100 Peristiwa Penting dalam Sejarah Kristen
Sumber :
A. Kenneth Curtis, J. Stephen Lang & Randy Petersen, 100 Peristiwa Penting dalam Sejarah Kristen, Immanuel, 1999.
Tahun dan Peristiwa
Tahun-tahun di bawah ini merupakan beberapa yang terpenting dalam sejarah gereja. Continue reading
Lebih dari 1000 tahun yang lalu, empat puluh dua orang Kristen ditangkap oleh orang-orang beragama mayoritas di daerah dekat kota Ammoria di Timur Tengah. Orang-orang Kristen tersebut dipenjarakan selama 7 tahun dan dikunjungi beberapa kali oleh pemimpin kelompok tersebut yang mendesak mereka untuk menerima iman mereka. Orang-orang tersebut berpendapat bahwa nabi mereka adalah nabi yang sejati sedangkan Kristus bukan. Orang-orang Kristen mengingatkan kelompok tersebut bahwa dalam sistem hukum mereka sendiri jumlah saksi menentukan hasil suatu kasus. Kristus telah menyatakan kedatanganNya sejak dari Musa sampai Yohanes Pembaptis sedangkan nabi mereka hanya menyatakannya sendiri. Continue reading
I. PARA MARTIR KRISTEN MULA-MULA
* Yohanes 15:18-20
15:18 “Jikalau dunia membenci kamu, ingatlah bahwa ia telah lebih dahulu membenci Aku dari pada kamu.
15:19 Sekiranya kamu dari dunia, tentulah dunia mengasihi kamu sebagai miliknya. Tetapi karena kamu bukan dari dunia, melainkan Aku telah memilih kamu dari dunia, sebab itulah dunia membenci kamu.
15:20 Ingatlah apa yang telah Kukatakan kepadamu: Seorang hamba tidaklah lebih tinggi dari pada tuannya. Jikalau mereka telah menganiaya Aku, mereka juga akan menganiaya kamu; jikalau mereka telah menuruti firman-Ku, mereka juga akan menuruti perkataanmu.
Saksi/ kesaksian, Ibrani ‘ANA (harfiah,‘menjawab’), Yunani ‘martureo’, dan kata-kata yg berakar padanya martus, marturia dan marturion. Saksi ialah orang yg memberi kesaksian tentang sesuatu yg ia sendiri telah melihatnya. Kesaksian adalah tanggung jawab berat, teristimewa dalam kasus yg diancam dengan hukuman mati. Apabila terbukti tertuduh bersalah, maka para saksi memimpin regu pelaksana hukuman mati itu (lihat Kisah 7:58 ).
Para rasul adalah saksi-saksi utama tentang hidup dan kebangkitan Kristus (Yohanes 21 :24; Kisah 1 :22; 2 Petra 1 :6). Dalam gereja purba kata Yunani “martus” menjadi terbatas, terutama untuk menyebut mereka yg setia kepada imannya kendati sampai mati sekalipun. Penggunaan kata itu dalam arti demikian dikenal di Indonesia sebagai martir. Dalam dunia Kristen modern, ‘kesaksian’ berarti cerita tentang apa yg dikerjakan Kristus atas hidup seseorang, menjadi pengalaman pribadi orang itu. Continue reading
100 Peristiwa Penting dalam Sejarah Kristen
Sumber :
A. Kenneth Curtis, J. Stephen Lang & Randy Petersen, 100 Peristiwa Penting dalam Sejarah Kristen, Immanuel, 1999.
Tahun dan Peristiwa
Tahun-tahun di bawah ini merupakan beberapa yang terpenting dalam sejarah gereja.
Tahun – Peristiwa Continue reading
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Karismatik dalam berbagai hal memiliki ciri-ciri khas Pentakosta, khususnya dalam hal karunia-karunia Roh seperti tercatat dalam Alkitab (bahasa lidah/bahasa roh/glossolalia, nuGerakan buat, dan lain-lain). Gerakan ini pada awalnya bersifat antardenominasi di dalam gereja-gereja aras utama Protestan dan Katolik. Banyak kaum Karismatik pada akhirnya kemudian membentuk denominasi terpisah dalam gereja-gereja baru.
Kitab Kisah Para Rasul mencatat (mengisahkan) mengenai manifestasi Roh Kudus seperti kesembuhan ilahi, mujizat, dan glossolalia yang terjadi pada masa gereja mula-mula pada awal abad pertama. Karismatik merupakan sebuah istilah yang dipakai untuk mendeskripsikan kaum Kristiani yang percaya bahwa manifestasi Roh Kudus tersebut juga bisa terjadi dan seharusnya dipraktekkan sebagai pengalaman pribadi setiap orang-orang percaya pada masa sekarang ini.
