Comparison Of The Modern And Early Church Religion Essay

Comparison Of The Modern And Early Church Religion Essay Explaining the strengths and weaknesses of the early church, and how they compare to the church today; it is a very interesting topic since it involves the history of what early Christians did for the establishment of the Christian movement today. Looking into the Acts of the Apostles, so much can be learned on how people dedicated their lives to the church during that time. A question arises then asking, what is the church? Many interpretations have been said concerning the meaning of the Church. These interpretations can be traced back when Jesus declared to build his Church upon the revelation by Simon Peter that, when he said Jesus is the Son of God (Matt 16:18). Montefiore believes; the church can be considered fewer than two aspects; as an organism and as an organisation, without organization, organisms die1. Therefore, what is this organism and how is it linked with the organisation to make a church. To arrive at the better conclusion of this matter, I will be considering the book of Acts to get the a) background of the early church in Acts; and the b) explanation of what is the Church; c); strength and weaknesses of both the Early and Modern Church. THE CHURCH DEFINED The definition by Websters editors says: A distinct body of Christians having a common faith and discipline. In Greek language the word is translated as ekklesia, which means called out. Therefore, there are couple of things to look for, for the church to be established. Faith, discipline, and standing out from the rest. These explanation of what the Church is, gives an idea that, there are certain elements involved for a church to be established. Arguably, it means it should be made of people who follow Christ, having one faith and being disciplined, already set themselves different from the rest of ordinary people. THE EARLY CHURCH All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them (Acts 2:4). It was during the day of Pentecost which is believed the New Testament church was established. The Bible further explains that, those who were gathered during the day of celebration of Pentecost could not believe what they heard coming from the Christians who were filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in unknown tongues. But those who were gathered understood them, because they spoke in the languages. Unger comment that: the new age of the Church was foretold by our Lord Himself and was ushered in at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given, received and deposited in the new people of God. Chapter two of Acts verses (42-47), they explains what happened after Apostle Peter preached the good news about Jesus and the number of people who gave their lives to Christ, and repented from their evil ways. So this is the organism and the organisation, Montefiore was referring to, the Holy Spirit, which is divine and the people filled with this Holy Spirit to be organisation. The acts of the risen Christ by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles are prominent in the book of Acts. Evidence from this book shows strong biblical convictions held by the believers of the community in Jerusalem, also in the surrounding areas. This is how the early church began marshalled by the Apostles and I will look into details, measures taken by this dedicated individuals in Acts working together to establish a church and compare them with the church of today. WHAT STRENGHTNED THE EARLY CHURCH BAPTISM Those who accepted his message where baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number (Acts 2:41). Jesus himself edged his Apostles to go to all nations and baptise those who believe the good news about his kingdom in water. This was taken serious by the Apostles, as it was a badge for new believers for belonging to Christ; they did it in faith, even thou further teaching came after baptism, it was their believe that any Christian solider has the right be given full proper uniform. The Apostles did all this because people repented, showed faith, they received the Holy Spirit and it proved to unite them strongly and bring them closer to each other which was what they wanted. It is a different issue with the church today as most believe in monitoring the ways of those who has given their life to Christ. The time spend trying to mould a new believer into a mature Christian is the same time lost to give the new believer the responsibility to recognise the important regiment he joined in Christ. Baptism it a seal to those who accepted Christ and it was done by the church in Acts to stabiliser new converts, but today it is not practised at the right time. Therefore, the new believers are not united with other and they end up being lost back to the world. HOLY SPIRIT According to the accounts of Acts, there is prove that, the people obeyed the Holy Spirit more than anything, and it gave them the unity as a community. Holy Spirit spoke (Acts 8:29, 10:19) and immediate response from those who were assigned by the Spirit to do something went on and accomplished the tasks as believers. Jews and Gentiles those who trusted in Christ were all given the Holy Spirit. This was