Abrahams Faith That Is The Olde Religion

The concept of faith is at the core of Paul's theology, and the classic assage for his understanding of pistis is Genesis 15:6. After discussing the history of scholarship on the Pauline concept of faith, Benjamin Schliesser explores the literary, tradition-historical and structural questions of Genesis 15 and offers a detailed exegesis of verse 6 with its fundamental terms count, righteousness, and believe. He then points to the theological significance of this testimony on Abraham for the Jewish identity; it comes into sight in a multifaceted and nuanced process of reception, from later Old Testament texts (Psalm 106; Nehemiah 9) to a broad array of literature from Second Temple Judaism (Septuagint, Sirach 44, Jubilees 14, 4QPseudo-Jubilees, 4QMMT, 1Maccabees, Philo). In the final and most substantial step, he asks about Paul's hermeneutics of faith: How does Paul, in his exegesis of the Genesis quote in Romans 4, come to view Abraham as the father of all believers? What is the concept of faith that he develops on the basis of Genesis 15:6? Taking into account the manifold textual and thematic links between Romans 4, Romans 3:21-31, and Romans 1:16-17, a unique, twofold structure of faith discloses itself: Pistis designates first a divinely established sphere of power, i.e., a new, christologically determined salvation-historical reality, and second human participation in this reality, i.e., individual believing in the community of believers. Particularly the first aspect is generally overlooked in modern scholarship.

Abraham's God is the incredible story of the origin of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and how they came to the shared faith in the God of Abraham, the God of over half the people in the world. To understand the culture and conflicts of half of the world, you must first understand the beliefs of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Abraham's God is not a book of religion for the religious, but for anyone attempting to understand the deep divides and violent conflicts between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share the same fundamentals of faith in the same God, yet for most of history they have been violently divided. Abraham's God explores this divide as it follows the journey of the Jews as they develop their faith, then Christians as they built on the foundations of Judaism, and the beginnings of Islam as Muhammad brought Abraham's God to the Arabs. The story begins long before Abraham and ends in the ninth century, when Christianity and Islam had firmly established themselves as the religions that would dominate the world into our twenty-first century. In the thousand years before Islam, Abraham's God tells the story of how Judaism and Christianity evolved and morphed in ways not taught in synagogues and churches. It tells how ideas of other ancient religions assimilated into Judaism, and then how Christians divided in their beliefs fought for centuries until Roman emperors imposed by law the theology of Christianity today. Not all Christians accepted the rulings of the emperors, and Islam was Muhammad's attempt to unify the mystifying divides. Abraham's God is essential to understanding the division that remains today between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Hailed as "the most radical repackaging of the Bible since Gutenberg", these Pocket Canons give an up-close look at each book of the Bible.

