A Christian theological definition of Wrath according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

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Wrath

See also: Wrath , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Lucifer (Latin) Light-bringer (cf Greek Phosphoros; or Eosphoros dawn-bringer); the planet Venus, the morning star. Lucifer is light bringer to earth, not only physically as the brightest of the planets, but in a mystical sense also. In mysticism he is the chief of those minor powers or logoi who are said to rebel against high heaven and to be cast down to the bottomless pit -- the so-called war in heaven and the fall of the angels.

This allegory is found also in the legend concerning Prometheus, in the Hindu Mahasura who rebels against Brahma and is cast by Siva into patala, and in the Scandinavian Loki. In the cyclic sweep of evolution, spirit has first to descend or become involved in differentiation and in the worlds of matter, so that worlds and beings may be brought forth and evolved. The logoi who thus bring the light may allegorically be said, like Prometheus, to steal the fire, and their assertion of divine free will may be construed into an act of evolutionary rebellion; yet such is their karmic function as well as duty.

Lucifer has been transformed in later Occidental theology into a synonym for the Evil One or the Devil. If the god Jehovah were the highest divinity, which this Jewish tribal deity is not, then any power withstanding him must necessarily be considered to be his adversary; and in the same way the teaching as to the immanent Christ, not only in the world but in each individual person, not being altogether agreeable with the doctrine of salvation by faith in an external savior, became transformed into the Tempter inspiring man to sinful rebellion against God. Lucifer in a very true sense stands for the self-conscious mind in man, which is at once tempter and enlightener -- tempter in its lower aspects and enlightener and inspirer in its higher.

See also MANASAPUTRAS; PROMETHEUS; SATAN

(See also: Lucifer , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Vaishnavism

The system of Hindu beliefs and practices that honor Vishnu/Krishna as Supreme God; probably the most widely followed kind of Hinduism. Bhakti yoga is the primary practice of this religion, the final reward of which is eternal communion with God.

The most famous of this god's many names are Vishnu, Narayana, Hari, Bhagavan, Krishna, and Rama; hence the usage Vishnu/Krishna. Vaishnavism's ancient name, Bhagavata ("followers of the Blessed Lord, i. e. , Bhagavan"), may clarify its beginnings, for it makes a connection with the movement's two most important literary works: the Bhagavad Gita (first put in print ca. 150 BC) and the Bhagavata Purana (Shrimad Bhagavatam, ca. 850-900).

Though the tradition began earlier, two things became clear by about 200 BC: the Bhagavatas related to their god, Krishna, by devotion and accepted the Vedas and Upanishads, the scriptures of Brahmanic Hindu religion. In this process the Brahmanic deities Vishnu and Narayana became identified with Bhagavan Krishna. Thereafter, Krishna has been viewed as an incarnation (avatara) of the Supreme God Vishnu (by South Indian Vaishnavas), and Vishnu has been viewed as a subordinate form of the Supreme God Krishna (by North Indian Vaishnavas).

The Bhagavad Gita is the earliest full statement of the Bhagavata synthesis. Krishna teaches a path of salvation: desire-free performance of one's born duty should be combined with the meditative wisdom of the Upanishads, suffused by and culminating in loving devotion to Krishna.

(See also: Vaishnavism , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Monergism

The Christian teaching that God alone is the one who saves. It is opposed to synergism which teaches that God and man work together in salvation.

(See also: Monergism , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Branch Davidian

Splinter group of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. founded by David Koresh (A. K. A. Vernon Howell) was leader from 1984 to 1993. He and most of his followers were killed when their headquarters near Waco, TX, was destroyed by fire in 1993 during a government raid.

He taught that knowledge of the Seven Seals of the Book of Revelation brought salvation. Many followers still believe Koresh�s messianic claims and await his resurrection.

(See also: Branch Davidian , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Savior Applied to manasaputras, buddhas, bodhisattvas, avataras, messiahs, the Agathodaemon, etc.

See also SALVATION

(See also: Savior , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Christian theological definition of Sola Scriptura according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

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Sola Scriptura

See also: Sola Scriptura , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Oneness Pentecostalism

A schism that emerged from the mainstream Pentecostal movement during the years 1914�1916. Unlike traditional Pentecostals, �Oneness� followers maintain view similar to Monarchianism. In addition, most Oneness Pentecostal organizations also teach that speaking in tongues, baptism, and maintaining various moral �standards� are necessary for salvation.

