...Assignment 7 Joshua Wallace English 202 February 23, 2012 David Nielsen The Three Kings The children had such imagination tonight, Platero! It was impossible to put them to bed. Finally, the children were dreaming: one in an armchair, another on the ground near the base of the fireplace, Blanca in a small chair, Pepe on the window seat with his head on the nails of the door, the children were not to pass the Kings… And now, deeper into the dream, like a connected out-of-body experience, all of the children feel alive and magical. Before dinner, all of us went upstairs. The commotion grew more intense, usually I am not this fearful! – I am not afraid of overburden, Pepe, and you? – Blanca said, grasping my hand tightly. And we put all of our shoes on the balcony between the citrons. Now, Platero, let’s dress Monte mayor, Tita, Maria Teresa, Lolilla, Perico, you and I, with sheets and quilts and old hats. And at midnight, we turn to the window of children in procession of costumes and lights, playing mortars, trumpets and the conch at the end. Come with me, I’ll be Gaspar because of my beard of white stubble. And carry, like an apron, the flag of Colombia, which I brought home from my uncle, Consul… The children, suddenly awakened, still tired and went to the windows, trembling and astonished. Then, we will continue in this sleep throughout the night and all morning, and late tomorrow, when the blue sky dazzles through the shutters, we will rise, half dressed, to the balcony...
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...Daryl Miller CHH301-B12 LUO September 11, 2012 Paper 1 The Foundation of Orthodoxy and the Canon If we consider that what we know as Christianity is not what it began as, then we will see the need for a standard. That fact that Christianity as a religion and a worldview was revolutionary as is was also evolutionary. It was revolutionary in that it stood against the norm of Judaism and paganism. It was evolutionary in that what it was then is not what it is today. Therefore, the need of orthodoxy and for cannon is presented. Orthodoxy is the “correct, conventional or currently accepted beliefs, especially in religion.”The consolidation of power under Constantine and the stretch of the empire caused a need for orthodoxy of Christianity’s belief system. It also demanded a standard of doctrine. This leads to the canonicity of the Holy Scriptures. Canon is derived from the Greek word kanon. Elwell says of the word canon, “in Christianity [canon] refers to a group of books acknowledged by the early church as a rule of faith and practice” The word carries the idea of the measuring rod or standard against which the sacred text are weighed for inclusion. It should be noted that different faith systems have different canonical books. The Jewish canon is different from the Protestant as is the Catholic. If we bear in mind that the Bible we know today did not start out as a book at all, and then the logical progression must be to ask, how did it come about? An important note...
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...LIBERTY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY BOOK CRITIQUE: TWO VIEWS ON WOMEN IN MINISTRY A Paper Submitted to Liberty Theological Seminary Dr. Garry Graves In partial fulfillment of the requirements For completion of the course Systematic Theology II THEO 530 By Vernon L Langley July 26, 2012 Beck, James R. Two Views on Women in Ministry: Revised ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005. ISBN: 978-0-310-25437-9. Thesis Statement: in view of the fact that my own outlook on women’s responsibility in ministry is in between social equality and Complementarian; however I will attempt to show that women have a part in ministry, through the assessment of these two differing points of views as offered in the principal book Two Views on Women In Ministry and as contrasted with other academic books. Introduction: Dr. James R. Beck has assembled four academic assessments which present the egalitarian and complementarianism / hierarchical analysis regarding women in ministry with unprejudiced supplementary counterpoints to completely enlighten the one who reads. The arrangement of analysis appear to evaluate and distinguish in a reasonable, impartial way that supply the one who reads with a good insight of the dispute, with opposing opinions offered at the conclusion of every article. However, the reasonable approach to the arrangement of both components regarding women in ministry do not completely disclose...
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...Anthony Henderson Turabian Theo-201 D16 Essay on Bibliology: Inspiration and Inerrancy of the Bible I n today’s society many people question the authority and inerrancy of the Bible. They want concrete proof of the inerrancy of the Bible and they question the inspiration and ability of the writers. When we say the Bible has authority, we must also show where the authority comes from. “Authority is the right and power to command, enforce laws, exact obedience, determine or judge”. Many people do not understand how much authority a book written thousands of years ago actually commands. The authority comes from God because the Bible is the Word of God. “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” We know God is truth and the Bible is His word. This knowledge leads us to conclude that the Bible is authoritative and true. The Bible is the inspired Word of God given to the writers of the scripture. “The content of the Bible teaches that it was given by the process of inspiration of God so that the words were God’s Word and that they are accurate and reliable, hence they are authoritative”. We read in the Bible how the prophets did not use their words, but were moved by the Spirit to speak God’s Words. We also see that the Spirit led them to write what God wanted to be written. The Bible is inspired, or “God-breathed”. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”. The question...
