Category: 10th Grade English

According to Wikipedia, “Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa.” He was born on November 13, 345 AD in Thagaste, and died on August 29, 430 AD in the Ruins of Hippo, Annaba, Algeria. He was a very important person during his time. He was regarded as very important by people of his time because he was considered a saint, hence the name, Saint Augustine. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquity and certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lasting influence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority in theological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Ages and remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtually uncontested till the nineteenth century.“

Augustine wrote a rule on common life for lay Christians and how they are supposed to live their life in the year 397. He also wrote many other messages to the Christians. He believed that the purpose of righteous men was to represent God in everything they think, say, and do, and to look forward towards the Kingdom of Heaven in the hope that one day you might enter into it. He says the the world were are in right now is falling apart into chaos and destruction, so we must look forward to the City of God.

He also tells us not to be afraid of those who want to take our body, but not our soul. Instead, we should be afraid of the one who can take away the body and the soul, and that “person” is God. There is a Bible verse that talks about this. Matthew 10:28 says: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Another verse is Proverbs 1:7, which says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

In all of his writings, St. Augustine points Christians in the direction of the city of the City of God. He says that this world that we are living in today is falling apart and is ruled by Satan and the enemy. We have nothing on this earth. We must look forward to the City of God where not even sin can exist. That is what we must look forward to. But, until we can reach the City of God, we must come closer to God, learn about him, listen to the words of the Bible, etc. However, not everyone can enter the City of God. If you want to enter the City of God, you must believe in Jesus and in everything that he has done for you, and you must follow him by reading the Bible, going to Church, etc. You must also do other things to enter the City of God, but I have said enough.

Keep trying to follow Jesus.

The doctrine of hell was, according to theconversation.com, “In traditional Christian doctrine, hell was conceived as a place, generally beneath the earth, where the wicked would be punished for eternity. There would be both psychological torment – at our knowing we had lost the opportunity for salvation – and physical ones inflicted by the Devil and his demons.” Now, hell is a very real place and people can go there if they die, but it is not a place that you would like to go to. It is full of death, destruction, calamity, and so  much more. That is why Christians take hell very, very seriously.

The martyrs were Christians who died for there beliefs in Jesus Christ, God, and Christianity. According to merriam-webster.com, the definition of martyr is “a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion”. So, martyrs are really people who died because of their belief in a religion. Many martyrs tried teaching other people about their religion and died because of it. Their were even martyrs in the Bible. Ten of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ were martyrs. So martyrs were even that far back in history, and maybe even farther back than that!

How important was the doctrine of hell to the martyrs? It was pretty serious. The Christian martyrs taught people about Jesus, and were killed because of it. Some were even Christians and did not try to preach Christianity to other people, and they were martyred. After a Christian has been caught to be executed, he/she is given one chance to save themselves. The way they do that is they have to deny Jesus. If they do, they will be spared. If they do not, they will die. Some are not even given this chance. Some are just killed without being brought to the court to be trialed. They are just killed then and there. Some were killed in terrible, horrifying ways. Some were stoned to death, crucified, burned alive, beheaded, and much more. It was just horrifying. If you were a martyr, and you were given the choice to deny Jesus and live, or to not do so and die, which one would you chose?

The martyrs that died that were given the choice to deny Jesus did not deny Jesus because they knew that if they denied Jesus, they would have to answer to Jesus himself for it and probably go to hell, so they chose death on earth and everlasting life in heaven over limited life on earth and everlasting death in hell. What choice would you make?

The martyrs were people who died for their belief in God and His Son, Jesus Christ. They have helped influence people throughout history and are probably still doing it. Martyrs are very influential people. Some people even wish that they die by being martyred! Here is my final question. If you were to die by martyrdom or by old age, which would you chose?

Compare Paul’s concept of God’s sovereignty in Romans 9:1-23 with Justin’s concept of God’s sovereignty in Chapter XLIII: RESPONSIBILITY ASSERTED. Romans 9:1-23 says: “

9 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, ⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. ⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised!^a] Amen.

