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1 Timothy 5
[Bible]In this chapter Paul instructs Timothy on how to treat older and younger members of the church, widows, and elders. It addresses the care of widows who are truly without support, as well as the principles governing honor for elders and accusations against them.
2 Thessalonians 3
[Bible]The final chapter of 2 Thessalonians, which follows a request for prayer with instructions for correcting church members who live disorderly lives and refuse to work, and closes the letter with Paul's greeting in his own hand and a benediction.
Henry Ward Beecher
[People]Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) was a nineteenth-century American Congregationalist preacher and abolitionist who served as pastor of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York, for about forty years.
Mary Scranton
[People]Mary Scranton (1832–1909) was the first woman missionary sent to Korea by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church (the Northern Methodist Church in the United States). In 1886 she founded Ewha Haktang, Korea's first modern educational institution for women.
William James Hall
[People]William James Hall (1860–1894) was a Canadian-born physician and medical missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church (the American Northern Methodists). He opened the Methodist mission in Pyongyang and died of illness contracted while treating the wounded during the First Sino-Japanese War. He was the husband of Rosetta Hall.
Watchman Nee
[People]Watchman Nee (Ni Tuosheng, 1903–1972) was a twentieth-century Chinese church leader and author. He founded the local church movement and wrote works such as The Spiritual Man. Imprisoned under the Communist regime, he died in custody.
Pastor's Wife (Samo)
[Church Offices]A pastor's wife is the spouse of a pastor. In Korean Protestant churches she is addressed by the honorific title samo. The title does not denote an office established by church constitutions, but in many churches the pastor's wife assists in pastoral ministry.
Worship
[Worship & Rites]Worship is the gathering in which believers come together to adore God and hear His Word. In Protestantism, the Sunday service held on the Lord's Day is central to church life.
Laying On of Hands
[Worship & Rites]The laying on of hands is the act of placing one's hands on a person's head or body while praying. In Protestant churches it is practiced when installing church officers such as pastors, elders, and deacons, and in prayers for blessing or healing.
Baptism
[Worship & Rites]Baptism is a rite in which water is used to signify that a person has come to faith in Jesus Christ and become a member of the church community. Most Protestants count it, together with the Lord's Supper, as one of two sacraments.
Confirmation
[Worship & Rites]Confirmation is the rite by which a person baptized in infancy, upon growing up, personally professes the faith and becomes a full baptized member of the church. In Korean Protestant usage it is commonly called ipgyo ("entering the church"), while Lutheran and some other churches use a term meaning "rite of strengthening faith."
Canaan Believers
[Christian Life]"Canaan believers" (gana-an seongdo) is a term used in Korean Protestantism for Christians who maintain their faith but do not attend any particular church. It is a wordplay: reversing the syllables of the Korean phrase for "not going" (to church) produces the Korean name for Canaan, the Promised Land.
Predestination
[Doctrine & Theology]Predestination is the Christian doctrine that God determined the salvation of human beings from all eternity. It is emphasized by the Calvinist tradition, including Presbyterians, while the Wesleyan tradition, including Methodists and the Holiness Church, places greater emphasis on the human response.
Dispensationalism
[Doctrine & Theology]Dispensationalism is a theological system that reads biblical history as a series of "dispensations" (economies) through which God deals with humanity, and that distinguishes between Israel and the church. It originated in nineteenth-century Britain and has also significantly shaped the understanding of the end times in Korean churches.
Nicene Creed
[Doctrine & Theology]The Nicene Creed is a confession of faith first drafted at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and expanded at the Council of Constantinople in 381. It summarizes the Trinitarian faith and is one of the principal ecumenical creeds, accepted by the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and Protestant churches alike.
Acts of the Apostles
[Bible]The Acts of the Apostles is the fifth book of the New Testament. It records how, after the ascension of Jesus Christ and with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the church began in Jerusalem and spread as far as Rome.
Psalms
[Bible]The Book of Psalms is a collection of 150 prayers and songs of praise in the Old Testament. Used in the worship of ancient Israel, it remains one of the most widely used books of the Bible in the worship and personal devotional life of the church today.
New Testament
[Bible]The New Testament is the collection of twenty-seven books that contain the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, the formation of the early church, and the letters of the apostles. Together with the Old Testament, it makes up the Protestant Bible.
Great Pyongyang Revival
[History]The Great Pyongyang Revival was a movement of repentance and spiritual awakening that began in January 1907 at the winter Bible study conference for men of South Pyongan Province, held at Jangdaehyeon Church in Pyongyang, and spread throughout Korea. It is regarded as the defining revival movement of Korean Protestantism.
WCC Controversy
[Controversies]A controversy among Korean Protestant churches over whether to join and cooperate with the World Council of Churches (WCC). It was one of the causes of the 1959 division of the Presbyterian Church in Korea into the Tonghap and Hapdong branches, and it flared up again on a large scale when the WCC held its assembly in Busan in 2013.