The first and most complete religion belonged to Adam and Eve. They lived with God, and after being cast out, they retained a memory of living in God's presence. Adam taught the first eight patriarchs born after him the Religion of the Fathers, which involved direct communion, contact, and connection between mankind and God. It enabled the faithful to hear directly from the Lord His promise of eternal life, to seal them by covenant into His Heavenly Family. Despite nearly universal apostasy and rebellion against God while Adam lived, the line of first or Patriarchal Fathers preserved the true religion. Their religion was Adam's religion, and their understanding reached back to the Garden of Eden. They experienced visions, ascended into Heaven, obtained promises of exaltation, and were transformed by their experiences from men into angels of God. After Shem (Melchizedek), an apostasy lasted until Abraham. Although he was raised by an idolater, Abraham searched for the true God of Heaven. He "sought for the blessings of the Fathers," the very thing Malachi prophesies will return before the great and dreadful return of the Lord. Like Adam (at the beginning) and his descendant, Enoch, Abraham was caught up into Heaven and received a tutorial endowment from God. The covenant of the first Fathers was renewed and conferred upon him by Melchizedek, thereby restoring continuity back to Adam. Abraham represents the key Patriarchal Father prophesied of in Malachi. Abraham not only renewed the covenant of the Fathers (including Noah and Enoch), but also, through the Abrahamic covenant, God established Abraham as the new head of the family of God on Earth. The Book of Abraham has become a battleground because it is so important for our salvation. Recovering the Religion of the Fathers, becoming of one heart with the Fathers, and fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi are directly connected to Abraham. The more we can learn of Abraham, the more we can know of the covenant with the Fathers spoken of by Malachi, and those same blessings of the Fathers that will be administered again before the end. We can, if faithful, obtain all that the original Fathers received from God at the beginning. Therefore, any book written by Abraham should be priceless to us. The Lord's "strange act" is approaching completion. The promises made to the Fathers are being vindicated. The Restoration has recommenced, and if we are faithful, it will not be paused or interrupted again. Although Israel's numbers are few, there have never been great numbers willing to sacrifice everything for God. The Religion of the Fathers presents a strong defense of the authenticity of the Book of Abraham as translated through Joseph Smith Jr. in 1835, and subsequently published in the Times & Seasons in 1842. It also presents an expanded view of the Restoration of the gospel, its ancient roots, current covenants, and prophesied future. Topics covered include Christianity, miracles, heaven, hell, the apocalypse, truth, the Bible, the devil, historical evidence, Lectures on Faith, the Ten Commandments, signs of the times, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the law of consecration, the Joseph Smith Papers, Joseph's journal, the translation process, the destiny of the Christian church, polygamy, saving grace, and many more.

In the book of Genesis, God bestows a new name upon Abram--Abraham, a father of many nations. With this name and his Covenant, Abraham would become the patriarch of three of the world's major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Connected by their mutual--if differentiated--veneration of the One God proclaimed by Abraham, these traditions share much beyond their origins in the ancient Israel of the Old Testament. This Very Short Introduction explores the intertwined histories of these monotheistic religions, from the emergence of Christianity and Islam to the violence of the Crusades and the cultural exchanges of al-Andalus. Each religion continues to be shaped by this history but has also reacted to the forces of modernity and politics. Movements such as the Reformation and that led by seventh-century Kharijites have emerged, intentioned to reform or restore traditional religious practice but quite different in their goals and effects. Relationships with states, among them Israel and Saudi Arabia, have also figured importantly in their development. The Abrahamic Religions: A Very Short Introduction brings these traditions together into a common narrative, lending much needed context to the story of Abraham and his descendants. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The amazing four-thousand-year-old story of Abraham from a fresh and intriguing interfaith perspective that joins together the scripture and traditions of five religions! The author combines scripture/sacred text from the five Abrahamic Faiths - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, the Babi Faith and the Bahai Faith - and combineshistorical data and archaeological evidence and identifies content that falls within the category of probably and possibly.

"Levenson provides a masterful reading of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinking that yielded three different portraits of Abraham. He sets the record straight about the biblical patriarch."---Sidney H. Griffith, author of The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam --Book Jacket.

F. E. Peters, a scholar without peer in the comparative study of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, revisits his pioneering work. Peters has rethought and thoroughly rewritten his classic The Children of Abraham for a new generation of readers-at a time when the understanding of these three religious traditions has taken on a new and critical urgency. He began writing about all three faiths in the 1970s, long before it was fashionable to treat Islam in the context of Judaism and Christianity, or to align all three for a family portrait. In this updated edition, he lays out the similarities and differences of the three religious siblings with great clarity and succinctness and with that same remarkable objectivity that is the hallmark of all the author's work. Peters traces the three faiths from the sixth century B.C., when the Jews returned to Palestine from exile in Babylonia, to the time in the Middle Ages when they approached their present form. He points out that all three faith groups, whom the Muslims themselves refer to as "People of the Book," share much common ground. Most notably, each embraces the practice of worshipping a God who intervenes in history on behalf of His people. The book's text is direct and accessible with thorough and nuanced discussions of each of the three religions. Footnotes provide the reader with expert guidance into the highly complex issues that lie between every line of this stunning edition of The Children of Abraham. Complete with a new preface by the author, this Princeton Classics edition presents this landmark study to a new generation of readers.