Martin Luther struggled to control his tongue. John Calvin fought the battle of faith with worldly weapons.Yet each man will always be remembered for the messages he declared-messages that still resound today. John Piper explores each of these men's lives, integrating Augustine's delight in God with Luther's emphasis on the Word and Calvin's exposition of Scripture. Through their strengths and struggles we can learn how to live better today. When we consider their lives, we behold the glory and majesty of God and find power to overcome our weaknesses.If ever you are complacent about sin, if ever you lose the joy of Jesus Christ, if ever you are dulled by the world's influence, let the lives of these men help you recapture the wonder of God. Book 1 in The Swans Are Not Silent series.

    Murray leads the reader back to the most basic question of all, 'What is a Christian?'

    The Christian Almanac is a day-by-day recounting of the significant moments of Christian and Western history, including famous births, deaths, world events, and notable anniversaries of the last two thousand years.

    Now it's here! The Zondervan NASB Study Bible is handsdown the most comprehensive, up-to-date study Bible available in the New American Standard Bible translation. And it's the first to use the updated NASB: the 1995 edition of today's most literal English translation, meticulously refined for optimal clarity. Combining this widely respected word-for-word approach with study tools that represent the best in conservative scholarship, the Zondervan NASB Study Bible is like having a complete resource library at your fingertips! At the heart of the Zondervan study Bible is its abundance of in-text study notes. Over 20,000 notes, adapted from the best-selling NIV Study Bible, draw on today's leading experts to provide valuable commentary right where you need it. No need to flip pages to obtain important insights on biblical words, verses, and passages. Here is by far the most complete, detailed set of study notes available today for the New American Standard Bible. And it just gets better from there. An exclusive, center-column reference system guides your study with over 100,000 references. In-text maps give you an instant feel for biblical geography. An extensive NASB concordance and indexes steer you swiftly to key verses and study resources. And there's much, much more. Simply put, if you're an NASB lover, this is the study Bible you've been waiting for. Contemporary. Exhaustive beyond description. Easy to use and remarkably practical. The Zondervan NASB Study Bible. For the dividends of a lifetime, it's the best investment you'll ever make.

    Now 200 different ministries in the Los Angeles International Church reach out to thousands of residents. Innovative programs minister to AIDS victims, the homeless, battered women, drug and alcohol addicts, and abused children-offering hope and a chance for a better life. The Church That Never Sleeps shows how God can use this incredible ministry as a model to make dreams come true in neighborhoods across the nation.

    theological history of the Seventh day adventist church

    Newly translated by Maria Boulding, O.S.B., whose masterful translation of Augustines Confessions in the same series has been praised as being of a different level of excellence from practically anything else in the market (Bishop Rowan Williams, Monmouth, England). As the psalms are a microcosm of the Old Testament, so the Expositions of the Psalms can be seen as a microcosm of Augustinian thought. They recapitulate and focus the experiences of Augustines personal life, his theological reflections, and his pastoral concerns as Bishop of Hippo. This first volume of the Exposition of the Psalms in Sister Maria Boulding's fine translation fills a long existing vacuum among the translated works of Augustine available to contemporary readers. Her clear and attractive translation presents Augustine's expression of his own spirituality, which necessarily entails his most valuable theological insights. The comprehensive and scholarly 51-page introduction by Michael Fiedrowicz offers a key to the Psalms' various depths of meaning and shows how they are a microcosm of Augustinian thought. Mary T. Clark, RSCJ Author of: Augustine in the Outstanding Christian Thinkers Series

    Using this evidence, Bruce Winter not only opens a fascinating vista on day-to-day living in the Graeco-Roman world but, more importantly, helps us understand what happened to the Christian community after Paul left Corinth. As Winter shows, the origin of many of the problems Paul dealt with in 1 Corinthians can be traced to culturally determined responses to aspects of life in Corinth. The significance of the role that culture played in the life of the Corinthian Christians has either been ignored or underestimated in explaining the reasons for their difficulties after Paul left. Winter first examines the extent to which Paul communicated alternative ways of behaving while he was in Corinth. Winter then explores the social changes that occurred in Corinth after Paul left. Severe grain shortages, the relocation of the Isthmian Games, the introduction of a new federal imperial cult, the withdrawal of kosher meat from the official market-all of these cultural events had a substantial impact on the life of the emerging Christian community. Accentuated with photos of relevant archaeological artifacts, this volume provides a significant new perspective from which to read Paul's Corinthian correspondence.

