#uncircumscribable

[cyoautzbdh]

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[orthodoxadventure]

The doctrinal significance of icons.

Here we come to the real heart of the Iconoclast dispute. Granted that icons are not idolatrous; granted that they are useful for instruction; but are they not only permissible but necessary? It it essential to have icons? The Iconodules held that it is, because icons safeguard a full and proper doctrine of the Incarnation. Iconoclasts and Iconodules agreed that God cannot be represented in His eternal nature: 'no man has seen God at any time' (John i, 18). But, the Iconodules continued, the Incarnation has made a representational religious art possible: God can be depicted because He became man and took flesh. Material images, argued John of Damascus, can be made of Him who took a material body:

Of old God the incorporeal and uncircumscribed was not depicted at all. But now that God has appeared in the flesh and lived among men, I make an image of the God who can be seen. I do not worship matter but I worship the Creator of matter, who for my sake became material and deigned to dwell in matter, who through matter effected my salvation. I will not cease from worshipping the matter through which my salvation has been effected.

The Iconoclasts, by repudiating all representations of God, failed to take full account of the Incarnation. They fell, as so many puritans have done, into a kind of dualism. Regarding matter as a defilement, they wanted a religion freed from all contact with what is material; for they thought that what is spiritual must be non-material. But this is to betray the Incarnation, by allow no place to Christ's humanity, to His body; it is to forget that man's body as well as his soul must be saved and transfigured. The Iconoclast controversy is thus closely linked to the earlier disputes about Christ's person. It was not merely a controversy about religious art, but about the Incarnation and the salvation of man.

God took a material body, thereby proving that matter can be redeemed: 'The Word made flesh has deified the flesh,' said John of Damascus. God has 'deified' matter, making it 'spirit-bearing'; and if flesh became a vehicle of the Spirit, then so -- though in a different way - can wood and paint. The Orthodox doctrine of icons is bound up with the Orthodox belief that the whole of God's creation, material as well as spiritual, is to be redeemed and glorified. In the words of Nicholas Zernov (what he says of Russians is true of Orthodox in general):

[Icons] were for the Russians not merely paintings. They were dynamic manifestations of man's spiritual power to redeem creation through beauty and art. The colour and lines of the [icons] were not meant to imitate nature; the artists aimed at demonstrating that men, animals, and plants, and the whole cosmos, could be rescued from their present state of degradation and restored to their proper 'Image'. The [icons] were pledges of the coming victory of a redeemed creation over the fallen one. . . . The artistic perfection of an icon was not only reflection of that celestial glory -- it was a concrete example of matter restored to its original harmony and beauty, and serving as a vehicle of the Spirit. The icons were part of the transfigured cosmos.

As John of Damascus puts it:

The icon is a song of triumph, and a revelation, and an enduring monument to the victory of the saints and the disgrace of the demons.

-- Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church

#Kallistos Ware #Christianity #Orthodox Christianity #Iconography #Theology

[altrodiletto]

The loathsome mask has fallen, the man remains Sceptreless, free, uncircumscribed, but man Equal, unclassed, tribeless, and nationless, Exempt from awe, worship, degree, the king Over himself.

― Percy Bysshe Shelley

#percy bysshe shelley

[breath-of-venus]

O hundred-handed Hekate;

O Serpent with a thousand scales;

Far-Worker, Nothing-Shirker

Face hidden by a saffron veil;

This much have you made known:

You are neither goddess (though it pleases some to call you so)

Nor beast (despite your scales and crescent horns)

Nor woman (though you may take a maiden's form)

Nor human (though we aspire to call you mother, lover, kin)

Nor any combination thereof or therein.

What then art thou?

What, then?

What?

TITAN.

First Force!

Primal fira that formed

Out of the void; from the Abyss

Came They: old embodiments

Of Universal Law: some of cold

And some of flame; some of generation;

Some of gravity, and sound, and speed;

Some of degradation. But your lot, Hekate

Was greater than these by far; for yours

Was not just Earth, Sea and Stars, but

The borders that divide them; not places,

But the paths between, which fork and branch

And subdivide. O Queen of Subdivision,

Of Void and Voices; Queen of Choices

And of their consequence: your sacrament

Is decision.

