Terms Used on This Site

The letters here name Nicaea, Dort, Anselm, Chalcedon and a shelf of Fathers without stopping to introduce them, which is fine for a reader raised on this and a locked door for everyone else. This page is the key. Definitions are kept short and fair, including for positions this site does not hold; where the site takes a side, it says so rather than hiding it in the wording.

Amillennial. The reading that the thousand years of Revelation 20 is the present church age rather than a future earthly reign. Augustine's view, and the majority reading in the West for most of church history.

Anselm. Archbishop of Canterbury, died 1109. Wrote the satisfaction theory of the atonement, that sin dishonours God and Christ's death repays what we owe. The legal picture of the cross begins to dominate here.

Antinomianism. From the Greek for against law. The teaching that a believer, being under grace, has no obligation to obey. Rejected everywhere on this site.

Apostolic Fathers. The generation taught by the apostles or the one just after: Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp. The earliest Christian writing outside the New Testament.

Arianism. The fourth-century teaching that the Son is the highest creature rather than God. Condemned at Nicaea in 325.

Arminianism. After Jacob Arminius, died 1609. Holds that grace goes first and can be resisted, that Christ died for all, and that a believer can fall away. The main Protestant alternative to Calvinism.

Atonement. What the death of Christ accomplished. Scripture uses several pictures: ransom, victory over death, healing, sacrifice, and a legal verdict paid. The early church led with the first three.

Calvinism. After John Calvin, died 1564. Systematized at the Synod of Dort in the five points now remembered as TULIP. Holds that grace is irresistible and that the truly saved cannot finally fall.

Canon. The list of books received as Scripture. Settled by use and testing across three centuries, not decided at Nicaea, which is the most persistent myth about the Bible.

Cessationism. The view that the miraculous gifts ended with the apostles or the closing of the canon. Serious Christians hold it and serious Christians reject it; the Spiritual Gifts page declines to settle it.

Chalcedon. The council of 451 that confessed Christ in two natures, fully God and fully man, in one person. The churches that rejected its wording are the Oriental Orthodox.

Chrysostom. Archbishop of Constantinople, died 407. Called golden-mouthed for his preaching. Quoted constantly here because he preaches through whole books verse by verse and rarely softens a hard text.

Deification. See theosis.

Dispensationalism. A system originating around 1830 with John Nelson Darby, dividing history into eras and keeping Israel and the church on separate tracks. The source of the pre-tribulation rapture and the seven-year countdown.

Dort. The Synod of Dort, 1618 to 1619, in the Netherlands. Rejected the Arminian articles and produced the five points of Calvinism.

Eschatology. The doctrine of last things: death, judgment, resurrection, the return of Christ, and the age to come.

Filioque. Latin for and the Son. The Western addition to the Nicene Creed saying the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. A central cause of the split of 1054.

Full preterism. The claim that every prophecy, including the resurrection, the judgment, and the return of Christ, was fulfilled in AD 70. Rejected here as an error the New Testament names by description.

Gnosticism. A second-century family of movements holding that matter is evil and salvation comes by secret knowledge. Irenaeus wrote against it at length.

Historic premillennialism. The early reading, held by Justin and Irenaeus, that Christ returns and then reigns on earth. Distinct from dispensational premillennialism, which adds the separate rapture and the two-peoples system.

Irenaeus. Bishop of Lyons, died about 202. Learned from Polycarp, who learned from John. His list of bishops and his argument from apostolic teaching are the earliest sustained defence of the faith we possess.

Justification. Being counted righteous before God. Protestants stress that it is by faith and not earned; the early church said the same and put obedience immediately beside it as the fruit.

Lordship salvation. The position that saving faith submits to Christ as Lord, so a faith that never obeys is not saving faith. These pages argue that substance from Scripture without adopting the label.

Monergism. The view that God alone acts in salvation and the human will contributes nothing. Contrast synergism.

Nicaea. The council of 325 that confessed the Son as of one substance with the Father, against Arius. The creed we say was completed at Constantinople in 381.

Partial preterism. The reading that a large part of prophecy, including the Olivet Discourse and the fall of Babylon, was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, while the resurrection, the judgment, and the visible return remain future. This is the reading these pages follow, held as a lean rather than a party membership.

Patristic. Of the church fathers, the Christian writers of roughly the first eight centuries.

Pelagianism. After Pelagius, early fifth century. Held that man can take the first step toward God without grace. Condemned, and rejected here; grace goes first.

Perseverance of the saints. The doctrine that those truly saved will certainly continue to the end. Held by the Reformed; this site holds a real security that is nonetheless conditioned on abiding.

Preterism. From the Latin for past. Any reading that places prophecies already fulfilled rather than future. See partial preterism and full preterism.

Provisionism. A recent name for a non-Calvinist evangelical position holding that God provides salvation for all and that faith is a response, not a work.

Rapture. The gathering of believers to Christ at His coming. Scripture describes one visible, audible return; the idea of a separate secret removal seven years earlier dates from about 1830.

Real presence. The conviction that Christ is genuinely given at the Lord's Table, not merely remembered. Held here without adopting any one explanation of the mechanism.

Semi-Pelagianism. The view that a man takes the first step toward God and grace then assists. Rejected here, since grace goes first.

Sola fide. Latin for by faith alone. A Reformation formula for justification.

Sola scriptura. Latin for by Scripture alone. That Scripture is the final authority over tradition and office. Held here, with the Fathers read as witnesses rather than as authorities.

Soteriology. The doctrine of salvation.

Synergism. The view that God's grace and the human will genuinely cooperate, with grace always first. The early church's ordinary position, and the one these pages read out of the text.

TULIP. An acrostic summarising the five points of Calvinism: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints. A later teaching device, not Calvin's own wording.

Theosis. Also deification. That God shares His own life with creatures so that they are truly changed. Stated by Irenaeus, Athanasius, and Gregory of Nazianzus, and grounded in 2 Peter 1:4BH. Never means that a creature becomes God.

Typology. Reading an earlier person or event as a divinely intended pattern of a later one, as Scripture itself does with Adam, the Passover lamb, and Jonah.

More in this section: Saved & Kept. Related: What the Word Says, and What We Believe It Means, The Creeds, The Church, One Story, Where the Church Drifted, and the full index. Dates follow the standard chronology. Where a definition describes a position this site rejects, it is stated as its own adherents would state it.