Glossary

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1 Clement

A letter from the church of Rome to the church of Corinth, usually dated about 96, the earliest text that clearly says Peter and Paul were put to death. The New Testament Witnesses: John the Baptist, Stephen, the Two Jameses, Peter, Paul and Antipas

1QIsa-a (Great Isaiah Scroll)

The nearly complete Isaiah scroll from Qumran Cave 1, 7.34 meters long with 54 columns, dated to the late second century BC; in the Shrine of the Book, Jerusalem. How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

A

A cappella

Singing without instruments; the practice of the Churches of Christ, who hold that the New Testament commands singing and does not authorize instruments in worship. The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

A Faithful Narrative

Edwards's account of the 1734 to 1735 Northampton revival, written as a letter to Benjamin Colman (dated Nov. 6, 1736) and printed in London in 1737 with a preface by Isaac Watts and John Guyse. The First Great Awakening: Edwards at Northampton, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Connecticut Valley Revivals

Abba / Amma

"Father" and "mother": titles for experienced desert ascetics whom others asked for a "word." The word abbot comes from abba. Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Abjuration

A formal, sworn renunciation of a teaching judged heretical, after which the person was given penance instead of being handed over for execution. Before the Reformation: Hus, Hieronymus of Prague, the Lollards, Savonarola and Tyndale

Abwehr

The counter-intelligence office of the German armed forces high command, where Canaris, Oster and Dohnanyi sheltered the conspiracy that Bonhoeffer joined. Missionary Martyrs and the World Wars: Judson, the Boxer Year, Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Stein and the Five in Ecuador

Acedia

Listless boredom or "weariness of heart" (Cassian), the restlessness that makes a monk want to leave his cell; later counted under sloth. Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Act against Jesuits (1585)

27 Elizabeth c. 2, which made it high treason for a priest ordained abroad by papal authority to stay in England and a capital felony to shelter one. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

Act of Six Articles

Henry VIII's statute of 1539 reaffirming Catholic doctrine on the Mass and related points, under which denying the bodily presence of Christ in the sacrament was punishable by burning. The Reformation, Protestant Martyrs: The Marian Fires, Cranmer, Anne Askew, Manz and Sattler

Act of Supremacy

The statute of 1534 that declared Henry VIII supreme head on earth of the Church of England; Elizabeth's act of 1559 made the monarch "supreme governor" and required an oath. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

The English statute of 1534 naming the king supreme head of the Church of England, and the 1559 act naming Elizabeth supreme governor and imposing an oath. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

Act of Toleration (1689)

The English statute that allowed Protestant dissenters to worship in licensed meetinghouses; Samuel Davies used it to license Presbyterian meetinghouses in Virginia. Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

Acta

Latin for proceedings: at first the record of a hearing before a magistrate, later any account of a martyr's trial and death. What a Martyr Is, and How to Weigh the Sources

Acta (acts)

Martyr texts presented as the record of a trial, usually question and answer before a magistrate followed by the sentence. The Acts of Justin and of the Scillitans are examples. The Persecutions to 313: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Lyon, Perpetua, Cyprian and Lawrence

Actes and Monuments

John Foxe's English Protestant martyrology, first printed by John Day in 1563, enlarged in 1570, 1576 and 1583; popularly called the Book of Martyrs. What a Martyr Is, and How to Weigh the Sources

John Foxe's history of the church and its martyrs, known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, first published in English in 1563 and enlarged in 1570, 1576 and 1583. The Reformation, Protestant Martyrs: The Marian Fires, Cranmer, Anne Askew, Manz and Sattler

Ad abolendam

The decree of Pope Lucius III at Verona in 1184 that condemned the Cathars, the Poor of Lyons and others and handed unrepentant lay heretics to the secular judge. From Constantine to the Middle Ages: Persia, Armenia, Alban, Boniface and the Waldensians

Adelphoi

The Greek plural "brothers"; the 2011 NIV often renders it "brothers and sisters" when the context includes women, as the 1997 Colorado Springs Guidelines allowed. Why the NIV and Similar Versions Fall Short, Verse by Verse (with the Counter View)

Adherents

In the Churches of Christ directory, baptized members plus unbaptized children and spouses associated with a congregation, a larger figure than membership. The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

A broader count that includes children and regular attenders who are not formal members; the Assemblies of God reports adherents alongside members. Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the Numbers

A count that includes members together with children and regular participants who are not members; used by the Assemblies of God and by religion censuses. Review: A Chart of the Denominations and Their Families

Adopting Act

The 1729 decision of the Synod of Philadelphia requiring ministers to accept the Westminster Standards in all their essential and necessary articles. The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

Affiliation

A relationship between an independent, separately incorporated church and the Calvary Chapel network, made through regional leaders; it is not a legal merger. Calvary Chapel Growth and Fault Lines: The Network, the Succession After 2013, Controversies and Reforms

African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church

The denomination organized at Bethel Church, Philadelphia, in April 1816, with Richard Allen as its first bishop. The Second Great Awakening: Cane Ridge, Camp Meetings, Circuit Riders and the Frontier

Aldersgate

The London street where John Wesley attended a society meeting on May 24, 1738, and recorded that his heart was "strangely warmed." Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Aleppo Codex

A tenth-century Masoretic codex associated with Aaron ben Asher, kept for centuries in Aleppo; a large part was lost after 1947. Now in Jerusalem. How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

Alexamenos graffito

A pagan caricature scratched on plaster on the Palatine Hill, Rome, usually dated about 200, showing a crucified figure with a donkey's head and the words 'Alexamenos worships [his] god.' Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the Martyrs

Alien immersion

An immersion performed by a church that Landmark Baptists do not recognize as a true church; Landmarkers require rebaptism. Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of Baptists

Almah

The Hebrew word (Strong's H5959) in Isaiah 7:14, rendered "virgin" in the KJV, ASV, WEB and BSB and "young woman" in the RSV, whose lexicons differ on its range of meaning. How to Choose a Bible: Reading Prefaces, Comparing Passages and Using Interlinear Tools

Already and not yet

The phrase for the belief that God's reign has begun in Jesus but will be consummated only at his return; used in Vineyard USA's core values. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

George Eldon Ladd's description of the kingdom of God as present now in Jesus' ministry but not yet complete until his return; the frame of Vineyard teaching. Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Altar call or invitation

The general name for a preacher's public call to come forward at the end of a service, in forms running from the mourners' bench to Billy Graham's crusade invitation. Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

Altar theology

Palmer's teaching, from Matthew 23:19 and Exodus 29:37, that Christ is the altar and that whatever is wholly laid on it is sanctified. Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Altenburg Debate

The April 1841 disputation in Perry County, Missouri, where C. F. W. Walther argued that the Saxon colonists were a true church after their bishop's fall. Lutherans: The Book of Concord and the Synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the Other Lutheran Bodies)

American Appendix

The list of 'readings and renderings preferred by the American Committee' printed at the end of English copies of the Revised Version for fourteen years under the agreement of 1877. The Revised Version (1881) and the American Standard Version (1901)

American Christian Missionary Society

The first national missionary society of the movement, organized in Cincinnati in October 1849 with Alexander Campbell as president; opposition to it helped divide the movement. The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

American Standard Version (ASV)

The American Revision Committee's edition of the Revised Version with its preferences in the text, New Testament 1900 and Bible 1901, published by Thomas Nelson and Sons. Now in the public domain. The Revised Version (1881) and the American Standard Version (1901)

Amplified Bible

A version (New Testament 1958, one volume 1965, current text 2015) that adds bracketed and parenthetical words to show shades of meaning, sponsored by the Lockman Foundation. The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

Amyraldianism

Hypothetical universalism taught by Moise Amyraut at Saumur (1634): a universal provision in Christ on condition of faith, followed by the election of those to whom faith is given. Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster Confession

Anabaptist

From the Greek for 'rebaptizer,' a name given by opponents to those who baptized adults on a confession of faith from 1525 onward. The churches hold that infant baptism is not baptism, so they do not regard it as baptizing twice. Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren

Anabaptists

'Rebaptizers': the radical reformers who baptized adult believers, rejected infant baptism, and in the Swiss Brethren form refused oaths and the sword. They called themselves brethren. The Reformation, Protestant Martyrs: The Marian Fires, Cranmer, Anne Askew, Manz and Sattler

'Rebaptizers,' a name given by opponents to those who baptized only believers on confession of faith, beginning in Zurich in January 1525. They called themselves brethren. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

Anathema

A formal condemnation. Trent attached it to rejecting the books on its list. How the Canon Formed: The Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Question

A formal curse or exclusion from the church's communion. The creed of 325 ends with anathemas against Arius's key phrases. Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

Anchorite

A hermit who has "withdrawn" (anachoresis) to live alone, like Antony; the Rule of Benedict allows it only after long training in a community. Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Ancient authorities

The RV and ASV margin's term for the Greek manuscripts, early translations and early Christian quotations; 'many' and 'some' ancient authorities mark how much support a reading has. The Revised Version (1881) and the American Standard Version (1901)

Annual Church Profile

The Southern Baptist Convention's yearly statistical report from its congregations, compiled by Lifeway Christian Resources. Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the Numbers

Annual Church Profile (ACP)

The yearly statistical report of Southern Baptist churches on membership, attendance, baptisms and giving, compiled by Lifeway Research. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

Anomoians

Followers of Aetius and Eunomius in the 350s and after, who taught that the Son is unlike the Father in substance. Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

Anti-Masonic movement

The popular movement against Freemasonry that followed William Morgan's disappearance near Batavia in 1826 and became the Anti-Masonic Party, the first to hold a national nominating convention (1831). The Burned-Over District and Its Offshoots: Millerites, Latter-day Saints, Spiritualists and Oneida

Antinomian perfectionism

The charge that a claim of sinlessness frees a person from the moral law; leveled against Oberlin, which answered that perfection meant perfect obedience to the law. Finney, Oberlin and Reform: Abolition, Women, Perfectionism and the Legacy

Anxious meeting (meeting of inquiry)

A meeting, often after preaching, for personal conversation with people concerned about their souls, so that instruction could be fitted to each case. Charles Finney: The Conversion, the Rochester Revival and the New Measures

Anxious seat (anxious bench)

Seats at the front of a meeting where those under conviction were asked to come, to be prayed for and spoken to. Finney said he first used it regularly at Rochester in 1830; John W. Nevin attacked it in The Anxious Bench (1843). Charles Finney: The Conversion, the Rochester Revival and the New Measures

A seat set apart in a meeting where people troubled about their souls could come to be addressed and prayed for; Finney dated his regular use of it to Rochester in 1830. Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

Aorist

A Greek verb tense for simple past action; the RV preface called its rendering perhaps the most important point of detail in the revision. The Revised Version (1881) and the American Standard Version (1901)

Apocrypha

In Protestant usage, the Jewish books found in the Greek and Latin Old Testament but not in the Hebrew Bible. In early church usage, spurious or heretical books claiming to be Scripture. How the Canon Formed: The Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Question

Books found in the Greek and Latin Old Testament but not in the Hebrew canon. Coverdale's 1535 Bible was the first printed English Bible to group them in a separate section. Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible

Apocrypha (deuterocanonical books)

Books in the Septuagint and Latin Bible but not the Hebrew canon, received by Catholic and Orthodox churches. Timeline, Glossary and Review

Apocryphal acts

Christian novels of the second to sixth centuries about the apostles (the Acts of Peter, Paul, Andrew, Thomas and others), the main source for many later martyrdom traditions. The New Testament Witnesses: John the Baptist, Stephen, the Two Jameses, Peter, Paul and Antipas

Apollinarianism

The teaching of Apollinaris of Laodicea that the divine Word took the place of the human mind in Christ; condemned in 381. The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

Apologist

A Christian writer of the second and third centuries who wrote a defense (Greek apologia) of the faith addressed to emperors, governors or educated pagans. Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the Martyrs

Apophthegmata Patrum

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, short sayings and stories of the monks of Lower Egypt, arranged alphabetically or by subject; quoted here from Budge's 1907 translation of the Syriac version. Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Apostolic decree

The four rules in the letter of Acts 15: abstain from food offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled and from fornication. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

Apostolic Fathers

A modern name for the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament (about 95 to 160), such as 1 Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, the Didache, Barnabas, Hermas, Papias and Diognetus. The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

Apostolic governance

Wagner's term for the authority of recognized living apostles over aligned churches and ministries, which he called the most radical change of the NAR. Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation

Apostolic succession

The belief that bishops succeed the apostles in an unbroken line of appointment; argued in 1 Clement 42 to 44 and Irenaeus 3.3, and taught by the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

Aquae Salviae (Tre Fontane)

The place south of Rome that later tradition names as the site of Paul's beheading, now the Abbey of the Three Fountains. The New Testament Witnesses: John the Baptist, Stephen, the Two Jameses, Peter, Paul and Antipas

Arbitrary constitution

Edwards's phrase in Original Sin for an order that "depends on nothing but the divine will; which divine will depends on nothing but the divine wisdom," which he held grounds all identity, including Adam's oneness with his descendants. Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

Arbitrary will

In Sinners, God's sovereign pleasure "restrained by no obligation"; Edwards used "arbitrary" in the older sense of depending on the will. The First Great Awakening: Edwards at Northampton, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Connecticut Valley Revivals

Article III (Massachusetts, 1780)

The article of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights requiring towns to support "public Protestant teachers of piety, religion and morality," replaced in 1833. The Great Awakening and the Revolution: The Case For and Against a Link, Isaac Backus and John Leland

Article VI

The article of the Church of England's Thirty-Nine Articles that defines Scripture and lists the other books read "for example of life and instruction of manners" but not to establish doctrine. How the Canon Formed: The Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Question

Articles of Religion

Wesley's 1784 abridgment of the Thirty-nine Articles to 24 articles, with one American article added to make 25; adopted as a protected standard in 1808. Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 Split

Arundel's Constitutions

Thirteen constitutions against the Lollards issued by Archbishop Thomas Arundel, drafted in 1407 and dated January 1408 (1409 by modern reckoning); the seventh forbade unlicensed translation of Scripture into English. The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

Asceticism

From Greek askesis, "training": disciplined self-denial (fasting, celibacy, vigils, poverty) undertaken for spiritual growth. Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops

The body of all canonical Orthodox bishops in the United States, formed after the 2009 Chambesy decision, successor to SCOBA. Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An Orientation

Association (of churches)

A network of independent churches that share a name and beliefs; the national body can usually add or drop a church but does not own its property or appoint its pastor the way a denomination may. Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Association of Vineyard Churches

The network of Vineyard congregations, informally recognized in 1982 and incorporated in 1985 according to the Regent archive; the U.S. body is now Vineyard USA. The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510

Auburn Affirmation

A 1924 statement signed by 1,274 PCUSA ministers defending liberty of interpretation and denying that the General Assembly could impose the five points of 1910 and 1923 as tests. The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

Augsburg Confession

The Lutheran statement of faith drafted by Melanchthon and read to Charles V on June 25, 1530; 21 doctrinal articles and 7 on abuses. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

Authentein

The rare Greek verb in 1 Timothy 2:12, found nowhere else in the New Testament, rendered "usurp authority" (KJV), "have authority" (1984 NIV) and "assume authority" (2011 NIV). Why the NIV and Similar Versions Fall Short, Verse by Verse (with the Counter View)

Authorized Version

The usual British name for the King James Version. No Act of Parliament, proclamation or Order in Council authorizing it has been found. The King James Version of 1611: Hampton Court, the Translators, the Rules and the 1769 Text

Autocephalous

Literally 'self-headed': an Orthodox church that elects its own primate and governs itself while remaining in communion with the other Orthodox churches. Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

Autocephaly

The status of an Orthodox church that governs itself and chooses its own head while remaining in communion with the other Orthodox churches. Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An Orientation

Self-governing status for an Orthodox church, which chooses its own head; granted to the Orthodox Church in America in 1970. Review: A Chart of the Denominations and Their Families

Autograph

The first written copy of a book, from the author or the author's scribe. No autograph of any Old Testament book survives. How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

The first written form of a book as its author or secretary produced it. No New Testament autograph survives. The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

The first written copy of a biblical book. None survives. Timeline, Glossary and Review

Azymes

Unleavened bread, used for the Eucharist in the Latin West. Greeks called the Latins 'Azymites'; Latins called the Greeks 'Fermentarei.' Florence (1439) declared both kinds valid. Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

B

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

In Pentecostal teaching, an experience of empowerment after conversion, promised to all believers, modeled on Acts 2. Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An Orientation

In Pentecostal teaching, an experience distinct from and after conversion that gives power for witness and service, based on Acts 1 and 2. Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave

Baptism of (or with) the Holy Ghost

Language from Acts 1:5 used by nineteenth-century holiness writers such as Palmer, Mahan and Torrey for a second experience of purity and power, later tied by Pentecostals to speaking in tongues. Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Baptist Faith and Message

The Southern Baptist Convention's confession of faith, adopted in 1925 and revised in 1963 and 2000 (with an article on the family added in 1998 and Article VI amended in 2023). Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of Baptists

The Southern Baptist confession of faith, adopted in 1925 and revised in 1963 and 2000, with an amendment in 2023. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

Baptized member

A count used by churches that baptize infants (the ELCA, the Episcopal Church), which includes children. Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the Numbers

Barbe

A traveling Waldensian preacher of the later Middle Ages, from a late Latin word for "uncle." Barbes knew much of Scripture by heart and visited believers in secret. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

Barbes

The travelling preachers of the medieval Waldensians in the Alpine valleys, who visited believers in secret. From Constantine to the Middle Ages: Persia, Armenia, Alban, Boniface and the Waldensians

Basis of Union

The agreement under which the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church united in 1957; it governed the UCC until the 1961 constitution. Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of Christ

Bebbington quadrilateral

David Bebbington's 1989 definition of evangelicalism by four marks: conversionism, activism, biblicism and crucicentrism. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

Bebbington's quadrilateral

David Bebbington's four marks of evangelicalism (1989): conversionism, biblicism, activism and crucicentrism. Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

Believer's baptism

Baptism given only to those who personally profess repentance and faith, as opposed to infant baptism. Baptists practice it by immersion. Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of Baptists

Believers' baptism

Baptism given only to those who profess faith for themselves, usually by immersion; the practice of the Anabaptist, Baptist, Restoration and Pentecostal families. Review: A Chart of the Denominations and Their Families

Benevolence to being in general

Edwards's definition of true virtue: "that consent, propensity, and union of heart to being in general, which is immediately exercised in a general good will." Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

Bethesda

Whitefield's orphan house near Savannah, Georgia, begun in 1740 on a 500 acre grant, later an academy; it continues as Bethesda Academy. George Whitefield: The Traveling Preacher, the Crowds and Benjamin Franklin's Account

BHS and BHQ

Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and Biblia Hebraica Quinta, printed critical editions of the Hebrew Bible based on the Leningrad Codex; the base of the NASB 2020 Old Testament. The New American Standard Bible: Lockman, Formal Equivalence and the 1995 and 2020 Texts

Bible church

An independent, theologically conservative congregation, many of which joined the Independent Fundamental Churches of America (now IFCA International), organized in 1930. Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS)

The Stuttgart edition of the Hebrew Bible (1967/1977) that prints the Leningrad Codex; the NKJV's Old Testament base. The New King James Version (1982): Keeping the KJV's Wording and Its Greek Text

Bishops' Bible

The English Bible of 1568 (revised 1572) read in Church of England parishes before 1611, and the base text the King James translators were told to follow under rule 1. The King James Version of 1611: Hampton Court, the Translators, the Rules and the 1769 Text

Blasphemy laws (Pakistan)

Sections of Pakistan's penal code punishing insults to religion. Opposition to them was cited in the leaflet left at Shahbaz Bhatti's killing, two months after the killing of Governor Salman Taseer. From 1950 to Now: Behind the Iron Curtain, China, Africa, Latin America, the 21 in Libya, and the Counts

Block 11

The punishment block at Auschwitz I, in whose cellar Kolbe and nine other men were locked in the starvation cell in 1941. Missionary Martyrs and the World Wars: Judson, the Boxer Year, Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Stein and the Five in Ecuador

Bloody question

The hypothetical question put to captured priests: whose side would you take if the pope's forces invaded? The government treated hesitant answers as proof of disloyalty. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

Bollandists

The Jesuit scholars, beginning with Jean Bolland, who from 1643 published the Acta Sanctorum, a critical edition of saints' lives arranged by feast day, and from 1882 the journal Analecta Bollandiana. What a Martyr Is, and How to Weigh the Sources

Bomberg Rabbinic Bible

The second Rabbinic Bible printed by Daniel Bomberg in Venice in 1524 to 1525 and edited by Jacob ben Chayyim; the Hebrew text used by the King James translators and compared by the NKJV. The New King James Version (1982): Keeping the KJV's Wording and Its Greek Text

Book of Common Prayer

The English prayer book first issued in 1549; the 1662 revision is still the Church of England's legal standard, and the Episcopal Church's own editions date from 1789, 1892, 1928 and 1979. Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

Book of Concord

The collection of Lutheran confessions published at Dresden on June 25, 1580: the three ancient creeds, the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, Luther's two Catechisms and the Formula of Concord. Lutherans: The Book of Concord and the Synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the Other Lutheran Bodies)

Book of Confessions

The collection of creeds and confessions adopted by the United Presbyterian Church in 1967 and kept by the PC(USA), in which the Westminster Confession is one of several standards. The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

Book of Mormon

The book Joseph Smith published in 1830 at Palmyra, printed by E. B. Grandin, which Latter-day Saints hold to be scripture translated from ancient plates. The Burned-Over District and Its Offshoots: Millerites, Latter-day Saints, Spiritualists and Oneida

Bound conscience

The ELCA's term, from its 2009 social statement on human sexuality, for the several positions on same-sex relationships it recognizes as held in conscience within the church. Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the Numbers

Boxers (Yihequan)

A popular movement in north China in 1899 to 1901 that attacked foreigners and Chinese Christians and was backed by the Qing court from June 1900. Missionary Martyrs and the World Wars: Judson, the Boxer Year, Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Stein and the Five in Ecuador

Brackets

In the NASB text, square brackets mark 'words probably not in the original writings'; double brackets mark the longer ending of Mark and John 7:53 to 8:11 in the 2020 text. The New American Standard Bible: Lockman, Formal Equivalence and the 1995 and 2020 Texts

Breeches Bible

A nickname for the Geneva Bible, from its rendering of Genesis 3:7, where Adam and Eve "made them selues breeches." Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible

