Shawn Anthony recently did a theological terms dump and it got me to thinking, what are some theological terms that every Christian should be familiar with? I’ve put together a short list that I consider to be the most important. This is all written from a Pseudo-Reformed Theologian’s perspective so you may disagree with some of my definitions. However, I think I’ll keep them vague enough that most Christians can agree on the definition. Remember too, this is a completely subjective list so if you get to the end and think I’ve left out some critical terms feel free to add them into the comment section.
Theology: Specifically, the study of God. Many people use this term to refer to anything having to do with God.
Canon: Those biblical writings which are commonly held to be the authoritative word of God. Anything written by Martha Stewart, for example, would not be considered Canon.
Sin: Generally speaking, sin refers to anything that falls short of or misses the mark of God’s perfect character. (Example: crashing a Mustang GT500 on purpose is a sin; God would never do that.)
Trinity: Refers to the fact that God is One and Three at the same time. See my post with illustration here. (Warning: take aspirin before studying the Trinity, may cause headaches.)
Revelation: The means by which God has made Himself known to His creation. Generally speaking there are two kinds of revelation: special and general. Special revelation refers to the Canon, general revelation refers to how God has made Himself evident in nature. (Example: we know God exists because there is chocolate.)
Salvation: Refers to the means by which a person can escape paying the penalty for their sins. I.E. belief in Christ. A.K.A. Justification.
Sanctification: This happens after Salvation. It refers to the lifelong journey a person takes in which he/she becomes more like Christ in character. Sanctification is made possible by the Holy Spirit.
Justice: Refers to an aspect of God’s Character that deals with payment for sin. (Example: O.J. Simpson getting acquitted was not justice.)
Inspiration: Refers to the fact that the writers of the Bible Canon were divinely inspired to write the words they did. Basically, God didn’t grab a pen and paper and start writing, He got others to do it for Him.
Inerrancy: Shawn gave a good summary, I’ll just quote him here.
Inerrancy means without error, fault, mistake, and/or blemish. Inerrancy is usually associated with divine to human transmission of the Bible?s original documents. The manuscripts we possess today are not characterized by inerrancy.
Did I forget any?
