Religions {Christianity} can emphasize that God sacrificed Jesus to atone for human sins.
holidays
Sunday is holy day. Religious holidays are the following. Epiphany {Fête des Rois} is January 6, the 12th Night after Christmas, when the three kings visited baby Jesus. Candlemas is Mary's purification on February 2. St. Valentine's Day is February 14. Palm Sunday is Sunday before Easter. Easter is resurrection day, on Sunday between March 22 and April 25. Walpurgis Nacht is eve of May Day in central Europe. Eve of St. John is midsummer. Assumption is August 15. All Souls' Day or Day of the Dead, to pray for the dead, is on November 1. Christmas is birth of Jesus, on December 25 or January 6. Holy Innocent's Day is December 28. St. Sylvester's Day is New Years Eve.
People can have charity {agape}, or love of, and respect for, God.
Christians believe that their holy book {Bible} is God's word and guides conduct and faith. The Bible is Christian scripture.
parts
The Bible has Old Testament of Judaic scriptures. New Testament has the following books. The Gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John give accounts of Jesus' life. Acts of the Apostles describes works of the apostles. There are 21 letters to churches, written by the apostle Paul. Revelations describes the Apocalypse.
meaning
The Bible can have four types of meaning. It can be literally true {literal meaning}. It can use allegory to teach {allegorical meaning}. It can have moral truth {tropological meaning}. It can tell about life after death {anagogical meaning}.
Staffs {crosier}| with crook or cross precede abbots, bishops, or archbishops.
God gives everything {God's grace} {grace of God}. People's works alone cannot save them.
In Catholicism, the bishop of Rome is the main bishop, because Jesus designated St. Peter, who became bishop of Rome, church leader {Petrine supremacy}.
People can have personal morality and contemplation {pietism}|.
God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit {Trinity}.
The first humans disobeyed God and, by inheritance, all people carry their sin {original sin}|. Perhaps, people also acquired ability to sin and guilt about sinning.
Catholic Church can give pardons {indulgence}| for sin.
Christianity has a symbol {cross, Christianity}.
Greek Orthodox Church uses a cross {double-beam cross} with two bars.
Lutheran Church uses a cross {Lutheran cross} with circle.
Russian Orthodox Church uses a cross {triple-beam cross} with three bars.
Crosses {Greek cross} can have four equal arms.
God, divines, or saints can change nature's laws {miracle}. Miracles imply suspending or breaking physical law. If universe allows physical law to break or temporarily not apply, much greater physical effects have to happen, over larger regions and times. Miracles imply that non-physical actions can happen. If non-physical actions happen, they have to have physical means to move physical things. Physical means are apparent for observed physical movements.
God impregnated Jesus's mother {Immaculate Conception}, according to the Bible.
Mary received God's message {Annunciation} that she was to have virgin birth of Jesus, according to the Bible.
According to Gospel of Luke, Mary sang a song {Magnificat} of praise after learning from an angel that she was to bear Jesus.
Perhaps, Jesus is god in human body {Incarnation}. Controversy concerns whether Jesus was only god, only human, or both.
According to the Bible, Mary was virgin {virgin birth}. Some Romans had claimed Caesar Augustus was god who had virgin birth, so early Christians used same tactic.
No record besides the Bible exists of Jesus' birthday or conception, but his conception was supposedly on March 25 and his birthday {Christmas} nine months later. December 25 is also consistent with Jesus being six months younger than John the Baptist.
According to the Bible, "wise men from the east" {Three Wise Men} {Magi, Bible} brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh to Jesus twelve days after his birth. Caspar, king of Chaldea, brought gold. Melchior, king of Nubia, brought frankincense. Balthazar, king of Babylon, brought myrrh. Gospel of Matthew does not mention how many wise men. Perhaps, they were Zoroastrians. Probably, wise men were actually fools or people performing fol-de-rol.
January 6 {Epiphany} is when wise men visited Jesus.