    

    Orson's most well-known accomplishment was as a Mormon missionary to Jerusalem (1840-1842) to dedicate the land for the return of the Jews. Civil authorities in Jerusalem invited the development of a five-acre hillside garden, in honor of Orson Hyde, which was completed in 1979.Participating in the Mormon drama of crossing the plains in the U.S. several times and settling the West, Orson was a colonizing leader in western Iowa, also in what became western Nevada, and in central Utah. He was a major figure in Utah's Black Hawk Indian War (1865-1872).Using facts, details and personal experiences never before in print, Myrtle Hyde, the Hyde family genealogist, has used diaries, letters, notes, documents, reports, articles, speeches and letters to present a real-life depiction of Orson Hyde, apostle, teacher, missionary, orator, scriptorian, journalist, editor, lawyer, judge, statesman, colonizer, and administrator; also the husband of eight wives, the father of thirty-three children. Contains an extensive Index and Bibliography.

    By exploring these writings from within their own theological perspectives, John Behr also offers a theological critique of the prevailing approach to the asceticism of Late Antiquity. Writing before monasticism became the dominant paradigm of Christian asceticism, Irenaeus and Clement afford fascinating glimpses of alternative approaches. For Irenaeus, asceticism is the expression of man living the life of God in all dimensions of the body, that which is most characteristically human and in the image of God. Human existence as a physical being includes sexuality as a permanent part of the framework within which males and females grow towards God. In contrast, Clement depicts asceticism as man's attempt at a godlike life to protect the rational element, that which is distinctively human and in the image of God, from any possible disturbance and threat, or from the vulnerability of dependency, especially of a physical or sexual nature. Here human sexuality is strictly limited by the finality of procreation and abandoned in the resurrection. By paying careful attention to these two writers, Behr offers challenging material for the continuing task of understanding ourselves as human beings.

    So popular was Father John during his years of ministry that Kronstadt became a pilgrimage site replete with peddlers selling souvenir photographs, postcards, and commemorative mugs. A Prodigal Saint follows Father John's development from activist priest to venerated spiritual leader and, after his death, to his elevation to sainthood in 1990. We see both the inner life of an aspiring saint and the symbiotic relationship between a living icon and his followers. Father John represented a fundamentally new type of religious behavior and a new standard of sanctity in Late Imperial Russia. He ministered to the poor of Kronstadt, creating shelters and employment programs and participating in the temperance movement. In the process he acquired a reputation for prayerful intercession that soon spread beyond Kronstadt. When he was asked to minister to the dying Alexander III in 1894, his fame became international as he attracted correspondents from the United States and Europe. In his later years he allied himself increasingly with the radical right, which has had momentous implications for the Russian Orthodox Church in the twentieth century.

    For the first time all the evidence for the role which relatives of Jesus played in the early church is assembled and assessed. Dr. Bauckham discusses a wide range of evidence, not only from the New Testament but also from the Church Fathers, the New Testament Apocrypha, rabbinic literature and Palestinian archaeology. The letter of Jude, in particular, proves to have much to teach us about the theology of the brothers of Jesus and their circle. It illuminates their exegetical methods and their Christology and shows both to have been influential contributions to the development of early Christianity. This study shows that this neglected New Testament book is far more important for the study of early Christianity than has hitherto been recognized. By setting the letter of Jude within the context of the evidence for the role of relatives of Jesus in the early church, new insights can be revealed into the letter and early Jewish Christianity.

    Robinson and H. Dean Garrett draw from numerous sources to bring to life the history and doctrine of the Doctrine and Covenants in an easy-to-read format. Using original diaries, journals, maps, and atlases, they set a historical context that helps clarify what is being said in the scriptures. Understand latter-day scripture in a whole new light!

    

    Insights into the cultural and social world of the audience are combined with analysis of the author's rhetorical strategy and ideology to create a rich, three-dimensional reading that helps unravel key issues in the interpretation of the epistle. David deSilva's reflections on application concluding each section also make his commentary valuable to seminarians and pastors seeking to make Hebrews relevant to today's world.

    This book examines St Symeon from within the Byzantine mystical tradition, looking at him as both a highly personal and a very traditional ecclesiastical writer.For the first time in modern scholarship, this study explores St Symeon's attitude to Scripture and to church worship; his relations with his spiritual father, Symeon the Studite; and the Studite tradition in general.

