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Anabaptists
[Denominations]The Anabaptists are a Protestant movement that arose in Zurich, Switzerland, during the sixteenth-century Reformation. They rejected infant baptism and baptized only those who had personally professed faith. The Mennonites and the Hutterites belong to this tradition.
Protestantism
[Denominations]Protestantism is a major branch of Christianity that separated from the Roman Catholic Church during the sixteenth-century Reformation. The term refers collectively to a number of denominations, including the Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Holiness, and Pentecostal churches.
Independent Church
[Denominations]An independent church is a Protestant church that does not belong to a denomination; each congregation manages its own affairs and makes its own decisions. Because such churches do not identify with any particular denominational tradition, they are also called "nondenominational churches."
Plymouth Brethren
[Denominations]The Plymouth Brethren are a Protestant denomination rooted in the Brethren movement that began in Dublin, Ireland, in the 1820s. They have no clerical order separating pastors from laity and no denominational organization. Instead, their church life centers on local assemblies led by elders.
Congregational Church
[Denominations]The Congregational Church is a Protestant denomination that follows congregational polity, in which the entire membership (the congregation) of each local church makes the final decisions on church matters. It arose from the Puritan and Separatist movements of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England.
Prosperity Theology
[Controversies]Prosperity theology is a teaching that emphasizes that those who have faith will receive the blessings of health and wealth. In Korea it has often been criticized as gibok sinang ("blessing-seeking faith").
Contemplative Prayer
[Controversies]Contemplative prayer is a form of prayer that uses few words and rests silently in the presence of God. Some embrace it as a spiritual discipline, while others regard it as a departure from biblical prayer.
Reformation
[History]The Reformation was a sixteenth-century reform movement in Western Europe that sought to correct the teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church in light of Scripture. Its beginning is usually dated to Martin Luther's publication of the Ninety-five Theses in 1517, and Protestantism emerged from this movement.
Shinto Shrine Worship
[History]Shinto shrine worship was a policy under Japanese colonial rule by which the Government-General of Korea compelled Koreans to bow at Shinto shrines (jinja), the sanctuaries of Japanese Shinto. In 1938 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church adopted a resolution accepting the practice, and the resistance movement that opposed it produced both prisoners and martyrs.
Robert Jermain Thomas
[People]Robert Jermain Thomas was a Welsh missionary of the London Missionary Society. In 1866 he sailed up the Taedong River as an interpreter aboard the American merchant ship General Sherman and was killed at Pyongyang. Korean Protestants commonly regard him as their first martyr.
Pseudo-Christian Groups (Saibi)
[Heresies & Cults]Saibi is a Sino-Korean term meaning "something that appears similar but is not genuinely so." In Korean Protestant churches it is used alongside "heresy" (idan) to assess groups that operate under the name of Christianity while departing from its doctrine or engaging in antisocial conduct.
Heresy Counseling
[Heresies & Cults]Heresy counseling is a Protestant counseling and educational ministry that helps people who have joined groups that denominations have designated as heretical or pseudo-religious return to established churches, and that educates church members in advance so that they are not drawn into such groups.
2 Kings
[Bible]Second Kings is a historical book of the Old Testament that records, in twenty-five chapters, the later history of the divided kingdom, from Elijah's ascent into heaven through the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah to the release of the captive King Jehoiachin.
Jehovah's Witnesses
[Heresies & Cults]Jehovah's Witnesses are a religious organization that grew out of a Bible study group begun in the United States in the late nineteenth century by Charles Taze Russell. The group rejects the Trinity, and several Korean Protestant denominations have formally declared it heretical.
Gnosticism
[Heresies & Cults]Gnosticism is a collective name for a number of religious movements that spread in close association with early Christianity from the late first century through the second century. It taught that salvation comes through awakening to a secret spiritual knowledge (gnosis), and it is regarded as one of the principal ancient heresies rejected by the early church.
Nehemiah
[Bible]Nehemiah is a historical book of the Old Testament. It records how the people of Judah, having returned from the Babylonian exile, rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and reorganized their community of faith under the leadership of Nehemiah, an official of the Persian court.
Unification Church
[Heresies & Cults]The Unification Church is a religious organization founded by Sun Myung Moon in 1954 under the name Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. It is now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. Korean Protestant denominations, including the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Tonghap), have formally declared it a heresy and a pseudo-religion.
Daniel
[Bible]Daniel is a book of the Old Testament that contains stories of Daniel and his three friends, set during the Babylonian exile, along with visions concerning the end times.
Lamentations
[Bible]Lamentations is a book of the Old Testament that collects five laments, poems of grief mourning the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Babylonians.
Esther
[Bible]Esther is a book of the Old Testament. In ten chapters it tells the story of Esther, a Jewish queen at the Persian court who averted the threatened annihilation of her people.