(See also: Oneness Pentecostalism , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

A Christian theological definition of Elect according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

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Elect, Election

See also: Elect , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Jesus (Jeshua, Yeshua, Joshua)

Salvation of Yahweh, Prince of Peace, Son of Man, Jewish ethical teacher. Christianity is founded on his teachings

(See also: Jesus (Jeshua  Yeshua  Joshua) , Body Mind and Soul)

Sola Scriptura

The Christian teaching that the Bible contains all that is necessary for salvation and proper living before God.

(See also: Sola Scriptura , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Tau (Hebrew, Jewish). That which has now become the square Hebrew letter tau, but was ages before the invention of the Jewish alphabet, the Egyptian handled cross, the crux ansata of the Latins, and identical with the Egyptian ankh.

This mark belonged exclusively, and still belongs, to the Adepts of every country. As Kenneth R. F. Mackenzie shows, "It was a symbol of salvation and consecration, and as such has been adopted as a Masonic symbol in the Royal Arch Degree ". It is also called the astronomical cross, and was used by the ancient Mexicans - as its presence on one of the palaces at Palenque shows - as well as by the Hindus, who placed the tau as a mark on the brows of their Chelas.

(See also: Tau , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

A Christian theological definition of Supralapsarianism according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

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Supralapsarianism

See also: Supralapsarianism , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

A Christian theological definition of Albigenses according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

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Albigenses

See also: Albigenses , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Infralapsarianism

An issue within Reformed Christian theology dealing predestination. It tries to explain what may have happened in God's mind regarding the logical order of his considering whom to elect into salvation before the foundation of the world. The word means "after the fall. "

The position is that God first decided he would allow sin into the world and second that he would then save people from it. By contrast, the supralapsarian ("before the fall") position holds that God first decided that he would save some people and then second that he would allow sin into the world.

(See also: Infralapsarianism , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Hiram Abif, Huram Abif Huram 'abiu or 'abiv (Hebrew) (from hawar to become white or pale; or from harah to burn (as with ardor), be noble or free-born; or haram to devote, consecrate as to religion or destruction, be killed or destroyed)

The last derivation is descriptive of the character and fate (according to Masonic tradition) of Hiram Abif; while the second derivation befits the character of Hiram King of Tyre. Hiram Abif is described as a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali (1 Kings 7:14), and a skillful, knowledgeable man, a worker in gold, silver, brass, and iron, as was his father (2 Chron 2:12). Hiram Abif was sent by Hiram King of Tyre to King Solomon to aid in the building of his Temple.

In Freemasonry Hiram Abif is the central figure in the drama of the Third or Master Mason's degree, and one of the Three Ancient Grand Masters of the Craft (the other two being King Solomon and Hiram King of Tyre). Before the completion of the building of the Temple he was slain by three ruffians because he refused to communicate to them the Master Mason's Word, which on account of his death was said to be lost, for it can be communicated only when all the Three Ancient Grand Masters are present. Hiram Abif was hastily buried in a shallow grave marked by a sprig of acacia or myrtle, which led to its discovery and the subsequent raising of Hiram Abif by the power of a Substitute Word which, it was decreed, should be used until the Lost Word be again found.

The Masonic initiation was modeled on that of the Lesser Mysteries of Egypt, also used in India from time immemorial with Loka-chaksu (eye of the world) and Dinkara (day-maker or the sun).

"In Egypt the third degree was called Porte de la Mort (the gate of death) . . . in the modern rite, one finds the reproduction of this Egyptian myth, except that in place of Osiris, inventor of the arts, or the Sun, one finds the name of Hiram, which signifies raised -- eleve, (the epithet which belongs to the Sun) and who is skillful in the arts" (Ragon, Orthodoxie Ma�onnique 101-2). The slaying of Hiram signifies the annual slaying of the sun by the last three months of the year, the sun being reborn or raised at the winter solstice, one of the four great initiation periods celebrated in antiquity.

Hiram Abif is a type-figure of all the saviors of humanity who sacrificed themselves for the salvation of mankind, a direct human representative of its prototype among the divinities, such as Odin and Visvakarman, the builder and artificer of the gods. Hiram Abif is also the type-figure of the individual's inner god, crucified upon the cross of material existence.