Burned-over District

The belt of western and central New York known for repeated revivals and new movements in about 1800 to 1850. Finney used "a burnt district" for one area in his Memoirs; Whitney Cross made "Burned-over District" the name of the region in 1950. The Burned-Over District and Its Offshoots: Millerites, Latter-day Saints, Spiritualists and Oneida

Bylaws

The church's governing rules, which state who the members are, how the board is chosen and what vote can remove the pastor. Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

A church corporation's own rules: who the members are, who sits on the board, how the pastor is chosen and removed, and what records members may see. Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Byzantine text

The form of the Greek New Testament found in most manuscripts copied in the Greek-speaking church, especially from the ninth century on; Hort called it the Syrian text. The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

C

Calvary Chapel Association (CCA)

The fellowship of Calvary Chapel pastors led by a council Smith established in 2012; it publishes a detailed statement of faith and a "Philosophy of Ministry." Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

The fellowship of Calvary Chapel pastors led by a council of senior pastors, formally established in 2012 according to Christianity Today. Its site says it has over 1,800 fellowships. Calvary Chapel Growth and Fault Lines: The Network, the Succession After 2013, Controversies and Reforms

Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa

An independent church begun in 1961 under Floyd Nelson; Chuck Smith became its teaching pastor in 1965 and senior pastor in 1966, and it became the largest church of the Jesus People movement and the mother church of the Calvary Chapel network. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

Calvary Chapel Distinctives

Chuck Smith's short book setting out what makes Calvary Chapel different from other evangelical churches; condensed in five parts by Calvary Chapel Magazine. Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

Calvary Chapel Outreach Fellowships

A ministry of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, described by Christianity Today in 2006 and 2007, through which pastors were affiliated or disaffiliated and senior pastors oversaw regions. Calvary Chapel Growth and Fault Lines: The Network, the Succession After 2013, Controversies and Reforms

Calvary Global Network (CGN)

A broader network launched by Brian Brodersen after he left the CCA in late 2016; CGN dates its formation to 2017. Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

The network Brian Brodersen announced on Nov. 6, 2016, first called the Calvary Chapel Global Network, with Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa as its flagship. Calvary Chapel Growth and Fault Lines: The Network, the Succession After 2013, Controversies and Reforms

Calvary Satellite Network (CSN)

An FM radio network built with Costa Mesa funds; a dispute between Smith's side and Mike Kestler's side ended in a 2007 settlement with no admission of wrongdoing. Calvary Chapel Growth and Fault Lines: The Network, the Succession After 2013, Controversies and Reforms

Calvinistic Methodists

The branch of the evangelical revival in Britain led by Whitefield (and in Wales by Howell Harris and Daniel Rowland), which held Calvinist doctrines of election, organized at a conference on January 5, 1743. George Whitefield: The Traveling Preacher, the Crowds and Benjamin Franklin's Account

Cambridge Platform

The constitution of Congregational church order drafted by the Cambridge Synod (1646 to 1648), approved by the Massachusetts General Court in 1651. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

The 1648 statement of church government adopted by the New England synod at Cambridge, Massachusetts, which defined the Congregational church and accepted Westminster doctrine for its substance. Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of Christ

Camp meeting

An outdoor religious gathering lasting several days where families camped on the ground; it grew from the Kentucky sacramental meetings of 1800 and 1801 and became a regular Methodist institution. The Second Great Awakening: Cane Ridge, Camp Meetings, Circuit Riders and the Frontier

A multi-day outdoor revival meeting where families camped around a preaching ground; used by Methodists from about 1800 and by the Holiness movement after 1867. Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Cane Ridge

The Presbyterian meeting house in Bourbon County, Kentucky, served by Barton W. Stone, site of the great communion meeting of August 6 to 12, 1801. The Second Great Awakening: Cane Ridge, Camp Meetings, Circuit Riders and the Frontier

Canon

From the Greek kanon, a measuring rule. The list of books a church receives as Scripture. How the Canon Formed: The Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Question

The list of books a church receives as Scripture. Timeline, Glossary and Review

A rule of church order issued by a council; Nicaea issued 20. The same word also means the list of books accepted as Scripture. Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

Canon 28 of Chalcedon

The canon of 451 that confirmed Constantinople's rank next after Rome because it was 'New Rome,' the imperial city. Pope Leo I rejected it; Rome accepted Constantinople's rank only at Lateran IV in 1215. Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

Canonization

The formal declaration by the church that a person is a saint; Becket was canonized by Pope Alexander III in 1173. From Constantine to the Middle Ages: Persia, Armenia, Alban, Boniface and the Waldensians

The Catholic Church's formal declaration that a person is a saint; Kolbe (1982), Stein (1998) and 120 Chinese martyrs (2000) were canonized. Missionary Martyrs and the World Wars: Judson, the Boxer Year, Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Stein and the Five in Ecuador

Canons of Dort

The synod's judgment on the five disputed heads of doctrine, each in positive articles and a rejection of errors; one of the Three Forms of Unity. Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster Confession

Cappadocian Fathers

Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa, fourth-century bishops from Cappadocia whose writings shaped the doctrine of the Trinity and of the Holy Spirit. The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

CARA

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, which publishes national Catholic statistics. Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An Orientation

Catacomb

An underground cemetery cut into the tufa rock outside Rome, used by Jews and Christians for burial. They were burial grounds, not hiding places or homes. Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the Martyrs

Cathars

A dualist religious movement in southern France and northern Italy, distinct from the Waldensians, against whom the Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1209. From Constantine to the Middle Ages: Persia, Armenia, Alban, Boniface and the Waldensians

Dualist Christians of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, strongest in Languedoc and northern Italy, who taught that the material world was the work of an evil power. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

Cenobite

A monk who lives the common life (koinos bios) in a community under a rule and a superior, as at Tabennisi or Monte Cassino. Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Central Jurisdiction

The racially defined jurisdiction of The Methodist Church (1939 to 1968) that held the Black annual conferences. Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 Split

Certificate laws

Massachusetts laws from 1728 to 1758 under which Baptists and Quakers had to appear on attested lists or certificates to be exempt from taxes for the Congregational minister. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

Certificate system

The New England practice of exempting Baptists, Quakers and Anglicans from the parish ministerial tax if they filed certificates proving membership in their own church. Backus called the yearly certificate a token of submission. The Great Awakening and the Revolution: The Case For and Against a Link, Isaac Backus and John Leland

Cessationism

The view that miraculous gifts such as prophecy, tongues and healing ended with the apostolic age; held by critics such as John MacArthur. The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510

The view that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit (tongues, prophecy, healing, miracles) authenticated the apostles and ceased with the apostolic age. B. B. Warfield's Counterfeit Miracles (1918) is the classic statement. Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Chalcedonian definition

The statement of Oct. 22, 451 that Christ is one person 'in two natures, unconfusedly, immutably, indivisibly, inseparably' (Percival's translation). The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

Charismatic

A Christian in a non-Pentecostal church (Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran and others) who has received the baptism in the Spirit or practices spiritual gifts while staying in that church; the "second wave." Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave

Chi-Rho

The monogram formed by laying the Greek letters X (chi) and P (rho), the first letters of Christos, over each other. Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral

Four points (Scripture, the creeds, the two sacraments, the historic episcopate) adopted by the Episcopal bishops at Chicago in 1886 and the Lambeth Conference in 1888 as a basis for reunion. Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

Children of God

A group led by David Berg that began as Teens for Christ in Huntington Beach in 1968, took the name Children of God in 1969, and was later known as The Family International. It was separate from Calvary Chapel. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

China Inland Mission

A Protestant mission founded by Hudson Taylor in 1865; it lost more workers than any other society in 1900 and sent John and Betty Stam to China. Missionary Martyrs and the World Wars: Judson, the Boxer Year, Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Stein and the Five in Ecuador

Chrestus

The name in Suetonius, Claudius 25.4, whose "instigation" led to the expulsion of Jews from Rome. Most historians read it as a garbled form of Christus. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

Christian Connection

The loose fellowship of Christian Churches formed from the movements of James O'Kelly (1794), Abner Jones (1801) and others, which united with the Congregationalists in 1931. Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of Christ

Christian perfection (entire sanctification)

Wesley's teaching that a believer can, in this life, be made perfect in love, received by faith, possibly in a moment, without freedom from ignorance, mistake or infirmity. Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Christian Reconstruction

The movement launched by R. J. Rushdoony (Chalcedon, 1965) to rebuild every area of life, including civil law, on biblical law; Chalcedon says Rushdoony coined the term. Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation

Christian World Liberation Front (CWLF)

A Berkeley ministry founded in 1969 by former Campus Crusade for Christ staff to reach radical students in the language of the campus protest movement. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

Christmas Conference

The gathering of American Methodist preachers in Baltimore beginning December 24 or 25, 1784, that organized the Methodist Episcopal Church and elected Coke and Asbury superintendents. Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 Split

The meeting of Methodist preachers at Lovely Lane Chapel, Baltimore, beginning Dec. 24, 1784, that organized the Methodist Episcopal Church. Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Christotokos

'Christ-bearer', the title Nestorius proposed as more accurate than Theotokos. The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

Church covenant

The promise by which believers bind themselves to God and one another to form a church, such as the Salem covenant of 1629. Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of Christ

Church district

The Amish congregation, which meets for worship in a member's home every other Sunday; the Young Center counted 3,287 in 2026. Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren

Church fellowship (unit concept)

The WELS and ELS teaching that every joint expression of faith, including pulpit, altar and prayer fellowship, requires full doctrinal agreement. Lutherans: The Book of Concord and the Synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the Other Lutheran Bodies)

Church of the Desert

The underground French Protestant church of the eighteenth century, which met in the hills and wild places in defiance of the law. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

Church of the East

The Syriac church of the Persian Empire, which accepted Nicaea in 410 but not Ephesus, honors Theodore and Nestorius, and rejects the name 'Nestorian'; today chiefly the Assyrian Church of the East. The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

Circuit

A Methodist route of preaching places covered in a regular round by one or two traveling preachers (circuit riders), with local classes led by lay class leaders. The Second Great Awakening: Cane Ridge, Camp Meetings, Circuit Riders and the Frontier

A route of preaching places served by a traveling preacher under the bishop's appointment. Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 Split

Circuit rider

A Methodist preacher assigned to ride a circuit of preaching places in rotation, forming classes and appointing lay leaders between visits. Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Cistercians

The reform order founded at Citeaux in 1098 to restore "the literal observance of the Rule of St. Benedict"; Bernard of Clairvaux was its most famous member. Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Class meeting

A small weekly Methodist group under a lay class leader who checked each member's spiritual state and collected contributions. The Second Great Awakening: Cane Ridge, Camp Meetings, Circuit Riders and the Frontier

Classical Pentecostal

A member of a denomination descended from the Topeka and Azusa Street revivals, such as the Assemblies of God, the Church of God in Christ or the Foursquare Church; Wagner's "first wave." Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave

Clementine Vulgate

The official Vulgate edition issued under Pope Clement VIII in 1592 after the withdrawn Sixtine edition of 1590; the standard Latin Bible of the Catholic Church until 1979. The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

Close (or closed) communion

The practice of admitting to the Lord's Supper only those who share the congregation's confession, as in the LCMS, WELS and ELS. Review: A Chart of the Denominations and Their Families

Close or closed communion

The practice of giving the Lord's Supper to those who share the confession of that altar, normally after instruction; reaffirmed by the LCMS in Resolution 5-09 (2023). Lutherans: The Book of Concord and the Synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the Other Lutheran Bodies)

Codex

A book made of bound leaves, as opposed to a scroll. How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

A book made of folded sheets sewn at the spine, the form of the modern book, used by early Christians in place of the scroll. The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

A book of bound leaves, the form of the great Bible manuscripts such as Sinaiticus and Leningradensis. Timeline, Glossary and Review

Codex Amiatinus

The oldest surviving complete Latin Bible, made at Wearmouth-Jarrow for Abbot Ceolfrith shortly before 716 and now in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence (MS Amiatinus 1). The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

Codex Montfortianus (61)

An early sixteenth century Greek New Testament on paper, now Trinity College Dublin MS 30, identified with the 'Codex Britannicus' from which Erasmus printed 1 John 5:7. Erasmus, the Textus Receptus and the First Printed Greek New Testaments

Coercitio

The general police power of a Roman magistrate to punish disorder and defiance without a specific statute, one proposed legal basis for the trials of Christians. Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the Martyrs

Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (CBGM)

A computer-assisted method developed for the ECM to trace relations among texts in a manuscript tradition where scribes mixed readings from several sources. The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

Collegia pietatis

"Assemblies of piety": small groups of laypeople meeting for Bible reading and prayer, begun by Spener in Frankfurt in 1670. Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Colophon

A note at the end of a manuscript giving the scribe, the date or the place of copying, such as the note dating the Leningrad Codex to 1008. How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

A note at the end of a manuscript about who made it, when or where. Aldred's colophon in the Lindisfarne Gospels names Eadfrith, Aethelwald, Billfrith and himself. The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

A note at the end of a printed book or section giving the date, place or printer. Coverdale's colophon dates his Bible to October 4, 1535. Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible

Colorado Springs Guidelines

Guidelines on gender-related language in Bible translation, affirmed May 27, 1997 and revised September 9, 1997, signed among others by two NIV translators. Why the NIV and Similar Versions Fall Short, Verse by Verse (with the Counter View)

Guidelines for translating gender-related language, drawn up on May 27, 1997, and revised September 9, 1997, that ask among other things that generic 'he' and 'son of man' be kept. The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

Comma Johanneum

The clause about three heavenly witnesses in 1 John 5:7 to 8, absent from Erasmus's first two editions and added in his third (1522) from a single Greek manuscript. Erasmus, the Textus Receptus and the First Printed Greek New Testaments

The words of 1 John 5:7 to 8 about three witnesses "in heaven," found in the TR and KJV, in Latin tradition, and in only a few late Greek manuscripts. The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

The words on three heavenly witnesses in 1 John 5:7 to 8, printed by Erasmus from 1522 and found in few Greek manuscripts. Timeline, Glossary and Review

Commissary

A clergyman acting for the bishop of London in a colony, such as Alexander Garden at Charleston, who tried to discipline Whitefield in 1740. George Whitefield: The Traveling Preacher, the Crowds and Benjamin Franklin's Account

Commission on the Truth for El Salvador

The UN-sponsored commission that investigated serious acts of violence in El Salvador's civil war and reported in March 1993 (From Madness to Hope), including the killings of Romero and the Jesuits. From 1950 to Now: Behind the Iron Curtain, China, Africa, Latin America, the 21 in Libya, and the Counts

Committee on Bible Translation (CBT)

The self-perpetuating body of fifteen evangelical scholars, founded at Palos Heights in 1965, that has sole responsibility for the NIV text and must review and revise it. The NIV and Dynamic Equivalence: The Committee, the Editions and How the Method Works

Communicant

A church member admitted to the Lord's Supper. At Northampton, under Stoddard's practice, almost all adults of good life were communicants, about 620 in 1735. The First Great Awakening: Edwards at Northampton, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Connecticut Valley Revivals

Community of goods

The Hutterite practice, from 1528, of holding all property in common on the model of Acts 2:44. Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren

Company

One of the six teams of translators (two each at Westminster, Cambridge and Oxford), each assigned a section of the Bible. The King James Version of 1611: Hampton Court, the Translators, the Rules and the 1769 Text

Compatibilism

A modern philosophical term for the view that freedom and determination are consistent. Edwards is often classed as a compatibilist, though he did not use the word. Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

Complementarian

The view that men and women are equal in worth but have distinct roles in marriage and the church, usually with the pastoral office reserved for men. Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

The view that men and women are equal in worth but have distinct roles in marriage and the church, with pastoral authority reserved for men. Calvary Chapel's stated position. Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Complete equivalence

The NKJV preface's name for its method, which "seeks to preserve all of the information in the text, while presenting it in good literary form." The publisher also calls it word for word or formal equivalence. The New King James Version (1982): Keeping the KJV's Wording and Its Greek Text

Complex marriage

The Oneida Community's own term for its rule that marriage of one man and one woman was replaced by a union of the whole body of believers, with sexual relations governed by Community rules. The Burned-Over District and Its Offshoots: Millerites, Latter-day Saints, Spiritualists and Oneida

Complutensian Polyglot

The six-volume multilingual Bible made at Alcala de Henares (Latin Complutum) under Cardinal Ximenes; its New Testament volume was printed in 1514 and issued about 1522. Erasmus, the Textus Receptus and the First Printed Greek New Testaments

Conciliarism

The view, stated in the Council of Constance's decree Haec sancta (1415), that a general council holds its authority directly from Christ and can bind even a pope. The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

The view, expressed in the Council of Constance's decree Haec sancta (1415), that a general council holds authority directly from Christ that even a pope must obey. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

Concio ad Clerum

Latin for 'address to the clergy'; Taylor's sermon of September 10, 1828, in the Yale chapel, on Ephesians 2:3, the founding statement of the New Haven doctrine of sin. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

Concordance

An alphabetical index listing every place each word occurs in the Bible. Strong's (1890) and Cruden's (first issued in the 1730s) index the King James Version. How to Choose a Bible: Reading Prefaces, Comparing Passages and Using Interlinear Tools

Concordat of Worms

The agreement of September 23, 1122, between Pope Calixtus II and Emperor Henry V that separated spiritual investiture (by the church) from the grant of lands and rights (by the emperor). The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

Concupiscence

Disordered desire, which Augustine held to be a result of the fall and the channel through which original sin is passed on. Augustine and the Pelagian Dispute

Conditional election

The Remonstrant and Arminian teaching that God elects in Christ those whom he foresees will believe and persevere through grace. Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster Confession

Confessing Church

The movement of German Protestants, formed in 1934, that resisted state and party control of the church; Schneider and Bonhoeffer belonged to it. Missionary Martyrs and the World Wars: Judson, the Boxer Year, Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Stein and the Five in Ecuador

Confession of faith

A church's official written statement of what it believes, such as the Augsburg Confession, the Westminster Confession or the Baptist Faith and Message. Review: A Chart of the Denominations and Their Families

Confessor

A Christian who confessed the faith before the authorities and suffered prison, torture or exile but survived. The Lyon survivors of 177 used the title for themselves. What a Martyr Is, and How to Weigh the Sources

In early church usage, a Christian who suffered for the faith (prison, torture, exile) but was not killed. John the apostle is a confessor in tradition. The New Testament Witnesses: John the Baptist, Stephen, the Two Jameses, Peter, Paul and Antipas

A Christian who confessed the faith before a magistrate and suffered for it but did not die. The Persecutions to 313: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Lyon, Perpetua, Cyprian and Lawrence

In older Christian usage, a person who suffered for the faith (prison, torture, exile) but did not die for it. Judson fits this term, not martyr. Missionary Martyrs and the World Wars: Judson, the Boxer Year, Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Stein and the Five in Ecuador

In early Christian usage, a believer who suffered for the faith, by prison or torture, and survived. Distinguished from a martyr, who died. From 1950 to Now: Behind the Iron Curtain, China, Africa, Latin America, the 21 in Libya, and the Counts

A Christian who confessed the faith before a court and suffered imprisonment, torture or exile but was not killed. Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the Martyrs

Congregational polity

Each congregation governs its own affairs, though it may cooperate in associations or conventions; used by Baptists, Congregationalists and the Churches of Christ. Review: A Chart of the Denominations and Their Families

Church government in which each local congregation governs itself, first fully stated in New England's Cambridge Platform of 1648. Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

Conservative resurgence

The supporters' name for the effort from 1979 onward to elect SBC presidents committed to biblical inerrancy and so change the trustees of convention institutions; opponents called it a fundamentalist takeover. Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of Baptists

Consistory

The Genevan church court of pastors and lay elders (five city pastors and twelve elders in Calvin's time), which admonished and could bar from communion. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

Consociation

Under the Saybrook Platform, a county body of ministers and lay messengers with power to hear and decide church cases. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

Consolamentum

The Cathar rite of laying on of hands that made a believer one of the "Perfect"; it took the place of baptism and was often received near death. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

Constitutions of Clarendon

The 1164 statement by Henry II of the royal customs governing church and crown, including the treatment of clergy accused of crimes, which Becket refused to accept. From Constantine to the Middle Ages: Persia, Armenia, Alban, Boniface and the Waldensians

Continuationism

The view that all the gifts of the Spirit continue in the church until Christ returns. Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard both describe themselves this way. Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Continuationist

The belief that all the spiritual gifts described in the New Testament, including tongues, prophecy and healing, continue in the church today. Its opposite is cessationist. Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

Conventicle

A religious meeting outside the established church; a field conventicle met in the open air and became a capital offence for hearers in May 1685. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

Conversionism

The belief that lives need to be changed by a personal turning to Christ, often called being born again. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

Convincement

The Quaker word for conversion: coming to know and submit to the Light. Quakers and the Radical Tradition

Convocation

The assembly of the clergy of the Church of England. In 1571 it required the Bishops' Bible in cathedrals and bishops' houses and, as far as possible, in all churches. Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible

The assembly of the clergy of an English church province; the Canterbury provincial council under Archbishop Arundel condemned and degraded Sawtrey in 1401. Before the Reformation: Hus, Hieronymus of Prague, the Lollards, Savonarola and Tyndale

Convocation of Canterbury

The assembly of the clergy of the Church of England's southern province, with an Upper House of bishops and a Lower House of other clergy. It began and directed the revision of 1870 to 1885. The Revised Version (1881) and the American Standard Version (1901)

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF)

A Baptist network formed in Atlanta in May 1991 by those who called themselves moderates after the SBC's conservative resurgence. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

Council of Constance

The general council of the Western church (1414 to 1418) that ended the papal schism and condemned Wycliffe, Hus and Hieronymus of Prague (Jeroným Pražský). Before the Reformation: Hus, Hieronymus of Prague, the Lollards, Savonarola and Tyndale

Council of Jamnia (Yavneh)

A supposed rabbinic council of about AD 90 that closed the Hebrew canon. Since Jack P. Lewis's 1964 article it is generally regarded as a modern construction. How the Canon Formed: The Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Question

Counter-Reformation and Catholic Reformation

Two names for the sixteenth-century Catholic response: the first stresses the defense against Protestantism, the second the renewal of devotion and discipline that began before Luther. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

Counter-Remonstrants

The strict Reformed party that answered the Remonstrance in 1611; also called Gomarists after Franciscus Gomarus. Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster Confession

Court of Oyer and Terminer

The special court created by Governor Phips on May 27, 1692, to try the Salem witchcraft cases; dissolved October 29, 1692. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

