Subsequence, Prophecy and Church Order in the Apostolic Church, New Zealand

<p>The Apostolic Church of New Zealand forms a distinct group within the pentecostal movement on account of its practice of "divine government." The revelation of the restoration of apostle and prophet ministry, which originally came to the founders in the UK, served to establish a denomination which espoused prophetic guidance in matters of praxis and doctrine. The purpose of this thesis has been to critique the Apostolic Church's understanding of not only the doctrine of subsequence (i.e. Spirit-baptism is logically distinct from and subsequent to salvation) but the function of the prophetic and its effect on the organisational structure and operation of the church. A major focus of the early Apostolic churchmen was a defence of subsequence. Widespread mainstream opposition ensured pentecostals endured an isolation which served to reinforce their determination to validate the empowerment that they had experienced. As the need for polemic reduced, the emphasis shifted to promoting the gift of the Spirit as a missionary endowment. Methodist-Holiness teaching formed the basis for the early influences on pentecostal theology and as such promoted a verifiable work of the Spirit given in response to seeking. The challenge and influence from the Latter Rain and Charismatic movements saw the bestowal of the gift without an attendant period of tarrying. While this brought a universality to the experience, it did so at the expense of depth or intensity, with a resulting weakening in the expression of prophecy. An assessment of the view of prophecy held by the early Apostolic churchmen shows that too high a level of inspiration was often credited to prophetic utterance. The possibility of human frailty corrupting the purposes of God was not countenanced to any great degree, with the result that flawed or outright erroneous decisions proceeded unchallenged: in this the role of the apostle was under-exercised. The combination of a high view of prophecy and a decreasing quality of utterance over time affected the level of guidance available to the movement. The operation of the apostle necessarily changed: previously concerned with outworking the "Word of the Lord," the function of the apostle became limited to that of superintendent minister. The inability of the first and second generation Apostolics to recognise their schismatic origins perpetuated the rigid adherence to centralism, believing it to be the divine pattern. Centralised control manifested in two spheres: finance and personnel. Initially, when the movement was small, centralism was an expedient philosophy; however, its usefulness was soon outgrown. A retarding factor for the Apostolic Church has been the lack of autonomy afforded local assemblies and the ineptitude of the centralised government, which frequently mismatched men and their roles. Currently, there exists a trend towards relationship-based apostleship, utilising the concept of networks. A particular subset of this system is the church plant where a natural line of authority exists between it and the parent church. Prophecy operating in this situation confines itself to expansion, and avoids the problem, evident in previous years, of centralised revelation initiating the relocation of personnel. The Apostolic Church will survive the 21st century by allowing greater autonomy, with the apostolic function and the prophetic voice finding expression primarily through the local assembly.</p>

