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2 Thessalonians 2:3–4
[Bible Verses]A passage in which Paul tells the church at Thessalonica that before "the day of the Lord" there will come an apostasy (a falling away from the faith) and that "the man of lawlessness" will be revealed. Because it is a principal text on the Antichrist and the sequence of end-time events, it is interpreted in widely differing ways.
2 Corinthians 12:2–4
[Bible Verses]In this passage Paul recounts, in the third person, an experience from fourteen years earlier in which he was caught up to the "third heaven" and into paradise, where he heard "unspeakable words." It is frequently discussed in connection with Paul's visionary experience, the meaning of heaven and paradise, and whether it can serve as a basis for testimonies of visiting heaven.
2 Corinthians 4:16
[Bible Verses]In this verse Paul, amid the sufferings he endures as an apostle, declares that "though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." The verse is frequently cited when speaking of hope in the midst of aging, illness, and suffering, and discussion centers chiefly on what the "outward man" and the "inward man" denote.
Damascus
[Bible]Damascus, today the capital of Syria, is an ancient city that appears throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament it is the chief city of Aram; in the New Testament it is the city toward which Paul was traveling when he was converted.
Genesis 35:1–7
[Bible Verses]After the events at Shechem, God commands Jacob to go up to Bethel and build an altar there, and Jacob's household puts away its foreign gods before arriving at Bethel. The passage is often preached as an example of fulfilling a vow and of purification before worship.
1 Corinthians 8:4–6
[Bible Verses]In this passage, Paul addresses the question of food sacrificed to idols by affirming that an idol is nothing and that there is one God, and he confesses God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ together. It is frequently cited in discussions of early Christian Christology, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the question of food offered in ancestral rites.
Isaiah 30:15
[Bible Verses]Isaiah 30:15 is addressed to Judah, which was seeking an alliance with Egypt in the face of the Assyrian threat. It declares that salvation and strength lie not in military calculation but in returning to God and trusting Him in quietness. The verse is frequently cited in discussions of trust and waiting amid anxiety.
Parable of the Unjust Judge
[Bible]A parable of Jesus recorded in Luke 18:1–8. Even an unjust judge grants the plea of a persistent widow, and God will all the more avenge his elect. The parable teaches that believers ought always to pray and not lose heart.
High Priest
[Bible]The high priest held the foremost position among the priests of Old Testament Israel, an office whose holder entered the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement to make atonement for the people. The New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews presents Jesus Christ as the eternal High Priest.
Didache
[History]The Didache, meaning "the Teaching (of the Twelve Apostles)," is an early church document generally thought to have been written in the late first or early second century. It contains instructions on baptism, the Eucharist, fasting, prayer, and church offices.
Noah's Ark
[Bible]Noah's ark is the large vessel that God commanded Noah to build in Genesis 6–9. Noah's family of eight and the animals survived the Flood aboard it. The New Testament takes up the ark as an image of faith, salvation, and baptism.
Excommunication
[Organization & Polity]Excommunication is the most severe stage of church discipline, in which the church removes an unrepentant member who has sinned from the church community and revokes that person's membership.
Candace
[People]Candace is the "queen of the Ethiopians" mentioned in Acts 8. An official in charge of her treasury was baptized by Philip. A widely known view holds that the name was a title of the queens of the ancient Nubian kingdom rather than a personal name.
Origen
[People]Origen (c. 185 – c. 253) was an early church theologian and biblical interpreter from Alexandria. He produced the Hexapla, a parallel edition of the Old Testament, and On First Principles, a systematic theological work, but some of his teachings were condemned after his death.
Seer
[Bible]A seer is "one who sees" what God has shown. In the Old Testament it is an older name for a prophet. Samuel, Gad, and Iddo, among others, were called by this title.
New Testament Apocrypha
[Bible]The New Testament Apocrypha is a collective term for early Christian writings that tell stories about Jesus and the apostles or bear an apostle's name but were not included among the twenty-seven books of the New Testament canon.
Clement of Alexandria
[People]Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–c. 215) was an early church father and theologian active in Alexandria. He is regarded as a leading figure of the Alexandrian school, which sought to connect Greek philosophy with the Christian faith.
Bel and the Dragon
[Bible]Bel and the Dragon is a story in which Daniel exposes the true nature of Bel, an idol of Babylon, and of a dragon worshiped there. It has been transmitted as an addition to the Greek Book of Daniel. Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include it as Daniel 14, while Protestants classify it among the Apocrypha.
Portion
[Bible]A portion is a share that is divided and received, such as an inheritance or an allotment of land. In the Old Testament the term is used for the tribes' allotments of land and in the confession of faith "the LORD is my portion"; in the New Testament it appears in the parable of the prodigal son.
Tanakh
[Bible]Tanakh is the name Judaism uses for the Hebrew Bible. The word is an acronym formed from the Law (Torah), the Prophets (Nevi'im), and the Writings (Ketuvim). Its contents are the same as the thirty-nine books of the Protestant Old Testament, but it counts them as twenty-four books and arranges them in a different order.