Universal Opportunity
Universal opportunity is an aspect of Christian theology. Under the fate of the unlearned debate, Universal Opportunity (or God Does All He Can Do) is the exclusivist view. Two vital points specify universal opportunity: * God is all-powerful and does not require man's intercession, but chooses to use them when He wills. * The Bible teaches that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but instead desires that all men turn from their evil ways and be saved. If a person is open to believing in Christ, then God will find a way to make an opportunity for salvation available, through whatever means necessary. The means theorized by Universal Opportunity are often supernatural, such as God sending an angel or a dream or even appearing in person, though this by no means excludes divinely arranging human evangelists coming on the scene. Biblical examples include the Ethiopian eunuch (divinely arranged evangelist) and Cornelius the Centurion (angel) in Acts 8 and 10, respec ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Christian Theology
Christian theology is the theology of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theology, theologians use biblical exegesis, rationality, rational analysis and argument. Theologians may undertake the study of Christian theology for a variety of reasons, such as in order to: * help them better understand Christian tenets * make comparative religion, comparisons between Christianity and other traditions * Christian apologetics, defend Christianity against objections and criticism * facilitate reforms in the Christian church * assist in the evangelism, propagation of Christianity * draw on the resources of the Christian tradition to address some present situation or perceived need * education in Christian philosophy, especially in Neoplatonism, Neoplatonic philosophyLouth, Andrew. The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fate Of The Unlearned
The fate of the unlearned, also known as the destiny of the unevangelized, is an eschatological question about the ultimate destiny of people who have not been exposed to a particular theology or doctrine and thus have no opportunity to embrace it. The question is whether those who never hear of requirements issued through divine revelations will be punished for failure to abide by those requirements. It is sometimes addressed in combination with the similar question of the fate of the unbeliever. Differing faith traditions have different responses to the question; in Western Christianity the fate of the unlearned is related to the question of original sin. As some suggest that rigid readings of religious texts require harsh punishment for those who have never heard of that religion, it is sometimes raised as an argument against the existence of God, and is generally accepted to be an extension or sub-section of the problem of evil. Christianity In the Bible, Paul the Apostle te ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Exclusivist
Exclusivism is the practice of being exclusive; mentality characterized by the disregard for opinions and ideas which are different from one's own, or the practice of organizing entities into groups by excluding those entities which possess certain traits. Religious exclusivism Religious exclusivism, one of the three classic typologies created by Alan Race in order to describe religions relative to one another, states that one religion, to the exclusion of all others, has the correct understanding of God, truth and salvation and eternal paradise is contingent on one's belief in the core tenets of that religion. Diana Eck states, ‘Exclusivism is more than simply a conviction about the transformative power of the particular vision one has; it is a conviction about its finality and its absolute priority over competing views’. While it was originally used to define Christianity, exclusivism can apply to any religious belief system, as can Race’s other two categories inclusivism ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Omnipotence
Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as one of a deity's characteristics, along with omniscience, omnipresence, and omnibenevolence. The presence of all these properties in a single entity has given rise to considerable theological debate, prominently including the problem of evil, the question of why such a deity would permit the existence of evil. It is accepted in philosophy and science that omnipotence can never be effectively understood. Etymology The word ''omnipotence'' derives from the Latin prefix ''omni''-, meaning "all", and the word ''potens'', meaning "potent" or "powerful". Thus the term means "all-powerful". Meanings Scholasticism The term omnipotent has been used to connote a number of different positions. These positions include, but are not limited to, the followi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a variety of forms originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. These texts include instructions, stories, poetry, and prophecies, among other genres. The collection of materials that are accepted as part of the Bible by a particular religious tradition or community is called a biblical canon. Believers in the Bible generally consider it to be a product of divine inspiration, but the way they understand what that means and interpret the text can vary. The religious texts were compiled by different religious communities into various official collections. The earliest contained the first five books of the Bible. It is called the Torah in Hebrew and the Pentateuch (meaning ''five books'') in Greek; the second oldest part was a coll ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was a first-century Jews, Jewish preacher and religious leader; he is the central figure of Christianity, the Major religious groups, world's largest religion. Most Christians believe he is the Incarnation (Christianity), incarnation of God the Son and the awaited Messiah#Christianity, Messiah (the Christ (title), Christ) prophesied in the Hebrew Bible. Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Historicity of Jesus, Jesus existed historically. Quest for the historical Jesus, Research into the historical Jesus has yielded some uncertainty on the historical reliability of the Gospels and on how closely the Jesus portrayed in the New Testament reflects the historical Jesus, as the only detailed records of Jesus' life are contained in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ethiopian Eunuch
