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Qumran Community
[History]The Qumran community was a Jewish sectarian group that lived at Qumran, northwest of the Dead Sea, from about the second century BC to the middle of the first century AD. Scholars commonly associate it with the Essenes. It is generally regarded as the community to which the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the surrounding caves belonged.
Ecumenical Councils
[History]The ecumenical councils were assemblies of bishops representing the whole Church that decided matters of doctrine and church discipline. The seven councils held between 325 and 787 are recognized by both the Eastern and Western churches.
Oxyrhynchus Papyri
[History]The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a large body of papyrus documents excavated from the late nineteenth century onward from the rubbish mounds of the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. They include New Testament manuscripts and Greek fragments of the Gospel of Thomas, among other texts.
Exorcism
[Worship & Rites]Exorcism is the prayer and rite performed to drive demons out of a person believed to be possessed by evil spirits. The term refers chiefly to the official rite of the Catholic Church; Protestants more commonly speak of deliverance or casting out demons.
Shebna
[People]Shebna was a high-ranking official under King Hezekiah of Judah who served as scribe in the delegation that negotiated with the Assyrian commander Rabshakeh. Isaiah rebuked him for hewing out a tomb for himself on high and prophesied that his office would pass to Eliakim.
Gemariah
[People]Gemariah was a high official of Judah in the reign of King Jehoiakim and the son of Shaphan the scribe. Baruch read the prophecies of Jeremiah aloud in his chamber, and when the king burned the scroll, Gemariah pleaded with him not to burn it (Jeremiah 36).
Good Neighbors
[Institutions]Good Neighbors is a South Korean international relief and development NGO (non-governmental organization) founded in 1991 by Il-ha Lee under the name Korea Neighbors' Love Society (Hanguk Iutsaranghoe). It carries out child rights protection programs in South Korea as well as development cooperation programs overseas.
Psalm 115
[Bible]Psalm 115 is a hymn of praise that contrasts the powerlessness of man-made idols with the LORD who is in heaven, calling God's people to give glory to God alone and to trust in the LORD. It is one of the Hallel psalms (Psalms 113–118).
Codex Alexandrinus
[Bible]Codex Alexandrinus is a Greek manuscript of the Bible written around the fifth century, containing both the Old Testament (in the Septuagint) and the New Testament. Along with Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, it ranks among the foremost ancient manuscripts of the Bible.
Ezekiel 10
[Bible]Ezekiel 10 is part of Ezekiel's vision of the Jerusalem temple. It describes the cherubim and the wheels once more and depicts the glory of the LORD departing from the threshold of the temple and moving to the east gate.
Acts 3
[Bible]Acts 3 recounts how Peter and John, in the name of Jesus, raise up a man lame from birth at the temple gate called Beautiful, and how Peter then preaches to the people gathered in Solomon's Porch, calling them to repentance.
Worship
[Worship & Rites]Worship is the gathering in which believers come together to adore God and hear His Word. In Protestantism, the Sunday service held on the Lord's Day is central to church life.
Thanksgiving
[Feasts & Seasons]Thanksgiving is a Protestant observance in which believers thank God for the year's harvest and for the grace they have received. Korean Protestant churches generally observe Thanksgiving Sunday on the third Sunday of November.
Discipleship Training
[Christian Life]Discipleship training is a form of Christian education in which church members receive systematic instruction over a set period, through small-group Bible study, prayer, and examination of daily life, so that they may live as disciples of Jesus Christ. In Korea it spread widely as a program of lay training through Ok Han-heum and SaRang Community Church.
Dispensationalism
[Doctrine & Theology]Dispensationalism is a theological system that reads biblical history as a series of "dispensations" (economies) through which God deals with humanity, and that distinguishes between Israel and the church. It originated in nineteenth-century Britain and has also significantly shaped the understanding of the end times in Korean churches.
Total Mobilization Sunday
[Worship & Rites]Total Mobilization Sunday is a Sunday on which the entire congregation joins in inviting unchurched neighbors to worship. Also called Evangelism Sunday or the New Life Festival, it is one of the best-known evangelistic events in Korean Protestant churches.
Hebrews 10:25
[Bible Verses]Hebrews 10:25 exhorts believers, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." The verse is widely cited as a basis for attendance at corporate worship. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been at the center of debate over whether online worship can take the place of this "assembling."
Leviticus 24:17–22
[Bible Verses]A passage containing the law of retaliation, which requires that homicide and bodily injury be repaid in equal measure, together with the command that this law apply equally to the foreigner and the native-born. Because of the phrase "eye for eye, tooth for tooth," it is frequently cited in discussions of the Sermon on the Mount and of capital punishment.
Circumcision
[Bible]Circumcision is the rite of cutting away the foreskin of the male genital organ. In the Old Testament it was the sign of the covenant between God and the descendants of Abraham; in the New Testament it is interpreted in connection with circumcision of the heart and with baptism.
Zealots
[Bible]The Zealots were Jewish groups in first-century Judea under Roman rule who resisted foreign domination in the name of "zeal" for God and the Law. In the Bible the term appears as "Zelotes," the epithet of Simon, one of the twelve disciples.