⁶ It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. ⁷ Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^b] ⁸ In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. ⁹ For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”^c]

¹⁰ Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. ¹¹ Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: ¹² not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”^d] ¹³ Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”^e]

¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses,

¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ¹⁷ For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”^g] ¹⁸ Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

¹⁹ One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” ²⁰ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”^h] ²¹ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? ²³ What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—

In this Bible reference, Paul makes it clear that God is completely sovereign, the supreme ruler of all. He said that God is completely sovereign and the Son and Father are one. In Justin Martyr’s Apology, he also states that God is supreme ruler, but He also delegates sovereignty to His Son and man. Really, they both believe God to be supreme ruler, but they also differed in the fact of God’s choices. Paul believed that God’s predestination were independent of man’s choices. But Justin Martyr believed that God’s predestination were dependent of man’s choices. They both knew that God was the supreme ruler, but they differed in their beliefs of God’s predestination.

The ethical behavior of the Greek/Roman god Zeus was one of wrath and punishment. The Greeks/Romans tried their best to follow the correct rituals and sacrifices in order to try to avoid the wrath of Zeus and to avoid the punishment that comes along with it, but there was no assurance that Zeus would not just start disliking them and start putting negative sanctions on them. And his wrath was not merciful. Zeus was a ruthless guy. So Zeus was not the kind of guy that you would want to be friends with. I’m really sure that the Greeks/Romans thought so too. In many concepts when there were wars going on the gods just took sides and used their supernatural godly powers to help their side win the battle. An example of this is the Trojan War. In this war the gods took sides and tried to help their side win the war. They use humans as their “toys” or “play-things”. In Roman mythology, Jove/Jupiter is Zeus but a Roman god (the Romans get some of their mythology from the Greeks, for example, they took the Greek gods, but renamed them so it would seem that the Romans made up their own gods) and he takes this “play-thing” very far, maybe even to far. It is said that he finds random innocent people and does what is necessary to do to hide his doings from his suspicious and very jealous wife. If you did something to offend the gods or you did something that they just did  not like they were sure to punish you.

Jesus on the other hand explains that because we are sinners we can not enter the kingdom of heaven. But God sent his one and only Son to die for us and be the savior of the world. That way that if we believe in Jesus and that he came to save us and that he is God’s Son, we can have eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved Acts 16:31

These four verses are four of my favorite verses and are very important. They explain all that I just said. Jesus taught us that God is omnipotent (all powerful) and omniscient (all knowing). His power is unlimited. He can create out of nothing and he knows past present and future all at the same time. He is also perfectly good. There is no evil in him at all whatsoever. Because of this we can trust him fully. He never turns his back on us and he never leaves nor forsakes us.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6

Paul wrote many New Testament books of the Bible, some of which are Romans, Acts, Galatians, Ephesians, etc. He wrote them to churches in different cities throughout his life. Some of these books (some are called letters) he wrote while he was in prison. In his letters to churches he gives words of encouragement, warning, and wisdom. He even teaches them through his letters. He uses very persuasive language to persuade the people he is writing the letter to to listen to his teachings of Christianity. This method was very effective. He made sure that his letters were easy to understand. They were understood at that time and they have been very important tools to help people understand Christianity.

How were adoption and inheritance related in Paul’s thought? Paul makes this very clear in his letters. Adoption of Christianity. This means that if you turn to Christianity, God adopts you. This leads to the inheritance  of the kingdom of God.

People are really not heirs to the kingdom of God because of Adam’s sin. We are all born sinners. We as being sinful humans are not worthy of inheriting the kingdom of God. However, people can be adopted by God, therefore we are worthy enough to be able to inherit the kingdom of God. It says in Romans 6:23, ^“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It also says in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In Acts 16:31 it says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” So you see, even though we are sinners God sent his son Jesus to die for us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.

Paul describes as the chief of sinners. He persecuted Christians and he was a great sinner. But he also explains that God opened his eyes and Paul adopted the faith, therefore being adopted by God. He started to preach the word of God to many people. He was recruited by God. He states that like him, many people must accept the faith and become adopted by God in order to become heirs and receive the inheritance of the kingdom of God.

Because of Adam’s sin’s, we are not heirs to the kingdom of God, however, if we accept the faith of Christianity, we can become heirs to the kingdom of God. God sent his son to die for us so that we can become heirs to the kingdom of God. Romans 6:23, ^“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Acts 16:31″Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.

