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A Layman's Reference Guide to Selected |
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Theological "-ism"s, "-ology"s, "-tion"s
and Other Terms |
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by Randy Smith |
A B C D E F G H I-J K-L M N O P-Q R S T U-Z
Title Page Acknowledgments Bibliography Scripture Index
Not a mere intellectual assent to a doctrine, faith involves the knowledge, conviction, and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. 1) Knowledge involves the intellect and emphasizes that there are certain basic truths that must be believed for salvation. Jesus claimed to be God; belief in His deity became the central issue in salvation (Rom. 10:9-10). Unless a person believed that Jesus was all He claimed to be he would die in his sins. Saving faith, then, involves believing the basic truths fundamental to man's salvation; man's sinfulness, Christ's atoning sacrifice, and His bodily resurrection. 2) Conviction involves the emotions. This element emphasizes that the person has not only an intellectual awareness of the truths but that there is an inner conviction (John 16:8-11) of their truthfulness. 3) Trust is a result of knowledge about Christ and a conviction that these things are true there must also be a settled trust, a moving of the will. A decision must be made as an act of the will. The "heart" frequently denotes the will, and that is Paul's emphasis in the statement, "believe in you heart" (Rom. 10:9). (Enns, p.332) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. - Hebrews 11:1 One of the attributes of God. His faithfulness is the assurance every believer has that He will never forget, never fail, never falter. God is true, His Word of promise is sure. (Pink, The Attributes of God, p.52) God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and she He not do it? - Numbers 23:19 This term refers to the original transgression of God's law by Adam in the Garden of Eden recorded in Genesis 3. When Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he willfully disobeyed God and "fell" into sin. As a result of "the fall," God cursed the land and condemned all of mankind to toil all the days of our lives, until we die and return to dust. Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." - Gen. 3:17-19 Fasting is the deliberate abstaining from food. Religiously, fasting is associated with prayer and is used as a demonstration of self-humiliation and repentance. Scripture records the Lord Jesus Christ fasting in Matthew 4:2, though Scripture does not command us to do the same. As with any religious practice, fasting can be mistakenly used as a means of attempting to gain favor from God, can be substituted for true repentance, can become a mere convention and an end in itself, and may be the occasion for a parade of religion and self-righteousness. (Harrison, p.214) The belief that every man's fate is already decided, in contradiction to Scripture, which indicates all of us have both the capacity and responsibility to choose which road in life we will take. Fatalism is the basis for belief in astrology. Astrologers would have you believe that your actions, moods, relationships, fortunes, etc. are already decided in "the stars" and are unalterable. (McDowell, p.385) Federal theology recognizes Adam as the "federal head" of all mankind, meaning he represented all mankind at the time he was created. As the federal head of mankind, when Adam and Eve were disobedient and sinned in the Garden of Eden, their sin was transmitted down throughout all generations of mankind. This is confirmed in Scripture. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. - 1 Cor 15:22 But just as the first Adam was the federal head of fallen mankind, Jesus Christ as the second Adam is the federal head of all those who have faith in Him. (Harrison, p.217) From the Greek words koinonia and metoche, fellowship is defined as the social relationship existing between members of the true church. This relationship exists for the purposes of worshipping God, growing and maturing the body of believers spiritually, and lending support and strength to other believers in need. Fellowship, in its purest sense, is an opportunity to practice for what we will have eternally in heaven. In glory we will be one body of believers, united together for the purpose of worshipping and giving glory to God. Therefore true fellowship, by definition, only occurs between regenerate believers. Modern society has transformed the role of women. In the Old Testament society was "tribal." By the time of the New Testament society had become "traditional." In traditional society the family was the traditional major economic, social welfare and educational unit. Everything a family needed was supplied by the family. As traditional society gave way to a "technological" society, most of the functions associated with family life were transferred to mass institutions. As a result, the role of women changed. Technology seriously undermined the traditional role of women in the family. As a result of their diminished role in the family, women began to go outside the home to develop work skills and become economically productive. At the same time the relationship between women and the family, particularly her children, has been damaged. (Sarles, Anthropology, p. 5-1) From the Latin, meaning "and from the Son." The Filioque controversy was a 6th century A.D. Christological controversy surrounding the procession of the Holy Spirit. The Eastern Church, in Constantinople, held to the Nicene Creed of 325 A.D. But the Western Church, in Rome, amended the Nicene Creed concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit. The Western church held that the Holy Spirit proceeded from both the Father and from the Son (Filioque), while the Eastern church held that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son. (Sarles, Christology, p.7-4) One of the attributes of God. God's foreknowledge is not simply Him having advance information, it is God's decree of what shall be. Arthur Pink points out that God's foreknowledge is never used in Scripture in connection with events or actions; instead, it always has reference to persons. God foreknows what will be because He has decreed what shall be. (see Decretive Will of God) The truth is, He "foreknows" because He has elected. This removes the ground or cause of election from outside the creature, and places it in God's own sovereign will. (Pink, p.24-26) Form Criticism - see Criticism The controversy surrounding "free will" concerns the question whether fallen man's slavery to sin is so complete as to make him unable to perform any spiritual good, avoid sinning, or to repent and put his faith in Christ. Reformed theology and Calvinism, based upon Rom. 8:5-8, Eph. 2:1-10, John 6:44 and 15:4-5, hold to the view that fallen man is not free for obedience and faith. On the other hand, those who hold to Arminianism believe that man has an inherent ability to choose spiritual good, to avoid sinning and to repent and put his faith in Christ. (Harrison, p.230) The word fundamentalist was first used in 1920 by Curtis Lee Laws to identify someone who stood for the historic doctrines of the Christian faith in contrast to modern religious liberals who rejected doctrines such as the inspiration of Scripture, the deity of Christ, and the genuineness of miracles. Marsden defines fundamentalism as: 1) an evangelical Protestant; 2) an anti-modernist, meaning that one subscribes to the fundamentals of traditional supernaturalistic biblical Christianity; and 3) militant in this anti-modernism or in opposition to certain aspects of secularization. A fundamentalist, then, is a militantly anti-modernistic evangelical. (Enns, p.61) Futurism (Eschatological) - see Eschatology |