Glossary

(chapter numbers in parenthesis)

Apocalyptic — a highly symbolic style writing that was current at the time of the writing of the New (and the later parts of the Old) Testament; examples are Revelation and Daniel 7-13, along with many other non-biblical writings from the same time period like 'The Shepherd of Hermas' (20)

Apollonarianism — a form of Monophysitism, the heretical doctrine that in the incarnation God the Son took on the ‘lower’ elements of human nature, like flesh, but not a human mind (8)

atonement — the act by which God, in Christ, overcame the problem of Sin that stood between himself and humanity, especially referring to the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection (9)

begotten — the term used to describe the relationship that God the Son has to the Father, his life is grounded in the life of the Father, but he is himself a full divine Person equal to the Father; he is not a creation or the Father’s offspring in a human sort of way (2)

christology — the technical term for the study of Jesus Christ, both as the eternal second Person of the Trinity and in his incarnation (8)

Docetism — the heretical doctrine that Jesus Christ only ‘seemed to be’ human, but was really only divine, that is, that Christ did not in truth possess a genuinely human nature but only appeared to do so; compare ‘Valentinianism’ (8)

Donatist controversy — the struggle in the Church to determine that the power of the sacraments, especially baptism, comes from God himself through the sacrament itself, and does not depend on the person who officiates the sacrament (15)

Ebionitism — a heresy rooted in Judaism that accepted Jesus as the Messiah but rejected his divinity; significantly parallel to Islam’s acceptance of Jesus as ‘al Masih’, that is, ‘the Messiah’, but not as divine or the Son of God; this term is also used to talk about theological ideas that fail to take the physical aspect of our experience seriously (8)

ecclesiology — the technical term for the study of the Church (14)

Eutychianism — a form of Monophysitism, the heretical doctrine that Jesus Christ’s human and divine nature were mixed together in the incarnation to form a ‘third thing’, that is, a new kind of nature neither wholly human nor wholly divine (8)

eschatology — the technical term for the conversation about the return of Christ and all the issues connected with it, which is also often used to talk about the way that the ‘end times’ have already begun to arrive and impact our lives in the present (20)

Eucharist — a term for communion, often used in more formal or more traditional church contexts (15), it’s root meaning is ‘to give thanks’

ex nihilo — ‘out of nothing’; a word used to describe God’s way of creating, without needed any pre-existing materials and free from any outside influences (5)

existentialism — the philosophical position that understands life simply as the brute fact of existence, and that emphasizes that we only really begin to live when we take this life that we did not choose and decide to live it as our own (16)

fall — the moment in human history when Adam and Eve chose to reject God’s plan and instead design their own, resulting in expulsion from the garden, slavery to Sin, and the cursing of the natural world (7)

gnosticism — the mystical idea that the universe essentially consists in the struggle between a good force and an evil force; gnosticism also conceives of the body and of physical things as essentially bad and of the spiritual as essentially good; liberation from the physical (bad) comes by way of secret knowledge (called ‘gnosis’) (8)

grace — the blessing and favor that God puts in our lives even though we don’t deserve it (10)

hamartiology — the technical term for the study of Sin (7)

homoousios — a Greek word for describing the fact that Jesus is ‘of the very same substance’ as the Father (8)

hypostasis — the Greek word for Person in the context of the Trinity (2)

hypostatic union — union through being joined together in one Person; a very important theological term for describing how the eternal Son of God became a human; it means that Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God genuinely possesses two real natures, divine and human, which are permanently united in his one Person (hypostasis) without either being diminished or the two being in any way mixed up or muddled together (8)

illumination — the doctrine that the Holy Spirit helps earnest readers interpret the Scriptures by shining the light of his presence upon them as they read and study, and pointing out truth and error in their own thoughts; without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, accurately reading and understanding the Bible is impossible (17)

image of God — a phrase used to describe the way that humanity has been created by God in a special way so that we resemble him in several important ways, preeminently through our ability to love and to receive love (6)

imago Dei — the Latin phrase for the image of God (6)

inerrant — the evangelical doctrine that the Bible makes no errors in saying the things that it intends to say (18)

infallible — the doctrine that the Bible never leads us astray, especially regarding everything connected to his self revelation and to our salvation (18)

incarnation — the act of God the Son to take on human flesh (‘carn’ in the word incarnation means ‘flesh’, just like ‘carn’ in carnivore) and become a full human being, with a real human body and a real human nature, just like ours (8)

inspiration — the doctrine that God himself is the ultimate author of Scripture who directed and used human authors to communicate his true self (17)

justification — the act of God himself by which we are made right with God through Christ (10)

lostness — a word use in expressing the reality that, except through Jesus Christ, every person in the world lives under the dominion of Sin and is destined for eternal death; see also ‘original sin’ (7)

missiology — a very broad term used to refer to issues specifically related to Christian missions, including issues such as cross-cultural evangelism, anthropology, religious studies, etc (19)

