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The Door of the Sheep
[Bible]"The door of the sheep" is the expression Jesus uses in John 10, where he compares himself to the door of a sheepfold, saying, "I am the door of the sheep." It is commonly read to mean that salvation and life are reached through him.
Immortality of the Soul
[Doctrine & Theology]The immortality of the soul is the belief that, although a person dies and the body decays, the soul does not perish but continues to exist. Many denominations teach it together with belief in the resurrection, though views differ on its basis and on how it should be expressed.
Water from the Rock
[Bible]The water from the rock refers to the events in which God, through Moses, brought water out of a rock when the Israelites in the wilderness complained because they had no water to drink. The events are recorded in Exodus 17 and Numbers 20.
Healing of the Demon-Possessed Boy
[Bible]The healing of the demon-possessed boy is a miracle in which Jesus, after coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration, cast a demon out of a boy whom his disciples had been unable to heal. The account appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Rebuilding of the Walls of Jerusalem
[Bible]The rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem was an event of the Persian period in which Nehemiah led the reconstruction of Jerusalem's walls, which the Babylonians had destroyed, completing the work in fifty-two days. It is recorded in Nehemiah 1–6.
Battle of the Milvian Bridge
[History]The Battle of the Milvian Bridge was fought on October 28, 312, near the Milvian Bridge over the Tiber River outside Rome, where Constantine defeated Maxentius. It is widely known as the event that turned Constantine toward Christianity.
Distribution of the Bread and the Cup
[Worship & Rites]The distribution of the bread and the cup is the part of the Lord's Supper in which the bread and cup, after the prayer of thanksgiving, are given to the communicants. In Korean Protestant churches, the practice is known as bunbyeong-bunjan, a term combining the distribution of the bread and the distribution of the cup.
Peter's Vision of the Sheet
[Bible]The vision the apostle Peter received while praying in Joppa, in which a great sheet containing unclean animals was let down from heaven (Acts 10). It led to the acceptance of the Gentile Cornelius.
The Widow's Two Mites
[Bible]The widow's two mites refers to the incident in which Jesus, watching at the treasury of the Temple in Jerusalem, saw a poor widow put in two mites, all that she had, and declared that she had put in more than anyone else. It is recorded in the Gospels of Mark and Luke.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
[History]The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church in the Old City of Jerusalem, built on the site traditionally identified as Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified, and as the tomb in which he was buried. First built under Constantine the Great in the fourth century, it is now administered jointly by several denominations.
Three Uses of the Law
[Doctrine & Theology]The three uses of the law is a teaching of Reformation theology that organizes the work of God's law into three functions: restraining evil in society, bringing people to recognize their sin, and guiding the life of the believer.
Feast of the Holy Innocents
[Feasts & Seasons]The Feast of the Holy Innocents is a commemoration in the church calendar honoring the victims of Herod's killing of the young boys of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16-18). The Western church observes it on December 28.
Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification
[History]The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification is a document signed on October 31, 1999, by the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church. It states that there is a "consensus in basic truths" on justification, the issue that had divided the two churches since the sixteenth-century Reformation.
The Fear of the Lord
[Bible]The fear of the Lord is a central Old Testament expression for an attitude of reverence and awe toward God. It is presented especially in the wisdom literature, including Proverbs, Psalms, and Job, as the foundation of wisdom and knowledge.
Threefold Division of the Law
[Doctrine & Theology]The threefold division of the law is a theological framework that divides the Old Testament law into moral, ceremonial, and civil (judicial) law in order to explain which parts remain binding on Christians.
Collection for the Church in Jerusalem
[Bible]The collection for the church in Jerusalem was a relief effort in which the apostle Paul gathered offerings from Gentile churches in Macedonia, Achaia, and elsewhere to deliver to the poor saints of the Jerusalem church.
The Stone the Builders Rejected
[Bible]An expression from Psalm 118:22 declaring that a stone rejected by people has become the head of the corner. The New Testament applies the verse to the rejection and exaltation of Jesus Christ.
Institutes of the Christian Religion
[Doctrine & Theology]The Institutes of the Christian Religion is a systematic work of Protestant theology by the Reformer John Calvin. First published in 1536, it was revised several times before the final edition was completed in 1559. It is regarded as a foundational text of Reformed and Presbyterian theology.
Presentation of the Lord
[Feasts & Seasons]The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord is a feast of the church year that commemorates the presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem forty days after his birth. Western churches usually observe it on February 2.
Gospel of the Hebrews
[History]The Gospel of the Hebrews is a New Testament apocryphal gospel said to have been read among Christians of Jewish origin around the second century. No copy survives, and the work is known only from a few passages quoted by the Church Fathers.