Return to spiritual and bodily life {resurrection, Christianity}| can follow death. According to the Bible, Jesus rose from the dead {Resurrection} and left his tomb after three days, on Easter Sunday. At the resurrection, God will judge people and assign them to heaven or hell. Heaven is where all is pleasant and one sees the face of God. Hell is pain and loss of God.
After revisiting the disciples, forty days after Resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven {Ascension, Jesus}, according to the Bible.
Rites {eucharist}| can simulate the Last Supper.
Churches can elect bishops and abbots {investiture}|.
Patrimony of St. Peter was land {Donation} in Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia that Constantine I supposedly gave to Pope.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse {Apocalypse} are Pestilence, Plague, Famine, and War.
Christians believe that Jesus died to redeem sin of all people who believe in him. He will return to judge everyone {Second Coming, Christ}, when kingdom of heaven will begin on Earth, or Earth will end.
The 11 original disciples, not including Judas, and later converted people {apostle, Jesus}| preached about Jesus.
Gabriel is angel of revelations {archangel, Christianity}|. Rafael and Michael are other archangels.
Scribes and Pharisees {pharisee}| were Jewish priests and officials, whom Jesus scorned.
Mary bore Jesus in a city {Bethlehem, Bible}, according to the Bible.
Jesus rested in a garden {Garden of Gethsemane} {Gethsemane} in Jerusalem, according to the Bible.
Jesus was crucified on a hill {Golgotha, Bible}, according to the Bible.
A stable feeding trough {manger, religion}| was a cradle for baby Jesus, according to the Bible.
Jesus rested on a Jerusalem hill {Mount of Olives, Bible}, according to the Bible.
Jesus grew up in a town {Nazareth, Bible} in north Palestine, according to the Bible.
patron saint of maidenhood {Saint Agnes}.
patron saint of Scotland {Saint Andrew}.
patron saint of Scandinavia {Apostle of Scandinavia} {Saint Ansgar}.
patron saint of defense {Saint Barbara}.
patron saint of Italy {Saint Catherina}.
patron saint of music {Saint Cecilia}.
patron saint of travelers {Saint Christopher}.
patron saint of England {Saint George}.
patron saint of Spain {Saint James}.
patron saint of scholars {Saint Jerome}.
Joan of Arc {Saint Joan of Arc} or Maid of Orleans was from France.
patron saint of Austria {Saint Leopold}.
patron saint of Russia {Saint Nicolaus}.
patron saint of Ireland {Saint Patrick}.
patron saint of doctors and nurses {Saint Sebastian}.
patron saint of Poland {Saint Sigismund}.
patron saint of Portugal {Saint Thomas}.
patron saint of female education {Saint Ursula}.
patron saint of Bohemia {Saint Wenceslaus}.
Christian religious belief system {Gnosticism} supposedly provides privileged knowledge of spiritual world. Gnosis (deep knowledge) came from divine being, through medium of Christ, who brought redemption. People have spark of the divine in them and long to leave material world and return to spiritual world. They need knowledge to do this.
spirits
God is unknowable divine being, solely of spiritual world. Spiritual world and beings sprang from thoughts of God. Lesser divinities {demiurge, Gnosticism} of spiritual world created material world and physical motion. However, creation and action are antagonistic to the truly spiritual.
theosophy
Gnosticism included other movements, such as theosophy.
Some early Christians believed that Jesus was person with human nature and did not unite divine and human {Monophysite controversy}.
Jesus was two separate persons, one divine and one human {Nestorian controversy}. There was no Virgin Birth.
There is no original sin, and people can be perfect without God's grace {Pelagianism}.
Christ {chi rho} (CHR).
Jesus, Savior of Man {IHS}.
Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews {INRI}.
Symbols {trefoil symbol} can be for Christian Trinity.
watchfulness, power, wisdom, and understanding symbol {Abraxas}.
Mystic star {Heptagram} is for magic.
creation symbol {Octagram}.
fate symbol {seven-headed serpent}.
stylized sun {sigil of the sun}.
stylized Earth {sigil of the world}.
stylized water and fire symbol {water-fire principle}.
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Date Modified: 2022.0225