T220 Test 1 Flashcards
Revelation
God, out of his goodness and love, shows us who he is (consensus)
General Revelation
God shows himself to us in creation and in the voice of our conscience (consensus)
Special Revelation
God shows himself to us in particular events and histories, namely, those of Israel and Jesus Christ (consensus)
Natural Theology
A theology developed solely from general revelation, apart from God’s special revelation in Israel and Christ (diversity)
Ongoing Continuity
between general and special revelation (diversity): Special revelation presupposes the truth that can be known from nature, conscience, and so on
Revealed (unveiled) continuity
between general and special revelation (diversity): Humanity can only see God’s revelation in creation after they accept God’s revelation in Christ
Inspiration
The work of the Holy Spirit in bringing Scripture into existence through its human authors (consensus)
Illumination
The work of the Holy Spirit in causing readers of Scripture to understand and accept its teaching (Consensus)
Dictation theory of inspiration
The view that the Holy Spirit dictated the Bible word-
for-word to its human authors, bypassing their distinctive personalities and histories (diversity)
Weak Inspiration
The view that the Holy Spirit inspired the feelings or ideas of the human authors of the biblical text, not the words themselves (diversity)
Plenery Verbal inspiration
The view that all (plenary) words (verbal) of Scripture are the intentioned result of the Holy Spirit’s work (diversity)
Canon
The particular books that make up the Christian Bible (44-45). There is dispute between Protestants, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, however, about the precise extent of the canon; the latter include “deuterocanonical” or secondary books (consensus)
Marcionsim
The rejection of particular biblical books, including the whole Old Testament, as part of God’s revelation in Scripture (aberrant)
Montanism
The view that revelation continues now that is as important as the revelation of God in Jesus Christ (aberrant)
Inerrancy
The view that Scripture does not contain errors in any of its statements, including on historical, geographical, archaeological, scientific or other matters (diversity)
Infallibility
The view that God ensures Scripture will not fail in the purpose for which it was given, namely, to lead humanity to salvation (consensus)
Idolatry
The worship of false gods (aberrant)
Trinity
The one, true God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is not simply one, ‘unity,’ but a threefold unity: Trinity (consensus)
One God
Also termed ‘monotheism,’ the belief that there is one and only one God (consensus)
Subordinationism
The view that the Son and the Spirit are less than God (aberrant)
Adoptionsim
The view that Jesus becomes the Son of God at some point, such as his baptism by John, rather than being eternally the Son of God (aberrant)
Modalism
The view that the three, Father, Son and Spirit, are three ‘modes’ of God that are ultimately identical. They are like three different masks of God rather than the three being eternally God (aberrant)
Patripassionism
The idea that God the Father (Latn, pater) suffered (Latn, passus est) on the cross, rather than the Son alone. (aberrant)
Arianism
The teaching that the Son is not himself fully God: he is very much like God (homoiousios) but ultimately created by God (aberrant)
Nicene Trinitarian Doctrine
The collective teaching of the Church at a council in
325A.D. that the Son is fully God in every way. The Son is homoousios (Greek, “of the same being”) in relation to the Father, not merely very much like him (consensus)
Tritheism
A belief in three gods (aberrant)
Relations
In the context of the Trinity, ‘relations’ refers to what the Father, Son and Spirit are: to be the Father is to be the Son’s Father, to be the Son is to be the Father’s Son, and to be the Spirit is to be breathed out by the Father and the Son (consensus)
Perichoresis
The idea that each of the three Persons of the Trinity are “in” each other: the Father is “in” the Son and vice versa, and so on (consensus)
Persons
Similar to the term ‘relations,’ the term ‘Persons’ is used to talk about
what Father, Son and Spirit are. To call the Father a “Person” is not the same as saying “I am a
person,” but in a unique way indicates the personal, relational nature of Father, Son and Spirit (consensus)
Doctrine of Appropriations
Because there is only one God, the acts of God are
‘indivisible.’ That means the Son does not act without the Spirit, nor the Spirit without the Father, and so on. Nevertheless, we can ‘appropriate’ certain acts of God to certain of the Persons. For example, we appropriate the work of redemption to the Son (consensus)
Creator-Creature Distinction
God is not a thing in the universe (consensus)
Immanence
God is deeply present to everything he has made and continues to uphold its existence (consensus)
Creation out of nothing
God created everything that is out of nothing,
rather than out of something. By implication, God did not use some eternal material or some part of himself to create (consensus)
Scientism and materialism
The beliefs that only what is observable is real, and that only what is material exists, respectively (aberrant)
Deism
The belief that God created the world but then had no further involvement with it (aberrant)
Pantheism
The view that God and the world are identical (aberrant)
Panentheism
The view that the world is somehow “in” God; God and creation are entangled and inseparable (aberrant)
Creaturely dependence and divine sufficiency
Creation relies for its existence entirely on God, whereas God does not need creation for his existence or fulfillment; he is self-sufficient. God creates simply out of love and loves what he has made (consensus)
Gnosticism
An ancient Christian heresy that supposes its members have hidden
“knowledge” (Greek, gnosis) that leads them to salvation. Gnostic groups generally thought of
the material world as an evil to be escaped (aberrant)
Hierarchical dualism
The view, shared by Gnosticism with others, that what is spiritual is better than what is material, and that therefore the material world is to be rejected and escaped (aberrant)
Holism
The view that everything God made is good and, therefore, each individual thing God made is valuable and to be treated as such (consensus)
Theodicy
An attempted explanation of the existence of evil that exonerates God of blame (93). Not all Christians agree that this should be attempted. (diversity)
Fatalism
The view that, since God is in control of the world, none of our thoughts or actions is really meaningful. Whatever will be will be (aberrant)