Covenant theology

The Reformed teaching, stated in the Westminster and Savoy confessions, that God dealt with humanity first by a covenant of works with Adam and then by a covenant of grace in Christ; New England applied covenant language to churches and to the whole community. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

Covenanters

Scottish Presbyterians who held that the National Covenant (1638) and the Solemn League and Covenant (1643) bound Scotland to Presbyterian church government under Christ alone. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

Scots who signed or held to the National Covenant (1638) and the Solemn League and Covenant (1643), and their descendants who resisted bishops and royal control of the church. The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

Critical apparatus

A collection of variant readings, with the manuscripts that support them, printed beside or below a text. Erasmus, the Textus Receptus and the First Printed Greek New Testaments

The notes in a critical edition that list variant readings and the manuscripts, versions and early writers that support each, using sigla such as P66, a (aleph) and B. How to Choose a Bible: Reading Prefaces, Comparing Passages and Using Interlinear Tools

Critical text

A Greek text built by weighing all the manuscript evidence rather than reprinting an earlier edition, beginning in print with Lachmann (1831) and leading to Westcott and Hort and Nestle-Aland. Erasmus, the Textus Receptus and the First Printed Greek New Testaments

A Greek text built by weighing all known manuscripts, versions and quotations, usually giving most weight to the oldest; the editions of Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles and Westcott and Hort are examples. The Revised Version (1881) and the American Standard Version (1901)

A Greek New Testament reconstructed by editors who weigh all the manuscripts reading by reading, chiefly the Nestle-Aland and United Bible Societies editions; the NIV calls its base text "eclectic." Why the NIV and Similar Versions Fall Short, Verse by Verse (with the Counter View)

An eclectic Greek text built by weighing each reading, giving much weight to the oldest manuscripts (Westcott and Hort; Nestle-Aland). Timeline, Glossary and Review

Critical text (NU-Text)

An edition built by weighing external and internal evidence, giving great weight to the earliest witnesses; today Nestle-Aland 28 and UBS5, cited in NKJV footnotes as NU. The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

Crowd estimate

A figure for an audience given by an eyewitness or a reporter without a count. All reported figures for Whitefield's crowds are estimates. George Whitefield: The Traveling Preacher, the Crowds and Benjamin Franklin's Account

Crucicentrism

Bebbington's term for the evangelical stress on Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

Crusade

A war proclaimed by the pope as a penitential holy war, whose participants took a vow, wore the cross and received spiritual privileges; the first was preached by Urban II at Clermont in 1095. The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

Cumberland Presbyterian Church

The denomination formed from the presbytery organized on February 4, 1810, in Dickson County, Tennessee, by revival ministers after the Cumberland Presbytery was dissolved in 1806. The Second Great Awakening: Cane Ridge, Camp Meetings, Circuit Riders and the Frontier

Cunctos populos

The edict of Feb. 27, 380 (Codex Theodosianus 16.1.2) defining Catholic Christians as those holding the faith of Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria in the one deity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

D

Damnatio ad bestias

Condemnation to the beasts: execution by exposure to wild animals in an arena, a penalty for people without Roman citizenship. The Persecutions to 313: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Lyon, Perpetua, Cyprian and Lawrence

De haeretico comburendo

The English statute of 1401 (2 Henry IV, chapter 15) ordering sheriffs and mayors to burn convicted heretics who refused to abjure or had relapsed. Before the Reformation: Hus, Hieronymus of Prague, the Lollards, Savonarola and Tyndale

De heretico comburendo

The English statute of 1401 that had church courts hand over unrepentant or relapsed heretics to the sheriffs to be burned publicly. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

Deacon

Greek diakonos, "servant"; the order of ministers who assisted bishops and presbyters, especially in care of the poor. The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

Dead Sea Scrolls

Manuscripts found from 1947 to 1956 in eleven caves near Qumran and at other Judean desert sites, including about 230 biblical manuscripts from the third century BC to the first century AD. How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

Decet Romanum Pontificem

The bull of Jan. 3, 1521, that excommunicated Luther. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

Declaration and Address

Thomas Campbell's 1809 statement of the aims of the Christian Association of Washington, Pennsylvania, with thirteen propositions on Christian unity and the authority of the New Testament. The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

Declension

The decline in piety and church membership that New England ministers believed they saw after the founding generation; historians still debate how far the claim matches the records. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

Degradation

The rite by which a condemned cleric was stripped of his vestments and orders before being handed over, as with Sawtrey, Hus and Tyndale. Before the Reformation: Hus, Hieronymus of Prague, the Lollards, Savonarola and Tyndale

The formal ceremony by which a church court stripped a condemned cleric of his orders before handing him to the secular power. The Reformation, Protestant Martyrs: The Marian Fires, Cranmer, Anne Askew, Manz and Sattler

Demiurge

Greek for "craftsman"; in Gnostic and some philosophical systems, the lesser maker of the material world (called Yaltabaoth in the Apocryphon of John). The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

Dennis Canon

The 1979 Episcopal canon declaring that parish property is held in trust for the Episcopal Church and the diocese. Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

Depositio Martyrum

The list of Roman martyrs' feast days and burial places in the Chronograph of 354, the oldest surviving Christian calendar of martyrs. What a Martyr Is, and How to Weigh the Sources

The list of Roman martyrs' feast days and burial places in the Chronograph of 354, the oldest Roman calendar of martyrs. The Persecutions to 313: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Lyon, Perpetua, Cyprian and Lawrence

Deuterocanonical

The Catholic term for Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 and 2 Maccabees and the additions to Esther and Daniel: books whose place in the canon was settled later, received as Scripture. How the Canon Formed: The Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Question

Dictatus papae

A list of twenty-seven statements about papal power entered in Gregory VII's register in 1075, including the claims that the pope may depose emperors and be judged by no one. The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

Didache

"Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," a short early church manual on baptism, fasting, prayer, the Eucharist and leaders, usually dated to the late first or early second century. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

"The Teaching (of the Twelve Apostles)," an early church manual on morals, baptism, fasting, the Eucharist and church offices, rediscovered by Philotheos Bryennios and published in 1883. The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

Dies natalis

Latin for 'birthday': the day of a martyr's death, kept as the martyr's feast as the day of birth into heaven. What a Martyr Is, and How to Weigh the Sources

Diet of Worms

The imperial assembly of 1521 before which Luther refused to recant on April 17 and 18; the Edict of Worms (May 8, signed May 26) outlawed him. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

Dilati

In the Catholic process for the English martyrs, the causes postponed in 1886 for further evidence. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

Diptychs

The lists of bishops and churches commemorated by name in the liturgy. Removing a name from the diptychs was the formal sign that communion was broken. Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

Directory of the Ministry

The privately published annual list, first issued in 1955, of the ministers and congregations of the independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

Disaffiliation

A local church's formal departure from its denomination with its property, under the conditions the denomination sets. Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 Split

The process, open from 2019 to the end of 2023, by which United Methodist congregations could leave with their property; UM News counted 7,659 departures. Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the Numbers

The process by which a congregation leaves a denomination, in the UMC case under a temporary paragraph of the Book of Discipline that let churches leave with their property through 2023. Review: A Chart of the Denominations and Their Families

Disestablishment

The ending of legal and tax support for a church. In the American states it came one state at a time, from North Carolina (1776) to Massachusetts (1833). The Great Awakening and the Revolution: The Case For and Against a Link, Isaac Backus and John Leland

The ending of a state-supported church; Connecticut ended its Congregational establishment with its 1818 constitution. The Second Great Awakening: Cane Ridge, Camp Meetings, Circuit Riders and the Frontier

Disinterested benevolence

Hopkins's definition of holiness: love to God and all beings for their own sake, opposed to selfishness, in which he said 'the new heart, and all truly Christian exercises, consist.' Early American Theologians: Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellamy, Timothy Dwight and John Witherspoon

Disputation

A formal public debate. In Zurich (1523) the city council heard the arguments from Scripture and then decided what would be preached and practiced. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

Disruption

The withdrawal of 474 of 1,203 ministers from the Church of Scotland on May 18, 1843, over patronage and the church's spiritual independence, forming the Free Church of Scotland. The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

Divine Liturgy

The Orthodox name for the Eucharist; in the OCA handbook's words, 'the common work of the Orthodox Church,' celebrated on the Lord's Day and at feasts. Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

Divine Office (the Hours)

The fixed times of communal prayer in the Rule of Benedict: the Night Office and seven day Hours (Morning Office, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline). Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Docetism

From Greek dokein, "to seem": the teaching that Christ only seemed to have a body or to suffer. Opposed by Ignatius and Polycarp. The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

Doin' the stuff

Wimber's shorthand for doing what Jesus did in the Gospels, including healing and deliverance, rather than only reading about it. The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510

Dominion

From Genesis 1:28. Rushdoony and North used it of bringing all of life under God's law; Wagner used it of placing "kingdom-minded" believers in positions of influence, without theocracy. Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation

Dominion (lordship) by grace

Wycliffe's teaching, in De civili dominio, that all rightful lordship is held from God as stewardship and that one in mortal sin has no true title to it. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

Donation of Constantine

A forged decree, probably of the eighth or ninth century, in which Constantine supposedly gave the pope imperial honors and rule over Rome and the West. Lorenzo Valla proved it a forgery in 1440. The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

Donatists

The North African church party that rejected Caecilian of Carthage because a traditor had consecrated him; condemned at Rome (313) and Arles (314). Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

A rival church in Roman Africa from about 311 to 312 that held that sacraments given by unworthy clergy were invalid and rebaptized converts. Outlawed after the conference at Carthage in 411. Augustine and the Pelagian Dispute

Dordrecht Confession

The eighteen-article Mennonite confession signed at Dordrecht on April 21, 1632, later adopted in Alsace and the Palatinate and still used by many Old Order groups. Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren

Double brackets

The sign Nestle-Aland uses for passages it judges to be very early additions to the text, such as Mark 16:9 to 20 and John 7:53 to 8:11. The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

Double translation

Andrew Shead's name for rendering one original word with two or more English words or images, which he found to be the Passion Translation's chief technique. The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

Dove logo

The Calvary Chapel dove, described in 2013 as the trademark-protected property of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. Calvary Chapel Growth and Fault Lines: The Network, the Succession After 2013, Controversies and Reforms

Dragonnades

The billeting of soldiers on Protestant households to force conversions, begun in Poitou in 1681 and spread across France in 1685. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

Dynamic (functional) equivalence

Eugene Nida's method of rendering the meaning of the original in the most natural equivalent of the receiving language; the NLT calls it thought-for-thought translation. The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

Eugene Nida's method of translating meaning into natural language for a like effect on the reader. Timeline, Glossary and Review

Dynamic equivalence

A method of translation associated with Eugene Nida that aims at an equivalent effect on the modern reader, which the NKJV preface says "commonly results in paraphrasing." The New King James Version (1982): Keeping the KJV's Wording and Its Greek Text

Nida's term (1964) for translation aimed at "the closest natural equivalent to the source-language message," judged by the response of the reader rather than by matching form. The NIV and Dynamic Equivalence: The Committee, the Editions and How the Method Works

E

Ecclesiastical council

In New England Congregational practice, a body of ministers and lay delegates from several churches called to advise or decide a dispute such as the dismissal of a pastor. Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

Ecclesiastical Ordinances

Geneva's church law of 1541 (ratified January 2, 1542), setting four offices: pastors, teachers, elders and deacons. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

Ecclesiastical words

Traditional church terms such as "church," "priest" and "charity." Thomas More attacked Tyndale for replacing them with "congregation," "senior" and "love"; the King James rules required the old words to be kept. Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible

Eclectic text

A Greek text built by choosing, at each place where manuscripts differ, the reading judged original; the NIV's New Testament is based on the Nestle-Aland/UBS eclectic text. The NIV and Dynamic Equivalence: The Committee, the Editions and How the Method Works

Edict of Fontainebleau

Louis XIV's edict of October 1685 revoking the Edict of Nantes, ordering Protestant churches demolished and Protestant worship ended. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

Edict of Nantes

Henry IV's edict of 1598 granting French Protestants freedom of conscience and worship in named places; revoked in 1685. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

Edict of toleration (311)

Galerius's decree issued at Nicomedia on April 30, 311, permitting Christians 'again to be Christians' and to rebuild their meeting places. It is distinct from the letter of Licinius of 313. Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the Martyrs

Editio Critica Maior (ECM)

The large critical edition prepared by the INTF at Munster, published so far for the Catholic Letters (1997), Acts (2017), Mark (2021) and Revelation (2024). The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

The large critical edition of the Greek New Testament produced at the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Munster; consulted for the NASB 2020. The New American Standard Bible: Lockman, Formal Equivalence and the 1995 and 2020 Texts

Editio Regia

Robert Estienne's royal folio Greek New Testament (Paris, 1550), the first printed with variant readings in the margin. Erasmus, the Textus Receptus and the First Printed Greek New Testaments

Effectual calling (irresistible grace)

The Reformed teaching that God's call infallibly brings the elect to faith, renewing the will without violence (Dort III/IV.12 and 16; Westminster X). Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster Confession

Egalitarian

The view that gifts, not gender, determine roles in the church, so that women may hold any office. Vineyard USA's stated position since 2006. Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Elder-led church

A church in which a plural board of elders holds final spiritual and often corporate authority over the pastor and staff. Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

Election Controversy

The dispute of the late 1870s and 1880s over whether God elects people to salvation in view of foreseen faith; it took the Ohio and Norwegian synods out of the Synodical Conference. Lutherans: The Book of Concord and the Synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the Other Lutheran Bodies)

Elizabethan Settlement

The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity of April 1559, with the Injunctions of that year, which re-established a Protestant Church of England under the queen as supreme governor. Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

Enthusiasm

In the eighteenth century, a claim to direct inspiration or a religious excitement without basis in reason; critics charged the revival with it. The First Great Awakening: Edwards at Northampton, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Connecticut Valley Revivals

In eighteenth century usage, a claim to immediate inspiration by the Spirit; Chauncy defined the enthusiast as one who 'mistakes the workings of his own passions for divine communications.' Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

Entire sanctification

In Finney's definition, "entire and continued obedience to the law of God" attainable in this life; in Wesleyan usage, a state of perfect love received by faith. Finney, Oberlin and Reform: Abolition, Women, Perfectionism and the Legacy

The Wesleyan teaching that a believer may, by grace, be made perfect in love in this life; central to the Holiness bodies. Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 Split

Eparchy

The Eastern Catholic (and Orthodox) term for a diocese. Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An Orientation

Episcopal polity

Government by bishops, who ordain clergy and oversee dioceses; used by the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Methodist families. Review: A Chart of the Denominations and Their Families

Episkopos (bishop)

Greek for "overseer." In the earliest texts used alongside presbyter for a group of leaders; in Ignatius, the single head of a city church. The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

Episkopos and presbyteros

Greek New Testament words for overseer (bishop) and elder. Smith said Calvary's bylaws followed "more of an Episkopos form" than a presbyterian (elder-ruled) form. Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

Epistle Dedicatory

The dedication of the 1611 Bible to King James, calling him "the principall moouer and Author of the Worke"; still printed in many modern editions. The King James Version of 1611: Hampton Court, the Translators, the Rules and the 1769 Text

Epistula tractoria

Pope Zosimus's circular letter of 418 condemning Pelagius and Caelestius, which bishops were required to sign. Only fragments survive. Augustine and the Pelagian Dispute

Eradication and suppression

Historians' labels for the Wesleyan view that sin's root is cleansed (eradication) and the Keswick view that the sinful nature is held in check (suppression). Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Established church

A church supported by colonial law, with ministers paid from public taxes or lands; Congregational in most of New England, Church of England in the South. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

Establishment

A church or churches given legal privileges and public tax support by a government. In the colonies, the Church of England in Virginia and the South and the Congregational churches in most of New England. The Great Awakening and the Revolution: The Case For and Against a Link, Isaac Backus and John Leland

Eucharist

Greek for "thanksgiving": the name used in the Didache and by Justin for the Lord's Supper, the shared bread and cup in memory of Jesus. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

Evangelical

From the Greek euangelion, "good news." Used of Luther's followers in the 1500s, of the 18th-century revival, and since the 1940s of the American movement around the NAE, Fuller and Billy Graham. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

Evangelical Protestant tradition

In surveys, the Protestants who belong to bodies such as the SBC, Missouri Synod, PCA or Assemblies of God, or who give a vague denomination and call themselves born-again or evangelical. The theological definition is in Module 77, lesson 03. Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the Numbers

Ex cathedra

Latin for 'from the chair': the conditions under which, according to Vatican I (1870), the pope defines a doctrine with infallibility. Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

Exercise scheme

Nathanael Emmons's teaching that all sin and holiness consist in voluntary exercises of the will, with no sinful nature beneath them. Early American Theologians: Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellamy, Timothy Dwight and John Witherspoon

Exercises

Participants' word for the bodily agitations at the revivals: falling, jerking, dancing, laughing, running and singing, as described by Stone and Cartwright. The Second Great Awakening: Cane Ridge, Camp Meetings, Circuit Riders and the Frontier

Exhorter

A layman without ordination or license who spoke publicly to urge hearers to repent; the Connecticut act of 1742 and the Massachusetts convention of 1743 opposed the practice. Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

Explo '72

Campus Crusade for Christ's June 1972 evangelistic training event and rally in Dallas, which closed with a music festival estimated at 150,000 to 180,000 people. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

Expository (verse-by-verse) teaching

Preaching that works through a book of the Bible in order, explaining each passage in turn. Calvary Chapel makes it the backbone of its teaching, with topical sermons as occasional additions. Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

Exscinding acts (excision)

The resolutions of 1837 declaring the synods of Western Reserve, Utica, Geneva and Genesee out of the Presbyterian Church. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

Exsurge Domine

The bull of Pope Leo X dated June 15, 1520, condemning 41 propositions from Luther's writings and giving him sixty days to recant. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

External evidence

Evidence from the witnesses themselves: their age, quality, number, independence and geographical spread. The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

F

Feet washing

A rite practiced as an ordinance by Free Will, Primitive and Old Regular Baptists, following John 13; the Free Will Baptist Treatise calls it 'an ordinance teaching humility.' Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of Baptists

Festal letter

The yearly letter of the bishop of Alexandria announcing the date of Easter. Athanasius's thirty-ninth, for 367, lists the canon. How the Canon Formed: The Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Question

The yearly letter of the bishop of Alexandria announcing the date of Easter; Athanasius's 39th (367) lists the books of Scripture. Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

Field preaching

Preaching in the open air, outside a consecrated church. Irregular in the Church of England, it became Whitefield's method after February 1739 at Kingswood. George Whitefield: The Traveling Preacher, the Crowds and Benjamin Franklin's Account

Filioque

Latin for 'and from the Son,' the phrase added in the West to the creed's statement that the Holy Spirit 'proceeds from the Father.' It first appears in the creed at Toledo in 589. Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

Finished work

The teaching, associated with William Durham, that sanctification begins at conversion, leaving two stages (conversion and Spirit baptism) instead of three. Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An Orientation

William Durham's teaching (1910) that sanctification is provided by Christ's finished work at the cross and grows from conversion, not a second crisis experience. Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave

First Vision

Joseph Smith's account of a vision of God received as a youth near Palmyra, told in firsthand accounts of 1832, 1835, 1838 and 1842, all published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Burned-Over District and Its Offshoots: Millerites, Latter-day Saints, Spiritualists and Oneida

Five steps (Walter Scott)

Scott's plan of salvation from 1827: faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

Five-step prayer model

Wimber's method for healing prayer from Power Healing (1987): interview, diagnosis, choice of prayer, prayer and follow-up; renamed Discussion, Discernment, Diagnosis, Do It and Next Steps by Vineyard USA. The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510

For substance of doctrine

The formula under which Finney, like many American Presbyterians, said he received the Westminster Confession; Old School Presbyterians later argued that it was being stretched too far. Charles Finney: The Conversion, the Rochester Revival and the New Measures

Forensic justification

The Reformation doctrine that God declares the sinner righteous on the ground of Christ's obedience and satisfaction imputed to him. Finney rejected it in favor of justification as pardon. Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

Form 990

The annual public information return most tax-exempt charities file with the IRS; churches are not required to file it. Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

The annual information return most tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS and make public. Churches are not required to file it. Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Formal equivalence

A translation method that follows the words, grammar and sentence patterns of the original as closely as English allows; the NASB's own description of its method. The New American Standard Bible: Lockman, Formal Equivalence and the 1995 and 2020 Texts

In Nida's words, translation that "focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content"; it keeps the source's words and structures where possible. The NIV and Dynamic Equivalence: The Committee, the Editions and How the Method Works

A method of translation that follows the words and grammar of the original as closely as good English allows, as in the KJV, NKJV and NASB. Why the NIV and Similar Versions Fall Short, Verse by Verse (with the Counter View)

A method of translation that keeps close to the words, order and grammar of the original wherever English allows; often called word for word. The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

Translation that stays close to the words and grammar of the original. Timeline, Glossary and Review

Formula of Concord

The 1577 settlement of the disputes among Luther's heirs, in an Epitome and a Solid Declaration, chiefly by Andreae, Chemnitz, Selnecker and Chytraeus. Lutherans: The Book of Concord and the Synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the Other Lutheran Bodies)

Formula of Reunion

The statement of 433, accepted by Cyril and John of Antioch, confessing 'a union of two natures' and Mary as Mother of God; it ended the schism after Ephesus. The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

Fourfold Aim

The Lockman Foundation's four principles printed in every NASB: true to the original languages, grammatically correct, understandable, and giving Jesus Christ His proper place, with 'no work ever personalized.' The New American Standard Bible: Lockman, Formal Equivalence and the 1995 and 2020 Texts

Foursquare Church

The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, the Pentecostal denomination in which Chuck Smith was raised, trained at L.I.F.E. Bible College and served as a pastor from about 1947 to 1964. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

Free grace

In Wesley's sermon of 1739, the teaching that God's grace is "free in all, and free for all"; Wesley used it against unconditional election. George Whitefield: The Traveling Preacher, the Crowds and Benjamin Franklin's Account

Frolic

Edwards's word (and the young people's) for the mixed evening gatherings for "mirth and jollity" that the Northampton youth gave up in 1733 and 1734. The First Great Awakening: Edwards at Northampton, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Connecticut Valley Revivals

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

The federal law that required the return of people who had escaped slavery and penalized those who helped them; the Oberlin-Wellington rescuers were indicted under it. Finney, Oberlin and Reform: Abolition, Women, Perfectionism and the Legacy

Full communion

In ELCA usage, a relationship with another church in which the two 'share an essential understanding to participate in common mission,' with shared sacraments and exchangeable clergy. Lutherans: The Book of Concord and the Synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the Other Lutheran Bodies)

