Power of Prayer Christianity Poster

Power of Prayer Art Print
Hahlbohm, Danny
Buy at AllPosters.com

The Bible Today

For We Walk by Faith not by Sight Art Print
Buy at AllPosters.com


From 1611 to 1870 the changes made in the "Authorized" Version were of only minor importance, chiefly matters of punctuation, spelling, and typography. But the Revised Version of 1881-85 was a major change which troubled many readers and proved wholly unacceptable to some; it never won acceptance by the majority of Bible readers, and to this day most Bibles read at public worship or in private study or devotional meditation are the King James. The most magnificent handset Bible of modern times, the famous edition composed by Bruce Rogers, is the King James "Authorized" Bible.

Many Christians cling to it as inspired and therefore sacred. The frequent reference to a "St. James Bible" is more than a joke or a slip of the tongue. As St. Augustine and others viewed the Septuagint as inspired, and as some Roman Catholics view the Vulgate, so many Protestants think of the traditional English text --which no one should attempt to alter. Mr. William Collins, the British publisher, has said, "When the first traveller takes a Bible to the moon, you may be sure it will be a copy of the Authorized Version." Perhaps it will offset the Soviet insignia landed there in advance, by rocket! But is this the real purpose of the publication, or the reading, of the Bible? It is like Bibles buried in cornerstones, or kept in courtrooms where oaths are administered!

Le Saint-Esprit Jesus Christ Light Art print

Le Saint-Esprit Art Print
Buy at AllPosters.com


the fourteen stations of the Catholic Church

These are generally called "Stations of the Cross," and the whole series is known as the via Calvaria or via Crucis. Each station represents, by fresco, picture, or otherwise, some incident in the passage of Christ from the judgment hall to Calvary, and at each prayers are offered up in memory of the event represented. They are as follows:

1. The condemnation to death.

2. Christ is made to bear His cross.

3. This first fall under the cross.

4. The meeting with the Virgin.

5. Simon the Cyrenean helps to carry the cross.

6. Veronica wipes the sacred face.

7. The second fall.

8. Christ speaks to the daughters of Jerusalem.

9. The third fall.

10. Christ is stripped of His garments.

11. The nailing to the cross.

12. The giving up of the Spirit.

13. Christ is taken down from the cross.

14. The deposition the sepulcher.

The Judgement of Solomon Giclee Print

The Judgement of Solomon Giclee Print
Passaroti
Buy at AllPosters.com


Solomon
The wisest and most magnificent of the kings of Israel, son of David and Bathsheba. Aside from his wise choice of "an understanding heart," he is perhaps most celebrated for his building of the famous temple that bore his name and his entertainment of the Queen of Sheba.

The Biblical narrative ( I Kings ii-xi) relates that "he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart." Nevertheless "King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom." The glory of his reign gave rise to innumerable legends, many of which are related in the Talmud and the Koran.

the English Solomon

James I (reigned 1603-1625), whom Sully called "the wisest fool in Christendom."

the second Solomon

(I) Henry VII of England; (2) James I.

the Solomon of France

Charles V. ( 13641380) called le Sage.

Solomon's ring

Rabbinical fable has it that Solomon wore a ring with a gem that told him all he desired to know.

Using the Bible - Words to Live By: Love Art Print

Words to Live By: Love Art Print
DeWitt, Debbie
Buy at AllPosters.com


How can I use the Bible so that it will speak to me in this way? Let us look at some of the ways in which Christians have tried to answer this question.

1. One method which people have used since very early times, particularly with difficult passages, has been to interpret the Bible allegorically. An allegory is a story that has hidden meanings which do not appear on the surface. If I write, for example, "The raccoon had a splinter in its paw until it got to the riverbank," this may be my allegorical way of saying that the Christian (raccoon) is involved in sin (splinter) until he has been baptized (riverbank), and I may be seriously trying to write about Christian faith in the form of an allegory about animals.

Many of the Early Church Fathers interpreted portions of the Bible in this fashion. Take Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, a story illustrating what it means to be a good neighbor (look it up in Luke 10: 25-37 if you've forgotten how it goes). Augustine made an allegory out of the story, giving every detail a hidden significance. "A certain man" was Adam. Jerusalem was the heavenly city. The robbers were the devil and his angels. The Samaritan was Jesus himself. The inn was the Church. The innkeeper was the apostle Paul. And so on. The story of the Good Samaritan was transformed from a tale about true neighborliness into an allegory of the whole Christian drama of salvation.

Since religious language must always make use of imagery, the method of allegorical interpretation can sometimes serve a useful function. The danger is that one who is not a scholar and expert can "twist" a story to mean whatever he wants it to mean, and not only may the real point of the story be lost, but utterly false meanings may be "read in."

2. In sharp contrast to the allegorical method is the view that the Bible is to be interpreted literally, often with the further claim that since every word is directly inspired, all parts are therefore of equal profit and value. This is a much newer way of interpreting the Bible than the allegorical way. Luther, for example, the first Protestant Reformer, made sharp distinctions between various parts of the Bible, calling James an "epistle of straw," and stating that he saw little religious value in the book of Revelation. Whether his judgments were correct is not so important, for the moment, as the fact that he felt free to make them. But later Reformers, having continued with Luther to repudiate the absolute authority of the pope, turned more and more to a belief in the absolute authority of the Scriptures, interpreted in such a way that to be a Christian meant believing the words of the Bible, the statements contained within the covers of the book, as literally true in all particulars. In what way did this raise a problem?

For one thing, it is true that religious language must resort to symbolism, imagery, and poetic description on certain occasions, and such use of language loses its religious significance if taken literally. When Jesus told us to be as little children, for example, he didn't mean that we were supposed to wear diapers.