In Ob-Ugrian mythology, Heini-iki, also referred to as Kul-iki, is the god of the Underworld and of the spirits of sickness. [1] He is opposite in nature to his brother Numi-Torum, the heavenly god. He can appear in the shape of a dog or cat, or sometimes as a fog that hides a person from their guardian spirit.
The Khanties of the Surgut area described him as black in color. Animal sacrifices to him were also to be black in color. [1] These sacrifices were to prevent illness among the people. His name was not to be spoken, especially in the presence of a sick or dying person. [2]
Abraham is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews and God; in Christianity, he is the spiritual progenitor of all believers, whether Jewish or non-Jewish; and in Islam, he is a link in the chain of Islamic prophets that begins with Adam and culminates in Muhammad. As the namesake of the Abrahamic religions, Abraham is also revered in other Abrahamic religions, such as Druze Faith and Baháʼí Faith.
Balaam, son of Beor, was a biblical character, a non-Israelite prophet and diviner who lived in Pethor which has never been located and is thought to be between the region of Iraq and northern Syria in modern day southeastern Turkey. According to chapters Numbers 22–24 of the Book of Numbers, he was hired by King Balak of Moab to curse Israel, but instead he blessed the Israelites, as dictated by God. Subsequently, the plan to entice the Israelites into idol worship and sexual immorality is attributed to him . Balaam is also mentioned in the Book of Micah.
Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly existed before that. Evidence of ritual human sacrifice can also be found back to at least pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica as well as in European civilizations. Varieties of ritual non-human sacrifices are practiced by numerous religions today.
Melqart was the tutelary god of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre and a major deity in the Phoenician and Punic pantheons. He may have been central to the founding-myths of various Phoenician colonies throughout the Mediterranean, as well as the source of several myths concerning the exploits of Heracles. Many cities were thought to be founded and protected by Melqart, no doubt springing from the original Phoenician practice of building a Temple of Melqart at new colonies. Similar to Tammuz and Adonis, he symbolized an annual cycle of death and rebirth.
Tezcatlipoca or Tezcatl Ipoca was a central deity in Aztec religion. He is associated with a variety of concepts, including the night sky, hurricanes, obsidian, and conflict. He was considered one of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the primordial dual deity. His main festival was Toxcatl, which, like most religious festivals of Aztec culture, involved human sacrifice.
The Lugbara live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda , and South Sudan. Their number totaled approximately 240,000, with around 180,000 residing in north-western Uganda, with the remaining population spread across bordering areas of the modern-day Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. The Lugbara people speak in a Sudanese language. The basic social and economic unit found in Lugbara culture is a lineage group under the authority of a male genealogical elder called ba wara, meaning "big man". These lineage groups, often referred to as sub-tribes, typically lived in a village built atop a hillside or ridge. In addition to the male elder, other religious leaders include diviners, oracles, and rain men.
A vow is a promise or oath. A vow is used as a promise, a promise solemn rather than casual.
Abraham was a prophet and messenger of God according to Islam, and an ancestor to the Ishmaelite Arabs and Israelites. Abraham plays a prominent role as an example of faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Muslim belief, Abraham fulfilled all the commandments and trials wherein God nurtured him throughout his lifetime. As a result of his unwavering faith in God, Abraham was promised by God to be a leader to all the nations of the world. The Quran extols Abraham as a model, an exemplar, obedient and not an idolater. In this sense, Abraham has been described as representing "primordial man in universal surrender to the Divine Reality before its fragmentation into religions separated from each other by differences in form". Muslims believe that the Kaaba in Mecca was built by Abraham and his son Ishmael as the first house of worship on earth. The Islamic holy day 'Eid ul-Adha is celebrated in commemoration of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son on God's command, as well as the end of the Hajj pilgrimage to the Kaaba.
In Christianity, salvation is the saving of human beings from sin and its consequences—which include death and separation from God—by Christ's death and resurrection, and the justification entailed by this salvation.