O Titaness unchained! Release the one who knows your name:

She who stands before you and proclaims:

Gaia is titan, is great, but is ruled by Demeter; Pontus is titan, is great, but is ruled by Poseidon; Helios is titan, is great, but is ruled by Phoibos. But Hekate, titan, greatest of the great, is alone unruled; her path unchecked; her orbit uncircumscribed; her jurisdiction unlimited by divine decree; and therefore is it said of her:

"Before you, all gods tremble…"

As do I.

As do I.

As do I.

- The Hekataeon, by Jack Grayle

#the Hekataeon #witchcraft #Hekate #art gallery

[elizabethanism]

'Life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning to the end. Is it not the task of the novelist to convey this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit, whatever aberration of complexity it may display?'

—Virginia Woolf

#virginia woolf #Life

[hoursofreading]

Bonaventure took Francis of Assisi’s lay intuitive genius and spelled it out in an entire philosophy and theology. He wrote: “The magnitude of things . . . clearly manifests . . . the wisdom and goodness of the triune God, who by power, presence and essence exists uncircumscribed in all things.” [1] God is “within all things but not enclosed; outside all things, but not excluded; above all things, but not aloof; below all things, but not debased.” [2] Bonaventure spoke of God as one “whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” [3] Therefore the origin, magnitude, multitude, beauty, fullness, activity, and order of all created things are the very “footprints” and “fingerprints” (vestigia) of God. Now that is quite a lovely and very safe universe to live in. Welcome home! Bonaventure continues: Whoever, therefore, is not enlightened by such splendor of created things is blind; whoever is not awakened by such outcries is deaf; whoever does not praise God because of all these effects is dumb; whoever does not discover the First Principle from such signs is a fool. Therefore, open your eyes, alert the ears of your spirit, open your lips and apply your heart so that in all creatures you may see, hear, praise, love and worship, glorify and honor your God, lest the whole world rise against you. [4] It is hard to imagine how different the last 800 years might have been if this truly catholic vision had formed more Christians. But our common seeing has been partial, punitive, and prejudicial. The individual was allowed to decide and discriminate as to where and if God’s image would be recognized and honored. Sinners, heretics, witches, Muslims, slaves, Jews, blacks, natives, buffalo, whales, elephants, land, and water were all the losers. And we dared to call ourselves monotheists or believers in one coherent world. Until we weep over these sins and publicly own our own complicity in the destruction of God’s people and God’s creation, we are surely doomed to remain blind; and we will likely keep looking for “acceptable” scapegoats. We always think the problem is elsewhere, whereas the Gospel keeps the pressure of conversion on me. As far as the soul is concerned, no one else is your problem. You are your problem. “You be converted, and live” says the biblical tradition (Mark 1:15). Jesus tried to keep us within and connected to the great chain of being by taking away from us the power to scapegoat and project onto enemies and outsiders. We were not to break the chain by hating, eliminating, or expelling the other. He commanded us to love the enemy and gave us himself as universal Victim so we would get the point—and stop creating victims. Richard Rohr

#quote #christianity

[quotidiansacred]

Rohr gave this presence a name. For him, the Cosmic Christ is the spirit that is embedded in—and makes up—everything in the universe, and Jesus is the embodied version of that spirit that we can fall in love with and relate to. (Their simultaneous distinctness and oneness can be difficult for an outsider to grasp; Rohr describes “The Universal Christ” as a sequel to “The Divine Dance,” his book about the mysteries of the Trinity.) He uses many of the same verses as the early Franciscans to support his claims. “Christ’s much larger, universe-spanning role was described quite clearly in—and always in the first chapters of—John’s Gospel, Colossians, Ephesians, Hebrews, and 1 John, and shortly thereafter in the writings of the early Eastern fathers,” he writes. He believes that, after the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches, in 1054 A.D., the Eastern Church held onto a more expansive vision of Christ, but the Western Church increasingly focussed on Jesus the man. “We gradually limited the Divine Presence to the single body of Jesus, when perhaps it is as ubiquitous as light itself—and uncircumscribable by human boundaries.” The notion of Jesus as a god-king—wearing a golden crown and seated on a throne—was pushed by political rulers, who used it to justify their own power, but it limited our understanding of divinity. “It was like trying to see the universe with a too-small telescope,” Rohr writes.