The Sadducees, according to Wikipedia, were “a socio-religious sect or group of Jews who were active in Judea during the Second Temple period, starting from the second century BCE through the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. The Sadducees are often compared to other contemporaneous sects, including the Pharisees and the Essenes”. The Sadducees’ headquarters was Jerusalem and the group was founded in 167 BC.

In the Biblical book of Acts, we find that there was a conflict between the Sadducees and the apostles. The Sadducees practiced and taught the Mosaic law while the apostles were teaching people about the new ways of Christianity. The apostles even reformed the Mosaic law. This made the Sadducees and even the priests very angry and thought of the apostles as a threat to their society, and even their teachings.

The Sadducees tried everything in their power to prevent Christianity from being spread to people, so they went as far as to even threaten, capture, imprison, and even kill the apostles. Some of these were the martyr of St. Stephen, the imprisonment and killing of the disciples,  and much more. This shows just how desperate they were to get rid of Christianity and the people who taught it. The apostles took this as a serious threat, but they kept on preaching about Christianity. As it says in 1 Corinthians 16:13, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” Another verse that tells us to stand firm is 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”. These verses tells to stand firm even when people want to “cut us down”. That is exactly what these apostles were doing. They were holding fast in the truth even when people wanted to stop them, or “cut them down”.

Because of the complete nature of the message the apostles preached, the Sadducees could not just take this issue in council. Because the Sadducees believed in the Mosaic law, they did not want any changes. They just were not open to the idea. However, the apostles preached about the One that the officials crucified, Jesus Christ.

The Sadducees did everything that they could. The threated the apostles, they killed some, they put some in prison, but nothing worked. The apostles kept on preaching. As I said in an earlier paragraph, the apostles stood firm even when the Sadducees wanted to “cut them down”. They continued to preach the word of God. They continued to preform great healings and miracles, even when the Sadducees were trying to stop them, even if they had to kill the apostles to do it. The weird thing is that the Sadducees were the only ones persecuting the Christians.

The Sadducees would not give up the Mosaic law and turn over to Christianity because they were not open to it. They believed that the people who taught Christianity were contradicting the ancient tradition that they believed in.

According to Mark’s gospel, what was the main issue dividing Jesus from the leaders of Israel? The gospel of Mark is one of the four Gospels of the Bible. It is also the shortest. According to Wikipedia, “The Gospel according to Mark, also called the Gospel of Mark or simply Mark, is the second of the four canonical gospels and of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to his death, burial, and the discovery of his empty tomb.” According to Britannica, “Mark’s Gospel stresses the deeds, strength, and determination of Jesus in overcoming evil forces and defying the power of imperial Rome. Mark also emphasizes the Passion, predicting it as early as chapter 8 and devoting the final third of his Gospel (11–16) to the last week of Jesus’ life.”

According to Mark’s gospel, what was main issue dividing Jesus from the leaders of Israel? This main issue is envious fear which came from the leaders. The Israelite leaders had power over things that the Israelites do not have power over which made them powerful. However, after they saw what Jesus could do with the power He had (walk on water, heal blind, lame, paralyzed, sick, power over nature, power over demons, etc.), they became jealous and envious of His power, but they also grew fearful of His power. They thought He could destroy them in a second, which of course He could do, but it was not his plan. That is one of the reasons why they worked so hard to get people to kill him.

Because of Jesus’ power and authority, He attracted very large crowds wherever He went. Some of them came miles just to see him. These people began to recognize Jesus as their leader instead of the Israelite leaders. The idea of the Israelite leaders losing their power was very daunting and scary to them.

This power and authority that Jesus had that was given to him by God He gave to his disciples so that they could go spread the Gospel . This can be seen in Matthew 28:16-20 which is called the Great Commission. It says,

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The Israelite leaders saw this as a sign that Jesus was trying to expand his authority which they thought was a greater threat to their authority. The Israelite leaders saw Christ’s teaching’s as a threat to their authority when it was supposed to purify their society.

There were many reasons that divided Jesus from the leaders of Israel, and envious fear was one of them.