The legend and drama of the Master Mason's degree constitutes an indisputable link between Freemasonry and the ancient Mysteries, and few have fathomed the esoteric significance of this degree and of the legend of Hiram Abif: 1) the relation of the upper triad to the lower quaternary of the sevenfold human nature; 2) the incarnation or sacrifice of the manasaputras; 3) the symbolism of Solomon's Temple; 4) the instruments with which the death of Hiram Abif was accomplished; and 5) the reference to Hiram as a potter (2 Chron 4:16), which connects him with Kneph in the Egyptian Mysteries as creator of the mundane egg. A variant of the Hiramic legend is given in the parable of the householder and the vineyard, whose servants and finally son whom he sent to receive the fruits of the harvest were slain (Matt 21:33).

(See also: Hiquet , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Vicarious Atonement In Christian theology, the idea that God accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as a substitution for the guilt incurred by man at the Fall, and that mankind will consequently escape punishment, provided that they accept by faith Jesus Christ's sacrifice. The idea that by an atoning for evil done or sin committed, one undoes the past -- broadened by Christian theology to include the doctrine of the vicarious atonement by some great spiritual being for the sins of others -- is a theory rejected by the theosophic philosophy. To those who believe the Christian doctrine that every person was born into this world burdened with inevitable doom through Adam's sin, such a compensatory doctrine seems to be necessary; but it discourages people's faith in their own innate divinity and in their power thereby to effect their own spiritual and moral salvation, and violates our sense of justice by offering a way of avoiding the consequences of our own bad actions -- which avoidance of sin already incurred is distinctly denied in several places in the New Testament where the ancient theosophical doctrine of karma is taught that as a man sows, that (and not something else) must he invariably reap. Vicarious atonement may be a distorted doctrine of reconciliation, in Christian notion reconciliation between God and man; also of the idea that the spiritual monad in man takes on itself the consequences for actions or "sins" committed by the less evolved human monad. Every human being is raised by the sacrifice made by the Christos within himself, so that whoever believes in and conforms his acts to his own spiritual nature, is "saved."

See also AT-ONE-MENT

(See also: Vicarious Atonement , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Xisusthrus (Ancient Greek). The Chaldean Noah, on the Assyrian tablets, who is thus described in the history of the ten kings by Berosus, according to Alexander Polyhistor:

"After the death of (the ninth) Ardates, his son Xisusthrus reigned eighteen sari. In his time happened a great deluge." Warned by his deity in a vision of the forthcoming cataclysm, Xisusthrus was ordered by that deity to build an ark, to convey into it his relations, together with all the different animals, bird etc., and trust himself to the rising waters. Obeying the divine admonition, Xisusthrus is shown to do precisely what Noah did many thousand years after him. He sent out birds from the vessel which returned to him again; then a few days after he sent them again, and they returned with their feet coated with mud; but the third time they came back to him no more.

Stranded on a high mountain of Armenia, Xisusthrus descends and builds an altar to the gods. Here only, comes a divergence between the polytheistic and monotheistic legends. Xisusthrus, having worshipped and rendered thanks to the gods for his salvation, disappeared, and his companions "saw him no more ". The story informs us that on account of his great piety Xisusthrus and his family were translated to live with the gods, as he himself told the survivors. For though his body was gone, his voice was heard in the air, which, after apprising them of the occurrence, admonished them to return to Babylon, and pay due regard to virtue, religion, and the gods. This is more meritorious than to plant vines, get drunk on the juice of the grape, and curse one’s own son.

(See also: Xisusthrus , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Baptism for the Dead

A practice of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) in which living members are baptized by proxy for people who have died without accepting the Gospel and being baptized.

The church teaches that if these dead persons then accept the LDS gospel while in Spirit Prison, they can potentially attain full salvation. This ceremony is performed only in an LDS Temple.

(See also: Baptism for the Dead , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Pneumatology

The study of the Holy Spirit, His person, works, relation to the Father and Son, relation to man, ministry in salvation and sanctification, conviction, and indwelling.

(See also: Pneumatology , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Kaliyuga

(Sanskrit) In Hindu cosmology, the current, pleasure-loving age - the last of four repeating ages (yugas): that of iron in which the law (dharma) is like an animal on one leg. In bhakti (devotional) texts salvation is only possible in the Kali Yuga.

(See also: Kaliyuga , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Sabbatarianism

Generally the view that the Old Testament Sabbath commandment is to be observed unchanged by the church. Sabbatarianism refers to an extreme form of the belief in which membership in the true church, or even salvation, is conditional upon keeping the Sabbath law. In most cases, the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) must be observed by refraining from work, sports, and travel from sundown Friday evening to sundown Saturday evening. The belief is often accompanied by the observance of Jewish dietary laws and/or other Old Testament feasts.

(See also: Sabbatarianism , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)