Subsequence, Prophecy and Church Order in the Apostolic Church, New Zealand

<p>The Apostolic Church of New Zealand forms a distinct group within the pentecostal movement on account of its practice of "divine government." The revelation of the restoration of apostle and prophet ministry, which originally came to the founders in the UK, served to establish a denomination which espoused prophetic guidance in matters of praxis and doctrine. The purpose of this thesis has been to critique the Apostolic Church's understanding of not only the doctrine of subsequence (i.e. Spirit-baptism is logically distinct from and subsequent to salvation) but the function of the prophetic and its effect on the organisational structure and operation of the church. A major focus of the early Apostolic churchmen was a defence of subsequence. Widespread mainstream opposition ensured pentecostals endured an isolation which served to reinforce their determination to validate the empowerment that they had experienced. As the need for polemic reduced, the emphasis shifted to promoting the gift of the Spirit as a missionary endowment. Methodist-Holiness teaching formed the basis for the early influences on pentecostal theology and as such promoted a verifiable work of the Spirit given in response to seeking. The challenge and influence from the Latter Rain and Charismatic movements saw the bestowal of the gift without an attendant period of tarrying. While this brought a universality to the experience, it did so at the expense of depth or intensity, with a resulting weakening in the expression of prophecy. An assessment of the view of prophecy held by the early Apostolic churchmen shows that too high a level of inspiration was often credited to prophetic utterance. The possibility of human frailty corrupting the purposes of God was not countenanced to any great degree, with the result that flawed or outright erroneous decisions proceeded unchallenged: in this the role of the apostle was under-exercised. The combination of a high view of prophecy and a decreasing quality of utterance over time affected the level of guidance available to the movement. The operation of the apostle necessarily changed: previously concerned with outworking the "Word of the Lord," the function of the apostle became limited to that of superintendent minister. The inability of the first and second generation Apostolics to recognise their schismatic origins perpetuated the rigid adherence to centralism, believing it to be the divine pattern. Centralised control manifested in two spheres: finance and personnel. Initially, when the movement was small, centralism was an expedient philosophy; however, its usefulness was soon outgrown. A retarding factor for the Apostolic Church has been the lack of autonomy afforded local assemblies and the ineptitude of the centralised government, which frequently mismatched men and their roles. Currently, there exists a trend towards relationship-based apostleship, utilising the concept of networks. A particular subset of this system is the church plant where a natural line of authority exists between it and the parent church. Prophecy operating in this situation confines itself to expansion, and avoids the problem, evident in previous years, of centralised revelation initiating the relocation of personnel. The Apostolic Church will survive the 21st century by allowing greater autonomy, with the apostolic function and the prophetic voice finding expression primarily through the local assembly.</p>

The impact of local assembly rules on RNA packaging in a T = 1 satellite plant virus

The vast majority of viruses consist of a nucleic acid surrounded by a protective icosahedral protein shell called the capsid. During viral infection of a host cell, the timing and efficiency of the assembly process is important for ensuring the production of infectious new progeny virus particles. In the class of single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) viruses, the assembly of the capsid takes place in tandem with packaging of the ssRNA genome in a highly cooperative co-assembly process. In simple ssRNA viruses such as the bacteriophage MS2 and small RNA plant viruses such as STNV, this cooperative process results from multiple interactions between the protein shell and sites in the RNA genome which have been termed packaging signals. Using a stochastic assembly algorithm which includes cooperative interactions between the protein shell and packaging signals in the RNA genome, we demonstrate that highly efficient assembly of STNV capsids arises from a set of simple local rules. Altering the local assembly rules results in different nucleation scenarios with varying assembly efficiencies, which in some cases depend strongly on interactions with RNA packaging signals. Our results provide a potential simple explanation based on local assembly rules for the ability of some ssRNA viruses to spontaneously assemble around charged polymers and other non-viral RNAs in vitro.

Large scale genomic rearrangements in selected Arabidopsis thaliana T-DNA lines are caused by T-DNA insertion mutagenesis

Background Experimental proof of gene function assignments in plants is based on mutant analyses. T-DNA insertion lines provided an invaluable resource of mutants and enabled systematic reverse genetics-based investigation of the functions of Arabidopsis thaliana genes during the last decades. Results We sequenced the genomes of 14 A. thaliana GABI-Kat T-DNA insertion lines, which eluded flanking sequence tag-based attempts to characterize their insertion loci, with Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) long reads. Complex T-DNA insertions were resolved and 11 previously unknown T-DNA loci identified, resulting in about 2 T-DNA insertions per line and suggesting that this number was previously underestimated. T-DNA mutagenesis caused fusions of chromosomes along with compensating translocations to keep the gene set complete throughout meiosis. Also, an inverted duplication of 800 kbp was detected. About 10 % of GABI-Kat lines might be affected by chromosomal rearrangements, some of which do not involve T-DNA. Local assembly of selected reads was shown to be a computationally effective method to resolve the structure of T-DNA insertion loci. We developed an automated workflow to support investigation of long read data from T-DNA insertion lines. All steps from DNA extraction to assembly of T-DNA loci can be completed within days. Conclusions Long read sequencing was demonstrated to be an effective way to resolve complex T-DNA insertions and chromosome fusions. Many T-DNA insertions comprise not just a single T-DNA, but complex arrays of multiple T-DNAs. It is becoming obvious that T-DNA insertion alleles must be characterized by exact identification of both T-DNA::genome junctions to generate clear genotype-to-phenotype relations.