so significant since at fist Jews disapproved the Gentiles as Gods people; but now because the Spirit dwelt in those who believed both are united and they were all called from indifference into unity to serve God by the Holy Spirit. The church of today when looking back on how the church in Acts responded to the Holy Spirit it has some eye brows raised. This is so because there are so many denominations under Christianity and they all have their own beliefs. So they all have different interpretation of the Holy Spirit impact in the church and some even do not pay attention to it at all. He promised to send a comforter to live amongst Christians and he will guide them in their everyday living. This is what held the church in Acts stronger since they believed Holy Spirit and God are one. But that is being missed within different Christian faiths today. Church members are controlled by their own understanding and intelligence, and those who claim to be controlled by the Spirit they always find themselves in dilemma of practical life and Spiritual life. FELLOWSHIP Examining the Acts of the Apostles, it is evident that a very strong fellowship was established between Christian believers in Jerusalem because of the love they had for each other (Acts 2:42). In John 1: 6-7, explains the fellowship principle of Christian living and it the same fellowship the church in Jerusalem practised. They shared possessions, sold properties to care for one anothers needs. The fellowship of the early church consisted different forms to make sure that everyone was involved in unifying the church. Personal attention which involved encouragement and advice from other church members, one on one with those they brought to church. Furthermore, they met in homes so that others adjust to the new society. This led to a bigger and a welcoming church congregation fellowship, which everyone was used to one another and that strengthened the church. Comparing what the early church practised in fellowship with the church today, not much difference but there is lack of commitment. Hardly members within the church fellowship in homes and if they do the number is always very small. No enthusiasm in encouraging and helping new converts to settle in with the new society. WEAKNESS OF THE EARLY CHURCH Major unsettling concern with the church in Acts is the issue of favouritism. It is exposed by none Palestinian Jews who spoke against unfairness of daily share which was given out to church members. This caused arguments and division within church members who were united by faith in Jesus. Even today favouritism is noticeable in the churches across, either because people come from same country, continent or same denomination, and all this bring weakness in the body of Christ. Another short fall from the primitive church is the extension of love that Jesus summoned his followers to show to their neighbours. It seems different with the church in Acts as the mutual love was first shown to those within the fellowship of the church. This in other way chased those who were willing to come to the church for the first time as it made them feel unwelcomed. CONCLUSION Explaining the strengths and weakness of the early church, compared to the church today is a very informative topic as it allows Christians to reflect on their purpose in the world. After consulting different sources concerning the topic, I have come to realisation that the early church was more profound in making sure that the good news about Jesus was spread without compromise. The teaching of the word about who Jesus is was so rich that, more and more people joined the church everyday. The fellowship of church members brought light to the community as it influenced their way of living. The church in the New Testament played their role to call out those who were in darkness to bring them to light which Jesus promised them if they love one another. Comparing both the early and the church today, very important thing that should be learned is that the early church was so excited to be followers of Jesus and they were spiritually motivated. Christians today need that excitement to occupy their daily life to glorify Jesus because he is the source of life and the world needs him at this age.

Escape by W.S. Maugham

â€Å"ESCAPE† By William Somerset Maugham The text under interpretation is â€Å"Escape† by William Somerset Maugham. W. S. Maugham was a well-known English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was the son of a British diplomat. He was educated at King`s school in Canterbury, studied painting in Paris, went to Heidelberg University in Germany and studied to be a doctor at St. Thomas Hospital in England. So, he put his hand in different activities and that`s why he is versatile and experienced person. S.Maugham was critical of the morals, the narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy of bourgeois society. Such novels as â€Å"Of Human Bondage†, â€Å"The Moon and the Sixpence†, â€Å"The Theatre† and others came under his pen. He was also the master of the short story. Among them are: â€Å"Colonel’s Lady†, â€Å"Friend in Need†, â€Å"Lion’s Skin†, etc. S. Maugham was among the most popular writers of his era, and reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s. Maugham’s style of writing is clear and precise. He doesn`t impose his views on the reader. He puts a question and leaves it to the reader to answer.I also like his revealing the weak sides and vices of human nature skilfully. His books are chatty and easy to read. This is clearly viewed from the given extract. â€Å"Escape† is a story about common people in common situation, and Maugham manages to tell it with the sense of humour and in a very interesting way. The essence of â€Å"The Escape†, to my mind, is that Roger and Ruth have diverse approaches towards the relations. Of course, the men and the women like the first step: flowers, attentiveness, passion. But then their paths diverge.The romance disappears, the man looks for the way out, he craves for new emotions, but the woman deems that the relations should develop into the marriage. And â€Å"The Escape† is the example of such a mismatch. The story can be logically divided into four main parts: the exposition, passages about Ruth’s and Roger’s love, Roger falls out of love and the break-up. The story has a straight line narrative structure with author’s digressions at the beginning. I think that the beginning of the story serves as its subject matter, where the author recounts his point of view on marriage.He convinces us that if a woman once made her mind to marry a man nothing but instant flight could save him. As an example he told a case, which happened with one of his friends, who seeing the inevitable marriage menacing before him, took ship and spent a year traveling round the world. He hoped the woman would forget him, but was mistaken. When he got back thinking himself safe, the woman, from whom he had fled, was waiting for him on the quay. This funny thing supports the idea that the inevitable loom of the marriage frightens some men and they try to avoid it.It should be mentioned, that he de scribes that awkward situation very skilfully and in a very ironical way. It could be confirmed by some cases of irony, used by the narrator – â€Å"instant flight† and â€Å"inevitable loom menacing before him†, â€Å"escaped with only a toothbrush for all his luggage†, which show us fear and trembling of men before the difficulties of the marriage. Maugham establishes realistic setting to his piece of writing. As the author uses the first-person narrative structure we can guess that the narrator is the secondary character of the story.The main ones here are Roger Charing and Ruth Barlow. To describe them, Maugham uses the direct characterization. For example, he gives it when speaks about of Ruth’s eyes using the epithets (â€Å"splendid†, â€Å"moving†, â€Å"big and lovely†), a detached epithet (â€Å"poor dear†) – all in the ironic way. Further on the narrator says that he knows only one man who escaped succe ssfully. Once upon a time his friend, Roger Charing told him he was going to marry. Roger was tall and handsome, rich, experienced middle-aged man. Of course, many women wanted to marry him.But he was happy to live the life of an unmarried man: the epithets â€Å"sufficient experience†, â€Å"careful† give the direct description of his lifestyle. But then he met Ruth Barlow. He fell in love with her. He immediately wanted to look after her and make her happy. Ruth was twice a widow, she was younger than Roger. She was quite good-looking and she had big, beautiful, dark eyes and she had the gift of pathos. When a man saw those big, sad eyes, he wanted to help Ruth. The epithet â€Å"defenceless† expose the power of her look.It was Ruth’s mode to get what she wanted because she had no other means (money for instance). This â€Å"gift† helped Ruth to reach her goals. The metaphor â€Å"the gift of pathos†, the epithets â€Å"splendid dark eyes †, â€Å"the most moving eyes†, â€Å"big and lovely eyes† and the repetition of the word â€Å"eyes† make us pay our attention to this peculiarity. And Ruth made her mind to marry Roger: he was rich, considerate, and tactful and was glad to take care of her, so he was the best variant for her. He didn’t let down and made a proposal of marriage to her and they were going to marry as soon as ossible. While reading we came across a lot of pure literary words (gift, splendid, wonderful, hazards, sadness, lovely) and some cliches (â€Å"the world was too much for her†, â€Å"stand between the hazards of life and this helpless little thing†, â€Å"how wonderful it would be to take the sadness out of those big and lovely eyes†) which are peculiar to the description of ordinary situations concerning love affairs, so we see what kind of story â€Å"The Escape† is. The narrator provokes us to perceive it ironically.Through Rogerâ €™s vision, Ruth was very unlucky. Indeed, she seemed to be very miserable, everything was wrong with her. If she married a husband he beat her; if she employed a broker he cheated her; if she engaged a cook she drank. She never had a little lamb but it was sure to die. We can observe hopelessness of Ruth’s life through the epithets â€Å"helpless little thing†, â€Å"rotten time†, â€Å"unfortunate†, â€Å"poor dear†, the metaphor â€Å"a little lamb†, parallel constructions â€Å"if she married†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and pure literary words such as