An agreement between two church bodies to share the Lord's Supper and recognize each other's ministers, as in the ELCA's agreements of 1997 to 1999. Review: A Chart of the Denominations and Their Families

Fumie

Images of Christ or Mary that suspected Christians in Tokugawa Japan were made to step on as a test of renunciation. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

Functional (dynamic) equivalence

A method that aims to reproduce the meaning and effect of the original in natural English, even where that departs from the original wording; explained in lesson 12. The New American Standard Bible: Lockman, Formal Equivalence and the 1995 and 2020 Texts

A method, associated with Eugene Nida, that translates the meaning of a phrase or clause into natural English instead of matching the original word for word; the NIV's method is built on it. Why the NIV and Similar Versions Fall Short, Verse by Verse (with the Counter View)

Functional equivalence

The later name Nida and Jan de Waard used for dynamic equivalence in From One Language to Another (1986); also called meaning-based translation. The NIV and Dynamic Equivalence: The Committee, the Editions and How the Method Works

Fundamentalist

A name proposed by Curtis Lee Laws in 1920 for Protestants ready to fight for the doctrines defended in The Fundamentals (1910 to 1915); after 1957 used mainly by those who practiced strict separation. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

G

GA 2814

The twelfth century manuscript of Revelation with Andrew of Caesarea's commentary, lent to Erasmus by Johann Reuchlin, lacking the end of the book; now in Augsburg. Erasmus, the Textus Receptus and the First Printed Greek New Testaments

GAFCON

The Global Anglican Future Conference, first held in Jerusalem in June 2008, which issued the Jerusalem Declaration; in 2026 its network renamed itself the Global Anglican Communion. Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

Galleys

Oared warships of the French Mediterranean fleet; sentence to row in them was the penalty for Protestant men who tried to emigrate or worshipped after 1685. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

Gallican Psalter

The revision of the Latin Psalms made about 388 from the Greek Hexaplar text, so named because it became current in Gaul; it is the Psalter printed in the Vulgate Bible. The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

Gardiner Spring Resolutions

Resolutions adopted by the Old School General Assembly in May 1861 (156 to 66) pledging to 'strengthen, uphold, and encourage, the Federal Government'; their adoption preceded the southern withdrawal. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

Gender-accurate

The Lockman Foundation's term for the 2020 NASB's handling of gender: adding italic 'and sisters' or using 'person' where it judges both sexes are meant, while keeping singular 'he' and male terms where the original means males. The New American Standard Bible: Lockman, Formal Equivalence and the 1995 and 2020 Texts

General assessment

A religious tax laid on all citizens, with each taxpayer allowed to name the church to receive his share. Proposed in Virginia by Patrick Henry in 1784 and defeated in 1785. The Great Awakening and the Revolution: The Case For and Against a Link, Isaac Backus and John Leland

General Baptists

The Arminian Baptist line from Thomas Helwys (1612), teaching a general atonement: Christ died for all people. Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of Baptists

General Convention

The Episcopal Church's two-house legislature of bishops and of clerical and lay deputies, created in 1789 and meeting every three years. Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

General equity

The phrase in Westminster Confession 19.4 for the part of Israel's expired judicial laws that still obliges others. Its scope is the central question between theonomists and their Reformed critics. Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation

General Prologue

The long preface that circulated with the Wycliffite Later Version; its chapter 15 describes how the translators established a Latin text, studied commentaries, consulted scholars and translated "to the sentence" (the meaning). The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

General Rules

Wesley's rules for the Methodist societies, adopted in America in 1789 with a rule against slaveholding, and protected by the Restrictive Rules. Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 Split

Geneva Bible

The English Bible made by Protestant exiles in Geneva (complete 1560), popular for private reading and known for its study notes, which King James disliked. The King James Version of 1611: Hampton Court, the Translators, the Rules and the 1769 Text

Gentile

A non-Jew. Whether Gentile believers had to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses was the chief dispute of the first Christian generation. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

Glorious Return

The armed return of about nine hundred Waldensian exiles under Henri Arnaud from Switzerland to their valleys in 1689. From Constantine to the Middle Ages: Persia, Armenia, Alban, Boniface and the Waldensians

Gloss (interlinear)

A word-for-word translation written between the lines of a manuscript, each word above the word it translates, as in the Vespasian Psalter and Aldred's Lindisfarne gloss. The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

Gloss translation

Nida's name for the most literal kind of formal translation, which reproduces form and content as closely as possible and needs many footnotes. The NIV and Dynamic Equivalence: The Committee, the Editions and How the Method Works

Glossolalia

Speaking in tongues: speech in a language unknown to the speaker, understood by Pentecostals and charismatics as a gift of the Spirit. Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave

Gnosis, Gnostics

Greek for "knowledge"; teachers and groups of the second century who taught salvation through secret knowledge and a maker of the world lower than the highest God. The scope of the label is debated. The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

God-fearers

Modern name for Gentiles who attended synagogues and worshipped the God of Israel without being circumcised; many were among the first Gentile converts. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

Good News Bible (Today's English Version)

The American Bible Society's dynamic-equivalence translation: New Testament as Good News for Modern Man (1966, chiefly by Robert G. Bratcher), complete Bible 1976, second edition 1992. The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

Government Restrictions Index

Pew Research Center's 0 to 10 measure of government laws, policies and actions restricting religion in 198 countries and territories; the global median was 3.0 in 2023. From 1950 to Now: Behind the Iron Curtain, China, Africa, Latin America, the 21 in Libya, and the Counts

Governmental (moral government) atonement

The view, stated by Edwards Jr., that Christ's death upheld the authority of God's law and government and was not the payment of a debt; later taught by Finney. Early American Theologians: Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellamy, Timothy Dwight and John Witherspoon

Governmental theory of the atonement

The view that Christ's death upholds the authority of God's law and government, making pardon consistent with justice, without being the exact penalty owed by each sinner. Associated with Grotius, Jonathan Edwards Jr. and Finney. Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

The view, from Hugo Grotius through Jonathan Edwards Jr. to Finney, that Christ's death upheld God's moral government and public justice so that God may forgive, rather than paying a debt for the elect. Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

Great Awakening

A later name for widespread seasons of revival: the First (about 1734 to the 1740s) and the Second (about 1800 to the 1830s). Whether the revivals formed single "awakenings" is disputed by historians such as Jon Butler. Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

Great Disappointment

The name for the passing of October 22, 1844, without the expected return of Christ. The Burned-Over District and Its Offshoots: Millerites, Latter-day Saints, Spiritualists and Oneida

Great Ejection

The removal, on St. Bartholomew's Day (Aug. 24) 1662, of ministers who would not declare their assent to the 1662 prayer book or accept episcopal ordination. Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

Great Persecution

The persecution begun by edicts of Diocletian and his colleagues in 303, ending in the West after 305 and in the East with Galerius's edict of 311 and the Edict of Milan in 313. The Persecutions to 313: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Lyon, Perpetua, Cyprian and Lawrence

Gregory-Aland number

The registration number of a Greek New Testament manuscript in the INTF's Kurzgefasste Liste, named for Caspar Rene Gregory and Kurt Aland. The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

The standard identifying number for a Greek New Testament manuscript, kept by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research at Munster (papyri P1, majuscules 01, minuscules 1, lectionaries l1). Erasmus, the Textus Receptus and the First Printed Greek New Testaments

Gruen report

Ernest Gruen's 1990 Documentation of the Aberrant Practices and Teachings of Kansas City Fellowship, a critic's report of more than 200 pages charging false prophecy and manipulation. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

Guidepost assessment

The June 20, 2023, outside review of Vineyard USA's structure and misconduct processes by Guidepost Solutions, commissioned by Vineyard USA. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

Gurneyite

Orthodox Friends who followed Joseph John Gurney's evangelical teaching on Scripture and the atonement; ancestors of FUM and EFCI. Quakers and the Radical Tradition

H

Half-Way Covenant

The arrangement approved by the Massachusetts synod of 1662 by which baptized but unconverted adults who owned the covenant could have their children baptized, while not being admitted to the Lord's Supper; the name was given by its opponents. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

The 1662 decision that baptized members who owned the covenant, though not admitted to the Lord's Supper, could have their children baptized. Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of Christ

Hampton Court Conference

The meeting called by James I at Hampton Court Palace in January 1604 to hear the Puritan complaints, at which John Rainolds proposed a new translation of the Bible and the King agreed. The King James Version of 1611: Hampton Court, the Translators, the Rules and the 1769 Text

Hanged, drawn and quartered

The English penalty for male traitors: hanging, cutting down alive, disembowelling and division of the body. Fisher's and More's sentences were changed to beheading. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

Harder reading (lectio difficilior)

The rule that a more difficult reading is more likely to be original, since copyists tended to smooth difficulties; it applies only when the harder reading still makes sense. The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

Harvest

Stoddard's word for a season in which many in a town, especially the young, became concerned for their salvation at once; Edwards reported five under Stoddard. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

Solomon Stoddard's word for a season of revival at Northampton; Edwards recorded five under Stoddard, about 1679, 1683, 1696, 1712 and 1718. The First Great Awakening: Edwards at Northampton, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Connecticut Valley Revivals

He Bible and She Bible

Nicknames for the first (1611) and second (1611 to 1613) folio editions, from the readings "he" and "she" in Ruth 3:15. The King James Version of 1611: Hampton Court, the Translators, the Rules and the 1769 Text

Hegesippus

A Christian writer of about 170 to 180 whose lost Memoirs, quoted by Eusebius, give a long and partly legendary account of the death of James the brother of Jesus. The New Testament Witnesses: John the Baptist, Stephen, the Two Jameses, Peter, Paul and Antipas

Hellenists

Greek-speaking Jews ("Grecians" in the KJV of Acts 6), many from the Diaspora, as distinct from Aramaic-speaking "Hebrews." Stephen and the Seven came from this group. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

Heresy

The stubborn holding of a belief condemned by the church. In sixteenth century law it was judged by church courts and punished by the secular power. The Reformation, Protestant Martyrs: The Marian Fires, Cranmer, Anne Askew, Manz and Sattler

Herod Agrippa I

Grandson of Herod the Great, king of Judea from 41 to 44, who killed James the son of Zebedee (Acts 12:2). The New Testament Witnesses: John the Baptist, Stephen, the Two Jameses, Peter, Paul and Antipas

Herod Antipas

Son of Herod the Great, tetrarch of Galilee and Perea from 4 BC to AD 39, who imprisoned and executed John the Baptist. The New Testament Witnesses: John the Baptist, Stephen, the Two Jameses, Peter, Paul and Antipas

Herrnhut

The village founded in 1722 by Moravian refugees on Count Zinzendorf's estate in Saxony, center of the renewed Moravian Church. Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Hicksite

The branch that separated from the Orthodox in 1827 to 1828, named for Elias Hicks; its yearly meetings formed Friends General Conference in 1900. Quakers and the Radical Tradition

His Place

Arthur Blessitt's storefront mission and coffeehouse on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, opened in 1968. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

Historic episcopate

Bishops consecrated in a line of succession going back, as Anglicans and others hold, to the early church; accepted by the ELCA in Called to Common Mission (1999) and rejected by LCMC. Lutherans: The Book of Concord and the Synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the Other Lutheran Bodies)

Historic peace churches

The Mennonites, the Brethren and the Quakers, the three church families known for refusing military service. Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren

Historical present

A Greek present-tense verb used to tell a past event vividly; the NASB puts it in the English past tense and marks it with an asterisk. The New American Standard Bible: Lockman, Formal Equivalence and the 1995 and 2020 Texts

Historically Black Protestant tradition

Pew's and ARDA's third Protestant tradition, including the AME, AME Zion, CME and National Baptist churches, counted separately because of their distinct history. Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the Numbers

Holiness movement

A movement, rooted in Wesley's teaching on Christian perfection and spread by Phoebe Palmer and the National Camp Meeting Association (1867), that taught a second work of grace after conversion. Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

The nineteenth century Methodist-rooted movement teaching entire sanctification as a second work of grace; most early Pentecostals came from it (see lesson 01). Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave

Holy Band

A label used by later historians for the helpers who worked with Finney in the 1820s, such as Daniel Nash and Abel Clary; it is not Finney's own term in the 1876 Memoirs. Charles Finney: The Conversion, the Rochester Revival and the New Measures

Holy Club

The nickname given at Oxford to the small society around John and Charles Wesley, which Whitefield joined; its members were also mocked as Methodists. George Whitefield: The Traveling Preacher, the Crowds and Benjamin Franklin's Account

Holy laughter

Prolonged, often uncontrollable laughter reported in the Toronto meetings and related revivals, interpreted by participants as a work of the Holy Spirit. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

Homoians

The party, backed by Constantius II and Valens, whose creeds said only that the Son is "like" the Father according to the Scriptures and banned substance language in 360. Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

Homoiousios

"Of like substance." The position of Basil of Ancyra and others from 358, opposed to Arius but wary of homoousios. Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

Homologoumena and antilegomena

Greek terms for the "accepted" and "disputed" books in Eusebius's classification of New Testament writings. How the Canon Formed: The Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Question

Homoousios

Greek for "of one (the same) substance." The creed of 325 uses it to say the Son shares the Father's own being. Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

Hopeful convert

A person who professed conversion and was thought likely, but not certainly, to be truly regenerate. Pastors' counts of hopeful converts were estimates, distinct from counts of people admitted to church membership. Charles Finney: The Conversion, the Rochester Revival and the New Measures

Hopkinsianism

The stricter form of the New Divinity associated with Samuel Hopkins: disinterested benevolence, the sinfulness of unregenerate doings and willingness to be damned for God's glory. Early American Theologians: Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellamy, Timothy Dwight and John Witherspoon

House church

A Christian group meeting in a private home, as in "the church that is in their house" (Romans 16:5). First-century Christians had no church buildings. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

A congregation that meets in a home and considers itself a complete church, as distinct from a small group belonging to a larger church. Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

House of Acts

A communal farmhouse in Novato, California, shared from 1967 by the Wises and three other couples, often treated as the first hippie Christian commune. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

House of Miracles

Calvary Chapel's first communal home for new converts, opened in Costa Mesa in May 1968 under Lonnie and Connie Frisbee and John and Jackie Higgins. Its network of houses moved to Oregon in 1970 as Shiloh. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

Huguenots

French Protestants of the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition, from the sixteenth century on. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

Humble Inquiry

Edwards's book of 1749 arguing that only those who make a credible profession of godliness should be admitted to full communion; it led to his dismissal in 1750. Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

I

Iconoclasm

The movement, backed by Byzantine emperors from 726 to 843 with an interval after 787, to remove and destroy religious images. It ended with the Triumph of Orthodoxy. Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

Iconostasis

The screen of icons between the nave and the altar in an Orthodox church, with the royal gates at its center. Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

Idiom

A phrase whose meaning is not the sum of its words, such as the Hebrew "cleanness of teeth" (famine) in Amos 4:6 or "cover his feet" in 1 Samuel 24:3. The NIV and Dynamic Equivalence: The Committee, the Editions and How the Method Works

Imprint

The statement of place, printer and date on a title page or colophon. Imprints could be false, as many scholars think the "Hans Luft, Marburg" imprint of Tyndale's Pentateuch was. Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible

Imputation

Reckoning one person's act or righteousness to another: Adam's sin to his posterity, Christ's obedience to believers. Finney called imputation "a theological fiction." Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

The reckoning of one person's act to another; in Reformed theology, the doctrine that Adam's first sin is counted to his descendants, which Hopkinsians and the New Haven school denied. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

In odium fidei

Latin, "in hatred of the faith": the Catholic Church's test for recognizing a death as martyrdom. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

Latin for "out of hatred of the faith": the test used in Catholic martyr causes for a death inflicted because of the victim's Christian faith. Missionary Martyrs and the World Wars: Judson, the Boxer Year, Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Stein and the Five in Ecuador

Latin for 'in hatred of the faith,' the Catholic Church's test for declaring a person a martyr. Pope Francis approved such a decree for Oscar Romero on February 3, 2015. From 1950 to Now: Behind the Iron Curtain, China, Africa, Latin America, the 21 in Libya, and the Counts

Inclusive (gender-neutral) language

Renderings such as 'people' or 'brothers and sisters' for words grammatically masculine in the original where a committee judges both sexes are meant. The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

Inclusive membership

The Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches' measure used by ARDA: full communicant or confirmed members plus other baptized, non-confirmed or non-communicant members. Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the Numbers

Independent charismatics

Gordon-Conwell's term for Spirit-centered churches and networks outside both the Pentecostal denominations and the older churches, many in the Global South; the largest swing factor in global counts. Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave

Indulgence

In Catholic teaching, a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven, granted by the church from the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints; partial or plenary, for the living or the dead. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

Inerrancy

The doctrine that the Bible in its original manuscripts is without error; the center of the Fuller dispute of 1962 and the Southern Baptist resurgence. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

Infralapsarian and supralapsarian

Two Reformed views of the logical order of God's decrees: whether election regards people as already fallen (infra) or is logically prior to the decree to permit the fall (supra). Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster Confession

Initial evidence

The classical Pentecostal teaching that speaking in tongues is the first outward sign of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An Orientation

The doctrine, first taught by Parham in 1901, that speaking in tongues is the first outward sign of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Assemblies of God calls it the "initial physical sign." Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave

Injunctions

Royal orders to the clergy. Cromwell's 1538 injunctions required every parish to set up an English Bible "of the largest volume." Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible

Inoculation (variolation)

The eighteenth-century practice of giving a person a deliberate, usually milder case of smallpox from a smallpox sore; it caused Edwards's fatal illness. It differs from Jenner's cowpox vaccination of the 1790s. Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

Inquisition (medieval)

A judicial procedure in which a judge gathered evidence himself, used from the 1230s by friars commissioned by the pope as inquisitors of heresy; not yet a single central institution. The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

Institutes of the Christian Religion

Calvin's summary of Christian doctrine, first printed at Basel in March 1536 in six chapters and enlarged to four books in the final Latin edition of 1559. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

Instruments of Communion

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates' Meeting. Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

Interlinear

A printing of the Hebrew or Greek text with an English gloss under each word. It follows one printed edition and its glosses are the editor's translations. How to Choose a Bible: Reading Prefaces, Comparing Passages and Using Interlinear Tools

Internal evidence

Evidence from the readings: what a scribe was likely to do (transcriptional probability) and what the author was likely to write (intrinsic probability). The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

Interpretative fiction

Jon Butler's description (1982) of "the Great Awakening" as a single event, a label he argued historians had imposed on scattered local revivals. The Great Awakening and the Revolution: The Case For and Against a Link, Isaac Backus and John Leland

Investiture

The ceremony of giving a bishop or abbot the symbols of office (ring and staff) and the lands attached to it. The fight over whether kings could do this is called the Investiture Controversy (about 1075 to 1122). The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

Invocavit Sermons

Eight sermons Luther preached in Wittenberg from March 9, 1522, arguing that reform must come by the Word and not by force, against the pace set by Karlstadt. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

Inward Light (Light of Christ within)

The early Friends' teaching that Christ himself shines in every person, showing sin and giving power to obey; 'Inner Light' is a later phrase. Quakers and the Radical Tradition

Italics (supplied words)

In the NASB, words printed in italic type are not in the Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek but are implied by it, such as 'which is' in Romans 12:1 or 'and sisters' in the 2020 text. The New American Standard Bible: Lockman, Formal Equivalence and the 1995 and 2020 Texts

Itinerancy

Traveling from place to place to preach, without being the settled minister of a parish. Critics saw it as an invasion of other ministers' parishes. George Whitefield: The Traveling Preacher, the Crowds and Benjamin Franklin's Account

Preaching from place to place, often in other ministers' parishes without their consent; restricted by Connecticut's act of May 1742 and by the Presbyterian synod's rules. Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

Itinerant

A preacher who traveled from parish to parish, often uninvited by the local minister, such as Whitefield, Wheelock, Pomeroy, Buell and Davenport. The First Great Awakening: Edwards at Northampton, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Connecticut Valley Revivals

J

Jeremiad

Perry Miller's name for the New England sermon form that recalled God's mercies to the founders, listed the people's sins, read calamities as judgments and called for repentance. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

Jerusalem council

The meeting of apostles and elders described in Acts 15 (about AD 48 to 50) that decided Gentile believers need not be circumcised. Paul's account of a Jerusalem meeting is in Galatians 2. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

Jesus People

Young converts of the late 1960s and 1970s, often from the counterculture, who held evangelical beliefs while keeping the dress, slang and music of their generation. Also called Jesus freaks or the Jesus movement. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

Jesus Revolution

The title of Time magazine's June 21, 1971 cover story on the movement, of Greg Laurie's co-written book, and of the 2023 film based on that book. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

Johannine Comma

The words about the three heavenly witnesses in 1 John 5:7 to 8, printed in the KJV and NKJV text; the NKJV note says only 4 or 5 very late Greek manuscripts contain them. The New King James Version (1982): Keeping the KJV's Wording and Its Greek Text

Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification

The statement signed at Augsburg on Oct. 31, 1999, by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church, declaring a consensus on basic truths of justification and that the sixteenth-century condemnations on that doctrine do not apply to today's partner. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

Jurisdiction

In American Orthodoxy, a diocese or group of dioceses under a particular mother church; several overlap in the same territory. Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An Orientation

K

Kakure Kirishitan (hidden Christians)

Japanese Christians who kept their faith in secret during the ban of the 17th to 19th centuries; some made themselves known at Oura in 1865. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

Kansas City Prophets

A label applied by others to Mike Bickle's Kansas City Fellowship and associated figures such as Bob Jones and Paul Cain, who claimed prophetic revelation in the 1980s and early 1990s. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

Keswick (higher life)

The teaching of the Keswick Convention (from 1875) that by full surrender and faith a believer can live in steady victory over known sin, the sinful nature being counteracted, not removed. Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Killed for faith-related reasons

Open Doors' test for counting a death, in its question: 'How many Christians have been killed for faith-related reasons (including state sanctioned executions)?' Its totals are stated minimums. From 1950 to Now: Behind the Iron Curtain, China, Africa, Latin America, the 21 in Libya, and the Counts

Killing Time

The name Covenanter writers gave to the years of severest persecution in Scotland, from 1684 to the Revolution of 1688 to 1689. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

King James Only

The view that the King James Version alone should be used in English; its writers have criticized the NKJV for its wording, notes and textual choices. The New King James Version (1982): Keeping the KJV's Wording and Its Greek Text

