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Day of the Lord
[Bible]The Day of the Lord is an expression used by the Old Testament prophets for the time when God intervenes directly in history to bring about judgment and salvation. The New Testament takes it up as "the day of the Lord" and "the day of Christ," connecting it with the Second Coming and the Last Judgment.
Burnt Offering
[Bible]The burnt offering is an Old Testament sacrifice in which the offering was burned whole on the altar and presented to God. Its procedure is set out in detail in Leviticus 1.
Pillar of Cloud and Pillar of Fire
[Bible]The pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire were a miracle of the Exodus in which God led the Israelites by going before them as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. They first appear in Exodus 13.
Eliezer
[People]Eliezer was the second son of Moses and Zipporah. His name is understood to mean "my God is help." Several people in the Bible bear the same name, and Eliezer the servant of Abraham is especially well known.
Shiphrah and Puah
[People]Shiphrah and Puah were two Hebrew midwives named in Exodus 1. Because they feared God, they refused to obey the Egyptian king's command to kill Hebrew baby boys.
Merit
[Doctrine & Theology]Merit is a theological term for an act that serves as the ground for receiving a reward or salvation from God, or for the value of such an act. Because it bears directly on the place of human works in salvation, it is one of the principal issues that divided Catholicism and Protestantism.
Proselytes to Judaism
[Bible]A proselyte to Judaism was a person born a Gentile who came to believe in the God of Israel and formally entered Judaism. The term appears four times in the New Testament, in Matthew and Acts.
Incense Offering
[Bible]The incense offering was an Old Testament institution of worship in which incense was burned so that its fragrance and smoke ascended to God. In the tabernacle and the temple, only priests descended from Aaron could perform it, and Scripture at times compares it to the prayers of the saints.
Promised Land
[Bible]The Promised Land is the land of Canaan, which God promised to give to Abraham and his descendants. In the New Testament, the idea extends to the heavenly homeland and the kingdom of God that believers will receive.
Hardening of the Heart
[Bible]Hardening of the heart is a biblical term for the condition of a heart that has grown hard and refuses to receive God's word and warnings. It is best known from the account in Exodus of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart.
Kyrios
[Bible]Kyrios (κύριος) is a Greek word meaning "lord" or "master." The Septuagint used it to render the name of God, and in the New Testament it is the principal title for Jesus Christ.
Limited Atonement
[Doctrine & Theology]Limited atonement is the Reformed doctrine that Christ's substitutionary death was intended for the salvation of those whom God has chosen and is certainly effective for them. Also called particular redemption or definite atonement, it stands in contrast to universal atonement.
Eirene
[Bible]Eirene (εἰρήνη) is the Greek word for "peace." In the New Testament it refers to reconciliation with God, peace between people, and inner peace of heart. Through the Septuagint it also came to carry the broad meanings of the Hebrew shalom.
Prophetic Symbolic Actions
[Bible]"Prophetic symbolic action" is a descriptive term for actions by which the Old Testament prophets made God's message visible through gestures, objects, and their own lives, alongside their spoken words.
Biblical Inspiration
[Doctrine & Theology]Biblical inspiration is the Christian doctrine that the Bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. Denominations and scholars differ in their understanding of the extent and mode of inspiration.
Redemptive History
[Doctrine & Theology]Redemptive history refers both to the theological perspective that reads the whole of Scripture as a single history in which God saves humanity and the world fallen into sin, and to the history that this perspective describes.
Adoption
[Doctrine & Theology]Adoption is a theological term for the grace by which people who were not by nature children of God are received as God's children through Jesus Christ and obtain the rights of heirs.
Twenty-Four Elders
[Bible]The twenty-four elders are heavenly elders in the Book of Revelation who sit on twenty-four thrones surrounding the throne of God and, together with the four living creatures, worship God and the Lamb.
Sea of Glass
[Bible]The sea of glass is the sea "like unto crystal" that the Book of Revelation describes as spread before the throne of God in heaven. In chapter 15, those who have overcome the beast stand beside it and sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb.
Active Obedience
[Doctrine & Theology]Active obedience is a theological term for the obedience by which Jesus Christ perfectly kept the law of God throughout His entire life. It is used chiefly in Reformed accounts of justification, where it is paired with passive obedience, which refers to His suffering on the cross.