Servants Of Christ Research Articles

PENATALAYANAN MEDIA SOSIAL DARI PERSPEKTIF JEROME POLIN

This research aims to ensure that the content or information available through social media is beneficial to its users, whether it is constructive or not, and whether it is useful or not. It requires social media content creators to be creative and adaptive, so they can generate something positive, good, and relevant for users. The method used in this research is qualitative, with literature review and observation. The findings reveal that, as disciples of Christ, as those who have been justified, and as servants of Christ, it is proper to act wisely when using social media, so as not to fall into the misuse of social media for things that are disgraceful and evil in God's sight, and to be a blessing to others through social media. It can be concluded that through collaboration, the variety of spiritual content becomes more complete and complementary, catering to both children and adults, discussing issues of body, soul, and spirit in humans, and expanding knowledge of true teachings to inspire many and be a blessing.

정치와 종교의 이중 프로퍼갠더 -비잔티움 황제 복장의 천사 도상 연구-

The ‘Angel in the Byzantine imperial costume’ is one of the very unique drawings developed by Byzantium art, which is very alien and unfamiliar from the perspective of Western European Art history. This study included Koimesis church in Nicaea, Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople, Haçlı kilise in Cappadocia, and the Homily of St. Gregory of Nazianzus(BNF MS Gr. 510). This study reveals the background and purpose of the production of the image at the political and religious level, as well as the pictorial meaning of the new angel painting of Byzantium.BR The appearance of an angel in Byzantine imperial costume is complicated by the political and religious situation in the Byzantium world surrounding the Iconoclastic Controversy.BR After the Iconoclastic Controversy, the Byzantium Church hoped the emperor would become an ideal monarch, and it was reflected in its image as an angel in the Emperor’s robes. Through this image, the message is conveyed that the emperor is an exemplary monarch, a special being blessed and protected by God, and a hero of orthodox Christian protection and a prophet who delivers God’s word. Behind these messages of eulogy, however, is the premise of the emperor’s responsibilities. In other words, it contains a just message that the emperor of Byzantium is the angel of God and should act accordingly. The new angel painting is the ideal image of an emperor, which, after all, coincides with the image of an emperor the church wants. The symbolic meaning of Nicaea is that the center of history is Jesus Christ, and that the emperor should serve the people. The splendid robes of the emperor do not glorify the angels, but rather emphasize that the emperor serves as an angel. The mosaic of Hagia Sophia visualizes the emperor as an angel of Christ and a servant of Christ. It means that the emperor is not the ruler, the persecutor of the church, or the one who goes against the orthodoxy of the church. It is the emperor’s duty to defend the Christian truth, protect the Church, and eradicate heresy. Byzantium’s new angel statue also conveys a message of reconciliation and unity. The Iconoclastic Controversy left scars of deep division in Church and Empire. After the end of the Iconoclastic Controversy, the Byzantine Empire needed to reestablish relations between politics and religion, and the image of an angel in the emperor’s robes was reintroduced to the church as an image of harmony overcoming division.

