Glossary of religious and spiritual termsStarting with the letter "O" 
 | Occult: There is no generally accepted meaning
for this term. The term has been used to refer to such unrelated topics as astrology, palm
reading, the Masonic Order, Satanism, tarot card reading, New
Age Spirituality and Wicca. Some definitions include:
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A group of mostly unrelated spiritual and/or magical activities, the detailed knowledge
of which is kept secret from the general public.
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A set of mostly unrelated divination and/or spiritual practices or activities which are
not part of a person's faith or of any large world religion.
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An activity which involves elements of divination, evil sorcery, magic and/or
supernaturally gained concrete experiences or truths.
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Conservative usage: Satanism the core element of the occult; most of the remaining
occult groups are either forms of Satanism or are recruiting groups for
Satanism. All Occultic groups are anti-Christian.
Rituals are based on demonic powers and fakery. Heavy metal rock music, fantasy role games etc. are often considered occult pastimes.
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Olber's Paradox: This is a puzzle proposed by Heinrich Olbers, a
German astronomer in 1823. He suggested that if the universe is
infinite in size and uniform, then there would be an infinite number of stars. Thus, every line of sight from the earth in any
direction must end of the surface of a star. The night sky should be
uniformly very bright. But the sky background in the evening is dark. There are two solutions to the paradox: the age of
the universe is finite, and/or the universe is expanding.
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Old Catholic Church: This is a Christian denomination which
split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1723 because of the Vatican's
condemnation of Jansenism and its refusal to allow the democratic
selection of an archbishop. Other Roman Catholics joined in 1870 in
protest to the decree of papal infallibility. This denomination allows their priests to
marry.
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Old Testament: The name given by Christians to the Hebrew
Scriptures. To Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox and some Anglicans, this is
the Jewish Bible and the Apocrypha. To most
Protestants, it is only the Jewish Bible.
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Oleh: A Jewish term referring to a Jew who is immigrating into
Israel.
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Olim: Plural form of "Oleh." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnism?utm_source=quora&utm_medium=referral
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Omnibeneficient: The belief that God exists and is all-good, all loving, and all kind.
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Omniest: A person who finds an element of truth in all religions, but is not affiliated with a single faith group.
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Omnipotence: The concept that God has infinite power; he is
able to do anything that he wishes that is consistent with his own
personality and which is logically possible.
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Omnipresence: The concept that God is in all places at all
times.
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Omniscience: The concept that god is in possession of all
knowledge.
The theodicy paradox addresses
the apparent conflict involved in God having the above four attributes
simultaneously.
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Omnism: This is a belief that recognizes the validity of, and promotes respect towards, all religions. Most Omnists believe that all religions contain elements of truth, but no single religion -- or denomination, sect, faith group within one religion -- is totally correct. In contrast, a surprisingly large percentage of believers regard the teachings of their particular faith group within their religion to have the fullness of truth, and all other faith groups in and outside of their religion to be -- at least in part -- seriously false.
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Oneness Pentecostalism (a.k.a. Jesus Only): A movement within
Pentecostalism which rejects the historical definition of the Trinity and adopts a belief system
similar to Monarchianism. They believe that Jesus sequentially took
three forms. First, he was God; then he was the Son; finally. Finally, he
became the Holy Spirit which he remains today. They reject the concept of the Trinity as believed by
almost all other Christians. Synonym for "Oneness theology." They believe that one
must be baptized in the name of Jesus only in order to be saved. If one
does not speak in tongues, then they have not been saved and presumably will spend eternity in the torture chambers of Hell.
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Open Theism (a.k.a. Neotheism or Open view of God): A belief
that God is not omniscient. In particular, God does not know what will
happen in the future with any precision. Supporters of this belief back up
their position with biblical quotations. For example, at the time of Noah's flood, God regretted that he created humans in the first place.
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Opus Dei: From a Latin phrase meaning "the work of God."
The informal name of The Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus
Dei. It is a very conservative Roman Catholic lay organization
organized in 1928, whose members have a strong dedication to the Vatican.
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Ordinary Time: This is a Christian term used mainly by Roman
Catholics. It refers to two intervals within each year. One starts on the
day following the Baptism of the Lord and ends at Ash Wednesday. The other
runs from the day after Pentecost until the day before the first Sunday of
Advent.