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...I. Introduction There are many issues that face the interpreter as he approaches the book of Revelation. Is my exegesis theologically biased? What type of hermeneutic do I employ when dealing with prophetic passages? Should I apply the grammatical-historical approach consistently throughout all of Scripture? Am I bringing an interpretation to the text? Am I exhausting the interpretive process, or am I merely guessing? Some of these issues are fundamental, while others are peripheral. All are important, but the peripheral issues stem from the fundamental issues. The most fundamental difference between Amillennialism and Premillennialism is a theological bias. The result of this theological bias surfaces another fundamental difference: hermeneutical methodology. All the other issues are employed within or are peripheral to these two core issues. The thrust of this paper will deal with these two core issues while dealing with the peripheral issues when they surface. II. Defining Terms A. Amillennialism First, however, we must define the terms Amillennialism and Premillennialism. In Latin, the prefix a- is a negation of the following root word. The root word –mille means 1,000. The suffix -annus means years. Thus, the word a-mille-nnial means literally “no-1,000 years”. This is poor terminology because Amillennialist’s do not necessarily believe that there will not be a Millennium. What they teach is that there will not be a Millennium on present earth when Christ will sit...
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...The short story “The Gift of the Magi” was written by O. Henry in 1906. The story is about a husband and wife who did not have enough finances to buy each other gifts at Christmas time. So the couple sacrificed two precious items to show their love for one another. This theme and narrative essay will explain O. Henry use symbolism and characters to contribute to the themes of poverty, generosity, and selfless love. The main symbolism was use in the title of the short story. In the biblical story of the birth of Jesus three men came in on camels bringing precious gifts to the son of Mary and Joseph. “These three represent the Three Wise Men or Kings, also called the Magi (Jesus, 2007).” The wise men brought Jesus three gifts gold, frankincense and myrrh. They gave them freely and unselfish because they believed Jesus was “the promise one”. The symbolization in “The Gift of the Magi” was that Jim and Della gave three gifts to each other freely and unselfish. Jim’s watch, Della’s hair and selfless love for each other were the three distinct gifts given in this short story. Three themes was basically portrayed in “the Gift of the Magi. One theme was poverty. One dollar and eighty-seven cent was all Della had on Christmas Eve. Della begins to cry over the fact she did not have enough funds to buy Jim a Christmas gift. “In the vestibule below was a letter box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring (Clugston, 2010).”...
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...The short story “The Gift of the Magi” was written by O. Henry in 1906. The story is about a husband and wife who did not have enough finances to buy each other gifts during the Christmas time. The couple sacrificed two precious items to show their love for one another. This theme and narrative essay will explain O. Henry use symbolism and characters to contribute the themes of poverty, generosity, and selfless love. The main symbolism was used in the title of the short story. In the biblical story of the birth of Jesus three men came in on camels bringing precious gifts to the son of Mary and Joseph. “These three represent the Three Wise Men or Kings, also called the Magi (Jesus, 2007).” The wise men brought Jesus three gifts gold, frankincense and myrrh. They gave them freely and unselfish because they believed Jesus was “the promise one”. The symbolization in “The Gift of the Magi” was that Jim and Della gave three gifts to each other freely and unselfish. Jim’s watch, Della’s hair and selfless love for each other were the three distinct gifts given in this short story. Three themes was basically portrayed in “the Gift of the Magi. One theme was poverty. One dollar and eighty-seven cent was all Della had on Christmas Eve. Della begins to cry over the fact she did not have enough funds to buy Jim a Christmas gift. “In the vestibule below was a letter box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring (Clugston, 2010)...
