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Ash Wednesday
[Feasts & Seasons]Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, the Wednesday falling forty-six days before Easter. Its name comes from the rite of placing ashes on the forehead as a sign of repentance.
Maundy Thursday
[Feasts & Seasons]Maundy Thursday is the Thursday immediately before Easter. A Holy Week observance, it commemorates the Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples, at which he instituted the Lord's Supper and washed the disciples' feet.
Wrath of God
[Doctrine & Theology]The wrath of God is a theological term for God's holy opposition to and judgment upon sin and unrighteousness. It appears throughout the Bible and is an important theme in explaining the doctrines of atonement and salvation.
Alpha Course
[Christian Life]The Alpha Course is an introductory course in the Christian faith that began at Holy Trinity Brompton, an Anglican church in England. Combining a meal, a talk, and small-group discussion, it introduces the basics of the faith to people outside the church.
Relic
[Doctrine & Theology]A relic is the preserved remains of a saint or martyr, an object that a saint or martyr used, or an object associated with the life of Jesus, kept as an object of veneration. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church venerate relics, while Protestants generally reject the practice.
Man of God
[Bible]"Man of God" is a biblical title for a person who belongs to God, proclaims His word, and is entrusted with His work. In the Old Testament it is applied to Moses and to prophets such as Elijah and Elisha; in the New Testament it is applied to Timothy.
Triduum
[Feasts & Seasons]The Triduum is a season of the church year that, from the evening of Maundy Thursday to the evening of Easter Sunday, commemorates as one continuous whole the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, his passion and death, his burial, and his resurrection.
Veneration of the Saints
[Doctrine & Theology]The veneration of the saints is a devotional practice of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in which saints who serve as models of faith are honored and asked for their intercession. Protestants remember the saints as examples of faith but do not make them objects of prayer.
The Sabbath and the Lord's Day
[Controversies]A discussion of whether Christians should observe the seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath or the first-day (Sunday) Lord's Day, and whether the Lord's Day should be kept in the manner of the Old Testament Sabbath.
1 Thessalonians
[Bible]The thirteenth book of the New Testament, a letter from the apostle Paul to the church at Thessalonica in Macedonia. Many hold that it was the earliest of the Pauline Epistles to be written. It addresses the second coming of Christ and holy living.
Feast of Trumpets
[Bible]The Feast of Trumpets was an Old Testament festival observed on the first day of the seventh month of Israel's religious calendar. It was marked by the blowing of trumpets and a holy convocation, as prescribed in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29.
Anointing of the Sick
[Worship & Rites]The Anointing of the Sick is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, a rite in which a priest prays over a gravely ill or frail elderly person and anoints him or her with consecrated oil. Protestant churches do not recognize it as a sacrament.
Pope
[Organization & Polity]The pope is the Bishop of Rome, the supreme leader of the Catholic Church (the Roman Catholic Church). The Catholic Church regards the pope as the successor of the apostle Peter, but Protestant and Orthodox churches do not recognize his primacy.
History of the Korean Holiness Church
[History]The history of the Korean Holiness Church began in 1907, when Kim Sang-jun and Jeong Bin opened the "Oriental Missionary Society Gospel Mission Hall" in Seoul. The church was forcibly dissolved under Japanese colonial rule, rebuilt after liberation, and divided in 1961, and its history continues to the present day.
Icon
[Doctrine & Theology]An icon is a sacred image of Christ, the Virgin Mary, the saints, or biblical events, painted on a wooden panel or similar surface and used chiefly by the Orthodox Church in worship and devotional life. Depending on the tradition, icons are regarded either as proper objects of veneration or as carrying a risk of idolatry.
Saints
[Church Offices]Saints are those who belong to God and have been set apart for him, a biblical term for all Christians who believe in Jesus Christ. In Korean Protestant churches, the corresponding term (seongdo) is used both as a general term for church members and as a form of address for members who hold no church office.
Palm Sunday
[Feasts & Seasons]Palm Sunday is the Sunday immediately before Easter. It commemorates the occasion when crowds carrying palm branches welcomed Jesus Christ as he entered Jerusalem. Holy Week begins on this day.
Exodus 19:5–6
[Bible Verses]Exodus 19:5–6 is the passage in which God promises Israel, newly arrived at Mount Sinai, that if they obey his voice and keep his covenant, they will be his "peculiar treasure," "a kingdom of priests," and "an holy nation." As the background to 1 Peter 2:9, it is frequently cited in discussions of the priesthood of all believers and of ecclesiology.
1 Peter
[Bible]First Peter is one of the General Epistles of the New Testament, a five-chapter letter that urges Christians scattered amid persecution and suffering to hold fast to hope and to live holy lives.
Guardian Angel
[Doctrine & Theology]A guardian angel is an angel whom God sends to protect a person or community; the term also refers to the belief that God sends such angels. The Catholic Church teaches it as doctrine, while Protestants generally affirm angelic protection but do not insist that each person is assigned a single angel.