Hezekiah

The evil snake uses different methods to subvert people from obeying the word of God. He started to corrupt the mind of people by using the power of persuasion to convince Eve and Adam to disregard the commandments of God. He was using his evil, but soft tongue to encourage them to rebel against the authority of their

However, evil soon entered the garden in the form of a serpent. One day when Eve was walking in the garden she encountered the evil serpent who encouraged her to take a fruit from one of God’s forbidden fruit trees. The serpent succeeded in deceiving Eve to take a fruit; she then ate the fruit and shared it with Adam. Then God became angry with Adam and Eve for betraying Him. To punish Adam and Eve, he ejected them from the garden and subjecting them to mortality, painful childbirth, sin and shame.

Within many known religions, the devotional practices has been known to acquire great importance. The essence of practicing what you preach has scolded many religious groups, introducing true beliefs, righteousness, and a wider connection to the supreme being . In the book entitled “ Living religions” by Mary Pat Fisher, clarified and firm descriptions were introduced about religious rituals. Surprisingly; the author utilized small parts of modern concepts, limiting the reader from a full comprehension of religious practices today, therefore; I will only discuss the basic and traditional rituals. To elaborate; in this paper, I will be providing an opinionated but also, comparative description of the major practices and rituals that undergo in both the Abrahamic and indigenous religions.

Organs were traditionally used for Christian and Catholic Church services, that is why they are commonly referred to as “church organs”. Organs are ideally made to accompany human voices. It could be a soloist, choir, whatever, that is one of its key purposes. This first began in the seventh century with Pope Vitalian. At first people were not fond of having music and singing during church services but people quickly became accustomed to having an organ around because of the beautiful sound that complimented the songs of worship. The organ became a popular and much wanted necessity in years to come.

Genesis 3 exposes the serpent, also known as the devil. The serpent asks Eve to

When Prometheus deceives Zeus and gives fire to mankind, he releases the wrath of Zeus upon mankind and himself. Zeus punishes Prometheus by binding him with “inescapable harsh bonds… he inflicted on him a long-winged eagle, which ate his immortal liver; but grew as much in all at night as the long-winged bird would eat all day” (Nelson, 43, 521-525). God’s punishment of the serpent does not seem as violent as Prometheus’s punishment, but they are both harsh. God also uses nature when punishing the serpent, like Zeus controlled the eagle. “Then the Lord God said to the serpent: 'Because you have done this you are accursed more than all cattle and all wild creatures. On your belly you shall crawl, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life…They [mankind] shall strike at your head’” (Genesis, 3). The serpent and Prometheus are punished for eternity for rebelling against their authority.

Serpents also play a big role in both the epic and in Genesis. It says in Genesis 3:1-5, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”” The serpent in

In the words of the temptation of Eve and the Fall of mankind – Genesis chapter 3, it talks about a creature called ‘The Serpent’, we can automatically think that a serpent is a snake like creature, but why would it be in bible readings? Some people say that the story is just a symbolic story that was only written to tell a story and show meaningful meanings throughout it, they think this because animals do not speak human

The Christian covenant promises that people will receive an earthly or heavenly inheritance on the premise of good behavior while the people of Mesopotamian society attempt to please the gods with no guarantee in their fate. The Christian God represents not just what is most powerful but what is morally best—humans were supposed to aspire to reach His level and ultimately imitate him especially since they were created in his image, whereas the Gods in Mesopotamia each had their own rules that the people were to follow. “You have assigned to everyone his place….You create the life.” (McKay, pg. 16). The Bible comes from the same region as Gilgamesh, and shares some of the same concepts and events, such as the snake as the enemy who deprived humans of eternal life and in Mesopotamian society, the flood. In both the Bible and Gilgamesh, disobedience to a god, or gods in Mesopotamian society, brings dire consequences; “The gods of the city turned away… The population breathed in fear.” (McKay, pg

While Moses is up at the Mountain of Sinai receiving the 10 Commandments from God, the people began to become worried. They urged Aaron, their temporary leader, to make an idol because they believed that Moses had either died or left them. As a result, Aaron melted their gold earrings and created a golden calf, which the people began to worship. The Lord of the Flies by George Orwell alludes to the story of the Golden Calf, where the pig’s head served as the “golden-calf”. The pig’s head symbolizes the root of evil and corruption in humanity; sin.

Throughout Exodus, God constantly tries to instill fear in Pharaoh and the Egyptians in order to prove that he is the Almighty, powerful God. However, despite being the creator of the universe, it is not so easy for God to prove to his creations that he should be worshipped. When trying to free the Israelites from their enslavement by Pharaoh and the Egyptians, God struggles to convince Pharaoh to release the Israelites. His difficulty in persuading Pharaoh causes him to cast ten plagues on the Egyptians to torture them until they become weak and decide to let the Israelites go. However, these plagues seem more like a cry out for people to notice him and acknowledge his power. God’s inability to control his own creations establishes his weakness

One example of the tension between the gods and humans is when Ishtar is rejected by Gilgamesh, and tries to destroy Uruk. Unlike any other person who had been refused, Ishtar used her relationship with the gods to demand the Bull of Heaven kill Gilgamesh and cause famine in Uruk for seven years. She ordered, “Give me the Bull of Heaven, just for a little while. I want to bring it to earth, I want it to kill that liar Gilgamesh and destroy his palace. If you say no, I will smash the gates of the underworld, and a million famished ghouls will ascend to devour the living, and the living will be outnumbered by the dead”

1. Discuss the use of music in Catholic and Protestant worship practice, from the development of polyphony, through the music of J.S. Bach. In so doing, discuss the shift in responsibility for musical development from the Catholic Church to the Lutheran Church.

The fact that Manasseh's father, King Hezekiah, was one of the great reformers in the history of Biblical rulers did not influence the desisions made by his son. During his reighn, Hezekiah quietly repaired and purified the Holy Temple. He instructed the priests to get rid of the of the idoltrous altars so that the warship of God could be reintroduced in the land of Judah. He performed all these reforms despite the great preassure from the pagan Assirians who were the dominant power in the

This premise is predicated on the hypothesis that music plays an independent and important role within scripture itself; that is to be an elevated carrier for liturgy and prayer, the use of which is mandated by God for corporate worship. Both corporate worship and individual faith would suffer if music were removed. As an act of worshipping obedience, and a way of more readily understanding and relating to God, we will examine