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...COVER PAGE DATE: OCTOBER 8, 2014 SUBJECT: PAPER 1 THE CANONS INSTRUCTOR: DR. NICKENS CHHI 301 SUBMITTED BY: JANET SHELTON-WHITE PAGE 1 The Hebrew Bible is divided into 3 sections Law, Prophets and the Writings of Wisdom. The Jewish canon has 66 books; there are 39 books from the Old Testament originally in Hebrew and some written in Aramaic. [1]The New Testament has 27 books, the 12 Minor Prophets are counted as one book, and the Apocrypha word that comes from the Greek word meaning hidden or concealed were not included in the Hebrew Bible. The Catholics considered these writings and canonicals, and Orthodox Churches considered some as canon to a lesser degree. The heretical teachers from Asia Minor author of Roman Canon of sacred books did not believe that the New Testament books superseded the Old Testament others were omitted and did not recognize 10 Pauline Epistles but accepted 13 Epistles. [2] The Latin Greek word Kanon (kav’wv) defined as a measuring rod or index list centuries later the secondary word for the Church to recognize the Scripture of the Bible. The disciples and the Jews used a Septuagint from Alexandria Egypt is the early Greek translation of the Old Testament dating to BC 250. In the 3rd Century BC included the deuteron canonical books. The New Testament books were not in existence until...
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...Why does O. Henry call his story “The gift of the Magi”? What do you think about the last phrase of the author’s remark? What do you think is his point of view of love and sacrifice? “The gift of the Magi” is a famous story by O. Henry. The author calls his story “The gift of the Magi” because he wants to emphasize the meaning of the gift and shows his admiration for the love of Jim and Della. First of all, the Magi were the three wise men from the Bible. They brought unique gifts to the baby Jesus (“Biblical Magi”, para. 1). This is reflected in the story by O. Henry. Della and Jim sold their most precious possessions to give each other the most valuable gifts for the Christmas. Della was willing to sell her precious hair to buy Jim a platinum chain, and Jim was willing to sell his precious watch to buy Della a beautiful comb. Both Jim and Della have shown that they were willing to sacrifice the most treasured thing they have to give something to the other. In the exchange, they gained something new. Love is not something they have of their own; love is something they share together. They unwisely scarified in order to make their sweetheart happy. The presents seemed to be useless but it is priceless indeed. Their gift giving shows the selfless love of each for their loved one. They care deeply and want to please the other. The gift was valuable because it came from the heart. At the end of the story, O. Henry expressed his love for the characters. He admired their unconditionally...
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...Upon my arrival to the Bible Study for the ethnography assignment, I observed the church’s outer appearance and surrounding neighborhood. This particular parish was in the northeast quadrant of Burlington, North Carolina. Located in a predominately African-American community, the church gave off the vibe of being a relatively active place as multiple cars drove in, through, and around the parking lot. While preparing myself to exit the vehicle, I watched many older persons, ranging from fifty-seventy, head to what seemed like an administrative building for the church. Upon surveying the outer structure up close, I could see that the established date was 1868 and the built date for the current facility read 1963. In order to gain a better understanding of the youth population of the congregation, I chose to observe the student Bible Study that was separate from the adult class. The youth Bible study was held on the second floor of the main church building that contained the sanctuary, a pastor’s study, a secretary’s office, a Sunday School office, choir room, and seven classrooms. My surveillance of the church’s interior prior to going up to the second floor for the class, gave the impression that their had been recent renovations within the past year or two. During my examination, one of the self-identified minister’s on staff at the church introduced himself and invited me to the classroom for the young people’s Bible study. His direction and guidance was actually beneficial...
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...The fact is, at the root of the towing tree that is in fact a sprouting timeline that has budded and bloomed into five billion Bibles—propagating further into 2,123 leaf-like lan-guages—is the humble but enduring Nile River African pa-pyrus plant. Chocolate everywhere. Other Noteworthy Papyrus Manuscripts With the total corpus of Dead Sea Scrolls in the posses-sion of different entities (including private collectors), it is difficult to ascertain exactly how many are papyrus. One thing is for certain, papyrus from Africa’s Nile Riv-er formed the infrastructure of the Old Testament as repre-sented by the Dead Sea Scrolls. Might it have done so for the Greek version of the Old Testament as well? African Septuagint Manuscripts Just as the earliest manuscripts we have of the Old Testament are made of Black African Nile River papyrus, the same is true of the earliest manuscripts we have of the Greek Septuagint. The word Septuagint means 70. About 70 men (tradition-ally 72 to be more exact) translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek almost 300 before the time of Christ. The translation took place in Alexandria, Egypt, Africa, and the oldest manuscript we have of the Septuagint is, not surprisingly, written on Nile River papyrus. We can be confident of this if for no other reason save that, as noted above, Alexandria is literally at the Nile Riv-er’s back door, being as it is, part of the delta as the Nile branches off into the Mediterranean Sea. The Bible up to that point (consisting...