Roles for Ndel1 in keratin organization and desmosome function

Keratin intermediate filaments form dynamic polymer networks that organize in specific ways dependent on the cell type, the stage of the cell cycle, and the state of the cell. In differentiated cells of the epidermis, they are organized by desmosomes, cell-cell adhesion complexes which provide essential mechanical integrity to this tissue. Despite this, we know little about how keratin organization is controlled and whether desmosomes locally regulate keratin dynamics in addition to binding pre-assembled filaments. Ndel1 is a desmosome-associated protein in the differentiated epidermis, though its function at these structures has not been examined. Here, we show that Ndel1 binds directly to keratin subunits through a motif conserved in all intermediate filament proteins. Further, Ndel1 was necessary for robust desmosome-keratin association and sufficient to reorganize keratins at distinct cellular sites. Lis1, a Ndel1 binding protein, was required for desmosomal localization of Ndel1, but not for its effects on keratin filaments. Finally, we use mouse genetics to demonstrate that loss of Ndel1 results in desmosome defects in the epidermis. Our data thus identifies Ndel1 as a desmosome-associated protein which promotes local assembly/reorganization of keratin filaments and is essential for robust desmosome formation.

Large scale genomic rearrangements in selectedArabidopsis thalianaT-DNA lines are caused by T-DNA insertion mutagenesis

BackgroundExperimental proof of gene function assignments in plants is heavily based on mutant analyses. T- DNA insertion lines provided an invaluable resource of mutants and enabled systematic reverse genetics-based investigation of the functions ofArabidopsis thalianagenes during the last decades.ResultsWe sequenced the genomes of 14A. thalianaGABI-Kat T-DNA insertion lines, which eluded flanking sequence tag-based attempts to characterize their insertion loci, with Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) long reads. Complex T-DNA insertions were resolved and 11 previously unknown T-DNA loci identified, suggesting that the number of T-DNA insertions per line was underestimated. T-DNA mutagenesis caused fusions of chromosomes along with compensating translocations to keep the gene set complete throughout meiosis. Also, an inverted duplication of 800 kbp was detected. About 10% of GABI-Kat lines might be affected by chromosomal rearrangements, some of which do not involve T-DNA. Local assembly of selected reads was shown to be a computationally effective method to resolve the structure of T-DNA insertion loci. We developed an automated workflow to support investigation of long read data from T-DNA insertion lines. All steps from DNA extraction to assembly of T-DNA loci can be completed within days.ConclusionLong read sequencing was demonstrated to be a very effective way to resolve complex T-DNA insertions and chromosome fusions. Many T-DNA insertions comprise not just a single T-DNA, but complex arrays of multiple T-DNAs. It is becoming obvious that T-DNA insertion alleles must be characterized by exact identification of both T-DNA::genome junctions to generate clear genotype- to-phenotype relations.

Nippon Kaigi: Gerakan Kebangkitan Nasionalisme Jepun

Nippon Kaigi is an influential right-wing pressure group in Japan. Its membership is not only among the ordinary people but also influential politicians, professionals, businessmen, religious groups, academics and chief justices. Their goal is to build a nation whose people are proud to be citizens (nationalism). The article discusses the movement by Nippon Kaigi to nurture nationalism in Japan and how it achieved its goals. The article is divided into several parts, namely the introduction of Nippon Kaigi, the oddity of current Japanese society which led to the need for a spirit of nationalism and the movement in Japan. The study found that the activities of this organization are not through violence but by political propaganda activities. In order to disseminate its ideology among the citizens, it holds assemblies, collecting signatures and calls for local assembly approval across the country. In other words, Nippon Kaigi has employed a new approach to advance right-wing movements.