Kingdom Now

A name used by critics, including Holly Pivec summarizing Assemblies of God papers, for the teaching that the church should take dominion of the earth before Christ's return. Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation

Kingdom theology

The Vineyard's framework treating the kingdom of God, already present in Jesus' ministry and not yet complete, as the central theme of Scripture and the basis for healing, justice and deliverance. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

Koine

The common Greek of the eastern Roman world, the language of the New Testament and of Paul's letters. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

Kurzgefasste Liste

The official register of Greek New Testament manuscripts kept by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Munster; 5,700 entries as of September 2023. The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

L

Labarum

Constantine's military standard as described by Eusebius: a gilded spear with a crossbar, a jeweled wreath enclosing the Chi-Rho and a square banner. Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

Ladies' Course

Oberlin's course for women in its first years, leading to a diploma; from 1837 women could also enter the collegiate course leading to the bachelor of arts. Finney, Oberlin and Reform: Abolition, Women, Perfectionism and the Legacy

Lambeth Conference

The gathering of Anglican bishops called by the Archbishop of Canterbury about every ten years since 1867; its resolutions are advisory. Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

Landmarkism

The movement led by J. R. Graves from 1851 holding that only local Baptist churches are true churches, rejecting 'alien immersion' and pulpit exchange with non-Baptists, and often claiming an unbroken succession of Baptist churches. Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of Baptists

Lane debates

The student discussions of slavery and colonization held at Lane Seminary in February 1834, which Oberlin's account says ran for eighteen evenings. Finney, Oberlin and Reform: Abolition, Women, Perfectionism and the Legacy

Lane rebels

The theological students who withdrew from Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, late in 1834 after its trustees banned their anti-slavery society; many went on to Oberlin. Finney, Oberlin and Reform: Abolition, Women, Perfectionism and the Legacy

Lapsed (lapsi)

Christians who sacrificed, obtained certificates of sacrifice or handed over the Scriptures during persecution. Their readmission divided the churches after 250 and after 311. What a Martyr Is, and How to Weigh the Sources

Christians who sacrificed, bought a certificate or otherwise denied the faith under persecution. Their readmission divided the church after 251. The Persecutions to 313: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Lyon, Perpetua, Cyprian and Lawrence

Christians who gave way under persecution, by sacrificing (sacrificati) or by obtaining a certificate saying they had (libellatici). How to readmit them divided the church after 251. Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the Martyrs

Latin Vulgate

The Latin Bible translated about 382 to 405 at the request of Pope Damasus I: the Gospels revised against Greek manuscripts, most of the Old Testament translated from the Hebrew, the Psalter revised from the Greek, and some books left in Old Latin form. Vulgata means "common." The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

The Latin Bible translated about 382 to 405 at the request of Pope Damasus I and used in the Western church for a thousand years. The Wycliffite Bible and the Rheims and Douai Bible were made from it. Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible

The standard Latin Bible, translated about 382 to 405 at the request of Pope Damasus I. Timeline, Glossary and Review

Latrocinium (Robber Synod)

The second council of Ephesus (449), presided over by Dioscorus, which restored Eutyches; named from Leo's phrase 'not of judges but of robbers'. The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

Latter Rain

The New Order of the Latter Rain, a revival that began in 1948 at North Battleford, Saskatchewan, teaching the restoration of apostles and prophets; the Assemblies of God answered it with a six point resolution in 1949. Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation

Latter-day glory

The expected future flourishing of the church before Christ's return; in Some Thoughts Edwards wrote that it would probably begin in America. The First Great Awakening: Edwards at Northampton, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Connecticut Valley Revivals

Lausanne Covenant

The 1974 statement of the International Congress on World Evangelization, drafted with John Stott as chief architect, which joined evangelism to social responsibility while calling evangelism primary. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

Lausiac History

Palladius's account (about 419 to 420) of the monks and nuns he had met or heard of in Egypt and Palestine, dedicated to the chamberlain Lausus. Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Leadership council

The group of senior pastors leading the CCA: 21 in 2012, 13 by Christianity Today's 2017 count, 15 listed in October 2026. Calvary Chapel Growth and Fault Lines: The Network, the Succession After 2013, Controversies and Reforms

Lectionary

A book giving the New Testament passages read in church, arranged by the calendar; numbered with l (l 2555). The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)

A 2021 revision of the NASB 1995 by scholars of The Master's Seminary and University, under Lockman copyright, using 'Yahweh' and 'slave' for doulos. The New American Standard Bible: Lockman, Formal Equivalence and the 1995 and 2020 Texts

Leningrad Codex

The oldest complete Hebrew Bible, written in Cairo in 1008 according to its colophon; held in the National Library of Russia and printed in BHK (3rd ed.), BHS and BHQ. How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

Let-ma-yoon

The inner "death prison" at Ava where Judson and other foreigners were held in 1824 to 1825; the name was explained to Judson as "hand, shrink not." Missionary Martyrs and the World Wars: Judson, the Boxer Year, Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Stein and the Five in Ecuador

Leut

'People': the three main Hutterite groups, the Schmiedeleut, Dariusleut and Lehrerleut, named for their leaders of the 1870s. Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren

Lexicon

A dictionary of a language giving the range of meanings of each word with examples. Thayer (Greek, 1880s) and Brown-Driver-Briggs (Hebrew, 1906) are in the public domain. How to Choose a Bible: Reading Prefaces, Comparing Passages and Using Interlinear Tools

Libellus

A certificate issued in the Decian persecution of 250 confirming that its holder had sacrificed to the gods. The Persecutions to 313: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Lyon, Perpetua, Cyprian and Lawrence

Libellus (plural libelli)

A certificate of sacrifice issued during the Decian persecution of 250, in which a person declared that he had sacrificed and officials signed as witnesses. Forty-seven are now known, all from Egypt and most of them from the village of Theadelphia in the Fayum. Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the Martyrs

Licensure and ordination

In Presbyterian practice a presbytery first licensed a candidate to preach after examination and trial sermons, and later ordained him to the ministry. The St. Lawrence Presbytery licensed Finney (1823 or 1824) and ordained him (1824). Charles Finney: The Conversion, the Rochester Revival and the New Measures

Living Bible

Kenneth N. Taylor's paraphrase (Living Letters 1962, New Testament 1967, complete 1971), made from the American Standard Version and published by Tyndale House. The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

Local option (women's ordination)

The 2006 Vineyard USA position leaving the ordination of women and appointment of women senior pastors to each local church. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

Log College

The name, first used in contempt, for William Tennent's school in a log house near Neshaminy, Pennsylvania (from about 1726), which trained Gilbert Tennent's brothers, Samuel Blair, Samuel Finley and other New Side ministers. Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

Logismoi (eight thoughts)

Evagrius's list of eight evil thoughts that tempt a monk: gluttony, fornication, love of money, sadness, anger, acedia, vainglory and pride; Cassian's "eight principal faults." Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Lollards

The followers of John Wycliffe in England in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, associated with the English Bible and prosecuted as heretics. The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

English followers of Wycliffe's teaching in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; the name was used by their opponents. Before the Reformation: Hus, Hieronymus of Prague, the Lollards, Savonarola and Tyndale

English followers of Wycliffe's teaching from the 1380s to the 1520s, known for English Scriptures, the Twelve Conclusions and opposition to images, pilgrimages and clerical wealth. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

Longer canon

The Eastern Orthodox term for the Old Testament including the books found in the Septuagint, as the Orthodox Church in America uses it. How the Canon Formed: The Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Question

LORD in small capitals

The NASB's rendering of the divine name YHWH, following the KJV; GOD in small capitals renders YHWH where it stands next to Adonai. The New American Standard Bible: Lockman, Formal Equivalence and the 1995 and 2020 Texts

M

M-Text

In NKJV footnotes, readings of The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text edited by Zane Hodges and Arthur Farstad (Thomas Nelson, 1982). The New King James Version (1982): Keeping the KJV's Wording and Its Greek Text

Machaerus

A Herodian hilltop fortress east of the Dead Sea in modern Jordan, named by Josephus as the place where John the Baptist was held and executed. The New Testament Witnesses: John the Baptist, Stephen, the Two Jameses, Peter, Paul and Antipas

Magi

The priestly class of the Zoroastrian religion in the Persian Empire; in Sozomen's account they pressed the king to act against the Christians. From Constantine to the Middle Ages: Persia, Armenia, Alban, Boniface and the Waldensians

Mainline Protestant

A researchers' label for the older American Protestant bodies, most of them members of the National Council of Churches, such as the United Methodist Church, ELCA, PC(USA), Episcopal Church, American Baptist Churches USA, UCC and Disciples of Christ. Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the Numbers

Majority (Byzantine) text

The form of the Greek New Testament found in most surviving manuscripts, chiefly late medieval copies; it agrees with the Textus Receptus in most places but not all. Why the NIV and Similar Versions Fall Short, Verse by Verse (with the Counter View)

Majority Text

A Greek text built on the readings of the majority of surviving Greek manuscripts, mostly Byzantine and late; close to the Textus Receptus except chiefly in Revelation. The New King James Version (1982): Keeping the KJV's Wording and Its Greek Text

A Greek text following the reading of most surviving manuscripts (Hodges and Farstad; Robinson and Pierpont). Timeline, Glossary and Review

Majority Text (M-Text)

An edition that prints at each variation the reading of most Greek manuscripts, mostly Byzantine copies; the main editions are Hodges and Farstad (1982) and Robinson and Pierpont (2005). The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

Majuscule (uncial)

A Greek hand of separate capital letters, used for books until the ninth and tenth centuries; manuscripts in it are numbered with a leading zero (01, 02, 03). The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

Mammoth cheese

The cheese of about 1,230 pounds made at Cheshire, Massachusetts, and presented by John Leland to Jefferson on January 1, 1802. The Great Awakening and the Revolution: The Case For and Against a Link, Isaac Backus and John Leland

Manichaeism

A religion founded by the Persian prophet Mani (died about 276) that taught two eternal powers of Light and Darkness. Augustine was a Hearer for nine years, about 373 to 382. Augustine and the Pelagian Dispute

Maranatha! Music

The record label and music ministry Calvary Chapel started in 1971 to record Jesus People musicians; its first album was The Everlastin' Living Jesus Music Concert. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

The record label founded in 1971 by Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel to record the church's "Jesus music"; later a leading praise and worship label, now privately owned. Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

Marcionites

Followers of Marcion of Pontus (break with Rome traditionally 144), who taught a just creator and a separate good God and used an edited Luke and ten letters of Paul. The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

Marian exiles

English Protestants who left England during the reign of Mary I (1553 to 1558). Those at Geneva produced the Geneva Bible. Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible

Marian persecution

The burnings of Protestants under Mary I of England, from February 1555 to November 1558, after Parliament revived the medieval heresy laws. The Reformation, Protestant Martyrs: The Marian Fires, Cranmer, Anne Askew, Manz and Sattler

Martyr

From the Greek for witness: a Christian who died rather than deny Christ or sacrifice to the gods. Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the Martyrs

Martyrology

A catalogue of martyrs and saints arranged by the days of their feasts, from local lists such as the Depositio Martyrum to the printed Roman Martyrology (1583). What a Martyr Is, and How to Weigh the Sources

Martyrs Mirror

Thieleman van Braght's Dutch Mennonite martyrology of 1660, with a part on martyrs to 1500 and a larger part on the Anabaptist martyrs; illustrated by Jan Luyken in 1685. What a Martyr Is, and How to Weigh the Sources

Thieleman van Braght's Dutch Mennonite martyrology of 1660 (illustrated 1685), which gathers Anabaptist martyrs' letters, songs and sentences. The Reformation, Protestant Martyrs: The Marian Fires, Cranmer, Anne Askew, Manz and Sattler

Thieleman J. van Braght's 1660 collection of accounts of martyrs who 'baptized only upon confession of faith,' including the Dirk Willems story and the Dordrecht Confession. Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren

Martys

Greek for a witness, one who testifies to what he has seen. By the second century Christians used it for a believer who died for the faith. What a Martyr Is, and How to Weigh the Sources

Greek for "witness." In the New Testament it usually means one who testifies; Acts 22:20 and Revelation 2:13 come closest to the later sense of a witness who dies for the faith. The New Testament Witnesses: John the Baptist, Stephen, the Two Jameses, Peter, Paul and Antipas

Masora parva and Masora magna

The small Masorah (brief notes in the side margins) and the large Masorah (fuller notes and verse lists in the top and bottom margins) of a Masoretic codex. How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

Masoretes

Jewish scholars of the later first millennium AD, above all in Tiberias, who added vowel points, accents and notes to the received Hebrew text. How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

Masoretic text

The Hebrew text as fixed and annotated with vowels, accents and notes by the Masoretes; the base of nearly all Old Testament translations. Timeline, Glossary and Review

Masoretic text (MT)

The Hebrew text of the Bible as fixed and annotated by the Masoretes; the base of almost all printed Hebrew Bibles and Old Testament translations. How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

MC510

"Signs, Wonders and Church Growth," a Fuller School of World Mission course led by John Wimber and C. Peter Wagner from 1982 to 1985, dropped in January 1986. The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510

Means

In revival preaching, the instruments God has appointed (preaching, prayer, the sacraments, and for Finney new measures). Finney held that the right use of means has a natural tendency to produce revival. Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

Megachurch

In the Hartford Institute's definition, a Protestant congregation with 2,000 or more people in weekly worship, counting adults and children at all locations. Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

Meidung (shunning)

Social avoidance of an excommunicated member in eating and other dealings (Dordrecht Article XVII); the issue behind the Amish division of 1693. Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren

Memorial and Remonstrance

James Madison's petition of June 20, 1785, against Virginia's general assessment, arguing that religion "can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence." The Great Awakening and the Revolution: The Case For and Against a Link, Isaac Backus and John Leland

Memphis Miracle

The October 18 to 19, 1994, meeting in Memphis at which the predominantly white Pentecostal Fellowship of North America (which had no Black member denominations) dissolved and the interracial Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches of North America formed. Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave

Messenger

A church member sent by a congregation to an association or convention meeting; Southern Baptists call their annual meeting voters messengers, not delegates. Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of Baptists

A voting representative sent by a Southern Baptist church to the annual convention, where messengers elect officers and adopt confessions and resolutions. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

Metro Vineyard Fellowship

The name of Bickle's Kansas City church while it belonged to the Vineyard (about 1990 to 1996); it became Metro Christian Fellowship when it left in August 1996. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

Metropolitan

The bishop of a province's capital city, who under canons 4 and 6 of Nicaea ratified the appointment of the province's bishops. Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

Miaphysite

The Oriental Orthodox self-description, from Cyril's 'one nature (mia physis) of God the Word incarnate': one united divine-human nature, without mixture; distinct from the Eutychian view called monophysite. The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

Microchurch

A small group that understands itself as a full church, often linked to a network; Brian Sanders defines it by worship, community and mission. Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

Middle recension

The collection of seven letters of Ignatius that most scholars accept as genuine, distinct from a shorter Syriac version and a longer expanded one. The Persecutions to 313: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Lyon, Perpetua, Cyprian and Lawrence

Millenary Petition

A petition presented to James I in April 1603 by ministers claiming to number more than a thousand, asking for reforms in the Church of England's worship and discipline. It asked that only the canonical Scriptures be read in church but did not ask for a new translation. The King James Version of 1611: Hampton Court, the Translators, the Rules and the 1769 Text

Millerites

Followers of William Miller (1782 to 1849), who taught from 1831 that Christ's personal, premillennial return would come "about the year 1843." The Burned-Over District and Its Offshoots: Millerites, Latter-day Saints, Spiritualists and Oneida

Ministry and the Miraculous

Fuller Seminary's 1987 faculty study, edited by Lewis Smedes, that affirmed present-day miracles while criticizing parts of MC510's approach. The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510

Minuscule

A smaller, joined Greek hand that replaced the majuscule for books from the ninth century; the oldest dated example is from 835. The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

Modernism

The early 20th-century movement to reinterpret Christian doctrine in light of modern science and biblical criticism, opposed by the fundamentalists. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

Monogenes

The Greek word rendered "only begotten" in the KJV of John 3:16 and "one and only" in the NIV. Why the NIV and Similar Versions Fall Short, Verse by Verse (with the Counter View)

The Greek word (Strong's G3439) behind "only begotten" in John 1:18 and 3:16; Strong gives "only-born, i.e. sole," Thayer "single of its kind, only." How to Choose a Bible: Reading Prefaces, Comparing Passages and Using Interlinear Tools

Montanism (New Prophecy)

A prophetic movement from Phrygia led by Montanus, Priscilla and Maximilla (about 156 to 172), claiming new revelation from the Paraclete and stricter discipline. The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

Moral government

God's rule over moral beings by law, motive and sanction rather than force; the organizing idea of Finney's 1846 volume and of Taylor's lectures. Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

Moral inability

Being unable to do a thing because of "the opposition or want of inclination." Edwards held that it does not excuse; in the sinner it is the fault itself. Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

Edwards's term for the sinner's settled unwillingness to obey God. Finney called the distinction between natural ability and moral inability "nonsensical." Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

Moses model

Calvary Chapel's name for pastor-led church government, in which the senior pastor leads under God with an advisory board. Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

The common name for Smith's teaching that a senior pastor leads the church under Christ as Moses led Israel under God, supported by a board of elders and assisted by associate pastors. Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

The name given to Calvary Chapel's pastor-led government, which Chuck Smith explained by Moses and the seventy elders who assisted him (Numbers 11). Calvary Chapel Growth and Fault Lines: The Network, the Succession After 2013, Controversies and Reforms

The name given to Calvary Chapel's pastor-led government, in which the senior pastor leads under God and a board of elders supports him. Smith taught that "Pastors need to be like Moses." Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Mourners' bench

In Methodist camp meetings, a bench or space before the preachers' stand where people under conviction of sin came to be prayed with; also called the altar. Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

Muratorian fragment

A Latin list of New Testament books in a seventh or eighth century manuscript in Milan, published by Muratori in 1740. Its original date (about 200 or fourth century) is debated. How the Canon Formed: The Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Question

The oldest surviving list of New Testament books, an 85-line Latin text in an eighth-century manuscript published by L. A. Muratori in 1740; dated about 170 to 200 by most scholars, fourth century by some. The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

N

Nag Hammadi Library

Fourth-century Coptic codices (counted as twelve books and part of a thirteenth) holding fifty-two texts, found in Upper Egypt in December 1945. The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

NAPARC

The North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council, a fellowship of conservative Reformed bodies including the OPC and the PCA. The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

National Association of Evangelicals (NAE)

The evangelical association organized in 1942 and 1943; it says it represents 40 denominations. Its statement of faith calls the Bible "the only infallible, authoritative Word of God." Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the Numbers

National Council of Churches (NCC)

The council of mainline Protestant, historically Black and Orthodox churches formed in 1950 from the Federal Council of Churches (1908) and other agencies; it reports 37 member communions. Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the Numbers

National director

The chief leader of Vineyard USA, a member of its board of trustees; since Jan. 1, 2022, Jay Pathak. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

National Leadership Handbook

Vineyard USA's written framework for the relationship between Vineyard USA, local churches and pastors; Version 3.0 took effect Aug. 29, 2026. Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Natural ability

For Edwards, the possession of faculties needed to obey, with no outward hindrance. For Finney, the full power to will as the moral law requires, which he held to be identical with freedom of will. Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

Natural ability and moral inability

Edwards's distinction between the power to do what one chooses (which sinners have) and the inclination to choose the good (which they lack), so that their inability is their fault. Early American Theologians: Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellamy, Timothy Dwight and John Witherspoon

Natural and moral ability

The New England distinction (from Edwards) between the faculties needed to obey God, which all have, and the inclination to obey, which sinners lack; New Haven stressed the first, the Old School the second. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

Natural and moral inability

Edwards's distinction in Freedom of the Will (1754): natural inability is being unable to act even if one wills; moral inability is "the opposition or want of inclination." Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

Natural inability

Being unable to do a thing even if one wills it, because of an obstacle outside the will (the body, the understanding, circumstances). Edwards held that it excuses. Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

Natural man

In Reformed and Puritan usage, a person not yet born again (after 1 Corinthians 2:14). Tennent argued that a 'natural man' has no call from God to the ministry. Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

Nestle-Aland (NA)

The hand edition of the critical Greek New Testament begun by Eberhard Nestle in 1898; the NASB used its 23rd (1963), 26th (1995) and 28th (2020) editions. The New American Standard Bible: Lockman, Formal Equivalence and the 1995 and 2020 Texts

Neutral principles of law

The approach approved in Jones v. Wolf (1979) for church property disputes, in which courts read deeds, statutes, charters and constitutions instead of deciding doctrine. Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)

C. Peter Wagner's name (tested 1994) for independent charismatic churches governed by recognized apostles and prophets. Wagner said it had no membership, leader or official theology. Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation

New birth

Regeneration: the inward change by which, in evangelical preaching, a person becomes a true Christian (John 3:3). Whitefield's central theme. George Whitefield: The Traveling Preacher, the Crowds and Benjamin Franklin's Account

New Divinity

The name, first used by its critics, for the theology of Edwards's disciples Bellamy and Hopkins and their students, from about 1750 to 1830. Early American Theologians: Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellamy, Timothy Dwight and John Witherspoon

New evangelicalism

The movement of former fundamentalists in the 1940s and 1950s (Ockenga, Henry, Graham, Fuller Seminary) that kept the doctrines while seeking cooperation, scholarship and social engagement. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

New Haven theology

The teaching of Nathaniel W. Taylor at Yale, which held that sin consists in free choice and that human nature is the "occasion" of sin rather than itself sinful. Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

New Haven theology (Taylorism)

Nathaniel W. Taylor's revision of New England Calvinism, teaching that sin is a voluntary act, that human nature makes sin certain without being itself sinful, and that sinners have natural ability to obey. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

New King James Version (NKJV)

A revision of the King James Version commissioned by Thomas Nelson in 1975, published as a New Testament in 1979 and a complete Bible in 1982, keeping the King James Greek base and much of its wording. The New King James Version (1982): Keeping the KJV's Wording and Its Greek Text

New Lebanon Convention

An informal meeting at New Lebanon, New York, in July 1827, between eastern critics (Beecher, Nettleton and others) and the ministers of the central New York revivals, including Finney. Charles Finney: The Conversion, the Rochester Revival and the New Measures

New Lights

In New England, supporters of the revival; the name began as a mocking term for those who claimed new spiritual light. They ranged from moderates such as Edwards to radicals such as Davenport. Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

New Lights (Kentucky)