[washwashgalaxy]

UNCIRCUMSCRIBED By Dr. Kenneth Maswabi

Uncircumscribed There is no escape From this circle of time and timelines Except through the roof of your mind (imagination) Or the portal of your heart into the substance of your being Go out and play the game of consciousness In timelessness and nothingness, you will never get bored, lonely or lost Silence or Stillness is the substance of being You exist inside the dimensionless realm There is…

View On WordPress

[wetslug]

For the nickname thing could you just be gabe? Gabriel? Gabon? Gabonite? Gah? Beega? Gabai? Bees? A thousand bees?

these are all good suggestions...im particularly drawn to 'gabonite' and 'a thousand bees'. sadly id have to convince ppl to call me that irl and that might be difficult

#some people do call me 'gab' and english speakers when its my legal name usually pronounce it 'gabriel' lmao #REAL fans of me from 2014-2017 remember me going by 'garen' which translated to an uncircumscribed horse or smth #sorry i looked it up its 'a castrated horse' #im going insane why did i think that some horses were circumcized...

[santoschristos]

The loathsome mask has fallen, the man remains Sceptreless, free, uncircumscribed, but man Equal, unclassed, tribeless, and nationless, Exempt from awe, worship, degree, the king Over himself; just, gentle, wise… ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound

[indogaysian]

The writer seems constrained, not by his own free will but by some powerful and unscrupulous tyrant who has him in thrall, to provide a plot, to provide comedy, tragedy, love interest, and an air of probability embalming the whole so impeccable that if all his figures were to come to life they would find themselves dressed down to the last button of their coats in the fashion of the hour. The tyrant is obeyed; the novel is done to a turn. But sometimes, more and more often as time goes by, we suspect a momentary doubt, a spasm of rebellion, as the pages fill themselves in the customary way. Is life like this? Must novels be like this? Look within and life, it seems, is very far from being "like this". Examine for a moment an ordinary mind on an ordinary day. The mind receives a myriad impressions--trivial, fantastic, evanescent, or engraved with the sharpness of steel. From all sides they come, an incessant shower of innumerable atoms; and as they fall, as they shape themselves into the life of Monday or Tuesday, the accent falls differently from of old; the moment of importance came not here but there; so that, if a writer were a free man and not a slave, if he could write what he chose, not what he must, if he could base his work upon his own feeling and not upon convention, there would be no plot, no comedy, no tragedy, no love interest or catastrophe in the accepted style, and perhaps not a single button sewn on as the Bond Street tailors would have it. Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end. Is it not the task of the novelist to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit, whatever aberration or complexity it may display, with as little mixture of the alien and external as possible? We are not pleading merely for courage and sincerity; we are suggesting that the proper stuff of fiction is a little other than custom would have us believe it.

Virginia Woolf, Modern Fiction.

#virginia woolf #modernism #writing #words #quotes #w #*

[beguines]

A dark and luminous halo envelops all life, but we seldom perceive it. "The perception of glory is a rare occurrence in our lives. We fail to wonder." Indeed theology has too often placed belief ahead of wonder, and contained glory in an external realm, inaccessible to humanity except in spectacular events that display the might of God. I have been suggesting that the passion at the heart of theology, what keeps us moving toward this strange mode of speech and writing, is neither the illusion of security and stability offered by well-structured metaphysical systems, nor even our crucial social projects. It is rather the lure of an elusive, misty halo of life. Metaphysical statements and prophetic pronouncements are some of our responses in this passion for glory. As Christian theologians, we see in glory the manifestation of divinity in creation, of the investment and care of God for even the smallest of things. Other metaphors may likewise seek to convey that elusive quality that presents itself to us as alluring, excessive and worthy of profound reverence. "God" may not be integral to such metaphors. Yet we do not need to surrender our claims to perceive the back of God passing by in the ordinary events, in strange places or unlikely situations. We keep trying to convey this uncircumscribed spirit—however inaccurately and distortedly.

Mayra Rivera, "Glory: The First Passion of Theology?", Polydoxy: Theology of Multiplicity and Relation, ed. Catherine Keller and Laurel C. Schneider

#mayra rivera #polydoxy

[orthodoxadventure]

Master of all things, Lord of heaven and earth and of all creation, visible and invisible, you are seated on a throne of glory and look upon the depths. You are without beginning, invisible, incomprehensible, uncircumscribed, unchangeable, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the great God and Saviour, our hope. He is the image of your goodness, the perfect seal of your likeness— revealing you, the Father, in himself—living Word, true God, Wisdom before the ages, Life, Sanctification, Power, and the true Light. Through him the Holy Spirit was made manifest, the Spirit of truth, the grace of sonship, the pledge of the inheritance to come, the first fruit of the eternal good things, the life-giving power, the source of sanctification. Through him every rational and intelligent creature is empowered, worshipping you and ascribing to you the everlasting hymn of glory, because all things are your servants. For Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Authorities, Powers, and the many-eyed Cherubim praise you. Around you stand the Seraphim; the one with six wings and the other with six wings, and with two they cover their faces, with two their feet, and with two they fly, as they cry to one another with unceasing voices and never-silent hymns of glory, singing, crying, exclaiming, and saying the triumphal hymn:

Holy, holy, holy Lord of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of your glory! Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!

