The Is Heaven And Earth And It 's Ultimate Destiny

As members of the Church, having been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

For the Life of the World authored by Fr. Alexander Schmemann an Orthodox priest was originally intended as a “study guide” in the 1970’s for students preparing themselves for Missionary work, giving them a “world view”, helping to speak about Christian view points along with an approach to how they coalesce through the eyes of the Orthodox Church. A key theme Fr. Schmemann discussed is Secularism, which he believes developed from our progressive alienation of the Christian culture. Additionally, he presents his interpretation of the transforming biblical themes of creation, fall, and redemption through a sacramental understanding. Fr. Schmemann’s experiences within the Orthodox Church liturgy reveal unity in the meanings of these three themes. It is through these understandings he believes can effectively offset the disastrous effects of secularism while revitalizing the sacramental understanding of the world.

Charles B. Hodge, Jr., is a prolific writer and a minister of the Church of Christ. He closes each chapter of The Agony & Glory of the Cross with “The Cross…there is no other way!” Thus, I have taken Reverend Hodge’s declaration for the title of this review. He further explains his thesis of the importance of the cross: “Jesus could not save Himself and still be our Savior. There is no way but the cross.” The unique approach to teaching the New Testament – and Christs’ journey to Calvary – requires several readings, analysis, and return to biblical text.

Norris and Speers’ journey sent them out around the US in search for five different churches that undoubtedly worship differently but at the same time follow the universal Christian belief of the one true God. The goal of their expedition was to set out to explore the amount of politics that are found in many congregations. Out of these five distinguished churches, Norris and Speers’ focused on analyzing the congregation’s worship tactics, along with their leaders and mission of the church.

Church buildings, musical instruments, ministers’ attire, choir robes, hymns, names of converts, schools and curriculums had Americans’ religious, cultural, and economic trademark. The Christianity that addressed issues of life in the American cultural context was transplanted in different parts of the world. Unlike the transition of the Hebraic-Christianity from the Jewish culture to the Gentile world in the first century, which developed its own unique theological, cultural, and leadership identity in a short period of time, the phenomenal growth of Christianity in the majority world has been largely influenced by the dominance of American Christianity. As the result, we have Christian faith that is not well anchored on local theology. And to most of the churches in the majority world, up until recently,

Worship is the primary action of the church. Those who are part of it assemble together to sing, pray, remember Christ, listen to the Scriptures, and contribute to the Lord’s causes (Acts 2:42, 47; 1 Cor. 16:1-2). It is one of the church’s primary purposes, and it is crucial for its worship to be in harmony with the Scriptures. In Lutheranism, worship is a spiritual exercise that outwardly expresses itself as an acceptance of God’s gift to humans (Jacobs 551). Lutherans

“Worship is the believer’s response of all that they are - mind, emotions, will, body - to what God is and says and does.” Warren Wiersbe

The purpose of this project is to demonstrate how the Sacramental Life or Incarnational Tradition help me focus on my life as a harmonious unit and to illustrate how my life is impacted by my view of worship. In addition, I will give a theological analysis on how focusing on life as a harmonious unit is essential to the myself, the individuals I administer spiritual counseling to and my ministry constituents.

Brunk (2009) “argued that the ‘living’ sacrifice of Christians is living with the very life of God within them and that holiness, both in the Old Testament and in the Letter to the Romans, is inextricably bound up with codes of right conduct that govern both individuals

Christianity is a well-developed religion, which was formed out of Judaism during the time of the first century. There are a multitude of branches within in the religion of Christianity with some of the major ones being Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. Even within the major branches there are even smaller subcategories to which people claim to be their religion of choice. During my research I was able to really find out in greater details more about this marvelous form of religion and why it has the most people of any religion world wide currently adhering to it. With nearly 2.2 billion people claiming to be Christians, Christianity’s beliefs that derive from the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ have stayed true since the formation of their religion. I was fortunate enough to interview Eli Riddle who is a practicing Evangelist and provided me with a vast amount of information about his denomination. Throughout my paper it is my goal to help give a better understanding of the History, Sacred Texts, Worship, Sacraments, Life after Death, as well as a few other intriguing topics covering the broad religion of Christianity while also giving insight about

A starting point exists and has always existed at the Church's radical center: in Christ. Only one agenda distinctly manifests partisanship for Christ. There exists but one banner hung over worship: a human on a cross. Jesus calls the Church to lay down, not just its burdens, but its banners as well. In Christ, lies the only context in which secular agendas can find a place in the liturgical life of the Church.

For this assignment I attended a church service at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Plantation. Walking into the church there are rows of pews, and at the end of the isle stands the alter, to the left, there was a candle, which signifies the presence of the Holy Spirit. Above the alter hung a cross, which symbolizes the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In a Protestant church one will never see a crucifix, which means they do not have the body of Jesus hanging on the cross. The reason for this is because Protestants focus on the resurrection of Jesus and the complete work of Christ. In other branches of Christianity, like Catholicism, one can find a crucifix because Catholicism focuses on Jesus' death (Patheos). Surrounding the alter were two benches to kneel behind, one on each side of the alter,

Realized Eschatology is a Christian eschatological theory popularized by C. H. Dodd (1884–1973) that holds that the eschatological passages in the New Testament do not refer to the future, but instead refer to the ministry of Jesus and his lasting legacy. Eschatology is therefore not the end of the world but its rebirth instituted by Jesus and continued by his disciples, a historical (rather than transhistorical) phenomenon. Those holding this view generally dismiss end times theories, believing them to be irrelevant. They hold that what Jesus said and did, and told his disciples to do likewise, are of greater significance than anymessianic expectations. (Wikipedia)

As believers, we are constantly reminded that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. His death and his resurrection are fundamental to our Christian faith. Without his death, the relationship between God and His creation would have remained broken. Unfortunately, many believers do not take the time to consider the complex and deep meaning of Jesus’ death. If I have learned one concept throughout this class is that if I do not have a personal comprehension of Jesus’ death, I will never be saved. His death signifies salvation. It motivates us to imitate Jesus’ life as he was completely human and never sinned, yet he died on the cross in the cruelest way. Personally, Jesus’ death means love, reconciliation, redemption, and victory.

Reflecting upon the readings of Torrance’s Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace and White’s Introduction to Christian Worship will deeply shape how I look at worship in the churches I now order worship for the congregations. I used one of the churches in which I serve to do the Order of Worship assignment. It is a blue collar, small membership church located in a rural, retirement/ vacation area of North Carolina, Lake Gaston. It is also predominately Caucasian. Torrance’s focus is on trinitarian worship, participating in Christ’s communion with God, the Father and Christ’s life, death, and resurrection through the power of the Holy Spirit. And White’s focus is to look at how the forms used in worship give worship its meaning. These forms include but are not exclusive of, time, space, music and art. There are implications for both focuses in the order of worship for the congregation used for my order of worship.