Search the encyclopedia

Search the Bible

600 articles found for “Father”

• Clement of Rome

  [People]

  Clement of Rome was a leader of the church in Rome in the late first century and an Apostolic Father, known as the author of a letter to the church in Corinth commonly called 1 Clement. The Catholic Church counts him as the fourth pope.

• Subordinationism

  [Doctrine & Theology]

  Subordinationism is the view that, within the triune God, the Son and the Holy Spirit are inferior to the Father in essence or divinity. Since the Nicene Creed, the orthodox church has rejected this position.

• Mark 9:23

  [Bible Verses]

  Mark 9:23 is the verse in which Jesus, after the father of a demon-possessed boy pleads "if thou canst do any thing," takes up the father's words and answers that all things are possible to him that believeth. It is often cited in discussions of the power of faith and prayer, and there has been debate over whether it is quoted out of context.

• Luke 15:20

  [Bible Verses]

  Luke 15:20 is the verse in the Parable of the Prodigal Son in which the father sees his returning younger son from a distance, runs to him, embraces him, and kisses him. Because the father reaches his son before the son confesses his wrongdoing, the verse is widely cited as an illustration of God's grace and forgiveness.

• Ezekiel 18:2-4

  [Bible Verses]

  A prophetic message delivered by Ezekiel to the exiles in Babylon that rejects a proverb blaming the fathers and declares each person's own responsibility: "the soul that sinneth, it shall die." The passage is frequently cited as a basis for individual responsibility and repentance, and in debates over the teaching of generational curses.

• Widow

  [Bible]

  A woman whose husband has died. The Old Testament law designated widows, along with the fatherless and the stranger, as people to be protected. In the New Testament, widows appear both as recipients of the early church's relief and care and as examples of faith.

• Arianism

  [Heresies & Cults]

  Arianism is the teaching advanced by Arius of Alexandria in the fourth century. It regards Christ the Son not as God of the same essence as the Father but as the first and highest creature made by God. It was condemned at the Council of Nicaea in 325.

• Trinity Sunday

  [Feasts & Seasons]

  Trinity Sunday, the Sunday after Pentecost, is a feast of the Western church year commemorating the doctrine of the Trinity, which confesses one God in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

• Council of Nicaea

  [History]

  The First Council of Nicaea was the first ecumenical council, convened at Nicaea in 325 by the Roman emperor Constantine I. It adopted a creed confessing that the Son is consubstantial with the Father and condemned the teaching of Arius.

• Modalism

  [Heresies & Cults]

  Modalism, also known as Sabellianism, is the view that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not three distinct persons. On this view, they are three modes, or manifestations, in which the one God has revealed himself in different ages and roles. The church rejected modalism in the third century.

• 1 John 5:7–8

  [Bible Verses]

  This passage states that there are three that bear witness: the Spirit, the water, and the blood. Some Latin manuscripts and later translations add the words "there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost." This addition, known as the Johannine Comma, has become the most famous case in biblical textual criticism.

• Matthew 24:36

  [Bible Verses]

  Matthew 24:36 is the saying of Jesus that no one knows the day and hour of his coming, not even the angels or the Son, but the Father only. It is a key verse against date-setting eschatology, which fixes a date for the Second Coming, and it has also raised theological questions about the divinity and humanity of Jesus.

• Matthew 28:19–20

  [Bible Verses]

  In this passage the risen Jesus commands his disciples to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that he has commanded. Known as the "Great Commission," it serves as a foundational text for missions, baptism, and discipleship.

• 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.

• Enoch

  [People]

  Enoch is an antediluvian figure who appears in the genealogy of Genesis 5. The seventh generation from Adam and the father of Methuselah, he is recorded as having walked with God and as having been taken by God without seeing death.

• Isaac

  [People]

  Isaac is a patriarch in the Book of Genesis, the son of promise born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age. He is best known for nearly being offered as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah, and he was the father of Jacob and Esau.

• 1 Peter 1:1–2

  [Bible Verses]

  The opening greeting of 1 Peter addresses Christians scattered across five regions of Asia Minor as "elect" strangers and brings together the work of the Father, the Spirit, and the Son in a single sentence. The passage is frequently cited in discussions of predestination, election, and the Trinity.

• 1 Corinthians 15:28

  [Bible Verses]

  A verse in 1 Corinthians 15, the chapter on the resurrection and the last things, stating that after all things have been subjected to the Son, the Son himself will also be subject to the Father, "that God may be all in all." It has been cited frequently in Trinitarian and Christological debates.

• 1 John 2:1–2

  [Bible Verses]

  A passage expressing the hope that believers will not sin, while declaring that if anyone does sin, Jesus Christ the righteous is an "advocate" with the Father and the "propitiation" for sins. It is frequently cited as a basis for the forgiveness of sins and stands at the center of debates over the extent of the atonement and the meaning of "propitiation."

• James the Son of Alphaeus

  [People]

  One of the twelve disciples of Jesus, distinguished from James the son of Zebedee by the addition of his father's name. He is traditionally also called "James the Less," although it is uncertain whether the two are the same person.