With these blessed Powers, O Master who loves mankind, we sinners also cry out and say: Holy are you—truly, all-holy—and there is no measure to the majesty of your holiness. You are righteous in all your works, because you have brought all things to pass for us in justice and true judgment

-  Anaphora of Saint Basil the Great

#Christianity #Orthodox Christianity #Saint Basil the Great #Prayer #Catholicism

[coffeeman777]

Affirmation of Faith

GOD

I unequivocally believe and affirm that YHWH, the God of Israel, is the only true God, and that He is One (Deuteronomy 4:35,39; 6:4; 2 Samuel 7:2; Isaiah 43:10,11). I believe that YHWH is complex in His unity, eternally manifest in three Persons: Father, Son, and Spirit; distinct, yet so inextricably linked that one cannot be separated from another. Bound in one essence, the three particularly different facets of YHWH share the same mind, the same will, and the same heart, united as a single Being (John 1:1-51, 10:30; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, 13:14; Matthew 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 John 5:7-8; Philippians 2:5-8).

YHWH is a transcendent, immaterial, personal Spirit, uncircumscribable, perfect in holiness, knowledge, wisdom, power, justice, and love (Psalm 7:11, 89:13, 103:6; Isaiah 6:3; Romans 16:27; Psalm 147;4-5; Matthew 19:26; Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5; 1 John 4:8).

YHWH is the uncaused Cause, the Prime Mover, the original Creator of all things. YHWH is maximally perfect, supreme over all, flawless in every way. YHWH is all-powerful and all-knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures (angels and humans).

a. The Father: God "The Father" is the Person of YHWH who occupies a transcendent, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, immaterial, paternal position over the whole of the Creation. God the Father is infinite and invisible (1 Timothy 1:17; Romans 1:20), and can only be seen in theophanies (such as the burning bush) that He creates or manifests. God the Father concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of humans; He hears and answers the prayers of His people; and He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ.

b. The Holy Spirit: God the "Holy Spirit" is the Person of YHWH dynamically present on earth, the promised Helper who convicts humans of sin, and regenerates, indwells, and guides the children of God in Christ into all truth, and gives gifts to them as He wills, that they may minister as Christ would to the lost. The Holy Spirit indwells and regenerates new believers at the moment of initial faith, and enables them forsake sin and become genuinely holy. The supreme evidence of the Spirit-filled life is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

I further believe that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a distinct and separate experience from that of regeneration, occurring either subsequent to or simultaneous with salvation, evidenced by a supernatural dynamic in the Christian’s life, enabling that person to be a bold and more effective witness for Christ. Additionally, those who've received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit should experience the manifestations of some or all the supernatural gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 (Luke 11:13; John 7:37-39, 14:16, 17, 16:7-14; Acts 2:39-48).

JESUS CHRIST

I believe that Jesus Christ was and is YHWH expressed in the form of man, wholly unique, completely God and completely human; the Son of God (Luke 1:26-38; John 14:1-3; Acts 2:36, 3:14, 15; Philippians 2:5-12; 1 Timothy 3:16). In the Person of Jesus Christ, one sees the last, best, and complete theophany of YHWH (Matthew 11:27; Colossians 1:15, 2:9; John 1:18).

I believe that Jesus existed eternally prior to His humanity as the divine Word of God, the personal expression of YHWH, through which God created everything, and through which God interacted with His creation. I believe that the Word become a genuine human being at the Incarnation, and took on a real, sinless human nature, in addition to His divine nature.

Jesus is the perfect revelation of God (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus doesn’t merely reveal part of what God is like; rather, the fullness of God is in Christ, and revealed through Christ.

Jesus is the one and only Savior of humankind. I believe that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, that He was raised from the dead, that He was glorified by God the Father, that He was given all power and authority over all creation, that He now sits enthroned in Heaven, and that He will physically return to judge and rule over the earth (2 Timothy 4:1).