Justice, Dignity, and Reward: Nurturing Relationships in the Gig Economy

Justice, Dignity, and Reward: Nurturing Relationships in the Gig Economy Calum Samuelson1 Introduction The Bible has a great deal to say about workers and work, but, due to considerable cultural and economic differences, it can be difficult to apply biblical wisdom to the complex landscape of modern work. The gig economy in particular presents many opportunities and obstacles to modern workers and employers, but its novel and evolving characteristics greatly complicate responses built upon comprehensive data. Thus, whilst acknowledging the importance of insights from fields such as law and economics, this essay takes a biblical approach in order to consider some of the underlying theological factors at play within the gig economy. By doing this, it is hoped that both workers and employers will be better equipped to parse and distinguish between the purported and actual advantages of the gig economy. Workers in the Bible can be divided into three basic groups: 1) professionals, the self-employed and those who owned property, 2) permanent workers (mainly relatives and servants)2 , 3) temporary workers (such as the disenfranchised and foreigners).3 This hierarchy of workers fundamentally created relationships of unequal power. Masters who owned land had more power and discretion than the permanent servants in their households, and both of these had more power than the temporary workers who often lacked both material resources and social capital (perhaps because of misfortune or disaster).4 The biblical corpus implicitly recognises that some asymmetry is inevitable in relationships between human beings and, on that basis, provides guidance for acceptable behaviour in whatever socio-economic position people may find themselves. Thus, all workers are endowed with some measure of positional power, and nowhere in Scripture are the obligations of this endowment made clearer than in the domestic codes given by Paul in the New Testament.5 Paul’s exhortation to both masters and servants to treat each other ‘in the same way’6 due to their shared status as ‘servants of Christ’7 was truly revolutionary in the time of the early Church. Studies • volume 108 • number 432 432 Calum Samuelson Positional power is, of course, closely related to the idea of agency. The Book of Judges 6:15 illustrates a five-fold hierarchy of agency: ‘But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family’.8 This single verse conveys agency at the national level (Israel), tribal level (Manasseh), clan level, family level and the individual level (Gideon himself). Each level was respected and responsible for actions and behaviour within that level. This means that Israel was responsible for things as a nation that Gideon was not necessarily responsible for; Gideon could not be a ‘light to the nations’ by himself. Crucially, the divisions of positional power exist within and across the hierarchies of agency (the role of chief always entails high positional power, but the individual who relinquishes that position does not). The biblical hierarchy of agency is shifted in the New Testament, but still articulates a stratified vision involving the Church, geographic assemblies of the Church (ekklesia),9 ethnic groups,10 families11 and households,12 and individuals. Jesus teaches about bearing fruit at the individual level, but there is also the fuller and mysterious sense in which groups of people can bear fruit collectively; the Spirit of God who produces the fruit does not dwell in isolated individuals but rather in assemblies of God’s people.13 This means that separate agents can become a single agent together in Christ even though their positional powers are different; the master and the servant are both essential members of the Body of Christ! These truths have significant implications for work in general and for the gig economy in particular. An increasing number of participants in the gig economy are temporary workers who are kept at arm’s length from the company for which they work. Giggers occupy roles of low positional power that must be mediated by large, international platforms such as Upwork. However, it is precisely in this context that many giggers hope to obtain or initially feel an increased sense of their agency as individuals. For Christians today, freelancers...