Kata karismatik berasal dari sebuah kata Yunani charis yang berarti kasih karunia. Kata charis digunakan dalam Alkitab untuk menjelaskan mengenai berbagai-bagai pengalaman supranatural (khususnya dalam 1 Korintus 12-14). Continue reading
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Billy Graham: The Great Evangelist |
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Cover Illustration © 1996 Dick Bobnick __________________________________ Billy Graham: The Great Evangelist is available to Supporters of Alfian Palar Ministries.™
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By Sam Wellman “His sanctuary is the world.” Billy Graham has preached the Gospel in person to more people than any other Christian in history. In person: more than eighty countries…over 110 million people. And through television and radio hundreds of millions more. No preacher before him had used the mass media to such advantage. No preacher before or after him has delivered the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to so many. Billy Graham, who has preached in person in more than eighty countries to over 110 million people, and has reached hundreds of millions through television and radio, is truly of phenomenon of the twentieth century. At a time when Segregation according to skin color was the Law in the U.S. South, Billy Graham was the first Evangelist to refuse to allow Segregated seating, when as a young preacher he held his first Evangelistic Crusades there. Yet since his first outdoor meeting in 1949 the focus of this extraordinary North Carolina-born evangelist has remained the same: to proclaim the Christian faith to nonbelievers. This simple desire has led Graham’s ministry into uncharted territory as he crossed racial and political barriers without fear of criticism. Unquestionably regarded as one of the leading Christian figures of his generation, Billy Graham has remained as sought after in Washington, D.C. as in Warsaw. His personal integrity and humility, and most of all, his simple yet profound delight in God’s Word continue to _____________________________ |
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Charles Spurgeon: The Great Orator |
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_______________ Charles Haddon Spurgeon 1834-1892 _______________
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Cover Illustration © 1997 Dick Bobnick __________________________________ Charles Spurgeon: The Great Orator is available to Supporters of Alfian Palar Ministries.™
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By J. C. Carlile A great Tabernacle was once built for a great preacher. Such were Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s preaching gifts that London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle—a structure accommodating 6,000 people—was built just for him. The great orator and preacher continued filling the pews until his death thirty years later, while also founding there a pastor’s college and an orphanage, which both still exist. …Spurgeon delivered sermons that are eminently readable today, and still…in print over a century later. Rejecting the Congregationalist theology of his father, Spurgeon was baptized as an adult, and soon after discovered his God-given gift in a pastorate near Cambridge, England. A powerful evangelist with a natural and appealing sense of humor, Spurgeon delivered sermons that are eminently readable today, and still, remarkably, in print over a century later. Charles Haddon Spurgeon remains a role model for seminarians and seasoned pastors alike, and an imagined fiery presence in the pulpit through his inspired writings.
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George Müller: Man of Faith |
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George Müller 1805-1898 (also spelled Mueller, Muller) English Evangelist and Philanthropist; a man of faith and prayer. Born in Prussia in 1805, by age 10 George was inventing plans to embezzle the government monies his father had charge of. His school years were years of drunkenness and immorality. At age sixteen he was jailed for failing to pay his bills. The University he attended had 900 Divinity students. George said that there were only about nine who truly feared God. He continued in sin until at age 20 he received Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour. George married and became a Pastor, but refused his salary when he found out it was collected from “pew-rents.” He decided to live on faith from that time forward. Müller established Orphanages in Bristol, England, and founded the “Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad.” His life was characterized by prayer, faith, and self-denial in the cause of Christ. During his lifetime, he established 117 schools which educated more than 120,000 young persons, including orphans. In 1875, at the age of 70, and until age 87, he had a 17-year ministry of world-wide Evangelistic tours, which also raised money for his orphanages and the thousands of children in them. He would live for another six years. At the time of his death at age 93 in 1898, the Church that he pastored in Bristol had about 2,000 members.  __________________ |
By Bonnie Harvey
Cover illustration © Dick Bobnick. _________________________________
A Life of Prayer and Faith Psalm 68:5 spoke to George Müller’s heart in a unique way. Believing that his material needs would be supplied through faith and prayer alone, Müller began a ministry in 1835 for orphaned children based entirely upon God for support. Such complete reliance on his Heavenly Father was nothing new for George Müller. Daily Bible reading and prayer were an essential part of this prayer warrior’s life. Within a few years, thousands of orphans on Ashley Down, near Bristol, England, were having their needs met, and more, because of Müller’s mission. George Müller knew that the “Father to the fatherless” still provided for his children. He had God’s word on it. _________________________________ Andrew Murray On George Müller “When God wishes anew to teach His Church a truth that is not being understood or practiced, He mostly does so by raising some man to be in word and deed a living witness to its blessedness. And so God has raised up in this nineteenth century, among others, George Muller to be His witness that He is indeed the Hearer of prayer. I know of no way in which the principal truths of God’s word in regard to prayer can be more effectually illustrated and established than a short review of his life and of what he tells of his prayer-experiences.” -Andrew Murray On George Müller ____________________________ |
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George Whitefield: Pioneering Evangelist |
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Cover Illustration © 1999 Dick Bobnick __________________________________ George Whitefield: Pioneering Evangelist is available to Supporters of “Alfian Palar Ministries” _______________
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By Bruce and Becky Durost Fish Meet the first “modern” evangelist. When George Whitefield preached about Calvary, his audience saw the blood. When he spoke of Christ’s crucifixion, his listener’s felt the nails. Between 1776 and 1770, George Whitefield preached more than eighteen thousand sermons to crowds in Great Britain, Northern Europe, and the American Colonies. As many as eighty percent of those living in the New World heard him preach at least once. In all, his audiences numbered in the millions, and millions more were exposed through his words through newspapers, magazines, and printed versions of his sermons, journals, and letters. George Whitefield revolutionized preaching and introduced a totally new approach to evangelism. His ministry was not tied to any particular denomination, and he used the popular media to publicize his meetings. With his passion to reach individuals for Christ, he changed the lives of millions. His methods became the foundation for modern evangelism and continue to affect lives today.
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Palar International 