Idolatry

There are various explanations for why humans turn to religion; these include revelation as an origin, the natural knowledge-of-god, anthropological and psychological explanations. These explanations look to where the concept of religion originated. Why do people believe in a higher being and why do individuals act according to the values and practices related to their beliefs? These theories and explanations look to find the reasoning. Revelation as origin is the idea that religion originated…

The word “saint” evokes many different images in the mind of men and women from all different sorts of religious backgrounds. Some people think of saints as someone acting in a particularly good or moral way in a specific moment in time, such as when a mother exclaims to another “your child is such a saint!” Others associate saints like Saint Valentine and Saint Nicholas as cartoonish figures that represent their related holiday, while others still have a medieval and archaic image of men and…

The Reformations that produced the Lutheran, Calvinist, Catholics, English and Anabaptists faiths was not only brought upon a change in doctrine, but also a change in the role of secular authority. Originally, it was the Roman Catholic Church, specifically the Pope, which controlled the lives of the people. However, Luther’s reform set the path for change. As people separated from the church, they developed the roles they believed the secular authorities should have in religious matters. In the…

Islam spread throughout North Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia rapidly after it was founded. Due to Islam discouraging the use of figurative images in religious contexts, pushing Islamic artists to create and develop a rich decoration style of non-figural images, consisting of such ornament that make a hallmark of Islamic work. Islamic decoration includes complex geometric patterns, calligraphy and scrolling vines better known as arabesques. Islam has affected Islamic architecture…

Orientation Identification: The terms “Hispanic” and “Latina/o” are normally interchangeable, even though most governmental and scholarly documents have a preference for the use of “Hispanic”, while religious affiliations and grassroots incline to the latter one[ Suzanne Oboler, Ethnic Labels, Latino Lives: Identity and the Politics of (Re)Presentation in the United States (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995), 3.]. In the past decades, those terms have come into general use in the…

Because it has typological inferences to a historical king, Satan and The Antichrist, this chapter presents interpretive challenges. The same three-fold typology is found in Daniel chapter 8 around the character and events of Antiochus Epiphanes. The previous chapter, Ezekiel 27, contains historical information about the very wealthy King of Tyre. Located on the Mediterranean Sea, Tyre was a major trading center and jewel of the ancient world. As we segue into chapter 28, the King of Tyre is…

Many Christians today struggle to define the right relationship with God. We often do not believe that we need to follow God’s instructions or the words from the chose prophets in the Old Testaments. Old testaments were written many centuries ago. Christians nowadays often conclude that the instructions and words of God from the Old testaments are too old to be reflected with their daily Christian living in 21st centuries. Instead of ignoring the importance of Old testaments, we need to…

Abortion is a very touchy and seems to be a very recent issue in today’s society, but it is interesting to know that abortion is actually an age-old issue. It’s been actually a bigger issue before than it is now; abortion has been hiding in the shadows of larger issues and has passed through the centuries rarely noticed and discussed. It is noteworthy to see what the early church and society thought about abortion and why they believed the way they did. Abortion has recently been a big issue and…

“Celebrity worship is a prominent issue in Australia affecting girls between the ages of 10 and 21.” To what extent is this statement true? Introduction and Background Information Celebrity worship syndrome is a personality disorder that is becoming more apparent in 21st century Australia, and it is estimated that 36% of the general population have it. Several studies have shown that celebrity worship is more prevalent in adolescents, especially teen and preteen girls. When the British boy…

“Jerusalem sinned grievously,” (Lam. 1.8), and as a result, “the Lord handed me [Jerusalem] over to those whom I cannot withstand” (Lam. 1.14). These verses indicate that the people of Jerusalem had upset Yahweh by worshipping other deities. This idolatry went against the terms that Solomon and David had agreed to in their covenants with Yahweh, and this blatant disrespect of Yahweh caused him to react negatively. Yahweh executed the punishment part of his promise to David and Solomon, and…