Cartwright's name for the movement of Barton Stone and his colleagues who left the Synod of Kentucky in 1803 and called themselves "Christians"; not the same as the New Lights of the 1740s. The Second Great Awakening: Cane Ridge, Camp Meetings, Circuit Riders and the Frontier

New Living Translation (NLT)

A thought-for-thought translation (1996; revised 2004 and 2015) that began as a revision of the Living Bible by ninety scholars working from the Hebrew and Greek. The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia

The Christians killed or persecuted under Soviet rule whom the Russian Orthodox Church glorified as saints at its Jubilee Council of 2000, more than one thousand in number, kept on the Sunday closest to January 25. From 1950 to Now: Behind the Iron Curtain, China, Africa, Latin America, the 21 in Libya, and the Counts

New measures

The name opponents gave in the 1820s and 1830s to revival practices associated with Finney and his circle, such as anxious meetings, protracted meetings, the anxious seat, praying for people by name and women praying in mixed meetings. Finney adopted the phrase and defended the principle in Lecture XIV of Lectures on Revivals (1835). Charles Finney: The Conversion, the Rochester Revival and the New Measures

Finney's term for practices adopted to awaken attention, such as the anxious seat and protracted meetings, which he defended in Lecture XIV of the Lectures on Revivals (1835). Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

New paradigm church

Donald E. Miller's 1997 term for movements such as Calvary Chapel, the Vineyard and Hope Chapel that grew outside denominational structures with informal, lay-involved worship. Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

New paradigm churches

Donald E. Miller's 1997 term for Calvary Chapel, the Vineyard and Hope Chapel: post-denominational churches with contemporary worship and lay-centered ministry. Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

Donald E. Miller's term for Calvary Chapel, the Vineyard and Hope Chapel in his 1997 book. Calvary Chapel Growth and Fault Lines: The Network, the Succession After 2013, Controversies and Reforms

Donald E. Miller's 1997 term for Calvary Chapel, Vineyard and Hope Chapel congregations: informal, contemporary in worship and traditional in faith. The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510

New School

The Presbyterian party, and from 1838 the church, made up largely of congregations of New England origin, that tolerated New England theology, cooperated with Congregationalists and opposed the acts of 1837. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

New Side

The revival party of colonial Presbyterians, led by the Tennents and their allies, which formed the Synod of New York in 1745 and founded the College of New Jersey. Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

New spiritual sense (sense of the heart)

Edwards's name for the new perception grace gives, as different from mere opinion "as the sweet taste of honey is diverse from the ideas men have of honey by only looking on it." Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

New Testament company

The English committee of about two dozen scholars, chaired by Bishop Charles Ellicott, that revised the New Testament in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey from 1870 to 1880. The Revised Version (1881) and the American Standard Version (1901)

New York Bible Society / International Bible Society / Biblica

The Bible society that sponsored the NIV from 1967 (1968 by its own present account) and holds its copyright; renamed the International Bible Society and later Biblica. The NIV and Dynamic Equivalence: The Committee, the Editions and How the Method Works

Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed

The creed attributed to the council of 381, recited today in most churches as 'the Nicene Creed'; its text is first attested at Chalcedon in 451. The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

Ninety-five Theses

Luther's Latin propositions for a disputation on penitence and indulgences, sent to Archbishop Albert with a letter dated Oct. 31, 1517, and reprinted across Germany within weeks. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

NIVI

The New International Version Inclusive Language Edition, published in Britain by Hodder and Stoughton in 1996 and never published in the United States. The NIV and Dynamic Equivalence: The Committee, the Editions and How the Method Works

Nomina sacra

The abbreviations scribes used for sacred names such as God, Lord, Jesus and Son, usually the first and last letters with a line above; in John 1:18 the abbreviations for Son and God differ by one letter. How to Choose a Bible: Reading Prefaces, Comparing Passages and Using Interlinear Tools

Non-denominational church

A congregation with no denomination above it: it owns its property, writes its own doctrine and chooses and removes its own pastor. Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

Non-Separatist

A Puritan who organized congregations on covenant principles while refusing to renounce the Church of England, as the founders of Massachusetts Bay did. Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of Christ

Noninstitutional churches

Churches of Christ that from the 1950s opposed supporting children's homes and other institutions beyond the congregation from church treasuries. The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

Nonjurors

Bishops and clergy who refused the oaths to William and Mary after 1688 and were deprived; the Scottish Episcopal bishops stood in a similar position. Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

Nonresistance

The teaching, in Dordrecht Article XIV and later confessions, that Christ forbade his followers all revenge and the use of the sword. Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren

Nova Vulgata

The revised Latin Bible promulgated as the typical edition by John Paul II's constitution Scripturarum Thesaurus on April 25, 1979, corrected toward the Hebrew and Greek. The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

Novum Instrumentum omne

The title of Erasmus's first edition (Basel, Johann Froben, 1516), with Greek text, a new Latin translation and annotations. Erasmus, the Textus Receptus and the First Printed Greek New Testaments

Now and not yet

The view, taken from George Eldon Ladd, that God's kingdom has begun in Jesus but will be completed only at his return; also called inaugurated eschatology. The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510

NRSV Updated Edition (NRSVue)

The 2021 revision of the NRSV, directed by the Society of Biblical Literature for the National Council of Churches. The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

NU-Text

In NKJV footnotes, readings of the critical text printed in Nestle-Aland 26 (N) and UBS 3 (U). The New King James Version (1982): Keeping the KJV's Wording and Its Greek Text

NU-Text and M-Text

The NKJV's footnote labels for readings of the Nestle-Aland and UBS critical text (NU) and of the Majority Text (M) where they differ from the Textus Receptus. How to Choose a Bible: Reading Prefaces, Comparing Passages and Using Interlinear Tools

O

Oath of abjuration

The oath required in Scotland from late 1684 renouncing the Covenanters' Apologetic Declaration; refusing it could bring death. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

Oberlin Collegiate Institute

The school opened at Oberlin, Ohio, on December 3, 1833; it took the name Oberlin College in 1850. Finney, Oberlin and Reform: Abolition, Women, Perfectionism and the Legacy

Oberlin Evangelist

The semi-monthly paper begun January 1, 1839, under Henry Cowles, which carried Oberlin's teaching on sanctification and Finney's sermons and letters. Finney, Oberlin and Reform: Abolition, Women, Perfectionism and the Legacy

Oberlin perfectionism

The name, often used by opponents, for the teaching of Mahan, Finney and the Oberlin Evangelist from about 1836 to 1839 that entire sanctification is attainable in this life. Finney, Oberlin and Reform: Abolition, Women, Perfectionism and the Legacy

Oberlin-Wellington rescue

The rescue of John Price from slave catchers and federal officers at Wellington, Ohio, on September 13, 1858, which led to the indictment of thirty-seven men. Finney, Oberlin and Reform: Abolition, Women, Perfectionism and the Legacy

Oblate

A person, often a child, "offered" to a monastery (Rule chapter 59); Hildegard of Bingen entered Disibodenberg as an oblate at eight. Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Octavo, quarto, folio

Book sizes made by folding a printed sheet three, two or one time. Tyndale's 1526 New Testament was an octavo (pocket size); the Geneva Bible of 1560 a quarto; the Coverdale, Matthew, Great and Bishops' Bibles folios for church use. Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible

Odium humani generis

Latin for 'hatred of the human race,' the charge on which Tacitus says Nero's Christian victims were convicted. Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the Martyrs

Official Catholic Directory

The annual directory of U.S. Catholic dioceses, whose diocesan reports give the count of parish-connected Catholics. Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An Orientation

Old Calvinists

New England Calvinists who rejected the New Divinity's innovations and kept older practices such as urging the unconverted to use the means of grace. Early American Theologians: Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellamy, Timothy Dwight and John Witherspoon

Old Latin (Vetus Latina)

The Latin translations of the Bible made from the Greek, by many unknown translators, from the second century until they were displaced by the Vulgate. Augustine called one form of them the Itala. The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

Old Lights

In New England, ministers and laymen who judged the revival of the 1740s to be largely enthusiasm or disorder, of whom Charles Chauncy was the leading writer. Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

Old Order

A label for Amish, Mennonite and Brethren groups that kept the older pattern of plain dress, separation and limited technology when their churches changed in the 1800s. Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren

Old School

The Presbyterian party, and from 1838 the church, that held strictly to the Westminster standards in their received sense, opposed the Plan of Union and the voluntary societies, and abrogated the Plan in 1837. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

Old School and New School

The two Presbyterian parties of the 1830s. The Old School, led theologically from Princeton, held strictly to the Westminster Confession; the New School tolerated New England and New Haven views. See lesson 13. Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

The two parties of American Presbyterians, divided in 1837 and 1838 over doctrine, revival measures and cooperation with Congregationalists, and reunited in the North in 1869 and 1870. Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

The stricter and the more revival-friendly parties of American Presbyterianism, separated from 1837 to 1869 to 1870. The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

Old Side

The party of the Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia that excluded the New Brunswick men in 1741; it stressed learned ministers, presbytery authority and rules against preaching in other ministers' congregations without consent. Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

Old Side and New Side

The anti-revival and revival parties that divided the American synod from 1741 to 1758. The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

Old Style dating

The Julian calendar used in the British colonies until 1752, with the year beginning March 25; hence Stoddard's death date "February 11, 1728-9." The First Great Awakening: Edwards at Northampton, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Connecticut Valley Revivals

Oneness Pentecostalism

Pentecostal bodies, such as the UPCI, that baptize in the name of Jesus and teach one God revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit without the language of three persons. Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An Orientation

The branch, begun in 1913 to 1916, that teaches one God revealed as Father, Son and Spirit without three persons, and baptism in the name of Jesus only. Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave

Open and Affirming

The term a UCC congregation uses when it votes to declare itself welcoming of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people; each congregation decides for itself. Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of Christ

Open membership

Receiving into a congregation Christians baptized as infants or by sprinkling without immersing them; a central dispute among the Disciples after 1919. The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

Ordinances

The free-church term for baptism and the Lord's Supper as acts commanded by Christ. The CCA names "full-immersion water baptism of believers and the Lord's Supper." Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

Ordnung

The order of practice of an Amish church district, covering dress, technology and daily life; it differs from district to district. Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren

Oriental Orthodox

The Coptic, Armenian, Syriac, Ethiopian, Eritrean and Malankara churches, which did not accept the Council of Chalcedon (451) and are separate from the Eastern Orthodox. Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An Orientation

Original sin

In Augustine's teaching, the sin of Adam passed to all his descendants by birth, bringing both a wounded nature and a share in guilt. The term peccatum originale became standard through him. Augustine and the Pelagian Dispute

Otto di Guardia

The Eight of Ward, the criminal magistracy of Florence, which sentenced Savonarola and his companions to death on May 23, 1498. Before the Reformation: Hus, Hieronymus of Prague, the Lollards, Savonarola and Tyndale

Ousia and hypostasis

Greek terms that Basil distinguished as 'the general and the particular': God is one ousia (essence) in three hypostases (persons). The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

Owning the covenant

A baptized adult's public acceptance of the church covenant and submission to its discipline, without a relation of conversion. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

Oxford Movement (Tractarians)

The movement begun in 1833 by Keble, Newman and Pusey that reasserted apostolic succession and Catholic teaching within Anglicanism; its heirs are called Anglo-Catholics. Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

P

Palaeography

The study of old handwriting; used to date manuscripts that carry no date, giving a range of decades or centuries. The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

Palimpsest

A manuscript whose first text was scraped or washed off and written over, such as Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus or the Sinaitic Syriac. The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

Palos Heights conference

The meeting of evangelical scholars at Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights, Illinois, on August 26 and 27, 1965, that decided on a new translation and created the CBT. The NIV and Dynamic Equivalence: The Committee, the Editions and How the Method Works

Pandect

A single volume containing the whole Bible. Bede says Abbot Ceolfrith had three Vulgate pandects made at Wearmouth-Jarrow. The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

Papyrus

A writing material made in Egypt from the pith of the papyrus reed. In the Gregory-Aland system, papyrus manuscripts are numbered with P (P52, P46). The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

Paragraph 2553

The 2019 United Methodist provision that let churches disaffiliate over human sexuality with a two-thirds vote and payments, expiring December 31, 2023. Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 Split

Paraphrase

In Kenneth Taylor's words, 'a restatement of an author's thoughts, using different words than he did'; it may be made from an English version rather than the original languages. The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

A free restatement of the text, often by one person, as The Living Bible began. Timeline, Glossary and Review

Parchment

Animal skin prepared for writing, tougher than papyrus; the material of the great codices. Fine calfskin is called vellum. The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

Parish and church

In Massachusetts law, the parish was the body of taxpayers that supported the minister and the church was the body of covenanted communicants; the Dedham case turned on which owned the property. Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of Christ

Particular Baptists

The Calvinist Baptist line that arose in London in the 1630s, teaching a particular atonement; authors of the 1644 and 1677/1689 London confessions. Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of Baptists

Particular redemption (limited atonement)

The teaching that Christ's death, sufficient for all, was intended to redeem effectually the elect only (Dort II.8). Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster Confession

Passio

Latin for suffering: a narrative of a martyr's arrest, trial and death, usually written to be read on the feast day. Many later passions are legendary. What a Martyr Is, and How to Weigh the Sources

Passio (passion)

A narrative account of a martyr's arrest, suffering and death, often with an editor's frame, such as the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity. The Persecutions to 313: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Lyon, Perpetua, Cyprian and Lawrence

Passion (passio)

A written account of a martyr's sufferings and death; Bede's account of Alban follows an older Passion of uncertain date. From Constantine to the Middle Ages: Persia, Armenia, Alban, Boniface and the Waldensians

Passion Translation (TPT)

Brian Simmons's version (New Testament 2017, BroadStreet Publishing), which its publisher calls a translation and its critics call a paraphrase; removed from Bible Gateway in 2022. The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

Passion-bearer

An Orthodox title for a believer who accepted an unjust death in a Christlike way, used for example of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. What a Martyr Is, and How to Weigh the Sources

Pastor emeritus

An honorary title for a retired senior pastor; Brian Brodersen's title at Costa Mesa since 2025. Calvary Chapel Growth and Fault Lines: The Network, the Succession After 2013, Controversies and Reforms

Pastoral Letters

1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, addressed to Paul's co-workers on church order. Most university scholars date them after Paul; many others defend them as his. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

Patronage

The legal right of a landowner or other patron to present a minister to a parish; the main cause of the Scottish secessions until its abolition by Parliament in the 1870s. The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

Peace of Augsburg

The imperial settlement of Sept. 25, 1555, that let rulers choose between the Catholic faith and the Augsburg Confession; summed up later in the formula cuius regio, eius religio. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

Peace testimony

The Friends' refusal of 'all outward wars and strife, and fightings with outward weapons,' stated publicly in the Declaration of January 1661. Quakers and the Radical Tradition

Peine forte et dure

The English legal penalty for a prisoner who refused to plead: pressing under weights. Margaret Clitherow died under it in 1586. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

Pelagianism

The teaching associated with Pelagius (about 400) that human beings can obey God by the powers of nature. Hodge summarized its principle as "ability limits obligation." Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

The teaching associated with Pelagius, Caelestius and Julian of Eclanum that human nature can will and do the good without an inner gift of grace, and that Adam's sin harmed others by example rather than by birth. Condemned at Carthage (418) and Ephesus (431). Augustine and the Pelagian Dispute

Pentarchy

The five great sees of the imperial church, ranked Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem; the order is restated in the decree of Florence (1439). Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

Pentecostalism

A movement that grew from Holiness circles at Topeka (1901) and the Azusa Street mission in Los Angeles (1906), teaching a baptism of the Holy Spirit marked by speaking in tongues. Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

People's priest (Leutpriester)

The preaching pastor of a Swiss city church; Zwingli's office at the Great Minster in Zurich from January 1, 1519. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

Perfectionism (Noyes)

John Humphrey Noyes's teaching, from February 1834, that believers can be saved from sin in this life; Finney rejected it as "Christian perfection, in the antinomian sense." The Burned-Over District and Its Offshoots: Millerites, Latter-day Saints, Spiritualists and Oneida

Pericope adulterae

The passage about the woman taken in adultery, John 7:53 to 8:11. The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

Perseverance

Continuing in faith and grace to the end of life. Augustine taught that it is a gift God gives only to the elect, and that no one can be certain of it in this life. Augustine and the Pelagian Dispute

Perseverance of the saints

The teaching that true believers cannot totally or finally fall away (Westminster XVII.1); the Remonstrance left the question open, and Methodists deny it. Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster Confession

Physical and moral depravity

Finney's distinction between inherited weakness or disorder of body and mind, which he called disease and not sin, and the voluntary wrong choice of the will, which alone he called sin. Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

Piedmont Easter

The massacre of Waldensians in the valleys of Piedmont by troops of the duke of Savoy beginning on 24 April 1655. From Constantine to the Middle Ages: Persia, Armenia, Alban, Boniface and the Waldensians

Pietism

A renewal movement in German Lutheranism that began in the late 1600s with Spener, stressing Bible study in small groups, lay participation and a lived, felt faith. Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Pirate's Cove

A small beach below the cliffs of Corona del Mar in Newport Beach, California, where Calvary Chapel held mass ocean baptisms in the Jesus People years. Calvary's history spells it Pirates Cove. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

Plain style sermon

The Puritan sermon form of text, explanation, doctrine, reasons and application, which Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God follows. The First Great Awakening: Edwards at Northampton, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Connecticut Valley Revivals

Plan of Separation

The 1844 plan under which the southern conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church organized separately as the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1845. Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 Split

Plan of Union (1758)

The articles by which the Synods of New York and Philadelphia reunited on May 29, 1758, affirming the revival and the Westminster standards and forbidding public censure of ministers without trial. Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

Plan of Union (1801)

Rules adopted by the Presbyterian General Assembly and the General Association of Connecticut allowing mixed Presbyterian and Congregational churches in the new settlements; abrogated by the Old School in 1837. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

Pneumatomachi

'Fighters against the Spirit', also called Macedonians: fourth-century Christians who accepted the Son's divinity but denied the Spirit's equal divinity; known mainly from their opponents. The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

Polity

A church's form of government: episcopal (bishops), presbyterian (elders in graded assemblies) or congregational (the local church governs itself), or a mixture. Review: A Chart of the Denominations and Their Families

Popish Plot

An alleged Catholic conspiracy to kill Charles II, invented by Titus Oates in 1678, which led to trials and executions of Catholics until 1681. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

Postmillennialism

The view that Christ will return after a long age in which the gospel prevails across the world. Held by the main Reconstructionist writers and by earlier figures such as Jonathan Edwards. Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation

Power evangelism

Wimber's term (book, 1986) for presenting the gospel with a demonstration of God's power through signs and wonders such as healing and words of knowledge. The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510

Predestination

God's choice of those he will save. Augustine defined the predestination of the saints as the foreknowledge and preparation of God's kindnesses by which they are certainly delivered. Augustine and the Pelagian Dispute

Preface

The translators' or publisher's opening statement in a Bible, giving the base text, method and the meaning of its signals; the first thing to read when judging a version. How to Choose a Bible: Reading Prefaces, Comparing Passages and Using Interlinear Tools

Premillennial and postmillennial

Two views of the last things: Christ returns before the thousand years of Revelation 20 (Miller), or after a millennium brought about by the spread of the gospel and reform (the view common among revivalists such as Finney). The Burned-Over District and Its Offshoots: Millerites, Latter-day Saints, Spiritualists and Oneida

Presbyter

Greek for "elder"; a member of the council of leaders of a church, later the order of priests. The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

Presbyterian

A form of church government by elders (presbyters) meeting in courts: the session of a congregation, the presbytery of a region, and a synod or general assembly over them. The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

Presbyterian polity

Government by elders meeting as a session, presbytery, synod and general assembly. Review: A Chart of the Denominations and Their Families

Presiding elder

A Methodist minister who supervised the circuits of a district and held quarterly meetings; Peter Cartwright served as one in Illinois. The Second Great Awakening: Cane Ridge, Camp Meetings, Circuit Riders and the Frontier

Presuppositional apologetics

Cornelius Van Til's method of defending the faith, holding that there is no neutral ground of reason between believer and unbeliever. North called Van Til's rejection of neutrality the new element in Reconstruction. Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation

Pretribulational premillennialism

The belief that Christ will remove the church in the rapture before a coming tribulation and will afterward return to reign on earth for a thousand years. Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

The teaching that the church will be taken up (the rapture) before a period of tribulation, after which Christ returns visibly and reigns for a thousand years. The Calvary Chapel Association holds this view. Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Prevenient grace

Grace that goes before any human response; in Wesley's teaching, given to all and restoring 'a measure of free will.' Old English 'preventing.' Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster Confession

Grace that goes before any good movement of the will, including the first turning toward faith. Augustine taught it and the Council of Orange (529) affirmed it. Augustine and the Pelagian Dispute

Primitive Baptists

Old School Baptists who, from the Black Rock Address of 1832, rejected mission societies, Sunday school unions and seminaries as without New Testament warrant. Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of Baptists

Princeton Theology

The Reformed theology taught at Princeton Seminary by Alexander, Miller, Charles Hodge and their successors, marked by strict confessionalism, Scottish common sense philosophy and, later, a doctrine of biblical inerrancy. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

Printer's copy

The exemplar given to the typesetters. Erasmus corrected Basel manuscripts by hand and sent them to the press, so GA 2 still bears his corrections and the printer's marks. Erasmus, the Textus Receptus and the First Printed Greek New Testaments

Proconsul

The governor of a senatorial province such as Asia or Africa, with power to judge capital cases. The Persecutions to 313: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Lyon, Perpetua, Cyprian and Lawrence

Procurator

An imperial official; at Carthage in 203 the procurator Hilarianus held the power of life and death because the proconsul had died. The Persecutions to 313: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Lyon, Perpetua, Cyprian and Lawrence

Procurator-general

The emperor's chief law officer in the Low Countries, who arrested and prosecuted Tyndale. Before the Reformation: Hus, Hieronymus of Prague, the Lollards, Savonarola and Tyndale

Professor

In eighteenth century usage, a person who professed faith, that is, a church member who considered himself or herself converted. The First Great Awakening: Edwards at Northampton, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Connecticut Valley Revivals

Programmed worship

A Friends church service with a pastor, hymns, Scripture reading and a sermon, usually with a period of open worship; it arose from the nineteenth-century revivals. Quakers and the Radical Tradition

Promiscuous assembly

In nineteenth century usage, a mixed meeting of men and women. Nettleton and Beecher objected to "female prayer in promiscuous assemblies." Charles Finney: The Conversion, the Rochester Revival and the New Measures

Propitiation

A sacrifice that turns away wrath; the KJV's word in Romans 3:25 and 1 John 2:2, where the NIV has "sacrifice of atonement" and "atoning sacrifice." Why the NIV and Similar Versions Fall Short, Verse by Verse (with the Counter View)

Protestation (1741)

The paper presented to the Synod of Philadelphia on June 1, 1741, by twelve ministers and eight elders, declaring that the New Brunswick men had no right to sit in the synod. Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

Protestation of Speyer

The protest and appeal of six Lutheran princes and fourteen imperial cities against the decision of the Diet of Speyer, April 19 and 25, 1529; the origin of the name Protestant. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

Protomartyr

"First martyr," the title the churches give to Stephen, the first follower of Jesus whose death for the faith is recorded (Acts 7). The New Testament Witnesses: John the Baptist, Stephen, the Two Jameses, Peter, Paul and Antipas

Protracted meeting

A series of daily religious services lasting days or weeks. Finney argued they were not new, citing the Jewish festivals and Scottish communion seasons, and gave rules against their abuse. Charles Finney: The Conversion, the Rochester Revival and the New Measures

Public justice

Finney's term (Edwards Jr. said general justice) for what is due to the good of the whole moral government, as distinct from distributive justice owed to each individual. Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

Puritan

An English Protestant of the late 1500s and 1600s who wanted the Church of England purified of practices seen as leftovers of Rome. Most Puritans stayed in the national church. Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of Christ

Q

Qere and Ketiv

"What is read" and "what is written": the Masoretes left a written form in the text and marked a different reading in the margin, as in Psalm 100:3. How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

Quakers (Society of Friends)

A movement founded in England in the 1650s, teaching the inner light of Christ and rejecting oaths, hat honour and paid clergy; four Quakers were hanged at Boston, 1659 to 1661. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

Quia and quatenus subscription

Accepting the confessions 'because' they agree with Scripture (an unconditional pledge) or 'insofar as' they agree with Scripture (a conditional one). Lutherans: The Book of Concord and the Synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the Other Lutheran Bodies)

R

R.P.R.

