| WORD |
MEANING |
| Antinomianism |
The false teaching that says a person can become a Christian but
they are not under any obligation to obey any moral or spiritual laws.
Those who subscribe to this teaching believe that to be "under
grace" is indeed a license to sin. |
| Apologetics |
The study and defense of the Christian
faith and its various doctrines. |
| Arianism |
A false teaching by a man named Arius that
sprang up during the early days of the Church that denied Christ's divinity
and instead viewed Jesus as the highest of God's creatures, a teaching
similar to the
Jehovah's Witnesses and
some other cults. |
|
Arminianism |
The belief that unsaved man has a free
will to choose that which is right and holy and true and therefore he has
the ability in himself to choose to become saved by inviting Christ into
his life. This is a false teaching. |
| Baptismal regeneration |
The belief that water baptism causes a
person to become saved, i.e. it regenerates their soul. This is a
false teaching and is taught by the
Catholic church and the
Church of Christ. |
|
Calvinism |
The Bible doctrines outlining 5 basic
tenets of salvation, that roughly state that man is dead in his sins and
he cannot and will not seek God until he has become saved (been made
spiritually alive by the power of the Holy Spirit). |
|
Charismatic |
A group of professing Christians, both
Catholic and Protestant, who are preoccupied with supernatural spiritual
gifts and phenomenon such as speaking in tongues. |
| Deism |
A false view of God as divine creator while
rejecting His continuing involvement with the world. Deists believe in God
but they believe He is detached from His creation and unknowable. Many early
founders of the United States were Deists. |
| Dispensationalism |
A view of the history of the world as
periods of time in which God dealt with the world and His people in
different ways. Dispensationalists commonly believe that the Bible
timeline can be broken down into seven distinct dispensations (periods of
time). |
|
Doctrines of grace |
Another term for Calvinism and for the
Bible doctrines of salvation by God's grace alone. |
|
Ecclesiology |
Study of the church - church structure,
worship format, etc. |
|
Ecumenical |
The practice of various churches and
denominations joining together, setting their theological differences
aside, at the expense of truth, for some social cause, etc., |
| Eschatology |
Study of end time events (end of the world
prophecies). |
| Exegesis |
To expound on the meaning of a passage of
scripture, usually by examining the passage in all its parts and in
consideration of how words used in that passage are used elsewhere in the
Bible. |
| Gnosticism |
A false teaching that salvation
comes through knowledge and liberation from the material, earthly world.
This movement first became prevalent in the second century |
|
Hermeneutics |
Methods of Bible interpretation |
| Infralapsarianism & Supralapsarianism |
Infralapsarianism has to do with the belief that the
fall of Adam was an event that God merely foresaw but did not predestine and
when He foresaw the fall, He then permitted it or at least responded to it
with His plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. Whereas supralapsarianism
is the belief that God, in His Sovereignty, planned the fall of Adam for His
glory and for the implementation of His plan of salvation through the
atonement of Jesus Christ. Many (but not all) Calvinists are
supralapsarians. Most, if not all Arminians and free-willers are
infralapsarians. |
|
Irresistible grace |
A Bible doctrine that states that those
who will become saved are drawn to God by His grace and that drawing is
something they cannot resist. |
|
Limited atonement |
A Bible doctrine that states that Christ's
atonement, His sin payment was for only His elect children. |
| Monergistic gospel |
A one way view of the Gospel... God
reaches out to man. Man does not and cannot reach out to God. Man does not
cooperate with God in salvation. This is the "reformed"
(Calvinistic) view of salvation, the biblical view of salvation in spite
of what the Arminians and Free-willers say. |
| Paedo baptism |
Infant baptism (Presbyterians are one of
many groups of Christians referred to as paedo Baptists since they baptize
infants). |
|
Pelageanism |
A false teaching of a British monk by the
name of Pelagius who taught that man is not totally corrupt and lost in
sin, so he has the capacity in himself to become saved by an act of his own will.
This teaching contradicts the Bible's declaration that the unsaved are
"dead in their sins" (Eph 2:1) and "there are none [among
the unsaved] who seeketh after God" (Romans 3:11). |
|
Pentecostalism |
A branch of Protestant Christianity that
overemphasizes supernatural spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues,
being slain in the spirit (falling backwards), prophesizing not realizing
that Matthew 16:4 applies to them. |
|
Perseverance of the Saints |
Also known as Preservation of the
saints,
is a Bible doctrine that states that those who become saved by God cannot
lose their salvation, they will unquestionably endure to the end, they
will persevere to the last day and God will be the cause of that. He will
preserve them, keep them from falling and present them faultless (Jude 24). |
|
Prosperity
gospel |
A teaching that God wants all Christians
to be financially prosperous and physically healthy. All that is required
of the Christian is that they have enough faith in the promises of God
about prosperity found in the Bible. This teaching takes scripture
passages out of context and ignores Christ's teachings about the
persecution and hardship associated with taking up one's cross and
following Him. |
| Reconstructionism |
The belief that by the preaching of the
Gospel and teaching biblical principles, it is possible to change (reconstruct)
society around biblical laws. There are many groups and individuals in
America today who are trying to bring America "back" to its
Christian roots and heritage, not realizing that the mission of the Church
is not to make the heathen act Christian but rather the mission is to
preach God's word and let God convict and convert whom He wills, when He
wills. |
| Reformed theology |
The various doctrines adhered to and
taught by the reformers (Martin Luther, John Calvin, William Tyndale,
John Huss, etc.) during the protestant reformation, primarily the five
points of Calvinism. |
| Reformers |
Those Christians who sought to correct
(reform) the
doctrinal errors being spread by the Catholic
church,
primarily during the 16th and 17th centuries. |
| Semi-Pelageanism |
A false doctrine regarding the spiritual
state of man that says unsaved men are not totally corrupt spiritually,
they are not spiritually dead and unable to respond to God, but rather
they are corrupted by sin and are given the ability, by God, to accept salvation when they hear the
Gospel. Whereas, the Bible teaches that God must give us His Spirit before
we turn to Him (Ezek. 36:25-27) and before we can "see" or enter
into His kingdom (John 3:3) |
|
Social gospel |
An overemphasis on social causes to the
neglect of the preaching of the Gospel. Some churches and organizations
that preach a social gospel believe that doing good works in the name of
Christ is in and of itself evangelism of a sort, not realizing that the word
of God must be preached in order for souls to be saved, since
"faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God". |
| Socinianism |
A set of beliefs based on the teaching of a man named
Socinian, who denied the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and original sin.
He also believed that salvation is granted to those who adopt Christ's
virtues which is yet another works gospel. |
| Soteriology |
The study of God's plan of salvation through Jesus
Christ. |
| Synergistic gospel |
A "two-way" view of the gospel
that believes that man cooperates with God (i.e. God reaching out to man
and man reaching out to God). This is the Armenian (free-will) view
of the gospel and it is unbiblical. |
|
Total depravity |
A Bible doctrine that states that man is
totally corrupt and cannot possibly worship God in spirit and in truth
until and unless God gives him a new heart. |
|
TULIP |
An acronym made up of the first letter of
each word in the 5 points of
Calvinism (Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible
grace, Perseverance of the saints) |
|
Unconditional election |
A Bible doctrine that states that those
who become saved are chosen by God from before the foundation of the
world, based solely on the good pleasure of God and based upon no merits
of there own nor on any foreknowledge of them choosing to get right with
God. |
| Universal atonement |
The erroneous belief that Christ's atonement was for
the whole world and therefore all will be saved. This belief is
unbiblical. |
