Revelation does not stand alone in the Bible—rather, it’s a culmination of God’s words throughout the entire Old and New Testaments. This companion workbook to Revealing Revelation helps you examine the Bible’s final book through that lens, illuminating Revelation both as an individual letter and as a part of a greater whole.

As bestselling author Amir Tsarfati and prophecy teacher Rick Yohn guide you through this inductive Bible study, you’ll encounter an exciting overview of God’s perfect plan for the future and thoughtful questions that encourage you to dive deeper into Scripture. You’ll gain…

• in-depth explorations of all 22 chapters in Revelation
• enlightening examinations of other passages from Scripture that bring context to and enhance your understanding of Revelation’s teachings
• essential habits you can bring into your study of any other book of the Bible

Your understanding of God’s Word will expand as you engage with this careful study of Jesus’ love letter to His church. The Revealing Revelation Workbook will give you a clearer picture of the fascinating, enigmatic final book of the Bible.

The Order of Christ Sophia (OCS) is a small New Religion which, in the short span of eight years, has evoked intense controversy. An unusual synthesis of traditional Catholicism, esoteric cosmology, and psychotherapy, the OCS already has centers in a dozen major cities in the United States. Thus far, however, it has eluded the attention of scholars of alternative religions. A schismatic offshoot of an earlier group, the Holy Order of Man, the OCS developed a distinctive set of beliefs and practices that set it apart from the mother faith. It has cultivated some curious and provocative features for a Christian-based religion, including the elevation of women to full participation and status within the evolving sacred order. Its treatment of gender is refreshingly egalitarian; women can be priests, and Mary is deified and given equal status with Jesus. Another unusual feature of the group is its emphasis on psychology and prescription of intensive psychotherapy for all members. Beyond surveying the history, doctrines and practices of this unusual group, Lewis brings data from his study of the OCS to bear on many items of conventional wisdom in the New Religions field. He shows, for example, that far from joining the Order in response to a 'youth crisis,' the average age of new OCS members is 37. This and a number of other characteristics of the OCS membership challenge generally accepted conclusions about recruits to New Religions. Lewis also examines how various theoretical models, such as Rodney Stark's influential model of religious 'success,' pan out when applied to the OCS. Lewis shows that although some of Stark's postulates are insightful, other aspects of the model are severely deficient. In addition to the six core chapters of the book authored by Lewis, three other experts contribute chapters on: the results of personality and I.Q. tests administered to member; membership attitudes; comparison of OCS with mainstream denominations; and sex roles in the OCS.

God's Belongers should transform our thinking about what it means to belong to church. Uniquely, David Walker replaces the old and worn division between 'members' and 'nonmembers' with a fourfold model of belonging: through relationship, through place, through events, and through activities. From his extensive practical research, the author shows how 'belonging' can encompass a far wider group of people than those who attend weekly services. This opens up creative opportunities for mission in today's world. 'In this excellent book David Walker brings together his considerable gifts as a first-rate mathematician and theologian in a highly accessible manner. The result is not only fascinating and thought-provoking: its insights have the potential significantly to renew the mission of the church in its efforts to make the love of God in Jesus known. I hope it will be very widely read.' The Right Revd Dr John Inge, Bishop of Worcester

Dr Marchant has produced a systematic account of Church courts as they were re-moulded to serve the Protestant Church in England after the Elizabethan Settlement, and at a time when they were still one of the principal responsibilities of bishops and archdeacons. Responding to the challenge of the times, these courts displayed a vitality and adaptability which has often been unrecognized. This study is based on a detailed account of the courts in the diocese of York, but the author measures the individuality of the northern courts by constant reference to the typical southern diocese of Norwich. There is a full description of the lawyers and the ecclesiastical 'civil service', the amount and nature of the business transacted by the courts, the internal administration of the Church and the sources of its administrative law.

Seit der ersten Verurteilung der Freimaurerei durch Papst Clemens XII. (1738) wird die Mitgliedschaft von Katholiken in Freimaurerlogen mit kirchlichen Strafen belegt. Trotz nationalhistorisch bedingter Unterschiede innerhalb der Freimaurerei und trotz des Bemuhens um eine differenzierte Betrachtung blieb die Haltung der massgebenden kirchlichen Autoritaten gegenuber der gleichzeitigen Mitgliedschaft von Katholiken in Freimaurerlogen und der katholischen Kirche bis heute unverandert rigoros. Ausgehend von den historischen Anlassen der kirchlichen Verurteilungen werden im kanonistischen Teil der Arbeit die Strafnormen bis zur geltenden Rechtslage analysiert, Entwicklungen skizziert und schliesslich die Frage nach der unbedingten Unvereinbarkeit, Katholik und Freimaurer zu sein, erneut gestellt.

For 17th and 18th century Bavaria, the political and diplomatic relations with the Papacy were one of the most important constants in its foreign policy. The Bavarian Legation in Rome was the central conduit for representing Bavariaa (TM)s interests there. Bettina Scherbaum examines the time, staffing and organisational frameworks of the legation and elaborates its manifold activities and functions. Her study affords detailed insights into the practice of diplomacy in one of the most important European diplomatic centres of that time.

Das im 19. Jahrhundert im heutigen Iran entstandene Baha'itum ist nach seinem Selbstverstandnis und religionswissenschaftlicher Einordnung eine Weltreligion. Als dezidierte Rechtsreligion verfugt es uber ein Offenbarungsrecht, dessen Kern ein Rechtssetzungsrecht bildet - ermachtigt wird eine demokratisch zu bestellende Koerperschaft, die das Offenbarungsrecht anwendbar machen und erganzen soll. Die Arbeit unternimmt es, die theologischen Grundlagen dieses Baha'i-Rechts aufzuarbeiten. Sie untersucht den in der Baha'i-Schrift dokumentierten theologischen Zusammenhang, auf den dieses Recht seinen Inhalt, seine Anspruche und Funktionen zuruckfuhrt. Im Rahmen der Darstellung von vier rechtstheologischen Dimensionen weist sie das Baha'i-Recht als ius divinum aus.