â€Å"sufferings†, â€Å"hazards†, â€Å"sadness†.Roger took an interest in her destiny and was ready to relieve it: the repetition of the pronouns â€Å"she† and â€Å"her† in Roger’s speech, the epithet â€Å"dreadfully sorry† prove my assumption. The epithets â€Å"very happy† and â€Å"pleased† make us believe that it wasn’t a nuisance for him. But according to the narrator’s opinion, Ruth was two-faced woman of few ideas: he called her stupid and scheming. This epithets, the simile â€Å"as hard as nails† add some points to her description, so it again proves that the method of character-drawing here is direct.We see two people, Roger and Ruth, as the future family, so this is the idea of this extract of the text. The author describes the first part of their relations which were rather standard. As thousands of men and women, they met, fell in love and decided to be together. But then, on a sudden, Roger fell out of love. This was the second part of their relations. There was no evident reason. Perhaps, his heart-strings were no longer touched by Ruth’s pathetic look. Roger became acutely conscious that Ruth had a mind to marry him. He gave a solemn oath that nothing would induce him to marry Ruth.But he was in a quandary. He was aware that Ruth would assess her feelings at an immod erately high figure if he asked her to release him. Besides, he didn’t want people to say that he jilted a woman. The epithets â€Å"acutely conscious†, â€Å"a solemn oath† and â€Å"an immoderately high figure† stress the importance, significance of his decision; as to the epithet â€Å"pathetic look† and the metaphor â€Å"heart-strings† (at the same time it is a cliche), they produce the humorous effect. Falling out of love is the most terrible thing I can imagine.Recently it was an acute pleasure for Roger to do everything for Ruth. He was charmed, but, as I suppose, it wasn’t a serious and profound feeling – Roger lost it too easily. It is obvious Ruth was a narrow-minded woman and she didn’t really love Roger. But there are some arguments to be said in her defence, she lonely and wanted to be protected. Probably she would be a good wife. The repetition of the expression â€Å"to have a mind to† reveals the conflict of Roger’s and Ruth’s interests. Ruth desired to have relations of long duration – she cried for the moon.On the contrary, Roger wanted to escape with no loss. And again we are the witnesses of the usual continuation of the love story. It’s rather banal. Roger kept his own counsel; he remained attentive to all her wishes. It was decided that they would be married as soon as they found a suitable house. Roger applied to the agents and visited with Ruth house after house. It was very hard to find a satisfactory one. Sometimes houses were too large, sometimes they were too small, sometimes they were too expensive and sometimes they were too stuffy, sometimes they were too airy.The idea is that only such dishonest, shabby act as the flat-chase tactics seemed to be appropriate for Roger. I think, it was like a committing a crime. Roger’s behaviour wasn’t fair, it was even disgraceful, but unfortunately such conduct is not uncommon, the m en trick the women very often, because their attitude towards the relations differs. Parallel constructions â€Å"sometimes they were too large, sometimes they were too small, sometimes they were too expensive and sometimes they were too stuffy†, the metaphor â€Å"house-hunting†, the epithet â€Å"innumerable kitchens† describe Roger’s scheme of the trouble-free parting.Firstly I took Roger’s side, because I consider that each person should have a right for free choice, but then I was sorry for Ruth, Roger tired her out, she didn’t understand what was happening. The epithet â€Å"exhausted† demonstrates her state brightly. At last Ruth revolted. She asked Roger if he wanted to marry her. There was an unaccustomed hardness in her voice, but it didn’t affect the gentleness of his reply. Roger persuaded her that they would be married the very moment they found a suitable house. Ruth took to her bed. She didn’t want to see Roger, but he was as ever assiduous and gallant.Every day he sent her flowers, wrote that he had some more houses to look at. The epithets â€Å"assiduous†, â€Å"gallant† display his dissimulation. A week passed and he received the letter: Ruth let him know that she was going to get married and claimed that Roger didn’t love her. He answered that her news shattered him, but her happiness had to be his first consideration. He sent Ruth seven orders to view. He was quite sure she would find among them a house that would exactly suit her. So, we can see that Roger appeared to be very smart and sly person.He appeared quite cute to predict Ruth’s following actions. When he got the hang of Ruth, he pretended he was still in love very gallantly, until she got the hang of him, and I should say it was a more civilized way of jilting a woman than just to leave her. So, I think the message of the story is that a woman can be sly and scheming, but a man can make it his way also. This story carried me with its eternal intrigue – the war between male and female. We may be in earnest about it or may try to ignore it, but it really takes place and this problem will exist until the end of human history.