THE BIBLE

I believe the 66 books of the Bible to be true God-given revelation. I believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments (2 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 1:23-25; 2 Peter 1:19-21). I believe the books of the Bible were completely inerrant in the original autographs, and that the Bible, faithfully translated, is in any language authoritative and inerrant in all that it teaches. I believe in the principle of Sola Scriptura, that the Bible alone is the only valid source of Christian doctrine, and that while church history and tradition have their place, the Scriptures alone are the final authority in the life of the Christian.

I believe in the sufficiency of Scripture; I agree with Article Six of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Divines,

"Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary for salvation."

and I agree with the Westminster Divines,

"All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them."

I hold to the historical-grammatical method of interpretation of Scripture.

SIN

I believe that humankind is fallen and naturally sinful. Because of Adam's sin, who represented all of humanity, all suffer the consequences of Adam's sin: sickness, physical weakness, and death, as well as the natural state of total depravity (which does not mean that all humans are as evil as they possibly could be; but that everything the natural human thinks, does, or says is in some respect influenced by sin; we naturally desire to do evil, and do not always recognize it as such). All human beings are personally guilty of sin, as all have become sinners by their own free choice (Genesis 6:12; Exodus 32:7; Deuteronomy 9:12, 32:5; Judges 2:19; Hosea 9:9; Psalms 14:2-3; Isaiah 53:6; Ecclesiastes 7:29; Romans 3:23, 5:12); all have freely chosen to do evil after clearly understanding the distinction between good and evil, and thus are sinners (James 4:17). As sinners, we are all lost, undone, without hope in the world, and without God (Romans 3:19-23; Galatians 3:22; Ephesians 2:1,12).

SALVATION

I believe that all humankind deserves God's wrath, and that the only way to be saved from that punishment is through genuine faith in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and was raised for our justification (Acts 4:12; Romans 4:1-9, 25; 5:1-11; Ephesians 1:3-15). I believe that salvation is available to everyone, and is made possible by God's grace, and is achieved by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus' death was a propitiation, an appeasement of God's wrath, a fitting and acceptable substitute for the judgment of the sin of humankind as a whole, that justifies God in forgiving sins and showing mercy.

Salvation occurs at the point of initial faith and repentance. We are at that time forgiven and justified in the sight of God (Titus 3:5). We are regenerated, made spiritually alive, by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is in regeneration that we are made partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), and made new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Our spirit is actually changed from a state of death to a state of life (Ephesians 2:1-6).

Good works are central to the Christian life, and absolutely essential, and yet they are in no way salvific. Good works do not build upon the work of Christ that saves us, nor do they maintain it. Good works are the fruit of salvation, not the cause of it; they show that we have been saved (Acts 3:19, 20; Romans 4:1-5; 5:1; 10:9-10; Ephesians 2:8-10; 1 John 2:4, 3:4-10, 5:1-3, 18).

THE SACRAMENTS

I believe that there are two sacraments which are commanded by the Lord Jesus: the rite of Baptism, by immersion in water in the name of the Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 8:38; Romans 6:1-4; 1 Peter 3:21); and the Eucharist, a memorial of the death, resurrection and second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 22:13-20: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

Concerning the sacraments, I agree with the Westminster Divines:

"Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God, to represent Christ and His benefits; and to confirm our interest in Him: as also, to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church and the rest of the world; and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ, according to His Word. There is, in every sacrament, a spiritual relation, or sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified: whence it comes to pass, that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other."

a. Baptism: The rite of water baptism is a sign and seal of God's covenant of salvation, depicting the freeing from sin that occurs with regeneration, and serves to confirm the inclusion of the believer into the New Covenant, accomplishing the same covenantal purpose that circumcision did for Israel. The new believer is buried in death, and raised to new life; reckoned dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ; identified with Christ in His death and resurrection; and declared a partaker of the New Covenant.

Baptism is to be done by full immersion in water, in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38). Any baptized Christian may perform the rite for another believer (Matthew 28:16-20). The rite of Baptism is not a suggestion, but a command, to be immediately and sincerely obeyed by all who call upon the name of the Lord.

b. The Eucharist: The Eucharist (Holy Communion, or the Lord's Supper), is a perpetual remembrance of the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on our behalf. The Church is to observe the Eucharist regularly, to commemorate Jesus’ death until He returns, and to continually confirm our interest in Him.