John Henry Newman (1801-90) was brought up in the Church of England in the Evangelical tradition. An Oxford graduate and Fellow of Oriel College, he was appointed Vicar of St Mary's Oxford in 1828; from 1839 onwards he began to have doubts about the claims of the Anglican Church for Catholicity and in 1845 he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. He was made a Cardinal in 1879. His influence on both the restoration of Roman Catholicism in England and the advance of Catholic ideas in the Church of England was profound.
This key volume covers the final twenty-three months of Newman's Anglican years from November 1843 to 6 October 1845. It begins with Francis Rivington's refusal to publish Lives of the English Saints because of their Roman Catholic bias, and Newman's withdrawal from the editorship after the first two volumes of the series is published by another publishing house. The whole country is watching his every move. Rumours are rife and rampant. He is accused of being in the pay of the Pope. He is also accused of being a Jesuit or about to become one. But the attacks which really hit home are those accusing him of being a liar, a sceptic, and a traitor.
In February 1845, the University of Oxford's Convocation deprives William George Ward of his BA and MA Oxford degrees; and the proposal to censure Newman's Tract 90 is vetoed by two University Proctors. Newman sets to work in earnest on his Essay on Development, the publication of which will be the signal of his intentions to become a Roman Catholic. It goes to the printers in the third week of September. From this point on, events move swiftly. It is only a matter of days before Newman is received into the Churchof Rome by Father Dominic Barberi at Littlemore on 9 October 1845.

Die Gewahrung der religioesen Vereinigungsfreiheit und die Zulassung neuer Religionsgemeinschaften sind nicht nur historisch wesentliche Aspekte der korporativen Religionsfreiheit. Mit der Zunahme neuer religioeser Bewegungen sah sich der oesterreichische Gesetzgeber gezwungen, das noch aus dem 19. Jahrhundert stammende Anerkennungsrecht zu reformieren. Ziel dieses Buches ist es, mit Blick auf die religionsrechtliche Lage, in Deutschland die umfangreichen grundrechtlichen Probleme des gegenwartigen Religionsgemeinschaftenrechts in OEsterreich aufzuzeigen. Neben der Darstellung der historischen und verfassungsrechtlichen Grundlagen werden die gesetzliche Anerkennung und die sonstigen Organisationsformen fur Religionsgemeinschaften ebenso kritisch beleuchtet wie die Rechtsprechung der Hoechstgerichte.

Synopsis: In 1843 the Church of Scotland split apart. In the Disruption, as it was called, those who left to form the Free Church of Scotland claimed they did so because the law denied congregations the freedom to elect their own pastor. As they saw it, this fundamental Christian right had been usurped by lay patrons, who, by the Patronage Act of 1712, had been given the privilege of choosing and presenting parish ministers. But lay patronage was nothing new to the Church in Scotland, and to this day it remains an acceptable practice south of the border. What were the issues that made Scotland different? To date, little work has been done on the history of Scottish lay patronage and how antipathy to it developed. In A Great Grievance, Laurence Whitley traces the way attitudes ebbed and flowed from earliest times, and then in the main body of the book, looks at the place of Scottish lay patronage in the extraordinary and complex period in British history that followed the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The book examines some of the myths and controversies that sprung up and draws some unexpected conclusions. Author Biography: Laurence A. B. Whitley is a minister of the Church of Scotland and was ordained in 1975. After serving parishes in Glasgow and Montrose, he was called to be Minister of Glasgow Cathedral in 2007.

This collection documents the contributions made to an international colloquium organized in Rome in 2005 by the German Historical Institute on the subject of the international relations entertained by the Roman curia under Paul V Borghese. The proceedings were based on the three-volume edition of the main directives of this pontificate by Silvano Giordano published in 2003. Alongside more general issues (implementation of the reforms adopted at the Council of Trent, jurisdiction, military matters, the relationship between micro- and macro-politics), there is also discussion of the (confessional) political contacts between Rome and the main territories of the orbis catholicus (legations, nunciatures), including those outside Europe.

Der Codex Iuris Canonici von 1983 droht in c. 1399 eine Strafe fur jede schwere Gesetzesverletzung, die zu einem AErgernis fuhrt, an. Eine derartige Generalklausel ist im staatlichen Strafrecht undenkbar. Die Grunde, die hierfur in erster Linie genannt werden, die Gewaltenteilung und das Demokratieprinzip, sind auf die katholische Kirche allerdings nicht ubertragbar. Weder kennt die Kirche eine Gewaltenteilung noch eine im weltlichen Sinne demokratische Verfassungsordnung. Obwohl diese Vorschrift auch unter Kanonisten nicht unumstritten ist, wurde sie in den Kodex aufgenommen, um der Kirche die Moeglichkeit zu geben, auf ein Fehlverhalten von Glaubigen ggf. auch ohne ausdruckliche gesetzliche Androhung mit strafrechtlichen Mitteln reagieren zu koennen. Diese Regelung ist nur erklarbar vor der Tatsache, dass dem geschriebenen Recht in der katholischen Kirche eine geringere Bedeutung zukommt als im weltlichen Bereich. Nicht die Sicherung einer sozialen Ordnung und der Rechte des Einzelnen stehen im Mittelpunkt der kirchlichen Gesetze, sondern der Verkundigungsauftrag der Kirche.