According to Wikipedia, “Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.” He was born on December 8, in the year 65 BC in the city or Venosa, Italy. He died on November 27, in the year 8 BC in the city of Rome, Italy. Horace wrote many good works, one of which is Odes, “The Art of Poetry”. He wrote lyric poetry, which is, according to Wikipedia, “Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.” In his works, Horace writes to the person reading it specifically and tells them things that will mentally stick to them forever. His simple concept of cause and effect is that the person should stay in the “golden mean”. According to Wikipedia, “The golden mean or golden middle way is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. It appeared in Greek thought at least as early as the Delphic maxim “nothing in excess” and emphasized in later Aristotelian philosophy.” He tells the person to expect no more and no less that the middle, which he says is healthy.

In his Odes, Horace tells us that the only major thing in the lives of man, is death. Death comes to every human being at some point. With this end from which we can never escape from, men are equal during and after our final breath. Therefor, men are equal throughout their entire lives. The amount of riches and wealth a man receives will not mean anything after that person dies. A person can work hard to obtain riches, but it does not change their position. But, you can not just not work or live in poverty, so Horace says to live the golden mean, or the medium type of life. He says to live a balanced life.

He also says to avoid disappointment. If they live in a medium life, then they will not encounter big disappointments.

He even provides the example of the ant from the Bible. Proverbs 6:6-8 says “⁶ Go to the ant, you sluggard;
    consider its ways and be wise!
⁷ It has no commander,
    no overseer or ruler,
⁸ yet it stores its provisions in summer
    and gathers its food at harvest.

Throughout the entire book (or whatever it is called) he points towards the golden mean. He said we should live like the ant, which is a balanced lifestyle, not too much, and not too little. He also makes the point, why have a lot of gold if you are not going to take it with you if you die? The answer is, to live by the golden mean, a balanced lifestyle (or at least that is his answer).

Death is something that no one can escape from, however, Horace says that if you live in the golden mean, you will have satisfaction. What Horace calls the balanced lifestyle we call today the middle-class-lifestyle. He says that the rich and poor and everyone in-between are equal because they will all encounter death.

According to Wikipedia, “Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō, known in English as Ovid, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature.” In the year 8 AD, he was banished by Emperor Augustus to the Black Sea region. It was there that he wrote his book the Metamorphoses. This book is just a series of poems that tell about his view of the god’s ethical performance.

Ovid made it very clear in his book the Metamorphoses that he has a view of the gods ethical performance even if he did not believed it. He included the ethical process of the gods and how they inflict negative and positive sanctions according to it.

On of the main themes in the Metamorphoses is pride. The gods were very prideful beings and so were men. When the gods make ethical decisions, their pride is the key factor of when they did this. It was said in the book that if anybody challenged or denied a gods pride, then the outcome would have extremely negative and very bad consequences.

There is a story based on pride in this book. It is in book number six. It is called “Rustics changed to frogs”. The story is when a god named Latona gives birth to twins, both of which are gods. After birth, she becomes very thirst and goes to a pond to get a drink of water. However, men at the pond resisted her and did not let her by. Latona thought that because she was a god, she should do whatever she wants, whenever she wants, in this case, it is to get a drink of water. She is being prideful. The men were also prideful because they thought that they had the power to stop a spiritual being from doing what she wanted, which is get a drink. They thought that this made them powerful. Latona tried many times to get a drink, but was rejected every time. Finally, she prayed and all the men there turned into frogs. They could no longer have a relationship with the gods. they were objects of nature, just like the animals. The problem in this story is pride. The men were turned into frogs because they were prideful. They were prideful because they thought that they had the power to stop a god from doing what she wanted to do. Because of this, they were punished by being turned into frogs.

Ovid also explains that in his book, it is possible for man to become a god. For example, Venus asked Jupiter to let Aeneas become a god. Jupiter answers this request by letting Venus take Aeneas to the river Numicius to cleanse him of all his immortality and to make him become a god. Another situation in which this happens is when Mars asked Jupiter to let Romulus (the founder of Rome in Roman mythology) become a god. Jupiter says yes and Romulus becomes a god. The way for humans to become a god, as Ovid explains in his book, is not for man to ask, but to do what they say and make them happy.