 'charismata' promotes this confusion and is not an appropriate label for the biblical evidence of such activity. The problem lies in a deficient linguistic and exegetical handling of this term—a problem identified by James Barr long ago and brought to the fore by Kenneth Berding. Proper exegesis overcomes this prevalent exegetical and linguistic fallacy and suggests another term, diakonia. However, a more foundational conception of both the church and ministry is lacking. By analyzing Pauline anthropol ogy in Romans, an enduring and foundational model for gifts and ministries emerges. This model is the Pauline conception of the church as God's tem ple. People who are delivered from sin's power through identifying with Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection and who have the Spirit are free to give themselves both as sacrifice and temple servants in spiritual ministries. One other caution is raised and discussed. One must avoid the charge in practice and theology of Spirit-monism. Basic structures of the New Testament always place Jesus as the One through whom the Spirit comes. Conse quently, all Spirit activity must in some way be christological and sote riological in nature. Some contemporary applications are derived from this biblical theology of Church and ministry.

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