This sacrament is not at all a sacrifice of Christ, for Christ has been sacrificed once for all (Hebrews 10:10); rather, the Eucharist is a remembrance of that one offering up of Himself on the cross, and "a spiritual oblation of all possible praise unto God, for the same." The elements are symbols that represent the Lord's body and blood; the bread and wine do not literally become the Lord's body and blood.

The Eucharist may be offered and received by any baptized Christian who has a clear conscience before God, harboring no unconfessed sin (1 Corinthians 11).

THE CHURCH

I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ is the fellowship of people worldwide who trust in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, regardless of denominational affiliation, who are genuinely born-again, holding faithfully to all of the essential doctrines taught in the Bible, who assemble in local congregations to worship, who carry forth the Great Commission, and who minister as the Holy Spirit leads (Matthew 16:18, 28:19, 20; Acts 2:20-28; Ephesians 4:15; 5:22-32; 1 Timothy 3:15).

THE GREAT COMMISSION

Although the Church has many functions, of primary importance is the preaching of the Gospel (Matthew 24:14, 28:16-20; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 1:8; Colossians 4:2-6; 1 Corinthians 9:19-23; 2 Corinthians 5; Jude 1:23). The first and central goal of the Church is to win the lost, and all valid modes of ministry will have the Gospel of Christ at the center.

I whole-heartedly affirm the sufficiency of Christ's Atonement to save the entire world, and God's genuine universal salvific desire (John 3:16-17; John 12:47; 2 Corinthians 5:11-20; 1 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:8-10; 1 John 2:2). Anyone and everyone may find forgiveness of their sins and salvation through Jesus Christ on the basis of faith and repentance, regardless of ethnicity, gender, nationality, previous allegiances, identifications, affiliations, or any past wickedness.

HOLINESS

I believe that truly born-again Christians will have a desire to live as the early disciples did, a life separated from the world and unto Christ, and to set standards of conduct that exalt our Lord and His Church. A life of holiness and obedience to God is not optional; it is essential, commanded by Jesus, and taught by the Apostles to be a requirement for those who will enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 7:21; 16:27; Romans 12:1-3; 2 Corinthians 6:17; Galatians 6:14; Ephesians 5:11; Colossians 3:17; 1 John 2:4, 3:4-10, 5:1-3, 18; Revelation 20:12). Holiness is not prerequisite to, but is evidence of, salvation, and as such it is always present among those who are saved (Hebrews 12:14).

MARRIAGE

I believe that marriage is the God-ordained union of male and female to serve as the foundation of the family. Same-sex unions are contrary to God's command, and are therefore not blessed by God; they are Biblically identified as sin, and are not to be found among God's people (Matthew 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-8; Leviticus 18:22, 20:13; Romans 1:16-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 1 Timothy 1:8-11).

PRAYER

I believe that faithful prayer is effective and powerful, and genuinely affects the outcome of given circumstances. While I believe that prayer is a petition of God and not a manipulative force, and therefore may be answered whenever and however God so chooses, I hold that the believer can have complete confidence that God will answer in the affirmative every prayer made in accordance with God's Biblical promises, if the prayer is made in faith. (Matthew 7:7; Luke 11:9-13; 1 Thesselonians 5:16-18; James 1:6, 4:2-3, 5:14-15).

HEALING

I believe that God uses doctors, medicines, and other material means for healing, but that divine healing is also provided in the atonement (Isaiah 53:5) and may be appropriated by laying on of hands by elders (James 5:14-16) or by believers (Mark 16:18), by the prayers of any believer gifted for healing the sick (1 Corinthians 12:9), or by a direct act of receiving this provision by faith (Mark 11:23).

GIFTS AND LEADERSHIP

I believe that leadership in the Church should emerge as the gifts of God become evident, that these leadership gifts include, but are not limited to, apostles, pastors,and prophets, and that all leaders in the body of Christ are given to serve the body, not to be served, and to facilitate the will of God, not their own will, being realized among the saints under their care. (Ephesians 4:11-16)

I believe that all of the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are present and active in the church today, including, but not limited to, prophecy (including dreams and visions), tongues (both xenoglossia and glossolalia), the interpretation of tongues, and the working of miracles. (1 Corinthians 12:8-10; 1 Corinthians 14; Acts 2:39-48)

ANGELS & DEMONS

I believe in the reality of the spirit realm, and in the inhabitants of that realm, angels and demons. God's angels are our fellow servants, and they play an active role in the lives of Christians (Luke 1:8-20, 26-38; Acts 12:5-17; Hebrews 1:14, 13:2). Satan and his angels (demons) actively oppose us in our efforts to carry out the Great Commission (Daniel 10:11-13; Mark 1:21-28; Matthew 8:28-34; Acts 16:16-24; Ephesians 6:12). I believe in the reality and necessity of spiritual warfare, to include exorcism.

