.... the authority over the entire church. The conflict came about between Photius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and Pope Nicholas I. These same conflicts continued until 1054 when Pope Leo the IV excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinoble. Later the Patriarchs called together a council to excommunicate the papal delegates and the new Eastern Rite of the church was born. The Eastern Rite church is made up of eastern Christians that are in unison with the catholic church. There are many things that separate the Eastern Rite Church from the Roman Catholic Church. The Eastern Rite Churc .....

.... and Waco. Each of these events has several things in common. In both instances, there were references to secret societies, a religious belief that deviated from the accepted norm, and a strong authority figure at the head. All this has seemed strange to some people, but this type of situation has been going on since before the inception of this country. Today's modern cults have simply borrowed some of their ideas from the past. Society has tended to forget the past, and has oftentimes labeled these "cultists" insane. Webster's dictionary defines the word cult as, "A formal religious va .....

.... book of Mormons. This book describes the history, wars, and religious beliefs of a group of people who migrated from Jerusalem to America. Smith attracted a small group of followers who settled in Kirtland, Ohio, and Jackson County, Missouri. Because of persecution, the church moved to northern Missouri, then to Nauvoo, Illinois. The people of Illinois welcomed the persecuted Mormons, and Smith began to construct a temple and a hotel there. In 1843, Smith secretly instituted the practice of plural marriage among a group of his followers. This could be because he himself had 50 wives. Th .....

.... God is looked at as an ethical personality and is looked to as an example of good and right. In the Old Testament, God's voluntary (voluntary for God) covenant with man must be looked at as the prime example of ethical value. The covenant's requirements is the source of all ethics, morals, laws, and justice in the Old Testament. The Mosaic Covenant is the best example of ethical values and norms in the Old Testament. The Mosaic Covenant has three parts; the Decaloque, the Covenant Code; and the Holiness Code. The Decaloque is made up of apodictic (or absolute) law, it is unconditiona .....

.... Aquinas means that the change of state requires something in the state of actuality to actualize the potential. For example, in order for a house (which is in the state of actuality), to potentially become a pile of ashes something in the actual state (like a flame), has to cause the house to move from being actually a house and potentially a pile of ashes to actually a pile or ashes. In his third step Aquinas says, “Now it is not possible that the same thing should be at once in actuality and potentiality in the same respect.” He means that something cannot be in both the actua .....

.... In this way, it is possible to keep a common focus in mind when reading about all the other situations in which the religion has found itself. A brief conclusion follows the discussion. A Place to Call Home No other religion has ever been so attached to its birthplace as Judaism. Perhaps this is because Jews have been exiled and restricted from this place for most of their history. Jerusalem is not only home to Judaism, but to the Muslim and Christian religions as well. Historically this has made it quite a busy place for the various groups. Jerusalem is where the temple of the Jew .....

.... when Christians naturally turned to God when they had problems. Today that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Traditions have drastically changed. It almost seems as if religion is a dying tradition all together. “The signs of death are seen in the declining membership of the mainline Protestant traditions and in both the declining attendance and declining authority now seen in the Catholic and Orthodox churches” (Rollins). People are just not going to church anymore. There are probably various reasons for this new trend, but it is very sad and discouraging. People naturally have .....

.... word Islam means "surrender" or "submission," submission to the will of Allah, the one God. Muslims are those who have submitted themselves. The basic creed of Islam is brief: There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah. Islam teaches that there is one God, the creator and sustainer of the universe. This God, Allah, is compassionate and just. Because He is compassionate, He calls all people to believe in Him and worship Him. Because He is also just, on the Last Day He will judge every person according to his deeds. On the Last Day, all the dead will be resurrected and ei .....

.... of the Bible, this Greek word is transliterated (the Greek letters are replaced with English equivalents) instead of translated. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words defines “baptisma” (translated “baptism”) as “consisting of the process on immersion, submersion, and emergence.” Is water needed to be immersed? Baptism does not always mean “dunking in water”, but it does always mean “immersion.” An example of this would be Matthew 20:22 where Jesus asks James and John, “Can you drink of the cup I am going to drink?” Jesus here is givi .....

.... become corrupt and filled with violence, (Genisis, 6). The only way to destroy this violence was to drown everyone but the chosen few. These chosen few were hand-picked by God as good people to start a new, more wholesome and obedient civilization. Gilgamesh’s story says the reason for the flood was the volume the people created. The noise was intolerable and the gods insisted on ending the racket at once, (Duiker, 20). The singular reason Gilgamesh was spared is that he was informed of the flood by Ea, the water god, through a dream. Ea was one of many gods in this time. He told h .....