    

    His writings are an important source for the history of early Christian doctrine. This book provides full English translations, with explanatory commentary, of his most important works. The introduction covers Cyril's life; his historical and archaeological context; his theology; and contemporary doctrine and practice. This will be essential reading for students and scholars of patristics, and those studying the history of the early Church and late antiquity.

    Attracted by Calvin's reforms, Castellio moved to Geneva in the 1540s, where he wrote his influential work on educational reform. Ironically, it was Castellio's work as a scholar in Geneva, which was to lead to his falling out with Calvin, and ultimately his forced departure from Geneva and his resettlement in Basle. Exiled from Geneva, Castellio soon attracted a circle of like-minded reformers who opposed the intolerant attitude of Calvin, exemplified by the execution of the heretical Michael Servetus. It is Castellio's residence in Basle, where he developed his 'liberal' humanist approach to religious toleration in opposition to Calvin's dogmatic othodoxy, which forms the core of this study. It explores what toleration meant and how both sides argued their case. Much attention is paid to Castellio's most important work 'On Heretics', in which he argues against the execution of those who err in the faith. By telling the fascinating tale of Castellio's life, this work illuminates the furious debate which he unleashed and how it marked a crucial stage in the development of Protestant thought.

    Located in what is now southern Turkey, Antioch was the capital of Ancient Syria, a vital marketplace at the crossroads between East and West. It was here that St. Paul preached to the first gentile community to be called Christians and where a Greek-speaking Jewish culture flourished alongside Roman, Egyptian, and Near Eastern cults. A large middle-class shared in the wealth and culture of the city, and art abounded in numerous forms, especially in beautiful mosaics depicting scenes from mythology and everyday life. Featuring 118 objects excavated from the city's ruins, all reproduced in full color, Antioch: The Lost Ancient City recreates the spatial sensation, visual splendor, and cultural richness of this urban center.Devastated by an earthquake in 526 C.E., as well as by fires, plagues and invasions by Persians, Antioch survived only in memory through ancient written accounts until the 1930s, when excavations revealed a wealth of finds from the private houses of its inhabitants, including a large cache of floor mosaics. In addition, archaeologists found several churches, a stadium, a circus, a theater, and several baths. This catalog displays and describes the excavated artifacts--mosaics, sculpture, glass, metalwork, coins--within their architectural and cultural contexts, thereby evoking the street life as well as the domestic lives of Antioch's citizens. Among the treasures are the mosaics The Drinking Contest between Dionysos and Herakles and The Judgment of Paris, the Antioch chalice, gold jewelry from Syria, bronze tyche figurines, and mosaics of river and sea deities. Antioch emerges as a compelling model of a melting-pot city, one that challenges our own notions of civic community and diversity.The contributors are Susan Boyd, Bernadette Brooten, John J. Dobbins, Anna Gonosov�, Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Florent Heintz, Sandra Knudsen, Christine Kondoleon, Michael Maas, William Metcalf, James Russell, Sarolta Tak�cs, Cornelius Vermeule III, and Fikret Yegul.EXHIBITION SCHEDULE:The Worcester Art MuseumWorcester, MassachusettsOctober 7, 2000-February 4, 2001The Cleveland Art MuseumCleveland, OhioMarch 18, 2001-June 3, 2001The Baltimore Museum of ArtBaltimore, MarylandSeptember 16, 2001-December 30, 2001

    For an eye-opening understanding of Acts, readers discover clues to its structure and meaning hidden in Isaiah and the new Exodus message."

    Founders of Christian eremitism, these heroes of asceticism and virtue earned a reputation as much by their lifestyle as by their writings which have been translated into all languages and distributed throughout the Christian world.

    Scott marshals all his narrative power for the sake of love - love of family, place and legacy.

    AUGUSTUS NEANDER (1789-1850). Neander finds that the introduction of Christianity caused a stir in morality and thinking in those first few hundred years that propelled civilization forward. And precisely because of the lack of institutions, early Christians had a greater freedom to explore the impact of Revelation on their souls. He discusses different Christian sects, diverging doctrines and the controversies that followed, the role of Jews in Christianity, the Gnostics, and eventually the establishment of the Church. Neander also talks separately about the great doctrines of Christianity, dealing with the nature of God, the name of God, Creation, the Trinity, and numerous other issues that have been of great concern to Christian thinkers throughout history. Anyone interested in the history of the Christianity will find a wealth of information in this well-researched book.