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Shear-jashub
[People]Shear-jashub was a son of the prophet Isaiah whose Hebrew name means "a remnant shall return." Isaiah 7 records that he accompanied his father to meet Ahaz, king of Judah.
Taanach
[Bible]Taanach was a Canaanite city on the southern edge of the Jezreel Valley, near Megiddo. In Joshua and Judges it appears as a city of the tribe of Manasseh and as a battlefield in the Song of Deborah.
Iconium
[Bible]Iconium was a city in south-central Asia Minor where Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel during the first missionary journey until persecution forced them to leave. It is identified today with Konya, Turkey.
Acts 16:14-15
[Bible Verses]In this passage, set in Philippi, the Lord opens the heart of Lydia as she listens to Paul, and she and her whole household are baptized. It is frequently cited in discussions of divine initiative in conversion, household baptism, and hospitality.
Lydia
[People]Lydia was a seller of purple cloth from Thyatira who appears in Acts 16. After hearing Paul speak in Philippi, she was baptized together with her household. She is known as the first convert on European soil recorded in the Book of Acts.
Oscar Cullmann
[People]Oscar Cullmann (1902–1999) was a Lutheran New Testament scholar from Alsace, France. He is widely known for his theology of "salvation history" (Heilsgeschichte), which holds that God's saving acts unfold in stages within history, and for his "already and not yet" eschatology.
Christmas Tree
[Feasts & Seasons]A Christmas tree is a decoration set up in the days before Christmas, consisting of an evergreen or a tree of similar shape adorned with a star, lights, and ornaments. Although it is not a rite grounded in Scripture, most churches in Korea set one up inside and outside their sanctuaries during Advent and the Christmas season.
Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification
[History]The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification is a document signed on October 31, 1999, by the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church. It states that there is a "consensus in basic truths" on justification, the issue that had divided the two churches since the sixteenth-century Reformation.
The Floating Axe Head
[Bible]The floating axe head is a miracle recorded in 2 Kings 6:1-7, in which Elisha caused a borrowed iron axe head that had fallen into the Jordan River to float to the surface after he threw a stick into the water.
Genesis 12:1–3
[Bible Verses]The passage in which God commands Abram to leave his country, his kindred, and his father's house, promising to make of him a great nation and to bless him. It is regarded as a turning point in salvation history, and there is debate over whether "I will bless them that bless thee" should be applied to the modern State of Israel.
Romans 13:1
[Bible Verses]Romans 13:1 exhorts every person to "be subject unto the higher powers" and declares that all authority comes from God. It is a key text on the relationship between church and state, and how it should be applied under unjust regimes has long been debated.
Hebrews 4:9–11
[Bible Verses]This passage declares that a "rest" still remains for the people of God and urges believers to labor to enter that rest. It is frequently cited in discussions of whether this rest is present or belongs to the last day, and of how it relates to the Sabbath commandment.
Matthew 5:39
[Bible Verses]Matthew 5:39 is the verse in which Jesus teaches his hearers not to resist an evil person and, if someone strikes them on the right cheek, to turn the other also. It stands at the center of interpretive debates that extend beyond the prohibition of personal retaliation to questions of war, violence, and military service.
Missionary Sending by the Korean Church
[History]Missionary sending by the Korean church refers to the history of Korean Protestant churches and mission organizations sending missionaries to other regions and countries. Its beginning is commonly dated to the 1907 mission to Jeju Island. As of the end of 2024, there were 21,621 Korean long-term missionaries serving in 171 countries.
Judges 6:12
[Bible Verses]In this verse the angel of the LORD appears to Gideon, who is hiding from the Midianites, addresses him as "thou mighty man of valour," and declares that the LORD is with him. It is frequently cited as a text on divine calling and God's presence.
John 8:7
[Bible Verses]John 8:7 is the verse in which Jesus says to those about to stone a woman taken in adultery, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." It is a classic text on mercy and forgiveness, but it raises a textual problem: the entire story is absent from the oldest manuscripts.
Deuteronomy 28:1–2
[Bible Verses]A promise that all blessings will come upon those who diligently hearken to the voice of God and observe to do His commandments. These verses open a chapter that lists at length the blessings that follow obedience and the curses that follow disobedience. Their use as a basis for prosperity theology has drawn both criticism and rebuttal.
Genesis 3:16
[Bible Verses]Genesis 3:16 records God's words to the woman after the Fall, in which He increases her pain in childbirth and declares that her husband "shall rule over thee." In discussions of the relationship between men and women, interpreters disagree over whether the verse establishes an order ordained by God or describes a distortion produced by sin.
Psalm 137:1–6
[Bible Verses]A lament in which Judeans carried captive to Babylon long for Zion (Jerusalem), refuse to sing, and vow never to forget Jerusalem. The passage is frequently cited in discussions of keeping faith in a foreign land.
Proverbs 11:24–25
[Bible Verses]A couplet in Proverbs teaching that those who give generously end up with more, while those who hold on too tightly fall into want. It is often quoted in sermons encouraging almsgiving and offerings, and interpreters differ over whether it promises material reward or offers a general observation drawn from wisdom.