John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath relates in many ways to the Bible and the book of Exodus: the people torn from their homes, the journey towards a land "of milk and honey", Tom Joad representing Moses, Jim Casy symbolizing Moses, Aaron and Christ, and the troubles they face on the...

"A basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen and pitch; and she put the child in it and placed it among the reed at the river bank."# Amazingly, this is describing what a mother of three months was forced to do in order to keep her newborn child alive. Knowing that all Hebrew boys were...

The issue of a jihad, or holy war is a term brought from the bible to give bearing to the conquest of the land of one by the request of God. If and what relevance does this term have to the world as we know it today? The ongoing conflict in the Middle East is a prime example that it is still an issu...

Homosexuality God ordained that sex should be used within the context of a monogamous heterosexual relationship. Homosexual practices are contrary to God's ordained pattern for human beings. In addition, the Bible speaks out explicitly and forcefully against homosexual practices. The Old Te...

Man and God A conflict exists between leaders and lay members alike in two of the world's mainstream religions. Christianity and Islam, are in conflict or their respective stances over their disagreement over the divinity of man and God. The philosophical perspective held by each of these...

In the Gospel According to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, repentance and forgiveness are discussed explicitly. These acts serve as our attempt to become better Christians. Only in repenting our sins and working for their forgiveness are we able to embrace the workings of God. Additionall...

Gods Commandments, our Only Moral Standard? I have decided to discuss the subject of God and morality. Has God had an impact on morality in the world? Are there morals outside of gods commands, outside of religion all together? The two subjects that will help to answer this question are Cultura...

The Death Penalty Life is the most wonderful gift that God gives man. He also gives mankind the power to do what one wishes with that life. One can keep it and guard it or one can take it away. It follows that murder is the worst crime anyone could ever commit. It is a crime that no one can ever m...

Gay Marriage Throughout this core class, we have spent most of our time looking at the minorities and seeing the problems that they face, whether it be racism, being oppressed, or discriminated against. For this paper I have decided to focus on one minority group, the gay community. Even though ...

Understanding the sublime is one of the keys to understanding Judaism. The sublime infuses the writings of the Torah. The ancient writers wrote of the sublime and the sublime has colored the interpretations of the Holy Scriptures throughout history in Jewish thought. Heschel and other writers wrote ...

During the last few years, the issue of homosexuality has become a focus of increasingly heated debate in all realms-religious, political, clinical, and academic. The debate over homosexuality and the Bible-specifically whether or not the Bible condemns homosexual acts in all cases-will do no ...

Throughout literature, many writers have alluded to stories in the Bible. Whether it's from the Old Testament or the New Testament, writers have paid references to Biblical stories. In literary analysis, this is called an allusion. The Oxford Encyclopedic English Dictionary defines an allusion as ...

Christianity and communication can never be separated, because the essence of religion itself is communication between man and God. While some religions hold that the gods were discovered like historical artifacts, Christianity holds that the first humans, Adam and Eve, were in direct communicatio...

Does God call us to worship Him because He needs our worship? This is the question that runs through many people's minds when going to worship at church. Does God command us to worship Him because His ego needs a boost? No! Worship was created not for His benefit, but for our benefit. The particula...

Thomas Jefferson's attitude toward Christianity seems as far left as anyone. From some of his writings, one may think that he is against God and everything that he stands for. But, Jefferson does state that he is a Christian "to the precepts of Jesus himself" Jefferson Packet p 1122. He believe...

The ancient Mediterranean world, as well as some modern primitive societies, maintained a strong belief in the reality of a spirit world which continually interacted with the human world (Pilch, 20). They populated their surroundings with gods and goddesses of various natures in order to come to ...

Translations often led to misinterpretations, allowing the translator to impose his own view of the text into the original. This leads to controversy in almost every rendition of ancient works. Any translator can read into and almost rewrite the original work with what they deem true by extracti...

Ever since the beginning of human life we have been exposed to our dependency of what is available around us. We have so conveniently made use of our environment of plants and animals. In our society today, humans have relied too much on animals that humans can find no other substitution. It is a...

The Catholic Church is the world's largest, and oldest, Christian religion. The churches over 860 million members count for almost one-fifth of the of the Earths population. Such a large religion is open to be interpreted in many ways, to avoid having the Churches views distorted they have the "...

"They fear and see philosophy as a threat that will shake their sense of spiritual security or fissure their soda-cracker-like faith which is seemingly solid, but just a touch of philosophy's sturdy hand crumbles this faith before their very eyes." (Velasco, 54) This line struck me when I was rea...

Does God Love You? Q. What kind of a question is that? Anyone who can read sees signs, tracts, booklets and bumper stickers saying, "God Loves You." Isn't that true? A. It's true that God offers His love to the whole world, as we read in one of the most quoted verses in the Bible: "For God so loved...

Capital Punishment Capital Punishment is the legal infliction of death as a penalty for violating criminal law. Throughout history people have been put to death for various forms of wrongdoing. Methods of execution have included such practices as crucifixion, stoning, drowning, burning at the ...

A Review on The Prince of Egypt. On Friday, November 26, 1999, I sat down and viewed the entire movie "The Prince of Egypt". This movie was about Moses and some of his life journeys. In this movie you see Moses's transition from living as the Prince of Egypt to being God's d...

Sex in the Bible For my book report I chose the topic of sex in the Bible. I thought that it would be a very interesting topic because in many churches discussion of sex and sexuality is taboo. I thought that by reading this book I could become more informed of what the Bible truly say...

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD During this class we have looked at a wide range of theories about God from the creation of the universe to the theory of being reborn and life after death. What this all comes down to is whether God exists or He doesn't. There is no middle ground. Any attempt to remain neu...