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...Narratives What are narratives? These are stories of past events with a moral told to give some positive direction of the reader. All narratives are made up of three basic components. These three basic parts of a narrative are the characters, the plot, and the plot resolution (Granted that most narratives are addressing a conflict or tension of some sort). In Bible narratives God is always the overall focus and hero of these stories. He is the protagonist, Satin is the antagonist, and God’s people are the agonist. Over the years it’s been observed that Christians have read and interpreted Old Testament narratives very poorly. This overall abysmal interpretation of Old Testament narratives and the Old Testament in general has resulted in a lack of comprehension of very important messages of the narrator. Some reasons for the problematic interpretation of Old Testament narratives are allegorizing, decontextualizing, selectivity, and moralizing “Allegorizing is concentrating on the clear meaning of the narrative, people relegate the text to merely reflecting another meaning beyond the text.” (Fee & Stuart, 2003, page 103). Decontextualizing is ignoring the full historical and literary context, and often the individual narrative, people concentrate on small units only and thus miss interpretational clues. If you take things out of context enough, you can make almost any part of Scripture say anything you want it to. Selectivity is cherry picking your choice of words...
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...The Canonization of the New Testament When we think about the New Testament in our Bibles today most of us pay little attention to, or have little regard for the history that surrounds how it came to be. This is partly because of the high position we as Evangelicals have for our Bibles. We are taught that the Bible is infallible and never contradicts itself. I agree whole heartedly that the Bible is God's Holy Word and infallible non contradictory. But two weeks ago if you were to ask me how the Bible was put together or "canonized", I would have told you that there was some sort of council that decided which books should be in there, but ultimately it was God's sovereign will. Now the last part would be correct, but the rest is at best debatable. So how was the Bible put together? Since the argument is extremely complex and much of the details are lost or were never recorded, we will be exploring the different events that drove the movement, along with several different opinions of when the Bible was Complete or Canonized. There were two particular movements during the second century that made the Church realize a need to have a compilation of books that were universally accepted. The first movement, although not as well know, was Marcionism. This heretical sect was started by Marcion who was born into Christianity but had a deep dislike for Judaism and the material world. He believed that the God and Father of Jesus are not the same as the creator Yahweh, and it was...
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...Elwell's Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, explain how it relates to three other disciplines of theology: biblical theology, historical theology, and philosophical theology. Which of the four approaches is the most important in your current or future ministry context? “Systematic theology thus begins with the totality of biblical revelation and the extra biblical truth, provisionally respects the development of doctrine in the church’s history, draws out the teachings of Scripture via sound grammatical, historical, and cultural exegesis, orders the result into a coherent whole where the interrelatedness of its parts is evidenced, and relates the results to the life and witness of the Christian community.” Systematic theology is the study of Scripture in its entirety. This covers diverse subjects such as both the Old and New Testament, church history, missions, and counseling. “Biblical theology is simply theology that is biblical, that is, based on and faithful to the teachings of the Bible.” Millard J. Erickson also refers to Biblical theology as “the right kind of theology”. Systematic theology that is taken directly from Scripture will correlate similarly with Biblical theology. Historical theology is the study of the church and the theologians from within church history. Systematic theology can relate with historical theology by way of marrying specific Biblical doctrine and how Christian theologians and the church have dealt with these truths throughout history....
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...saying. If you read the Bible just to read it and without understanding its true meaning, you would absolutely have no clue on what is going on in the verses. So in order to have a good understanding you have to dig deep and open your mind about the time, place, and the author who was writing it. To be honest in my own life, I really have no experiences to share because I’m not a big reader. I believe in God but never really took the time to read the Bible to get very in dept with the scripture. If I had to give and example of an historical- cultural context that shed light on a biblical text it would be the Psalm 23. This scripture gives you several background descriptions that mean more than geographical features. Today we live in a microwaveable world where we want everything in an instant. We don’t want to take the time to read and think about things. Psalm 23, is the perfect biblical text to persuade people to study the discussion board topic. It covers every emotion that a person could possible go through in a day from trust, fear, confidence, and...
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