Finnic paganism, or Finnic polytheism was the indigenous pagan religion of the various Finnic peoples, such as the Baltic-Finns, Volga-Finns, Sámi and the Permians prior to Christianisation. It was a polytheistic religion, worshipping a number of different deities. The chief deity was the god of thunder and the sky, Ukko; other important deities included Jumo (Jumala), Ahti, and Tapio. Jumala was a sky god; today, the word "Jumala" refers to a monotheistic God. Ahti was a god of the sea, waters and fish. Tapio was the god of the forest and hunting.
Substitutionary atonement, also called vicarious atonement, is a central concept within Western Protestant Christian theology which asserts that Jesus died "for us", as propagated by the Western classic and objective paradigms of atonement in Christianity, which regard Jesus as dying as a substitute for others, instead of them.
Junayd of Baghdad was a Persian mystic and one of the most famous of the early Islamic saints. He is a central figure in the spiritual lineage of many Sufi orders.
In the Book of Genesis, the curse of Ham is described as a curse which was imposed upon Ham's son Canaan by the patriarch Noah. It occurs in the context of Noah's drunkenness and it is provoked by a shameful act that was perpetrated by Noah's son Ham, who "saw the nakedness of his father". The exact nature of Ham's transgression and the reason Noah cursed Canaan when Ham had sinned have been debated for over 2,000 years.
The Aztec religion is a polytheistic and monistic pantheism in which the Nahua concept of teotl was construed as the supreme god Ometeotl, as well as a diverse pantheon of lesser gods and manifestations of nature. The popular religion tended to embrace the mythological and polytheistic aspects, and the Aztec Empire's state religion sponsored both the monism of the upper classes and the popular heterodoxies.
Num-Torum is the supreme god or father god of the Ob-Ugrian peoples. He is the father of the hero Mir-Susne-Hum, six other sons, including Postajankt-iki, and one daughter. His siblings are Hotel-Ekva (Sun), Etposzojka (Moon), Naj-Ekva (fire), Kuly-Otir (underworld) and his wife, Kaltes-Ekwa. According to the Khanty people, he lives on the highest level of heaven, which means that it is difficult for people to talk to him, thus the children of Num-Torum are consulted on his behalf. He and his seven sons lived in a house of gold and silver.
Postajankt-iki is the youngest son of the god Num-Torum in Ob-Ugrian mythology. He has several other names: Sorni-iki, and Õi-shlapt-lah-hliotõ-iki. He rides upon a white horse. Postajankt-iki is easily started when someone calls his name, but it is not wise to call him for no reason because then woe befalls that person, according to the myths.
Penal substitution, also called penal substitutionary atonement and especially in older writings forensic theory, is a theory of the atonement within Protestant Christian theology, which declares that Christ, voluntarily submitting to God the Father's plan, was punished (penalized) in the place of (substitution) sinners, thus satisfying the demands of justice and propitiation, so God can justly forgive sins making us at one with God (atonement). It began with the German Reformation leader Martin Luther and continued to develop within the Calvinist tradition as a specific understanding of substitutionary atonement. The penal model teaches that the substitutionary nature of Jesus' death is understood in the sense of a substitutionary fulfilment of legal demands for the offenses of sins.
Reindeer in Siberian shamanism reflect the cultural, as well as the economic, relationship between the native peoples of Siberia, a region of Northern Asia, and the reindeer that live there. It involves the nomadic reindeer herders, those that hunt wild reindeer and those who maintain domesticated ones. Their religious beliefs reflect the spiritual philosophy of shamanism, and their traditions often involve reindeer in several steps of the process of practicing their religion.
Ishmael is regarded as a prophet and the ancestor to the Ishmaelites in Islam. He is the son of Ibrahim, born to Hajar. Ismail is also associated with Mecca and the construction of the Kaaba. Ismail is considered the ancestor to Muhammad.