From News to Narrative: Escape Tales in Medieval Iceland

From News to Narrative:Escape Tales in Medieval Iceland Theodore M. Andersson Spurðu menn þá á hverju sumri tíðendi landa þessa í milli, ok var þat síðan í minni fœrt ok haft eptir til frásagna. (At that time, people got news every summer between these countries [Iceland and Norway], and that was committed to memory and became the basis for stories.) —Separate Saga of Saint Olaf (Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson 1941–1951, 422) North Americans who came of age in the mid-twentieth century grew up in a culture of escape stories, beginning with the childhood reading of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (escape from pirates) and Kidnapped (escape from Redcoats). That reading was soon reinforced by national legends, outlaws escaping from posses with expert trackers, settlers escaping from Indians, and Indians escaping from the U.S. Army. The experience of World War II expanded the range by adding tales of escape from POW camps, submarines maintaining perfect silence in the deep to escape the attention of destroyers patrolling above, and isolated warships hoping to elude detection by reconnaissance aircraft likely to give their location away to pursuing squadrons. Frontiers and foreign shores were by no means prerequisite to this kind of story because there was also a steady supply of dramatic prison breaks on the home front. All these narratives were an odd combination of coded history, legend, and fiction. [End Page 379] Curiously, twelfth- and thirteenth-century Icelanders also came of age in a literary culture saturated by escape stories. Two of the best-known sagas, Gísla saga and Grettis saga, tell the stories of heroic figures who elude their pursuers for many years, only to succumb in the end. A number of such stories, located in Iceland, turn into tales of heroic last stands.1 Rather different are the stories of Icelanders who incur the anger of the Norwegian king and are either imprisoned or held hostage by him. They normally survive and are the stuff of genuine escape narratives. They belong in the context of the larger myth of Icelandic distinction and success in foreign parts. We will begin not with an Icelander but with a pretender to the Norwegian throne who claimed to be the son of King Magnús berfœttr (bare legs) (d. 1103) and who is known to history as Sigurðr slembir or slembidjákn (sham deacon). His story is told in Morkinskinna (ca. 1220) and Heimskringla III (ca. 1230), with some differences despite the fact that the author of the Heimskringla version made direct use of Morkinskinna.2 The latter tells us that Sigurðr was fostered in southern Norway but later became exceptionally well-traveled. His royal aspirations inspired him to kill the reigning monarch Haraldr gilli or gillikristr (servant of Christ) in 1136, but the people refused to accept him as a successor. The adventurous part of his story is set a little earlier when he approaches King Haraldr and asks to be acknowledged as his brother. Largely because of the opposition of Haraldr’s advisers, the request is turned down, and Sigurðr himself is detained. It is at this point that the escape drama is inserted (Ármann Jakobsson and Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson 2011, 175–6). In Morkinskinna, the captive is bound hand and foot and is placed in a boat, but he suspects foul play and devises a plan. Claiming a need to urinate, he asks to be taken to the gunwale. Two guards untie his hands, though not his feet, and stand on either side of him. He seizes each with a free hand and plunges them overboard, then dives in himself and, in the confusion, makes his escape to land before his captors, who are somewhat tipsy, can react. Heimskringla (Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson 1941–1951, 299) tells the story a little differently. Here, the captive is not bound hand and foot, and the urination fiction is abandoned, so it is not quite clear why he is allowed to approach the gunwale. The guards do not merely stand by [End Page 380] his sides but hold onto his clothes. Sigurðr nonetheless pitches them overboard and makes his escape. The...

Why Is There No Thanksgiving Period in Galatians? An Assessment of an Exegetical Commonplace

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.) Why is there no thanksgiving period in Galatians? Interpreters have long dealt with this question, affirming that the absence of a thanksgiving in Galatians is exegetically significant.1 To give a fresh examination of this question, I will first survey the exegetical literature to document the various explanations offered for why Paul did not include a thanksgiving, a survey that will show that reading these explanations from 1:6-10 is so prevalent as to be an exegetical commonplace. Second, I will demonstrate that, contrary to most exegetical opinion surveyed, the Galatians would probably not have expected a thanksgiving period or noted its absence, because they did not know Paul's usual practice of including one in his letters and because it was not a common epistolary convention of the time. Finally, I will show that Paul's omission of a thanksgiving in Galatians is to be explained not primarily from his astonished rebuke in 1:6-10 but by the astonishing form and content of his prescript in 1:1-5. I. AN EXEGETICAL COMMONPLACE A review of research on Galatians 1 shows that locating the reason for Paul's omission of an epistolary thanksgiving period2 in 1:6-10 has become an exegetical commonplace. Here is Gal 1:1-10 in the NRSV: 1 Paul an apostle-sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead- 2and all the members of God's family who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: 3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- 7not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! 9As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed! 10 Am I now seeking human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.3 Early in the twentieth century,4 Theodor Zahn wrote about Paul, [D]ie Regel bei ihm ist, des Danks in bezug auf die Zustande der Briefempfanger, den Brief selbst zu beginnen. Auch hiedurch [1:6] zeigt er, das er an den gal. Gemeinden zur Zeit keine Freude hat, die ihn zum Dank stimmen konnte.5 Ernest DeWitt Burton asserted that Paul's rebuke of the Galatians' behavior in 1:6-10 replaces a 6 George Duncan commented on 1:6, In Paul's letters (as indeed in ordinary correspondence) the opening salutation is often followed by a word of thanksgiving. With the Galatians, grace is being spurned. Hence, instead of a word of praise, the Epistle opens with an abrupt and passionate outburst.7 Referring to v. 6, Heinrich Schlier wrote, Dieser weist ebenfalls eine im Vergleich zu anderen paulinischen Briefen, die sich der antiken Sitte, der Adressaten an dieser Stelle dankend oder furbittend zu gedenken, in christlich modifizierten Sinn anschliessen, grosse Schroffheit auf.8 Herman N. Ridderbos argued that in Galatians Paul had no occasion to express gratitude; at 1:6, [t]he painful and dangerous alienation between the apostle and the churches must be discussed forthwith and headon.9 Donald Guthrie wrote, [I]n place of the usual thanksgiving the apostle gives vent to an unrestrained expression of amazement, which draws attention to a matter over which he clearly felt deeply.10Werner Georg Kummel commented, After the prescript, there follows no giving of thanks for those addressed, contrary to epistolary custom, but Paul begins immediately his references to the situation in the community. …