Religion prétendue réformée, the so-called reformed religion: the French crown's legal name for Protestantism in the Edict of Fontainebleau. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

Radical middle

The Vineyard's self-description as holding evangelical biblical foundations together with Pentecostal openness to the Spirit; the title of Bill Jackson's 1999 history. The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510

Rapture

From the Latin rapiemur in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, "caught up"; in Calvary teaching, Christ's taking of the church from the earth before the tribulation. Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

The catching up of believers to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 17). Pretribulationists place it before the tribulation. Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Real presence

The teaching that the body and blood of Christ are truly present in the Lord's Supper; explained differently by Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans and Methodists. Review: A Chart of the Denominations and Their Families

Recantation

A formal withdrawal of a belief judged heretical, usually signed and often read in public. The Reformation, Protestant Martyrs: The Marian Fires, Cranmer, Anne Askew, Manz and Sattler

Record strength

This module's four-grade rating of the evidence for a death: Documented, Strong tradition, Late tradition or Legend. What a Martyr Is, and How to Weigh the Sources

Recorded minister

A Friend whose gift of ministry has been recognized by the monthly meeting; in early practice unpaid. Quakers and the Radical Tradition

Recusant

A Catholic (or other dissenter) who refused to attend the services of the established Church of England, and was fined for it. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

Reformed

The doctrinal family that grew from the Swiss Reformation of Zwingli and Calvin, confessing documents such as the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort and the Westminster Confession. The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

Reformers

The name often used for the Campbells' followers while they were within Baptist associations, from 1813 to about 1830; they preferred "Disciples of Christ." The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

Regionalization

A 2024 United Methodist constitutional amendment, ratified in 2025, creating regional conferences with equal power to adapt the Book of Discipline. Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 Split

Regnans in Excelsis

Pius V's bull of February 25, 1570, declaring Elizabeth I a heretic, deprived of her crown, and her subjects released from obedience. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

Rehabilitation (China)

The Chinese Communist Party's formal withdrawal of an earlier verdict against a person, as in Wang Zhiming's case in October 1980. From 1950 to Now: Behind the Iron Curtain, China, Africa, Latin America, the 21 in Libya, and the Counts

Relapse

Return to a heresy after abjuring it. Canon law handed a relapsed heretic to the secular power without allowing a second abjuration. Before the Reformation: Hus, Hieronymus of Prague, the Lollards, Savonarola and Tyndale

Returning to a heresy after recanting it. A relapsed heretic was ordinarily handed over for execution without a second chance. The Reformation, Protestant Martyrs: The Marian Fires, Cranmer, Anne Askew, Manz and Sattler

Relatio

Peter of Mladonovice's eyewitness report of Hus's trial and death, the main source for his last days. Before the Reformation: Hus, Hieronymus of Prague, the Lollards, Savonarola and Tyndale

Relation

A candidate's account, given in public or through the elders, of how God had worked conversion in his or her soul, required in New England for full church membership. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

Religious affections

In Edwards's usage, "the more vigorous and sensible exercises of the inclination and will of the soul": love, joy, hope, fear and sorrow as acts of the will, not passing feelings. Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

Relinquishing to the secular arm

The church court's declaration that it could do nothing more with a condemned heretic, followed by handing him to the secular authority, which carried out the death penalty. Before the Reformation: Hus, Hieronymus of Prague, the Lollards, Savonarola and Tyndale

Remonstrance

The petition of 1610 in which forty-six followers of Arminius set out five articles on election, the atonement, inability, grace and perseverance; its signers were called Remonstrants. Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster Confession

Renewalist

An umbrella term used by the Pew Forum in 2006 for Pentecostals and charismatics counted together. Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave

Rescript

An emperor's written answer to an official's question, which then had the force of law, such as Trajan's reply to Pliny or Valerian's rescript of 258. The Persecutions to 313: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Lyon, Perpetua, Cyprian and Lawrence

Restoration

Smith's practice, defended in 2007, of returning a repentant pastor to ministry after misconduct; critics such as Dave Edling favored public rebuke and a period away. Calvary Chapel Growth and Fault Lines: The Network, the Succession After 2013, Controversies and Reforms

Restoration Movement

The Stone-Campbell movement that began around 1800 to unite Christians on the New Testament alone, using slogans such as "Not the only Christians, but Christians only." Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

Restoration Movement (Stone-Campbell Movement)

The American movement, begun by Barton W. Stone and Thomas and Alexander Campbell, that sought to unite Christians by restoring the faith and practice of the New Testament church without creeds. The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

Restrictive Rules

Limits placed on the General Conference by the 1808 constitution, protecting the Articles of Religion and General Rules from being revoked or changed. Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 Split

Restructure

The Disciples' reorganization approved in 1968, which made the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) a denomination with congregational, regional and general levels related by covenant. The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

Retroversion

Translating a text back into its supposed original language from a translation, as Erasmus did when he turned the Latin of Revelation 22:16 to 21 into Greek. Erasmus, the Textus Receptus and the First Printed Greek New Testaments

Revised Standard Version (RSV)

The revision of the ASV authorized in 1937 by the International Council of Religious Education: New Testament 1946, Bible 1952, copyright the National Council of Churches. The Revised Version (1881) and the American Standard Version (1901)

Revised Version (RV)

The British revision of the King James Version: New Testament 1881, Old Testament 1885, Apocrypha revised 1894. Also called the English Revised Version. The Revised Version (1881) and the American Standard Version (1901)

Revival and awakening (McLoughlin)

William McLoughlin (1978) used "revival" for a local or regional season of conversions and "awakening" for a generation-long period of cultural reorientation. Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

Revivalism

In Iain Murray's usage, the planned use of measures to produce religious awakenings, as distinguished from revival understood as a sovereign work of God. Finney, Oberlin and Reform: Abolition, Women, Perfectionism and the Legacy

Richmond Declaration of Faith

The 1887 statement issued at Richmond, Indiana, by delegates of twelve Orthodox yearly meetings; the doctrinal basis of the Five Years Meeting and its successors. Quakers and the Radical Tradition

Roman Martyrology

The Catholic Church's official list of saints and martyrs by feast day. The 21 killed in Libya were added in 2023. From 1950 to Now: Behind the Iron Curtain, China, Africa, Latin America, the 21 in Libya, and the Counts

Routinization of charisma

Max Weber's term, used by Margaret Poloma, for the process by which spontaneous religious movements develop rules and institutions that restrain the spontaneity that started them. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

Rule of faith

Latin regula fidei: a short summary of the apostolic faith (one God the Creator, Christ incarnate, the Holy Spirit who spoke through the prophets) used by Irenaeus and Tertullian against rival teachings. The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists

Rule of the Master

An anonymous, longer Italian monastic rule that shares much text with the Rule of Benedict; most scholars hold that it came first and that Benedict abridged it. Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Ruling elder and teaching elder

Ruling elders are members elected to govern the congregation with the minister; teaching elders are ordained ministers of the Word. Both sit in presbytery. The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

Rum milet

The 'Roman nation' of Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire, headed by the patriarch of Constantinople after 1453. Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

Rumspringa

The period between childhood and baptism when some Amish youth have more freedom; practice varies greatly by community. Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren

S

Sacramental (communion) season

A Scottish and Scots-Irish Presbyterian custom of celebrating the Lord's Supper once or twice a year over several days (fast, preparation, communion Sabbath, thanksgiving Monday), drawing neighboring congregations. The Second Great Awakening: Cane Ridge, Camp Meetings, Circuit Riders and the Frontier

Safe conduct

A ruler's letter guaranteeing a traveler free passage. Sigismund's safe conduct for Hus (Oct. 18, 1414) did not prevent his arrest and trial. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

Safe-conduct

A ruler's written guarantee of safe travel. Sigismund's safe-conduct for Hus is the center of the dispute over his arrest. Before the Reformation: Hus, Hieronymus of Prague, the Lollards, Savonarola and Tyndale

Samaritan Pentateuch

The Hebrew Torah kept by the Samaritan community, in Samaritan script, differing from the Masoretic text in about 6,000 places, a few of them deliberate (Gerizim for Ebal). How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

Sand Creek Address and Declaration

A statement read in Shelby County, Illinois, on Aug. 17, 1889, rejecting societies, hired preacher-pastors, choirs and festivals and refusing to regard those who used them "as brethren." The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

Sanhedrin

The council of Jewish leaders in Jerusalem presided over by the high priest. How far it could carry out death sentences under Roman rule is debated. The New Testament Witnesses: John the Baptist, Stephen, the Two Jameses, Peter, Paul and Antipas

Sarx

Greek for "flesh"; in Paul it can mean the body or human nature under the power of sin. The 1984 NIV often rendered it "sinful nature," the 2011 NIV mostly "flesh." The NIV and Dynamic Equivalence: The Committee, the Editions and How the Method Works

The Greek word translated "flesh" in the KJV; the 1984 NIV often rendered it "sinful nature," and the 2011 NIV returned to "flesh" in most places. Why the NIV and Similar Versions Fall Short, Verse by Verse (with the Counter View)

Sasanian Empire

The Persian empire ruled by the Sasanian dynasty from 224 to 651, Rome's chief rival in the east, whose kings Shapur II and Yazdegerd II persecuted Christians. From Constantine to the Middle Ages: Persia, Armenia, Alban, Boniface and the Waldensians

Satan's seat

The phrase in Revelation 2:13 for something at Pergamum, where Antipas was killed; proposed meanings include the imperial cult temple, the Altar of Zeus and the shrine of Asclepius. The New Testament Witnesses: John the Baptist, Stephen, the Two Jameses, Peter, Paul and Antipas

Savoy Declaration

The 1658 confession of the English Congregationalists, adapted from the Westminster Confession, with a short platform of church polity. Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of Christ

Sawdust trail

The aisle of Billy Sunday's temporary wooden tabernacles, floored with sawdust; "hitting the sawdust trail" meant coming forward to shake his hand as a sign of faith. Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

Saybrook Platform

The Connecticut church settlement of 1708 that adopted a confession and created county consociations and ministerial associations, enacted by the General Court. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

Schleitheim Confession

Seven articles agreed by Swiss Brethren at Schleitheim on February 24, 1527, under Michael Sattler's leadership, on baptism, the ban, the Supper, separation, pastors, the sword and the oath. The Reformation, Protestant Martyrs: The Marian Fires, Cranmer, Anne Askew, Manz and Sattler

The seven articles agreed by Swiss and South German Anabaptists on February 24, 1527, on baptism, the ban, the breaking of bread, separation, pastors, the sword and the oath. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

Schmalkaldic League

The defensive alliance of Protestant princes and cities formed at Schmalkalden in 1530 and 1531, defeated by Charles V at Muehlberg in 1547. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

Scholasticism

The method of the medieval schools and universities: reading authorities, posing questions, setting texts against each other and resolving the conflict by reason, as in Abelard's Sic et Non and Peter Lombard's Sentences. The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

School of the prophets

A pastor's home in which college graduates lived and read divinity before ordination, as in Bellamy's parsonage at Bethlehem. Early American Theologians: Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellamy, Timothy Dwight and John Witherspoon

Scottish common sense realism

The philosophy of Thomas Reid and James Beattie, taught by Witherspoon, holding that certain first principles are known by intuition and need no proof. Early American Theologians: Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellamy, Timothy Dwight and John Witherspoon

Scrivener's text

The Greek New Testament F. H. A. Scrivener prepared for Cambridge University Press in 1881 (reprinted 1894) to show the Greek followed by the King James translators, based on Beza's 1598 edition. Erasmus, the Textus Receptus and the First Printed Greek New Testaments

F. H. A. Scrivener's reconstruction (1881, 1894) of the Greek followed by the King James translators, reported by James D. Price as the NKJV's New Testament base. The New King James Version (1982): Keeping the KJV's Wording and Its Greek Text

Second blessing

A definite work of grace after conversion; in Wesleyan holiness, entire sanctification. Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Second Great Awakening

Historians' name for the revivals in the United States from about the 1790s to the 1840s, including the western camp meetings, the New England parish revivals and later Finney's campaigns. Some historians question whether "awakening" is a useful category. The Second Great Awakening: Cane Ridge, Camp Meetings, Circuit Riders and the Frontier

Second London Confession

The Particular Baptist confession printed in 1677 and approved by messengers of more than a hundred churches in London in July 1689; adopted by the Philadelphia Association in 1742. Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of Baptists

Secondary separation

The fundamentalist position that believers should separate from other believers who cooperate with those who deny the faith, sharpened by the 1957 break with Graham. Evangelicalism Defined: Bebbington's Four Marks, Billy Graham, Fuller, Wheaton, the NAE and the Southern Baptist Resurgence

Seeker service

A worship service designed for people who do not attend church, made famous by Willow Creek Community Church after 1975. Non-Denominational Churches: Independence, House Churches, Megachurches and Who Holds the Pastor to Account

Self-determining power

The Arminian account of liberty that Edwards attacked: the will determining its own acts, with indifference and contingency. He argued that it requires "a free act of the Will, before the first free act of the Will." Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

Semi-Pelagianism

A later label for the view that the first movement of the will toward God comes from the human side, with grace assisting. Applied to Finney by some critics and rejected by his defenders. Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

A term coined between 1590 and 1600 for the view of John Cassian and the monks of southern Gaul that the will can sometimes make the first move toward God, which grace then strengthens. Rejected at the Council of Orange (529). Augustine and the Pelagian Dispute

Seminary priest

An English Catholic priest trained at one of the colleges abroad, such as Douai or the English College in Rome, and sent back to England. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

Seminex

Concordia Seminary in Exile, formed by the faculty and students who walked out of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, on February 19, 1974. Lutherans: The Book of Concord and the Synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the Other Lutheran Bodies)

Sense of the meeting

The decision a clerk records in a business meeting after hearing the weight of those present, without a vote. Quakers and the Radical Tradition

Separate Baptists

Baptists who came out of the Separate movement, including Shubal Stearns's Sandy Creek church (1755) in North Carolina and its offshoots in the South. Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

Separate Baptists and Regular Baptists

In Virginia, the revival-born Baptists from the south who held "none but the Bible" (Separates) and the northern Baptists who held the Philadelphia Confession of 1742 (Regulars). They united in 1787 as the United Baptist Churches. The Great Awakening and the Revolution: The Case For and Against a Link, Isaac Backus and John Leland

Separates

New Light converts of the Great Awakening who left the established parish churches to form churches of converted members; many became Separate Baptists. The Great Awakening and the Revolution: The Case For and Against a Link, Isaac Backus and John Leland

Separates (Strict Congregationalists)

New Light Congregationalists who left their parish churches to form churches of members able to give an account of conversion; many later became Baptists. Gilbert Tennent, Old Lights and New Lights, Old Side and New Side

Separatist

A Puritan who concluded that the Church of England was not a true church and left it to form gathered congregations, as the Scrooby, Leiden and Plymouth church did. Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of Christ

September Testament

Luther's German New Testament, translated from the Greek at the Wartburg and published at Wittenberg in September 1522. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

Septuagint

The ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, used by the first Christians, whose manuscripts also contain the disputed books. How the Canon Formed: The Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Question

Septuagint (LXX)

The Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, begun with the Torah in Alexandria in the third century BC; named from the legend of 70 (72) translators and quoted often in the New Testament. How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

The Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, begun with the Torah at Alexandria in the third century BC. Timeline, Glossary and Review

Servitor

A poor Oxford student who paid for his education by waiting on wealthier students. Whitefield entered Pembroke College as a servitor in 1732. George Whitefield: The Traveling Preacher, the Crowds and Benjamin Franklin's Account

Servus servorum Dei

'Servant of the servants of God,' the title Gregory the Great used for himself and that later popes kept as part of papal style. The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

Seven Mountains

The teaching that society has seven spheres or mountains (in Wagner's 2011 list: religion, family, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, business) in which believers should gain influence. YWAM calls them spheres and dates the idea to 1975. Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation

Seven Sisters

An informal name for the seven largest mainline bodies listed above. The first use has not been confirmed; reference works attribute it to William Hutchison's circle in the late 1980s. Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the Numbers

Seventh-day Adventists

The church that grew from Sabbath-keeping Millerites, including James and Ellen White and Joseph Bates; the name was adopted October 1, 1860, and the General Conference organized in May 1863. The Burned-Over District and Its Offshoots: Millerites, Latter-day Saints, Spiritualists and Oneida

Seventh-month movement (the Midnight Cry)

The Millerite movement of August to October 1844, led by Samuel S. Snow's argument that Christ would return on the tenth day of the seventh month, October 22, 1844. The Burned-Over District and Its Offshoots: Millerites, Latter-day Saints, Spiritualists and Oneida

Shakers

The United Society of Believers, brought from England by Ann Lee in 1774, who taught Christ's second appearing in their community and required celibacy; they had villages at Sodus Bay (1826 to 1836) and Groveland (1836 to 1892). The Burned-Over District and Its Offshoots: Millerites, Latter-day Saints, Spiritualists and Oneida

The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, begun in Manchester in 1747 and led by Ann Lee; celibate and communal, and never part of the Society of Friends. Quakers and the Radical Tradition

Sheol

The Hebrew word for the place of the dead, which the ASV kept as 'Sheol' throughout instead of 'the grave,' 'the pit' or 'hell.' The Revised Version (1881) and the American Standard Version (1901)

Shiloh Youth Revival Centers

The Oregon-based network of Christian communes that grew out of the House of Miracles from 1970, sent teams across North America until 1978, and was legally dissolved in 1989. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

Shorter reading (lectio brevior)

Griesbach's rule that the shorter reading is preferred because scribes added more often than they omitted; studies of the early papyri have led many scholars to apply it with caution. The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

Shorter way

Phoebe Palmer's method for receiving entire sanctification at once: full consecration, faith in God's promise and public testimony. Holiness and Pietism: Spener, Wesley, the Methodists, the Holiness Movement and Keswick

Siglum

The letter or number used to name a manuscript in editions and notes, such as aleph or 01 for Sinaiticus and B or 03 for Vaticanus. The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

Siglum (plural sigla)

The letter, number or symbol that names a manuscript, such as aleph for Sinaiticus, B for Vaticanus, P75 for a papyrus, or 1739 for a minuscule. The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

The short symbol for a manuscript in an apparatus: P plus a number for papyri, Hebrew aleph for Sinaiticus, A for Alexandrinus, B for Vaticanus; an asterisk marks a manuscript's first hand. How to Choose a Bible: Reading Prefaces, Comparing Passages and Using Interlinear Tools

Simony

Buying or selling church offices or spiritual things, named after Simon Magus in Acts 8; a main target of the eleventh century reformers. The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

Situations of witness

The phrase in the CSGC's definition of martyrdom. It is not restricted to public testimony about Jesus and takes in Christians killed in conflicts such as civil wars. From 1950 to Now: Behind the Iron Curtain, China, Africa, Latin America, the 21 in Libya, and the Counts

Slain in the Spirit

A charismatic term for falling to the floor under prayer, understood by participants as being overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

Smithfield

The open ground outside the walls of the City of London where many heresy burnings took place, including those of Anne Askew in 1546 and John Rogers in 1555. The Reformation, Protestant Martyrs: The Marian Fires, Cranmer, Anne Askew, Manz and Sattler

Social control thesis

The reading, associated with Paul Johnson's A Shopkeeper's Millennium (1978), that revivals helped employers impose discipline and sobriety on workers in a changing economy; disputed by historians who give more weight to religious motives. Charles Finney: The Conversion, the Rochester Revival and the New Measures

Social Hostilities Index

Pew Research Center's 0 to 10 measure of hostile acts involving religion by private individuals and groups; the global median was 1.6 in 2023. From 1950 to Now: Behind the Iron Curtain, China, Africa, Latin America, the 21 in Libya, and the Counts

Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

The order founded by Ignatius of Loyola and companions, approved by Paul III on September 27, 1540, known for the Spiritual Exercises, schools and missions. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

Society People (Cameronians)

The followers of Richard Cameron, Donald Cargill and James Renwick, organized in praying societies, who renounced allegiance to Charles II and James VII. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival

Edwards's treatise of 1742 defending the revival as a work of God while setting out the errors that should be corrected, from spiritual pride to the censuring of others. The First Great Awakening: Edwards at Northampton, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Connecticut Valley Revivals

Sopherim

Scribes; in Jewish tradition, the early sages who copied and taught the law and, according to the Talmud, counted its letters. How the Old Testament Was Written and Kept: Scribes, the Masoretes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint

