Credential Exam Essay

In their book, The Great Commission to Worship, Vernon Whaley and David Wheeler takes an in depth look at commandment from Jesus for His followers to go out and spread the Good News of salvation. Today’s Christian seems to have a misconception about their role in evangelism. As the authors stated, “many times in Scripture it appears

Years later in this process of growth, I was blessed with a summer internship at a larger congregation in Dallas, Texas. Although I grew from my relationships and from the mentorship I received, I also observed that the bulk of the ministry meetings focused on changing and adapting our church’s corporate worship to be more and more “seeker sensitive.” The thought was that corporate worship was something malleable that could be altered into something more like the culture of the surrounding neighborhood, so people would want to come. “After all,” so the thinking went, “scripture provided only a rough guideline as to what the church is to do when coming together and there is little-to-no reason to keep intact what past generations did or passed down.” In essence, we sought to form our corporate worship for the purpose of evangelism. I believed that the important thing to focus on is love of God, love of neighbor, and piety. Something in the line of reasoning that insisted on changing the community worship ritual to reflect the world didn’t feel right to me, yet I could not articulate what it was. Several months later I visited an Eastern Orthodox Church as part of a course on Christian spiritual development and after a didactic

DeVries argues, “It is not making ourselves righteous. It is not sanctification. It is not simply belonging to the Christian church because you profess Christ as Lord. Justification has to do with God as Judge. It is the declaration that you are free from guilt and condemnation in the sight of God. It is an anticipation of future judgment.” In his article “Justification: A Doctrine in Crisis,” Carl Henry asserts, “Justification is God’s declaration and implementation of his eternal will giving

Pre tribulation is the series of events described through the bible regarding when the return of Jesus will be. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess, 4:16-18). This passage shows the uplifting of believers from earth to heaven. God will come from heaven, trumpets will sound and all believer in him will go to heaven.

To understand the end time, or the end of this present age as we know it, you must first understand that in the Bible the “time of the end” spans from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation. Since it is often difficult for most people to find the time to study the Bible from cover to cover, it will be my job to highlight one of the most important threshold moments of the end time era for your understanding, and let that serve as a quick reference to knowledge that you so desperately need. Time is of the essence! In Last Call for The Church, you will get a truly unique understanding of the Rapture as it applies to a collective body of believers, referred to in the Bible as a bride, or better known as the church. Every effort has been made to present precept upon precept from the viewpoint of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture.

According to Ministry Is…, chapter 28, Ministry is obeying the _____ _____ of Jesus by making disciples. (be able to fill in the blanks)

• Be able to define “justification,” “sanctification,” and “glorification.” Justification – saved from the penlty of sin; the moment an individual is saved formt he pently of sin, we literally move from darkness to light, change course from hell to heaven and gain peace with God – pg. 26 Sanctification – Saved from the power of sin; 3. Glorification – saved from the presence of sin.

The word 'gospel' means good news. There are four gospel accounts in the New Testament:

The term mission is used by many organisation and follow in the footsteps of Jesus. This is seen in religious groups and organisation

Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Lutherans and reformed Christians are denominations that believe there will be a rapture where Christ will be returning for his second coming. The rapture is not mentioned in the bible but in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 1 Corinthians 15:50-54. “Believers who have died will have their bodies resurrected and, along with believers who are still living, will meet the Lord in the air.” This theory is based on scriptures in the bible. Many believers believe that all non-believers on the earth at the time will be left behind for the tribulation period. Tribulation period is short period of time where everyone will experience worldwide hardships, disasters, famine, war, pain and suffering. This states that 75% of all

Whenever we hear the word apocalypse the first thing that comes into our mind is the end of the world. Like most words this word has many different meanings. Even though we do not often use this word it is very important to know the different meanings of this word. The one thing that most of the definitions of this word have in common is that they all have to do with something bad happing. The word apocalypse has a very interesting history which helps us discover the different meanings of the word.

In Matthew 28:19-20 also known as The Great Commission it states “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Jesus gave this command to the apostles shortly before he ascended into Heaven. He said this verse unto them as he wanted them to continue to spread his teachings. This verse continues to speak to us even in our daily life as a reminder to spread the gospel to your community and it places a lot of emphasizing on missionary work, baptism, and ministry. One story I found in this research that displayed how missionaries used The Great

Prior to the second coming is the seven year tribulation and the rapture, when Christians are caught up prior to the tribulation. This view is in agreement with the Olivet Discourse and the current state of the world. It also allows for the literal fulfillment of the Old Testament promises (Is. 2:2-4; 11:6-9; 65:17-25; Dan. 7:14; 18) which both other views must understand in a symbolic way. A symbolic view here is contradictory to the traditional views of these passages; the Jewish people have been looking for an earthly kingdom that is ruled by the Messiah. Amillennialists and postmillennialists have accused premillennialists of being too literal, but this is unfounded.

Justification is defined as an act in which God declares all those who accept Him as their personal savior as being righteous and the penalty of sin is removed from their lives by Him. God removes a person who has faith in Him from a state of sin to a state of righteousness. It is stated in the book of Corinthians 5:21 that, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”. The term is derived from the Greek word dikaiosis which is a legal term that means “to make a person righteous”. The council of Trent, view justification as a change in a person from being a child of Adam to being adopted by grace, to be among the heirs of God through the second Adam who is Jesus Christ (Denzinger, 1524 pg 115). In the New Testament, Paul declares that the law and prophets in the Old Testament are witnesses to how God’s is right in justifying those who are righteous at heart. In saying so, Paul declared that justification is an aspect that is clearly visible in the Old Testament. Although justification is not brought out as a subject in the bible, its mention or aspect in the biblical account serves as evidence of God’s purpose for His people. (Surburg 129)

Ecumenism is the initiatives taken towards the reconciliation of Christian denominations; promoting greater cooperation and unity among separate churches. Australia has contributed significantly to the advancement of ecumenism, mainly through the establishment of ecumenical organisations, which implement a wide range of initiatives, intended to advocate and create unity between Christian denominations. In 1977, The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was established; its formation is a prominent and highly effective ecumenical organisation. The Uniting Church is a union, which has merged three individual variants to form the present-day Uniting Church in Australia. It integrates on the basis of union, actively supporting the principles of social justice and advocating the development of a liturgy suitable for