Forward

Harold Wells has, in so many wonderful ways, embodied the grace ofthe gospel: the love and freedom flowing from the heart ofour God who seeks to liberate and to renew the whole ofcreation. His career as a teacher, a minister and a teacher ofministers has made a significant and lasting impact on The United Church of Canada and on the wider ecumenical and theological world.As a theologian, and as a servant ofChrist in and for the Church, Professor Wells has been gracefully gifted with the charism of peace-making and peace-giving. As a scholar, his knowledge of historical and contextual theology is of considerable depth and breadth.Yet his work as an author and preacher is intimate and accessible for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear.

John Calvin – <i>Verbi Divini Minister</i>

Ministering the Word of God was a first priority for John Calvin. Through researching his frequent references to the ministry in his sermons and Bible commentaries, it was possible to arrive at a better understanding of his views on the office of pastor and teacher (pastor et doctor). Although the ministry is no imperium, the people of God should honour the servants of Christ on the ground of the dignity of their Master. The ministry is a servitude, but not without authority, so that by it the glory of God may excel among his people and in the world. This is also the ultimate goal of the minister’s preaching, and to this end it should be clear and to the point. This article particularly pursues Calvin’s views on the requirements for a sound proclamation of the Gospel. It is argued that Calvin’s particular consideration of the broader context of a biblical passage in his exegesis points to the fact that he had already established the sound hermeneutic rule of ascertaining the intention of the author and the understanding of the first readers to get to the true meaning. Thus, in his preaching the application of Biblical truths was topical and to the point.

"Super-Apostles, Servants of Christ, Servants of Satan": a Response

"Super-Apostles, Servants of Christ, Servants of Satan": a Response

Super-Apostles, Servants of Christ, and Servants of Satan

The term 'super-apostles' denotes the Jerusalem apostles. Paul uses it of the visiting missionaries in Corinth because he thinks it just possible that some of the Jerusalem apostles might be included amongst them. The visiting missionaries are both the 'servants of Christ' and the 'servants of Satan'. They represent themselves as associates of Peter, whom they regard as the model apostle. In Paul's view, they imitate the dual role of Peter (in the synoptic tradition) as spokesman of God and spokesman of Satan.

The Servants of Christ the King

The Servants of Christ the King

The El Dorado Ruled by the Ashanti Kings

Prehistoric archeology, the reconstruction of cultures which have ceased to exist, or of ones now greatly changed from their ancient forms, has traditionally been an important part of anthropology. “Dead” cultures have not had any appreciable attention in Practical Anthropology, however, because their study does not lend itself to the goals of the magazine in the obvious ways of some of the other articles. In the article which follows, and we hope occasionally in the future, we do publish a brief, non-technical account of an earlier period of a people, and with a purpose which is very much a part of PA's reason for being. The feeling that “native” peoples are inferior — racially, physically, intellectually inferior — dies hard even among the servants of Christ. Perhaps it will help to have this reminder that when they were first discovered, and before they were disrupted by the West, some. African states were politically, artistically, and technologically comparable to many European states of their time.