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Original Sin: "Fallen man's natural sinfulness, the
hereditary depravity and corruption of human nature because of Adam's
fall." 1 That is, Adam and Eve's transgression when
they disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit opened a gulf between God and humanity.
Pollution from that sin has been inherited by all of Adam and Eve's
descendents down through over 200 generations to the present day. Some Christians reject the concept of original sin because it punishes individuals for the deeds of their ancestors -- the vast majority of whom have died long ago. This is called scapegoating: punishing the innocent for the sins of the guilty. Some have renamed "original sin" to "original blessing" and consider the events in the Garden of Eden to represent the rise, not the fall, of humanity.
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Originalism (a.k.a. Textualism): The belief that is held by some American judges and justices that the Constitution of the United States, and its amendments, are to be read, understood, interpreted, and applied according to the mind set of the documents' original authors and ratifiers. This contrasts with the view that the Constitution and amendments are to be considering a living document whose meaning changes over time as the culture evolves. The difference between these two concepts is particlarly critical in cases before the courts that involve human rights. For example, if the politicians involved in the writing and ratifying of the 14th Amendment probably never thought about same-sex marriage. At that time, same-gender sexual behavior was a crime everywhere in the U.S. They would have responded that the Amendment would not protect the right of same-sex couples to marry. But in the early 21st century, such behavior was decriminalized. By 2015, same-sex marriage was legalized across about 70% of the states. The culture was changed. The liberal Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court voted in favor of marriage equality. During 2015-JUN, the High Court legalized marriage across the one District, 50 states, and four out of the five territories. As of mid-2016, is is not available in American Samoa because most of the people in the Territory are American residents, not citizens. Thus, the rulings of the Court do not necessarily apply there.
The terms are also sometimes used to refer to a method of interpreting ancient religious texts, like the Bible.
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| Orthodox: Greek term for "correct opinion or belief."
In a religious sense:
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When written in lower case, it generally means a traditional or
historical belief within a religion. It is important to understand that orthodox
belief as taught by one denomination is often heresy when viewed by
a person from another denomination of the same religion or from another religion.
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When capitalized, it generally refers to Eastern
Orthodoxy, a group of independent churches including the Greek Orthodox,
Russian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox and other churches. Eastern Orthodoxy
and Roman Catholicism officially parted during 1054 CE.
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Orthodox, Eastern: One of the major divisions within
Christianity (the others being Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism and Protestantism).
It consists of 15 autocephalous churches. Each is headed by a bishop. Most are related to a specific country, as in Serbian, Russian and
Greek Orthodox. The Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches had been
drifting apart in belief, practice and ritual for centuries before
they formally
split in 1054 CE. Each now regards themselves to be the only true Christian
church -- the one division of Christianity that has the fullness of truth.
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Orthopathy: A term derived from the Greek word "pathos:" to feel sympathy or sorrow toward others. In a religious sense, Othropathy means to treat followers of other sects or different religions with empathy and consideration, while avoiding confrontation, hostility or alienation towards the other.
However, the word has an unrelated meaning in the Nature Cure movement: the concept that disease can be prevented, treated, or cured through proper fasting, diet, or other lifestyle measures.
| | Orthopraxy: Greek term for "correct action." It means to take religiously appropriate action.
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OSAS: This is an acronym for "Once Saved, Always Saved."
It is the belief, common among many conservative Protestants, that once
a person repents of their sin and trusts Jesus as Lord and Savior, then
they are forever saved and will attain heaven
after death. They cannot lose their salvation by changing their belief
or by engaging in an evil activity. (Some denominations consider the act of repenting of past sin to be a "good work" and thus not needed to attain salvation.
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Ouija Board: A game using a board which is marked with letters,
numbers and the words "yes" and "no." A pointer on a raised platform
selects a character or word. One or two players place their fingers on the
platform, which moves -- apparently by magic. Many conservative Christians
believe that this game is profoundly evil and dangerous. They have concluded that the
pointer is moved by demonic forces. Scientists who have studied the
physics of the board have generally concluded that the pointer is
unconsciously moved by the players themselves and not by any outside forces.
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Out-of-body Experience: (acronym OBE): See Near-death experience.
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Reference used:
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Alan Cairns, "Dictionary of Theological Terms," Ambassador-Emerald
Int., (1998), Page 255-256.
Copyright © 1996 to 2018 by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Originally published on: 1996-MAR-11
Last update: 2019-MAR-04
Author: B.A. Robinson
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