ISRAEL

I believe that in conjunction with the Return of Jesus, the people of Israel will turn to God and be saved (Matthew 23:39; Romans 11:15). The Church will enjoy the promises of God along with natural Israel, not in place of it. The Church and Israel remain distinct, but believing Jews and believing Gentiles are united as one people of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. With this in mind, the Church should love Israel as it loves itself, should pray for Israel, should minister with the understanding that their Savior is Israel’s Messiah, and should genuinely pursue the salvation of Israel.

THE LAST THINGS

I believe that the Scriptures clearly set forth the doctrines of eternal punishment for the lost, and eternal life for the saved (Matthew 25:34, 41, 46; Luke 19:19-31; John 14:1-3; Revelation 20:11-15).

I believe that the same Jesus who walked the earth in His physical body has been raised from the dead and has ascended to the Father and is presently the head of the Church on earth, bringing it to purity and maturity, and interceding for the saints (Luke 24:39-43; John 20:24-29; 14:1-6; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 4:11-13; Colossians 1:18; Philippians 1:6; Revelation 19:7-8). I believe in the visible, bodily, premillennial return of Christ Jesus to the earth, Christ's judgment of the world, and the literal establishment of His Millennial Kingdom (Acts 1:10, 11; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; James 5:8; Revelation 1:7).

#Affirmation of Faith #Christianity #Jesus #truth

[smallbitesofthechurchfathers]

The Holy Spirit is uncircumscribed and infinite, Who infused Himself into the minds of the disciples throughout the separate divisions of distant regions, and the remote bounds of the whole world, Whom nothing is able to escape or to deceive. Who can doubt His divinity. https://www.instagram.com/p/CSAjvRrprNK/?utm_medium=tumblr

[hoursofreading]

For him, the Cosmic Christ is the spirit that is embedded in—and makes up—everything in the universe, and Jesus is the embodied version of that spirit that we can fall in love with and relate to. (Their simultaneous distinctness and oneness can be difficult for an outsider to grasp; Rohr describes “The Universal Christ” as a sequel to “The Divine Dance,” his book about the mysteries of the Trinity.) He uses many of the same verses as the early Franciscans to support his claims. “Christ’s much larger, universe-spanning role was described quite clearly in—and always in the first chapters of—John’s Gospel, Colossians, Ephesians, Hebrews, and 1 John, and shortly thereafter in the writings of the early Eastern fathers,” he writes. He believes that, after the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches, in 1054 A.D., the Eastern Church held onto a more expansive vision of Christ, but the Western Church increasingly focussed on Jesus the man. “We gradually limited the Divine Presence to the single body of Jesus, when perhaps it is as ubiquitous as light itself—and uncircumscribable by human boundaries.” The notion of Jesus as a god-king—wearing a golden crown and seated on a throne—was pushed by political rulers, who used it to justify their own power, but it limited our understanding of divinity. “It was like trying to see the universe with a too-small telescope,” Rohr writes. One of the benefits of Rohr’s work is its attempt at radical inclusivity. “Jesus without worship of Christ invariably becomes a time- and culture-bound religion, often ethnic or even implicitly racist, which excludes much of humanity from God’s embrace,” he writes. According to his teachings, you don’t have to follow Jesus or practice the tenets of any formal religion to come by salvation, you just have to “fall in love with the divine presence, under whatever name.” For young people who have become disillusioned with the conservative churches of their childhood—which preached Christianity’s supremacy over other religions and taught that nonbelievers would go to Hell—his message is especially welcome. Many progressive schools of Christianity teach that non-Christians can go to Heaven, but the idea of the Universal Christ allows Rohr to make a robust argument based on a version of orthodoxy, rather than on a vague sense of egalitarianism. His followers appreciate his scriptural rigor. “He’s not coming in and saying, ‘I saw a daisy, now everybody love each other,’ ” Tim Shriver, a longtime student of Rohr’s and the chairman of the Special Olympics, told me. “He’s trying to create a new ur-understanding of religion that isn’t bound by separation, superiority, and fighting.”

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