Changes

== personal theology ==

== personal theology ==

I suggest that people's personal theology be posted to essay pages where they belong. This has to be an encyclopedia that looks at the many different versions of Christian beliefs. It is pretty deficient in that at the present time. It misses people like Augustine, Aquinas, and Luther, for example, not to mention the theologians of the last few centuries. It barely mentions Paul and his role.  There is a lot about the life of Jesus, which belongs in its own article, and little about Christianity.[[User:RJJensen|RJJensen]] 15:10, 30 April 2009 (EDT)

 

This has come up before, not sure where. Christ is the Greek for "annointed" in Hebrew. The Hebrew sounds like "Mashiach" which most often makes it into English as "Messiah". So far all is well. But neither "Mashiach" nor "Christ" mean "Savior", though He is. It just happens that there is another Hebrew word which to "English ears" sounds similar to "Mashiach" and does mean Savior, and maybe that's where the confusion originally came from. The word is "Moshi'a".  

The basic meaning of the root of this latter word is "to widen out" or "causes expanse" (The cognate in Arabic means that today). A savior is one who widens out for others . The word is used for the Judges who were not primarily judicial figures but who gave breathing room for the Israelites - they pushed away the oPRESSors ( A common word for "enemy" in the Hebrew Bible is "tsar" = narrower). Jesus was called the Savior, widening it out for all of us, pushing back the Enemy, and the results of our sins, which ''do'' have a choking effect. For this purpose He was annointed. The ''Moshi'a'' was ''mashiach'' for this purpose. The Church also is annointed for this reason - to bring out into the open space and freedom those that have been enclosed and trapped in the castle of the Evil One. That castle (really ancient city), called Hades, has gates keeping in its captives which can not withstand the rock thrown (a la the book of Daniel)  against them. That is the gates shall not "prevail" the onslaught of the Church, and the captives of this time will be freed. Just as at the beginning, Jesus descent into Hades freed the captives of the past, leading them out to space and freedom.  It is good to keep the Moshi'a and the Mashiach separate in thought, though united in one Person Jesus, as each is rich and developed richly in the Old and in the New Testament.[[User:BertSchlossberg|Bert Schlossberg]] 22:54, 5 June 2009 (EDT)