Marketing of Liability Products of Bank Essay

There are number of Liabilty products, some of the liability products are listed below * Savings Account * Fixed Deposit Account * Recurring Deposit * Current Account * NRI Account Etc†¦. These products are the basic products of bank which are taking new dimensions in the banking world as the competition is tougher. The products which are mentioned above are the products of Retail Banking. Wholesale banking is another big segment of bank which deals with the SME and Corporate clients. WholeSale Banking Though Internet banking as a concept has not caught the fancy of a majority of customers as yet-even the small percentage that does use it, makes a difference to the overall cost. Almost all leading banks in India are hoping that just as ATMs saw a period of inaction before they were accepted by Indian masses, Internet banking too would be adopted once customers are comfortable with the technology. For instance, in 1998 India had just 500 ATMs today it has close to 7,500. Advertising Boards; According to the case study which we have done in the Bhubaneswar city from Rabi Talkies to Janapath. The Advertising Boards are very rarely used , we found only one Hoarding that belongs to Bank of Baroda in Bapuji Nagar and that too was removed after a week from our survey. The other advertisement which is given in the bus stand by HDFC in Lewis Road. Analysis; Bank’s believe less on this strategy of advertisement. The Case study was done in a very short distance so this might or might not be the actual situation. Social Media Marketing Strategy * Bank Adverts on certain Websites * Social media in business allows anyone and everyone to express and share * Social networking sites act as word of mouth. (For example Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc†¦) * Professional Sites like Linkedin * â€Å"retweet† or â€Å"repost†-repeating the message * Sharing videos through â€Å"Youtube† They advertise the bank products through different finance related, business related etc websites. As we can see in the above screen shots from different websites we could understand that Banks rely on Social Media Marketing too to advertise and publicize their products. Conclusion We have analysed different strategies of the bank from Marketing Mix to Technology Based Marketing. From analysing in all aspects the only strategy which is helping and which will help the bank to be successful is Product Innovation. High Interest or discounts are not going to help the bank anymore because the customers are expecting the high quality service not the interest from the bank. People have become Quality conscious in the recent past so the new products and the service of that particular product in a appropriate way will help the banks to reach greater Heights.

The Impact of Religion on the Development of Colonial America

Compare the ways in which religion shaped the development of colonial society (to 1740) in TWO of the following regions: New England Chesapeake Middle Atlantic The Impact of Religion on the Development of Colonial America During the seventeenth century, colonial America was welcoming many newcomers, several from England. Quantities of these newcomers were seeking land for economic purposes as others were longing for religious toleration. Many of the English colonists settled in the New England region for religious freedoms, to escape the English king, and leave adversaries of other religions behind. Settlers who resided in the Middle Atlantic region were affected differently. Although the Middle Atlantic was more†¦show more content†¦Economically, a large amount of money was spent on building new churches and financial aid was given to ministers. Massachusetts was the first colony to tax residents to support the Congressionalist Church. Also, during the Great Awakening, churches were making attempts to return those individuals who roamed away from the church. The Great Awakening was a revival caused by Jonathon Edwards during the enlightenment time period. The purpose of this reviva l was to inspire communities to become more religiously involved as pastors were feeling distant from god because of the lack of interest in religion at the time. The Great Awakening undermined the Old Clergy and increased both the number and competiveness of churches. Thousands of books were published and sold to bring the churches profit and therefore allowed more money to aid in the churches construction. Socially, religion brought people together. People of the same religion often worked better together which resulted in a stronger and closer community. Schools were developed for children to learn to read the bible and to teach young men leadership. In the New England region, dominance was shown with an impressive number of graduates, greatly excelling the southern colonies. Religion was so vital to these early colonists that it greatly affected social development, schooling, and even various basic rights we take for granted today. In Colonial America, one must have been a memberShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Hands Of An Angry God 1328 Words   |  6 PagesChanging Roles 　　In society, many people have a diversity of opinions about the role of an individual. In the past, many argued that being dedicated to religion is the role of an individual. As time progresses, people started to claim that benefiting society is the individual’s role in society. In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, author Johnathan Edwards explains that God hates people and will punish them unless they decide to follow God. 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