The Ethiopian eunuch ( gez, ኢትዮጵያዊው ጃንደረባ) is a figure in the New Testament of the Bible; the story of his conversion to Christianity is recounted in Acts 8. Biblical narrative Philip the Evangelist was told by an angel to go to the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, and there he encountered the Ethiopian eunuch, the treasurer of the Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians (Ancient Greek: Κανδάκη, the "Candace" was the Meroitic language term for "queen" or possibly "royal woman"). The eunuch had been to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home. Sitting in his chariot, he was reading the Book of Isaiah, specifically . Philip asked the Ethiopian, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He said he did not ("How can I understand unless I have a teacher to teach me?"), and asked Philip to explain the text to him. Philip told him the Gospel of Jesus, and the Ethiopian asked to be baptized. They went down into a water source, traditionally thought to be the ' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cornelius The Centurion
Cornelius ( el, Κορνήλιος, translit=Kornélios; la, Cornelius) was a Roman centurion who is considered by Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ... to be the first Gentile to Conversion to Christianity, convert to the faith, as related in Acts of the Apostles (see Ethiopian eunuch for the competing tradition). The baptism of Cornelius is an important event in the history of the early Christian church. He may have belonged to the gens Cornelia, a prominent Roman family. Biblical account Cornelius was a centurion in the Cohors II Italica Civium Romanorum, mentioned as ''Cohors Italica'' in the Vulgate. He was stationed in Early centers of Christianity#Caesarea, Caesarea, the capital of Roman Judea (Roman province), Iudaea province. He is depicted in the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Book Of Acts
The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message to the Roman Empire. It gives an account of the ministry and activity of Christ's apostles in Jerusalem and other regions, after Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make up a two-part work, Luke–Acts, by the same anonymous author. It is usually dated to around 80–90 AD, although some scholars suggest 90–110. The first part, the Gospel of Luke, tells how God fulfilled his plan for the world's salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Acts continues the story of Christianity in the 1st century, beginning with the ascension of Jesus to Heaven. The early chapters, set in Jerusalem, describe the Day of Pentecost (the coming of the Holy Spirit) and the growth of the chu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fate Of The Unlearned
The fate of the unlearned, also known as the destiny of the unevangelized, is an eschatological question about the ultimate destiny of people who have not been exposed to a particular theology or doctrine and thus have no opportunity to embrace it. The question is whether those who never hear of requirements issued through divine revelations will be punished for failure to abide by those requirements. It is sometimes addressed in combination with the similar question of the fate of the unbeliever. Differing faith traditions have different responses to the question; in Western Christianity the fate of the unlearned is related to the question of original sin. As some suggest that rigid readings of religious texts require harsh punishment for those who have never heard of that religion, it is sometimes raised as an argument against the existence of God, and is generally accepted to be an extension or sub-section of the problem of evil. Christianity In the Bible, Paul the Apostle te ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Future Probation
Future probation is a point of view within Christian teaching dealing with the fate of the dead in the afterlife. It might also be described as the belief concerning individual eschatology. The general scope of the subject encompasses many variants that range from the Catholic doctrine of invincible ignorance through Mormon practices of postmortem baptism. It is unique to Christian and Jewish belief and can be viewed as a way of extending salvation to all people without being dogmatically universalist. The subject attained great prominence in the second half of the 19th century and has continued into recent times. Prior to 1800, the teaching is difficult to distinguish from universalism as many of the questions involved were framed by different cultural, prophetic and ecclesiastical issues. A treatise on this subject by Albert Hudson, editor of the Bible Study Monthly, was published in 1975 by the Bible Fellowship Union in England. It contains both an appendix describing the h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Invincible Error
Vincible ignorance is, in Catholic moral theology, ignorance that a person could remove by applying reasonable diligence in the given set of circumstances. It contrasts with invincible ignorance, which a person is either entirely incapable of removing, or could only do so by supererogatory efforts (''i.e.'', efforts above and beyond normal duty). The first Pope to use the term ''invincible ignorance'' officially seems to have been Pope Pius IX in the allocution ''Singulari Quadam'' (9 December 1854) and the encyclicals ''Singulari Quidem'' (17 March 1856) and ''Quanto Conficiamur Moerore'' (10 August 1863). The term, however, is far older than that. Aquinas, for instance, uses it in his ''Summa Theologica'' (written 1265–1274),Aquinas, /www.newadvent.org/summa/2076.htm#article2 ''Summa Theologica'' Ia IIae q.76 a.2/ref> and discussion of the concept can be found as far back as Origen (3rd century). Doctrine of vincible ignorance It is culpable to remain willfully ignorant of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |