Week 6 Glossary

Question 1

A system of belief in which personal opinion about religious statements (e.g., “God exists”) is suspended because it is assumed that they can be neither proven nor disproven or because such statements are seen as irrelevant.

Answer 1

Agnosticism

Question 2

Assumes that biblical stories should be interpreted by seeking the “spiritual” meaning to which the literal sense points.

Answer 2

Allegorical method

Question 3

Belief that the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20 do not represent a specific period of time between Christ’s first and second comings.

Answer 3

Amillennialism

Question 4

Belief that all the wicked will be judged by God and thrown into the lake of fire, where they will cease to exist.

Answer 4

Annihilationism

Question 5

Words about, or teaching concerning, humankind. The scriptural teachings about humans as God’s creatures.

Answer 5

Anthropology

Question 6

Sought to disclose “heavenly secrets” concerning how the world would end and how the kingdom of God would suddenly appear to destroy the kingdom of evil. Made extensive use of visions, dreams, and symbols as instruments of revealing what was hidden.

Answer 6

Apocalyptic literature

Question 7

Formal defense of the Christian Faith.

Answer 7

Apologetics

Question 8

An early heretical teaching about the identity of Jesus Christ. The central characteristic was that because God is one, Jesus could not have also been truly God.

Answer 8

Arianism

Question 9

Teaching that predestination was based on God’s foreknowledge in seeing whether an individual would freely accept or reject Christ.

Answer 9

Arminianism

Question 10

Teaching that spirituality is attained through renunciation of physical pleasures and personal desires while concentrating on “spiritual” matters.

Answer 10

Asceticism

Question 11

Refers to God’s act of dealing with the primary human problem, sin.

Answer 11

Atonement

Question 12

Starts with the complete sinfulness of humankind (depravity), which leaves humans unable to respond in faith toward God. Asserts that God predestines those who are enabled to repent and believe.

Answer 12

Augustinianism

Question 13

A discipline that attempts to summarize and restate the teaching of a biblical text or of a biblical author without imposing any modern categories of thought on the text.

Answer 13

Biblical theology

Question 14

Major tenets are captured in the acronym TULIP (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints).

Answer 14

Calvinism

Question 15

The term is most closely associated with the collection of books that the church has recognized as the written Word of God (Scripture) and that functions as the rule or standard of faith and practice in the church.

Answer 15

Canon

Question 16

Literally meaning “universal” or “worldwide” and that affirms that the church is universal in scope.

Answer 16

Catholic

Question 17

Theological study devoted to answering two main questions: Who is Jesus? (the question of his identity) and What is the nature and significance of what Jesus accomplished in the incarnation? (the question of his work).

Answer 17

Christology

Question 18

A term most closely related to the biblical idea of fellowship, also used in reference to the Lord’s Supper as an event marking the fellowship of the participants with Christ and with each other.

Answer 18

Communion

Question 19

Attempts to demonstrate the existence of God by appeal to observation of the world, its objects and its processes.

Answer 19

Cosmological argument

Question 20

Attempt to understand the origin, nature, and subsequent history of the universe.

Answer 20

Cosmology

Question 21

The act of God in freely establishing a mutually binding relationship with humankind.

Answer 21

Covenant

Question 22

Literally means “creation out of nothing.” Maintains a clear distinction between God and the created order and also maintains that God alone has eternal status.

Answer 22

Creation ex nihilo

Question 23

Belief that understands God as distant, in that God created the universe but then left to run its course on its own, following certain “laws of nature” that God had built into the universe.

Answer 23

Deism

Question 24

The corruption of human nature such that there is within every human an ongoing tendency toward sin. Total depravity refers to the extent and comprehensiveness of the effects of sin on all humans such that all are unable to do anything to obtain salvation.

Answer 24

Depravity, total depravity

Question 25

Teaching that Jesus was fully God but only appeared to be human.

Answer 25

Docetism

Question 26

A theological formulation that attempts to provide a summary statement of the teaching of Scripture on a particular theological topic.

Answer 26

Doctrine

Question 27

Any system of thought that attempts to define the nature of something as being composed of two distinct realities, substances, or principles.

Answer 27

Dualism

Question 28

The area of theological study concerned with understanding the church. It seeks to set forth the nature and function of the church.

Answer 28

Ecclesiology