Search the encyclopedia
100 articles found for “Evil spirits”
Romans 13:1
[Bible Verses]This verse 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.
Job
[People]Job is the central figure of the Book of Job, a righteous man who lived in the land of Uz. Amid suffering that cost him his possessions, his children, and his health, he lamented and protested before God; after encountering God, he was restored. The New Testament cites him as an example of patience.
Ehud
[People]Ehud was a judge of Israel whose story appears in Judges 3. The son of Gera of the tribe of Benjamin, he killed Eglon, king of Moab, and delivered Israel from eighteen years of Moabite rule.
Tree of Life
[Bible]The tree of life stood in the midst of the Garden of Eden in Genesis and symbolizes the life that God gives. Proverbs uses the phrase figuratively, and the tree reappears in the New Jerusalem in Revelation.
Eglon
[People]Eglon was a king of Moab who ruled over Israel for eighteen years during the period of the judges. He was killed by Ehud the Benjamite, as recorded in Judges 3.
Numbers 14
[Bible]In this chapter the congregation of Israel, after hearing the spies' report, murmurs and proposes returning to Egypt. Through Moses' intercession God pardons the people, yet He pronounces that the murmuring generation will wander in the wilderness for forty years and die there.
Judges 13
[Bible]Judges 13 recounts how, during forty years of Philistine oppression, the angel of the LORD appeared to the wife of Manoah of the tribe of Dan to announce the birth of a Nazirite son, and how Samson was born.
1 Kings 14
[Bible]When Jeroboam's son falls ill, the prophet Ahijah pronounces judgment on the house of Jeroboam. The chapter then records the sins of Rehoboam of Judah and the invasion of Jerusalem by Shishak, king of Egypt.
Christian Philosophy
[Doctrine & Theology]Christian philosophy is the discipline that addresses philosophical questions such as being, knowledge, and ethics from the perspective of the Christian faith, or that examines the content of the faith using the methods of philosophy.
Holiness of God
[Doctrine & Theology]The holiness of God is the divine attribute by which God is set apart from all creatures and is perfectly pure, unmixed with sin. On the basis of this holiness, Scripture calls God's people to live holy lives as well.
Coats of Skins
[Bible]The coats of skins are the garments that God made to clothe Adam and Eve after they ate the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:21). They stand in contrast to the aprons of fig leaves and have been interpreted both as a sign of God's care and as a foreshadowing of atonement.
Jeremiah 6
[Bible]Jeremiah 6 is a prophecy warning that an enemy from the north will besiege Jerusalem. It rebukes a people who refuse to repent, along with the prophets and priests who offer false comfort by saying "Peace."
Augustine of Hippo
[People]Augustine (354–430) was bishop of Hippo Regius in North Africa and one of the foremost Church Fathers (theological teachers of the early church) of the Western church. His teaching on grace and sin profoundly influenced the Protestant Reformers.
Matthew 7:7
[Bible Verses]"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" is a promise concerning prayer. The verse is cherished as an encouragement to persistent prayer, though reading it as a promise that one will receive whatever one asks for has been the subject of debate.
Romans 7:24–25
[Bible Verses]A passage in which Paul, struggling against sin, laments that he is a "wretched man" and gives thanks for deliverance through Jesus Christ. Interpreters have long disagreed over whether this "I" refers to a Christian or to a person under the law.
Romans 2:1
[Bible Verses]In this verse Paul points out that those who condemn others do the same things and so condemn themselves. It is frequently cited within the argument of Romans for the universality of sin, and in sermons warning against hypocritical judgment.
Abigail
[People]Abigail is a woman who appears in 1 Samuel 25. She was the wife of Nabal the Carmelite, but with wise words and gifts she turned back David, who was on his way to attack her husband. After Nabal's death she became David's wife.
James 4:13–15
[Bible Verses]James 4:13–15 rebukes those who, though they cannot know what tomorrow will bring, boast of their plans for trade and travel while leaving God out of account, and urges them to live with the attitude expressed in the words "If the Lord will." The passage is frequently cited in discussions of the brevity of life and of God's providence.
Matthew 12:41
[Bible Verses]Jesus' warning to those who demanded a sign: the men of Nineveh, who repented at Jonah's preaching, will condemn "this generation" at the judgment. The verse is often cited as a call to repentance and as a revelation of who Jesus is.
Barak
[People]Barak was an Israelite military leader in the period of the judges who, at the summons of the prophetess Deborah, defeated Sisera, the commander of the army of the Canaanite king Jabin. He appears in Judges 4–5 and is named among the people of faith in Hebrews 11.