Acme – The point of utmost attainment. Peak.
Advent – The arrival of something momentous.
Agnosticism – The belief that nobody can really know if there is a God.
Amillennialism – The teaching that there is no literal 1000 year reign of Christ as referenced in Revelation 20. It sees the 1000 year period spoken of in Revelation 20 as figurative. Instead, it teaches that we are in the millennium now, and that at the return of Christ (1 Thess. 4:16 – 5:2) there will be the final judgment and the heavens and the earth will then be destroyed and remade (2 Pet. 3:10). The Amillennial view is as old as the Premillennial view which says there is a future 1000 years reign of Christ and Postmillennialism which states that in the future, the world will be converted and we will usher in the kingdom of God.
Anabaptists – The group, hunted and persecuted, was mockingly called ‘Anabaptist’ for rejecting infant baptism and practicing believers’ baptism.
Antipathy – A strong feeling of opposition
Apostolic – The life of the apostles. The teaching of the apostles.
Arianism – Posits Jesus as a lesser begotten or created son of God, and which discards His eternal divine nature. Arianism has persisted to this day in the teachings of the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Aristotle – Greek Philosophy. The real is from down below in the material world. The Socratic “form” is a material substance, something that you can see or feel or has substance.
Ascetic – One who leads a life of self-discipline especially as an act of religious devotion or penance
Athesism – The belief that there is no God.
Atonement – Man’s reconciliation with God after having transgressed the covenant (promise).
Benediction – A blessed state. An invocation of diving blessing usually at the end of a church service.
Canon – Of Christian origin. Collection of religious writings. Divinely inspired.
Church History:
- ban is when you mount a crusade against an individual, family, or kingdom
- edict is excommunication of a person
- interdict is putting a whole nation under excom¬munication
Consecration – Dedicated to a sacred purpose. To make Holy
Countenance – Support. Approval.
Deism – The belief that God created the world but is not now involved in it.
Ecclesiology – Theology. the doctrine of the church. The policy and operations of the church.
Ecumenism – World wide unit and cooperation among all Christian churches.
Exegesis – A critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible.
Epicurean – (Greek Philosophy) The senses become the sole
criterion for truth. Hedonism is an offshoot of Epicureanism.
Evangelicalism – Protestant Christian. Its key commitments are:
- The need for personal conversion (or being “born again”);
- A high regard for biblical authority;
- An emphasis on teachings that proclaim the saving death and resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ;
- Actively expressing and sharing the gospel.
Humanism - deification of man
- any system or mode of thought or action in which human interests, values, and dignity predominate.
- Philosophy; a variety of ethical theory and practice that emphasizes reason, scientific inquiry, and human fulfillment in the natural world and often rejects the importance of belief in God.
Iconoclastic – Destruction of icons.
Indulgence (Catholic term) An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment due to sin, the guilt of which has been forgiven.
Ineffable – Indescribable.
Insidious – Awaiting a chance to trap. Treacherous, seductive.
Jesuits: the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic order of priests founded by St. Ignatius Loyola. The order was zealous in opposing the Reforma¬tion. Despite periodic persecu-tion it has retained an important influence in Catholic thought and education.
Lilt – A lively or cheerful manner of speaking.
Monotheism – The Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD” is the cry of monotheism⎯God is one. Our God is one God. That characteristic of monotheism comes from the context of the Jews, who worshiped the same Father God as do the Christians today. God Who is
over us here today is the same God that was over the Jews in the days of the Exodus.
Orthodox – Conventional, conservative.
Parochial – Narrowly restricted.
Pantheism – The belief that all there is is God. I am God, you are God, we are all Gods.
Patristic – Pertaining to the writings of the fathers of the Christian church.
Piety – Religious devotion and reverence to God
Pious – Having or displaying reverence & earnest compliance in the observance of religion. Devout.
Platonism – Greek Philosophy. The real is up in the realm of the ideal. It is of the non-material realm. The material realm is the shadow world.
Precipitancy – Impulsive. Rash. Abrupt. Unexpected.
Propitiation – An offering or sacrifice. Sufficient to win forgiveness. To appease.
Providence – Divine guidance or care.
Pseudepigraphic – Spuriously religious writings falsely ascribed to scriptural characters or times.
Redemption – Salvation from sin through Jesus Christ
Reconcile – To settle, resolve.
Sacralism – The confluence of church and state wherein one is called upon to change the other. (Like Catholic infant baptism. Infant baptism is something that unites the world and the Church together in such a way that the world can be comfortable because it gains its holiness from the Church through infant baptism. The Church has satisfied the world. As a reward, the world blesses the Church by recognizing it as a legitimate institution.).
Sanctified – To make free from sin. Purify.
Septuagint: The ancient Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures. An old testament source for early Christians. Credible proof for Messianic prophecy.
Socrates – Greek Philosophy. The Socratic philosophy is one in which everybody came from the basic construct of being—i.e. forms; the soul comes from the world of forms. As a result of men’s common source of origin, knowledge is nothing more than soul memory; knowledge is from the inside, not acquired from without. Intuition becomes valid for guiding your life than an actual outside gathering of data. The Socratic soul memory is where you discover truth on the inside rather than from the outside. Knowledge is the self-enlightenment of thought. We have this in the church— i.e. “I have a vision.”
Springs – Actuating forces.
Stoicism – Greek Philosphy. The world logos, which today is called the cosmic spirit, is an advancing or progressive view of mankind. That philosophy says that today’s people are smarter and
know more about what the Constitution of the United States says than its authors knew. This is a growing philosophy in America especially in the realm of hermeneutics. Stoicism’s cosmic spirit, or world logos, is supposedly making us smarter than our forefathers, and that means then that we know more about what Paul wrote than Paul did.
Suzerain – Sovereign, supreme. Having authority over.
Theism – God is infinite, sovereign, yet personal creator of the universe and is active in the world today.
Tonsorial – When the monk has a circular spot in the middle of his hair shaved. The monk ends up with a ring of hair circling his head with a bald spot in the top and middle of his head.
Vernacular – is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language.
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