My doctrine is the doctrine of the Church. Briefly, the Church is the body of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Westminster’s Dictionary defines the doctrine of the Church as, “The theological understanding of the nature and mission of the Christian community” (“The Doctrine Of the Church”). The Church itself serves many purposes in society and in furthering the Kingdom of God, through the processes and actions of “evangelism, edification, worship, and social concern” (Erickson 347-350). The Church has played a key role in the progression of Christianity, from Adam and Eve to the universal community of Christians today. Deuteronomy 6 gives commandments to the nation of Israel, who, in the Old Testament, was the prototype for the Church. …show more content…
Acts 2:42 gives a clear example of the Church’s restored unity: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2.42). How did the Church become restored into the universal community of believers it is today? The Gospel of John gives us a perfect view into the Church’s transformation in the life of Jesus.
In the Gospel of John, the Son of Man comes to restore unity between God and mankind and God and His Bride, the Church. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees on numerous occasions. “Jesus went on immediately, however, to point out their hypocrisy and commanded the people, “But do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not” (v. 3). He then cited the hypocrisy of the Pharisees” (Walvoord). The Pharisees created a rift between the people and God; they forced them to follow rituals instead of sincere worship to God.
Jesus steps into the Gospel of John with the intention of clarifying the law and the bringing the Church together as one. In the High Priestly Prayer, Jesus reiterates His desire for the disciples and the Church. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in me, and I in You” (John
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Diotrephes is turning people away from the church with his persecution of missionaries and those who serve missionaries. Demetrius acts as a trustworthy messenger between “The Elder” and Gaius. In Swindoll’s previous statement, he claims “The Elder” is the disciple John. We see a correlation between “The Elder’s” style of writing and the disciple whom Jesus loved, John. Assuming the author is John, John writes back to the church and gives them a solution for the moment. He also tells them he will come to personally handle the situation himself.
What solution does John offer? “Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God” (III John 1.11). In this passage, he encourages the church to continue to do good, regardless of what Diotrephes says or does. He calls Diotrephes out for his arrogance and says he will come and personally confront Diotrephes’s actions. “So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church” (III Jn
To begin with, John breaks into buildings and steals from them. First example, John breaks into a church. However, he does not steal anything from it. He simply discusses things with Jesus. John and Jesus come to an understanding and Jesus teaches John a special new power. The reason John did this is because he was on bad terms with Jesus because of residential
Furthermore, the renewal and rejuvenation of the Catholic Church makes Pope John a major reformer of the 20th century and a significantly large influencer during his time. He made universal and worldwide impacts to religious adherents by reforming and revitalizing the Christian traditions through achieving ressourcement, aggiornamento. In addition, his passion for unity amongst Christian faiths and interfaith dialogue, world peace and economic justice also furthered his impact not only within the Catholic Church but also in other Christian denominations. Moreover, in the short time of Pope John’s authority and power within the Catholic Church, the contributions and achievements he made had a substantially large impact to the Christian traditions as he brought the Catholic Church into the modern era,
In conclusion, the church is appointed and maintained divinely body of regenerated believers who sustain the true doctrine of God, humanity, Scripture, Jesus Christ, and salvation which are absolutely non-negotiable.
... always preached to the Jews first (13:5), and turned to the gentiles only after his fellow Jews had rejected him. "And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister."
The Gospel of John, the last of the four gospels in the Bible, is a radical departure from the simple style of the synoptic gospels. It is the only one that does not use parables as a way of showing how Jesus taught, and is the only account of several events, including the raising of Lazarus and Jesus turning water into wine. While essentially the gospel is written anonymously, many scholars believe that it was written by the apostle John sometime between the years 85 and 95 CE in Ephesus. The basic story is that of a testimonial of one of the Apostles and his version of Jesus' ministry. It begins by telling of the divine origins of the birth of Jesus, then goes on to prove that He is the Son of God because of the miracles he performs and finally describes Jesus' death and resurrection.
