Search the encyclopedia
176 articles found for “Saints”
Psalm 31
[Bible]Psalm 31 is a 24-verse prayer psalm traditionally attributed to David. Beset by enemies and suffering, the psalmist takes refuge in God and pleads for deliverance; after his prayer is answered, he gives thanks and urges the saints to take courage.
2 Thessalonians 1
[Bible]Second Thessalonians 1 records the thanksgiving of Paul and his companions for the Thessalonian church, whose faith and love are growing in the midst of persecution. The chapter teaches that when the Lord Jesus is revealed, God will judge justly and grant rest to the saints, and it includes a prayer on the believers' behalf.
Millennium
[Doctrine & Theology]The millennium is the "thousand years" of Revelation 20. Eschatological views differ on how this period relates to the second coming of Christ, and they fall broadly into three categories: premillennialism, postmillennialism, and amillennialism.
Philippians
[Bible]Philippians is the eleventh book of the New Testament, a letter the apostle Paul wrote while imprisoned to the church at Philippi in Macedonia. It has four chapters, and because its exhortation to "rejoice" recurs throughout, it is also called the "Epistle of Joy."
Revelation 14:1-5
[Bible Verses]Revelation 14:1-5 records a vision of the 144,000 standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion and singing a new song. Interpreters disagree about the identity of the 144,000, and the passage is frequently discussed because some groups cite it in support of their doctrines.
Revelation 20:7–15
[Bible Verses]A vision in which Satan, released after the thousand years are completed, gathers Gog and Magog for a final battle and is destroyed, after which the dead are judged before a great white throne. The passage is a key text for interpreting the millennium and for the doctrines of the Last Judgment and hell.
Lydda
[Bible]Lydda is the town where Peter healed Aeneas, a man sick of the palsy, in Acts 9. It lay near Joppa, is generally identified with Lod of the Old Testament, and corresponds to the modern city of Lod in Israel.
Colossae
[Bible]Colossae was a city in the region of Phrygia in Asia Minor, in what is today southwestern Türkiye. Paul sent the Epistle to the Colossians to the church there, and Philemon and Onesimus are also regarded as associated with this church.
Aeneas
[People]Aeneas was a man of Lydda, mentioned in Acts 9, who had been bedridden with palsy for eight years and was healed through Peter.
Second Council of Nicaea
[History]The Second Council of Nicaea was a council held in 787 at Nicaea in the Eastern Roman Empire. Amid the iconoclast controversy, it reaffirmed the veneration of icons. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church accept it as the Seventh Ecumenical Council.
Fellowship
[Christian Life]Fellowship is the communion and sharing that Christians have with God and with one another in the faith. The term translates the New Testament Greek word koinonia, which is also rendered "communion" or "participation."
2 Corinthians
[Bible]Second Corinthians is the eighth book of the New Testament and the second letter Paul sent to the church at Corinth. It addresses Paul's defense of his apostleship, comfort in suffering, and the collection to aid the church in Jerusalem. Its verse 13:13 (13:14 in many English Bibles) is used as the benediction in worship.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
[People]Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian who took part in the Confessing Church movement in opposition to the Nazis. He was executed in 1945 on charges of involvement in a plot to remove Hitler.
Revelation 13:16-18
[Bible Verses]In this passage the beast that rises out of the earth causes all people to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads, so that no one may buy or sell without the mark, and its number is given as six hundred threescore and six (666). The identity of the "mark of the beast" and of "666" has prompted countless speculations, and the passage becomes the subject of renewed controversy whenever a new technology appears.
Phoebe
[People]Phoebe was a woman believer of the church at Cenchreae whom Paul commended to the church in Rome in Romans 16. Although she appears only once in Scripture, she is frequently cited in discussions of women's offices in the early church.
Ephesians 2:20
[Bible Verses]A verse in which Paul tells Gentile believers that they are the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone. It is frequently cited in discussions of the foundation of the church and in debates over whether the offices of apostle and prophet continue today.
Revelation 20:1–3
[Bible Verses]John's vision in which an angel seizes the dragon, that is, Satan, and shuts him in the bottomless pit for a thousand years. Because it is the first passage in the Bible to mention the "thousand years," it is the central text in debates over the interpretation of the millennium.
Ananias of Damascus
[People]Ananias of Damascus was a disciple in Damascus, mentioned in Acts 9 and 22, who laid his hands on the newly converted Saul (Paul), restoring his sight and leading him to be baptized.
Book of Enoch
[Bible]The Book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish apocalyptic work transmitted under the name of Enoch, the figure in Genesis. One of its passages is quoted in Jude 1:14-15, but neither Protestants nor Catholics regard it as canonical.
Marian Veneration
[Doctrine & Theology]Marian veneration is the devotional practice of giving special honor and reverence to Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. It is a tradition of the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. Most Protestants respect Mary as an example of faith but do not make her an object of prayer or veneration.