Modalism/Sabellianism — a serious heresy regarding the nature of God, stating that God is only one Person (not three) but has three ‘modes’ or ‘ways’ of appearing in human history; present today in ‘Oneness’ or ‘Jesus only’ Pentacostalism; see also ‘Patripassianism’ (6)

Monophysitism — the heretical doctrine that Jesus Christ only had one nature, with either his human nature being swallowed up by his divine nature (Apollinarianism) or the two natures being fused together in his Person to make for a new mixed kind of nature (Eutychianism) (8)

Monothelitism — the heretical doctrine that Jesus had two natures, but only one will, that is, he possessed a divine will and not a human one (8)

Nestorianism — the heretical doctrine that, broadly speaking, Jesus Christ was two persons in addition to possessing two natures, that is, that his divine nature was not truly united with his human nature in one Person (8)

omnipotence — God’s unlimited ability to accomplish what he wills to do, never lacking power; almightiness (4)

omnipresence — the term describing that God is always present, in both space and time, especially to his creation (4)

omniscience — God’s full knowledge and understanding of everything; not a logical puzzle, but a way of saying that God always knows: past, present, and future (4)

ordo salutis — the Latin phrase for ‘the process of salvation’ (10)

original sin — a term describing the way that the sin of Adam and Eve has had an effect on the whole of creation, including every human being; original sin means that we are not born totally free, but under the dominion of Sin: each of us has inherited a broken world and a broken self because of the sinfulness of Adam and Eve; see also ‘lostness’ (7)

ousia — the Greek word for substance in the context of the Trinity (2)

parousia — the technical term for arrival of the coming kingdom of God (20)

Patripassianism — the heretical idea that it was the Father who became human and suffered and died on the cross; see also Modalism/Sabellianism (6)

Pelagianism — the heretical doctrine that human beings can live free from sin even without the help of God’s grace, empowered only by their own free will; (the ability of a Christian person to live in victory over sin through complete reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit is not Pelagianism, but the Christian doctrine of sanctification) (7)

perichoresis — a word describing the love of Father, Son, and Spirit; it means that each one is present in the life of the others in a maximally real way, that each one actually contributes to the being of the others; God’s perichoretic unity means that we can never consider Father, Son, and Spirit alone, because in their love together they are one God (2)

Person — the word that best describes the Father, Son, and Spirit, when we consider them individually; God has shown himself to be three Persons, each possessing the characteristics of personhood and not as three ‘powers’ or ‘forces’ (2)

plenary inspiration — a technical term meaning that all the parts of the Bible are inspired by God, not just some of them (17, 18)

pneumatology — the technical term for the study of the Holy Spirit (12)

Pneumatomacheanism — a great technical term with which to impress your friends which means ‘fighter against the Spirit’, Peneumatomacheanism is the heresy of denying true divinity to the Holy Spirit, instead treating him as the created servant of Father and Son; strongly parallel to Arianism (8, 12)

prevenient grace — the grace of God that ‘comes before’ salvation which gives us both the inclination and the ability to return to God in repentance and faith (10)

proceeds — the word describing the relationship that God the Spirit has to the Father (and the Son); his life is grounded in theirs, but he is still a full Person himself, totally equal to Father and Son (2)

proleptic — a word describing how the effect of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross extends ‘in both directions’, including the people who came before him just as much as the people who come after him (9)

prosperity gospel — the (erroneous) theological idea that Christianity is a way to escape from suffering and enjoy a materially better life; the idea that being a faith-filled Christian ought always to make a person healthy, wealthy, and wise (16)

regeneration — the theological term for being ‘born again’ (10)

sacrament — a word referring to communion and baptism, a sacrament is a physical symbol that conveys God’s grace and presence in a special way; it is instituted by Jesus Christ and given its power to make a difference in our lives by the Holy Spirit, not by how ‘well’ or how ‘purely’ we do it (15)

soteriology — the technical term for the study of salvation (10)

substance — the word used to talk about the ‘God-ness’ of God; whatever it is that God is, we refer to this being by saying that God is one substance; see also ‘ousia’ (2)

theodicy — the technical term for the very broad philosophical and theological discussion which tries to explain how a good and powerful God could allow bad things to happen (16)

theology proper — a term that is used to refer to the study of God himself, especially in reference to the being and attributes of God (4)

Valentinianism — the Gnostic heresy that Jesus Christ received a ‘special’ or ‘divine’ humanity directly from heaven and only passed through Mary ‘like water through a pipe’, taking on no aspect of her humanity, that is, he did not possess a human nature like we do, one affected by the fall; this doctrine was revived among the early Anabaptists (8)

verbal inspiration — the technical term meaning that the words of the Bible are inspired by God, though not necessarily directly dictated by him (17, 18)