As we have looked in to the Christian worldview of God, our humanity, the Son of God, and the restoration of our lives back into God’s purpose. Now we have a better understanding of what it means to be a member of the Christian community. God wants believers to dwell in union and in community having the same mind that is in Jesus Christ (Phil 2:1-11). This paper showed how God and Jesus Christ are at the fundamental core of all Christian beliefs regardless of the countless differences many Christians may
Gangs have been viewed as an issue in society by many people. The earliest signs of active gang activity were reported to be in the western civilization. Around the early 1600’s , more structured gangs began to appear.In 1783, U.S gang activity emerged. This not only affected adults, but many of the youth and communities surrounding these groups of people. Influence came from all over benefitting the advance of these structured alliances.
The Gospel of John An Essay Written for A Humanities Course That Studies the Bible As A Historical Document THE GOSPEL OF JOHN: "The Man from Heaven," "Bread of Life," "Light of The World," "Living Water," .... and of course, "Son of Man." This is who Jesus is in The Gospel of John. Jesus' life is portrayed very differently from the other Synoptic Gospels; he lives completely within symbolism, and glorification.
John was therefore an impetuous person, who demonstrated immense temperament behaviors together with his brother James. John can therefore be described as an individual who illustrated intolerance and selfishness. Ones they were selected to serve as Christ’s disciples, these two brothers continued to portray rude and impetuous behaviors. One incident was during the time when Jesus was nearing his crucifixion that he planned to go to Jerusalem. While in Samaria en-route Jerusalem, Jesus was not received and John, together with his brother James, requested for powers to burn the Samaritans through fire from heaven.
“Christianity Begins with the starling statement that the center of human reality is love” the central issue here is what love is, how the gospel of John brings to the Johnnie community? And how do we understand the Word “Love” and its reality. Obviously John portrays love as synonymous to Jesus the Son of God
St. John the Evangelist is mostly known for writing a fourth Gospel. If you would ask any person to list his challenges almost everybody would tell you that he wrote a gospel. It is believed that he wrote a Gospel at the year of 96, after the death of Domitian. His object in writing it he tells us himself: “These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, you may have life in His name.” In order to write a Gospel you have to be truly involved in holy life by yourself. St. John went threw Jesus’ teachings and he opened himself to Jesus. All of his life he spent by expressing love to others and by implementing Jesus principles. Thus before writing a Gospel, St. John experienced it all on himself. He also wrote three epistles. The first is called catholic, as addressed to all Christians, especially his converts. The other two are short, and directed to particular persons, to Gaius and to local church.
John was one of the first twelve disciples of Jesus and therefore an eye-witness (John 19:35); John brings out the spiritual significance as well as recording the practical aspects of Jesus' works and words. John lived to be older than any of the other writers. It is therefore likely that he was familiar with their accounts and wanted to supplement theirs with additional teaching and miracles by Jesus which had a bearing on the situation towards the end of the first century AD.
“Although 1 John had its origins during a period of false teaching, the author’s main purpose is not to confront heresy, but to reassure those who remain that they do indeed know the truth about Jesus, and consequently do have eternal life.” 1 John was written to reassure believers to keep the faith and continue to hold the values that they have, through a time when a schism was taking place within the church. The believers were living in a confusing time and according to Thompson “The turmoil within their congregation undoubtedly caused many to question their own faith and practice, and to wonder whether they were also guilty of or prone to the failings of the departed dissidents.”
The ideal of unity seems to be of great importance in the religious world, but rarely is it ever achieved among professed Christians. However, it is vitally important to comprehend unity in its Biblical light. Jesus prayed in John 17:21, “That they all may be one, as thou, Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” By definition, unity is the state of being one. In order to have a unified church every member must be one one with the Father and the Son. Subsequently, to achieve such an oneness, each member must be perfectly holy, because God is holy. Unfortunately, this is where a clear contrast is made between the saints and mere religious professors.
The book of John is found in the Bible’s New Testament, and is also considered one of the four gospels which are also found in the New Testament. The structure of John is different when compared to the structure of the other gospels (Witherup, 2014). The simplicity of John’s writings helps readers better understand what he was trying to teach (Witherup, 2014). Chapters one through twelve in the book of John were written to describe the encounters that Jesus had with certain people (Witherup, 2014). During these interactions: “…Jesus explains the mystery of salvation unfolding before their very eyes”