Soul liberty

The Baptist conviction that each person answers directly to God in matters of faith and that government has no authority over conscience. Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of Baptists

Spectral evidence

Testimony that an accused person's spirit or specter had appeared to and harmed the witness, accepted at Salem in 1692 and later repudiated. Covenanters, Huguenots and Early America: Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Killing Time and Mary Dyer

Sphere sovereignty

Abraham Kuyper's teaching that the family, business, science, art and other social spheres answer directly to God and not to the State, which has its own separate sovereignty. Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation

Spirit of prayer

Finney's phrase for the intense, sometimes prolonged intercession for others that he described as the mark of the revivals, as in Abel Clary's prayer at Rochester. Charles Finney: The Conversion, the Rochester Revival and the New Measures

Spiritual Franciscans

The strict party of the Franciscan order who held to absolute poverty and the poorest use of goods; condemned by John XXII from 1317. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

Spiritualism

The movement, dated from the Fox family's rappings at Hydesville in March 1848, built on the claim that the spirits of the dead communicate with the living through mediums. The Burned-Over District and Its Offshoots: Millerites, Latter-day Saints, Spiritualists and Oneida

Spirituality of the church

The principle, developed especially by southern Presbyterians, that the church as an institution may speak only where Scripture speaks and should not decide political questions. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

The southern Presbyterian teaching, drawn from Westminster Confession chapter 31, that church courts handle only ecclesiastical matters and must not legislate on civil or political questions. The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

Springfield Presbytery

The body formed in 1803 by Stone and four other ministers who left the Synod of Kentucky; it dissolved itself on June 28, 1804, in its Last Will and Testament. The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

SS summary court (Standgericht)

A drumhead court convened by the SS; the one at Flossenburg on April 8, 1945, kept no record and allowed no defence. Missionary Martyrs and the World Wars: Judson, the Boxer Year, Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Stein and the Five in Ecuador

Stability

The Benedictine promise to remain for life in one community, the Rule's remedy for wandering "Gyrovagues." Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Standing

The legal right to bring a case. In the Vineyard Anaheim case, the church's bylaws decided that associate members had no standing to sue. Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Standing order

The legally established Congregational churches of Connecticut and Massachusetts and the political leadership allied with them, which Dwight defended. Early American Theologians: Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellamy, Timothy Dwight and John Witherspoon

The tax-supported Congregational establishment of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire, ended in Connecticut in 1818 and Massachusetts in 1833. Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of Christ

Stockbridge-Munsee Community

The present Mohican nation in Wisconsin, descended from the Housatonic Mohicans of the Stockbridge mission, who moved to New York in the 1780s and to Wisconsin in the 1820s and 1830s. Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

Stoddardeanism

Solomon Stoddard's practice and teaching at Northampton that non-scandalous church members with knowledge of the faith may and ought to come to the Lord's Supper even if they know themselves unconverted. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

Solomon Stoddard's practice, announced at Northampton in 1704 by Dwight's account, of admitting church members of orderly life to the Lord's Supper without a profession of conversion, as a means of grace. Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

Strictness thesis

Dean Kelley's 1972 argument, restated by Laurence Iannaccone in 1994, that churches making serious demands on members hold them better than lenient churches. Mainline and Evangelical: How the Denominations Divide, With the Numbers

Strong's number

The number James Strong gave each Hebrew (H) and Greek (G) word in the dictionaries of his 1890 concordance, used by free websites to tag words, for example G3439 for monogenes. How to Choose a Bible: Reading Prefaces, Comparing Passages and Using Interlinear Tools

Study notes (annotations)

Marginal comments printed beside the text. The Geneva and Rheims Bibles had extensive notes; the King James rules forbade notes except to explain Hebrew or Greek words. Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible

Stylite

From Greek stylos, "pillar": an ascetic who lived on top of a column, like Simeon (died 459). Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the Monasteries

Sui iuris church

A self-governing church within the Catholic communion with its own law and liturgy; there are 23 Eastern Catholic churches besides the Latin Church. Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An Orientation

Superintendent

Wesley's title for the leaders he appointed for America; the Methodist Episcopal Church soon used the title bishop for the same office. Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 Split

Supplied words (italics)

Words added by the translators to make English sense, printed in 1611 in small roman type against the black letter and in later editions in italics. The King James Version of 1611: Hampton Court, the Translators, the Rules and the 1769 Text

Supreme governor

Elizabeth's title over the church in the 1559 oath, used in place of Henry VIII's "supreme head." Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

Swiss Brethren

The Anabaptist church that began in Zurich in January 1525 with Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz and George Blaurock, and adopted the Schleitheim articles in 1527. The Reformation, Protestant Martyrs: The Marian Fires, Cranmer, Anne Askew, Manz and Sattler

Symbolic round number

Open Doors' practice of entering a conservative figure such as 10, 100 or 1,000 when an exact count of deaths cannot be verified. From 1950 to Now: Behind the Iron Curtain, China, Africa, Latin America, the 21 in Libya, and the Counts

Synod

In American Lutheran usage, a church body of congregations and pastors 'walking together' (the Greek sense of the word), such as the Missouri or Wisconsin Synod; in the ELCA, also a regional unit headed by a bishop. Lutherans: The Book of Concord and the Synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the Other Lutheran Bodies)

Synod of Dort

The national synod of the Dutch Reformed Church with foreign Reformed delegates, opened at Dordrecht on Nov. 13, 1618; its canons were published May 6, 1619. Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster Confession

Synodical Conference

The federation of confessional synods (Missouri, Wisconsin, Norwegian, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota and later others) that met first in Milwaukee in July 1872 and broke up between 1955 and 1967. Lutherans: The Book of Concord and the Synods (LCMS, WELS, ELCA and the Other Lutheran Bodies)

T

Taborites

Radical Hussites named for their town of Tabor (1420), who rejected purgatory, saints' cults and most traditional rites; defeated at Lipany in 1434. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

Tanakh

The Jewish Bible, named from its three divisions: Torah (Law), Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings). Traditionally counted as twenty-four books. How the Canon Formed: The Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha Question

Tasters

New Divinity men who held, against Emmons, that a 'taste' or disposition of the heart underlies the will's exercises and is changed in regeneration. Early American Theologians: Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellamy, Timothy Dwight and John Witherspoon

Testimonies

The practices by which Friends bear witness to truth, such as refusing oaths, war, tithes, hat honor and flattering titles. Quakers and the Radical Tradition

Testimonium Flavianum

The paragraph about Jesus in Josephus, Antiquities 18.3.3. Most scholars think Josephus wrote a shorter core that Christian copyists expanded. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

Tetragrammaton

The four Hebrew consonants YHWH of the divine name, rendered 'LORD' in the KJV, RV and RSV, 'Jehovah' in the ASV and 'Yahweh' in the LSB. The Revised Version (1881) and the American Standard Version (1901)

Tetrarchy

The system of four emperors (two senior Augusti and two junior Caesars) set up by Diocletian, under which the Great Persecution began in 303. Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the Martyrs

Diocletian's system of rule by four emperors, two senior (Augusti) and two junior (Caesars), set up in the 290s. Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

Textual difference

A difference between versions caused by different Hebrew or Greek wording in the manuscripts and printed editions they follow. How to Choose a Bible: Reading Prefaces, Comparing Passages and Using Interlinear Tools

Textus Receptus

Latin for 'received text': the family of printed Greek New Testaments from Erasmus (1516) through Stephanus, Beza and the Elzevirs, named from the 1633 Elzevir preface. Today often used of Scrivener's 1881 reconstruction of the KJV's Greek. Erasmus, the Textus Receptus and the First Printed Greek New Testaments

The printed Greek New Testament tradition that began with Erasmus (1516). Tyndale translated from Erasmus's editions; see lesson 05. Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, the Great Bible and the Geneva Bible

The printed Greek text of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Erasmus, Stephanus, Beza, Elzevir) behind the King James Version. See lesson 05. The Revised Version (1881) and the American Standard Version (1901)

The traditional printed Greek New Testament from Erasmus (1516) through Stephanus, Beza and the Elzevirs; the text in the body of the NKJV New Testament. The New King James Version (1982): Keeping the KJV's Wording and Its Greek Text

The printed Greek New Testament of the 16th and 17th centuries (Erasmus, Stephanus, Beza, Elzevir) behind the KJV. Why the NIV and Similar Versions Fall Short, Verse by Verse (with the Counter View)

The printed Greek New Testament tradition from Erasmus to the Elzevirs (1633), behind the KJV and NKJV. Timeline, Glossary and Review

Textus Receptus (TR)

The "received text": the family of printed Greek New Testaments from Erasmus (1516) through Stephanus, Beza and the Elzevirs (1633), behind the KJV. Scrivener's 1881/1894 edition reconstructs the Greek the KJV translators followed. The Textual Debate: Textus Receptus, Majority Text, Critical Text and the Verses in Question

Thalia

"Banquet," a work partly in verse by Arius, known only from quotations by Athanasius. Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

The 1769 text

The Oxford edition prepared by Benjamin Blayney in 1769, which standardized spelling, punctuation and italics and is the basis of most King James Bibles printed today. The King James Version of 1611: Hampton Court, the Translators, the Rules and the 1769 Text

The ban

Church discipline by which an unrepentant baptized member is separated from the church, for amendment and not for destruction (Dordrecht Article XVI). Anabaptists Today: Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and Brethren

Church discipline in Anabaptist teaching: after two private warnings, a sinning member is excluded from the fellowship, without the use of force. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

The Distinguishing Marks

Edwards's Yale commencement sermon of Sept. 10, 1741, on 1 John 4:1, listing nine things that prove nothing about a revival and five scriptural signs of a true work of the Spirit. The First Great Awakening: Edwards at Northampton, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and the Connecticut Valley Revivals

The Living Room

A Christian coffeehouse opened in 1967 a block from the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets in San Francisco by Ted Wise and his friends, with support from Bay Area pastors. It closed in early 1969. The Jesus People and Costa Mesa: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and the Youth Revival

The Lockman Foundation

A nonprofit Christian ministry in La Habra, California, formed on December 3, 1942, by Dewey and Minna Lockman; publisher of the NASB, the Amplified Bible and the LSB. The New American Standard Bible: Lockman, Formal Equivalence and the 1995 and 2020 Texts

The Message

Eugene H. Peterson's free rendering (New Testament 1993, complete 2002, NavPress), described by its publisher as 'a reading Bible.' The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

The New Building

The hall 100 by 70 feet built in Philadelphia in 1740 for Whitefield's preaching and held in trust for any preacher; later the first home of the Academy and College of Philadelphia. George Whitefield: The Traveling Preacher, the Crowds and Benjamin Franklin's Account

The rules (Bancroft's rules)

The fifteen instructions for the translators, preserved in Burnet's list, covering the base text, names, church words, notes, review procedure and the earlier versions to consult. The King James Version of 1611: Hampton Court, the Translators, the Rules and the 1769 Text

The Seven

Seven men chosen in Acts 6 to oversee the daily distribution to widows, including Stephen and Philip. Later churches saw them as the first deacons. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

The sign of signs

Edwards's phrase for Christian practice, the twelfth and chief of the distinguishing signs of gracious affections. Jonathan Edwards the Thinker: Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will and the Stockbridge Years

The Standards pure and simple

The slogan of the reunion of 1869 to 1870: reunion on the Westminster standards without added doctrinal explanations or guarantees. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

The Translators to the Reader

The long preface of the 1611 Bible, attributed to Miles Smith, explaining the translators' purposes and methods; it is omitted from most modern printings. The King James Version of 1611: Hampton Court, the Translators, the Rules and the 1769 Text

The Word for Today

The radio program and publishing ministry that distributes Chuck Smith's Bible teaching; CT dated the publishing program to 1978. Calvary Chapel Doctrine and Practice: Verse by Verse, the Pastor-Led Model, the Statement of Faith, Radio and Maranatha! Music

Chuck Smith's teaching and publishing ministry, the subject of a 2014 lawsuit filed by his daughter on behalf of his widow. Calvary Chapel Growth and Fault Lines: The Network, the Succession After 2013, Controversies and Reforms

Theonomy

Literally "God's law." In the technical sense of Bahnsen and his school, the view that the Old Testament's moral and civil laws, with their penalties, still bind all nations except where the New Testament changes them. Dominion Theology, Christian Reconstructionism and the New Apostolic Reformation

Theosis

Deification: the Orthodox name for the goal of Christian life, a lifelong movement toward union with God, rooted in 2 Peter 1:4 and in Athanasius's line 'He was made man that we might be made God.' Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

Theotokos

'God-bearer' or 'Mother of God', a title for Mary affirmed at Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451) as a statement that the one born of her is God the Word. The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

Third Great Awakening

A label some historians give to the religious energy of about 1880 to 1920: urban revivalism, the Holiness and Pentecostal movements, student missions, the Social Gospel and temperance. Its dates and usefulness are disputed. Review: Timeline, Terms and How the Awakenings Still Shape American Evangelicalism

Third wave

C. Peter Wagner's early 1980s term for evangelicals who practice healing, prophecy and other gifts without the Pentecostal or charismatic label or a tongues requirement; the Vineyard is the best-known example. Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave

C. Peter Wagner's term for evangelicals open to the gifts of the Spirit outside Pentecostal denominations and the Charismatic Renewal; often applied to the Vineyard. The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510

A label for evangelicals, the Vineyard foremost among them, who expect healing and prophecy in ordinary church life without adopting classical Pentecostal teaching on tongues. Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Side by Side, with a Reader's Checklist for Any Non-Denominational Church

Thirty-nine Articles

The Church of England's doctrinal statement, approved in Latin in 1563 and in English in 1571; revised for the American church in 1801. Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

The doctrinal articles of the Church of England, agreed by Convocation in January 1563 (dated 1562 in the old reckoning) and confirmed and subscribed in 1571. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

Thyestean feasts and Oedipodean intercourse

The standard pagan rumors that Christians practiced cannibalism and incest at their meetings, named after figures of Greek myth and answered by Athenagoras, Tertullian and Minucius Felix. Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the Martyrs

Tithe

A tenth of the produce of land and livestock owed to the church, made a legal duty in the Frankish kingdom in the late eighth century. The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

TNIV

Today's New International Version, a revision of the NIV by the CBT published as a New Testament in 2002 and a Bible in 2005, with wider inclusive language for people; discontinued after 2011. The NIV and Dynamic Equivalence: The Committee, the Editions and How the Method Works

Today's New International Version (New Testament 2002, complete Bible 2005), the NIV committee's revision with extensive gender-inclusive language for people; withdrawn, and the basis of much of the 2011 NIV. Why the NIV and Similar Versions Fall Short, Verse by Verse (with the Counter View)

Today's New International Version, a gender-inclusive revision of the NIV (New Testament 2002, Bible 2005), discontinued after the 2009 announcement of the NIV 2011. The Modern Rewrites: Paraphrases, Gender-Neutral Editions and Translation Versus Paraphrase

Tolle lege

Latin for 'pick it up, read it,' the words Augustine heard a child chant in the garden at Milan in 386 (Confessions 8.12). Augustine and the Pelagian Dispute

Tome of Leo

Pope Leo I's letter to Flavian of June 13, 449, teaching two natures in one person; read and acclaimed at Chalcedon. The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon

Tomos

A formal decree of an Orthodox synod or patriarch, such as the 1970 Tomos of autocephaly for the OCA. Pentecostal, Orthodox and Catholic Bodies: An Orientation

A formal decree of a patriarch and synod; in 2019 the Ecumenical Patriarchate issued a tomos granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship (TACF)

The name the Toronto church took after its separation from the Vineyard in December 1995; it later became Catch the Fire. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

Toronto Blessing

The name given to the revival that began at the Toronto Airport Vineyard on Jan. 20, 1994, marked by laughter, falling, shaking and other physical phenomena. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

Tower experience (Turmerlebnis)

Luther's discovery, described in his 1545 preface, that the righteousness of God in Romans 1:17 is the righteousness God gives by faith; its date (1513 to 1519) is disputed. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

Traditor

"Hander-over": a Christian who surrendered Scriptures or church property to the authorities during persecution. Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and Athanasius

Traditores

Latin for 'handers-over': clergy who surrendered the Scriptures to the authorities in the Great Persecution. The dispute over them produced the Donatist schism in Africa. Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the Martyrs

Translational difference

A difference between versions that translate the same Hebrew or Greek words with different English, as with "only begotten" and "one and only" for monogenes. How to Choose a Bible: Reading Prefaces, Comparing Passages and Using Interlinear Tools

Transubstantiation

The teaching that in the Eucharist the substance of bread and wine is changed into the body and blood of Christ while the appearances remain; the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) used the term 'changed in substance' (transsubstantiatis). The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

The doctrine, defined at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, that the substance of the bread and wine becomes the body and blood of Christ while the appearances remain. Wycliffe denied it; Hus affirmed it. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

The Catholic teaching, restated at Trent in 1551, that the whole substance of bread and wine is changed into the substance of Christ's body and blood. Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-Reformation

Treason Act of 1534

The law that made it high treason to wish or attempt, by words or writing, to deprive the king of his titles, including the supremacy; the charge against Fisher and More. The Reformation, Catholic Martyrs: More, Fisher, the English Catholic Martyrs and Nagasaki

Triennial Convention

The General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America, for Foreign Missions, organized at Philadelphia in May 1814 and meeting every three years. Baptists: English and American Roots and the Many Kinds of Baptists

Triquetra

The three-arc symbol on NKJV covers, explained by the publisher as an ancient symbol of the Trinity. The New King James Version (1982): Keeping the KJV's Wording and Its Greek Text

Triumph of Orthodoxy

The restoration of icons in Constantinople, celebrated on the first Sunday of Great Lent (the Sunday of Orthodoxy); the OCA dates the first celebration to March 11, 843, Schaff to February 19, 842. Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain Terms

Trophy (tropaion)

A monument of victory; used by Gaius about 200 for the memorials of Peter and Paul at the Vatican and on the Ostian Way. The New Testament Witnesses: John the Baptist, Stephen, the Two Jameses, Peter, Paul and Antipas

Trust clause

A rule that local church property is held in trust for the denomination; the Global Methodist Church's Discipline says it has none. Methodists and the Holiness Lines: From the Christmas Conference to the 2022 Split

TULIP

A twentieth century English acronym for the five points: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, Perseverance of the saints; first recorded 1913. Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster Confession

Twelve Articles

The best known statement of the peasants' demands in the Peasants' War, drafted at Memmingen in March 1525. Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German Princes

Two cities

Augustine's image in the City of God for two communities formed by two loves, the love of self to the contempt of God and the love of God to the contempt of self, mixed together until the last judgment. Augustine and the Pelagian Dispute

Two-thirds rule

Rule 5 of 1870: on the final revision no change could be made or retained in the text unless two thirds of those present approved. The Revised Version (1881) and the American Standard Version (1901)

Tylerites

Followers of Bennet Tyler, Connecticut Congregationalists who opposed Taylor and founded the Theological Institute of Connecticut at East Windsor in 1834. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

U

Ultimate intention

Finney's term for the will's choice of a final end. He held that moral character belongs to it, so that regeneration is "a radical change of the ultimate intention." Finney's Theology: Lectures on Revivals, Systematic Theology and the Debate with the Old School

Unam Sanctam

The bull of Boniface VIII (November 18, 1302) on the unity of the church and the two swords, ending with the definition that subjection to the Roman pontiff is necessary for salvation. The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

Unconditional election

The Calvinist teaching that God chose some for salvation from eternity, not on the basis of foreseen faith or works. Whitefield defended it against Wesley. George Whitefield: The Traveling Preacher, the Crowds and Benjamin Franklin's Account

The teaching that God's choice of those to be saved does not rest on foreseen faith or any quality in them (Dort I.9; Westminster III.5). Calvinism in Detail: The Five Points, the Synod of Dort, Arminius and the Westminster Confession

Underground railroad

The network of people and places that sheltered those escaping slavery on their way north; Finney called Oberlin one of its "points." Finney, Oberlin and Reform: Abolition, Women, Perfectionism and the Legacy

Undisputed letters

The seven letters accepted as Paul's by nearly all scholars: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon. The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the Church

Unity of the Brethren

The Unitas Fratrum, a Hussite-descended church formed about 1457 at Kunvald; its exiled heirs helped found the renewed Moravian Church at Herrnhut in 1722. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

Unprogrammed worship

A meeting for worship held on the basis of silence, with no pastor or order of service, in which anyone may speak as moved by the Spirit. Quakers and the Radical Tradition

Unregenerate doings

The prayers and religious duties of unconverted people; Hopkins held they carried no promise of grace, while Dwight defended the use of means. Early American Theologians: Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellamy, Timothy Dwight and John Witherspoon

Utraquists

Moderate Hussites who insisted on communion "under both kinds" (sub utraque specie) for the laity; recognized by the Compacts of 1436. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

V

Variant

A place where manuscripts differ in wording; Peter Gurry estimated about 500,000 non-spelling variants in 2016. The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

Vartanants

The Armenian Church's feast of Saint Vardan (Vartan) and his companions who fell at Avarayr in 451, kept on a Thursday before Lent. From Constantine to the Middle Ages: Persia, Armenia, Alban, Boniface and the Waldensians

Version

An early translation of the New Testament from Greek into another language, such as Latin, Syriac, Coptic or Gothic, used as indirect evidence for the Greek. The New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri, the Great Codices, Minuscules and What the Count Proves

Via media

"Middle way," the Tractarians' name (Tracts 38 and 41, 1834) for Anglicanism as standing between Rome and popular Protestantism. Anglicans and Episcopalians: The Elizabethan Settlement, the Prayer Book and the Modern Splits

Vincentian canon

Vincent of Lerins's rule (434) that the Catholic faith is what has been believed everywhere, always and by all. Augustine and the Pelagian Dispute

Vineyard

The name Kenn Gulliksen gave his churches in 1975, drawn from Isaiah 27:2 to 3; later the Association of Vineyard Churches, led by John Wimber from 1982. The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510

Vineyard Global

The network of national Vineyard directors that coordinates self-governing Vineyard movements in different countries. The Vineyard from 1990 to Today: Kansas City, the Toronto Blessing, the Break with Toronto and Vineyard USA

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

The act drafted by Jefferson in 1779 and passed in January 1786, providing that "no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever." The Great Awakening and the Revolution: The Case For and Against a Link, Isaac Backus and John Leland

Visible saints

Persons whose profession and life gave a church grounds to judge them regenerate; New England Congregationalists held that a true church is made up of such persons joined by covenant. Colonial Religion Before 1730: Puritans, the Half-Way Covenant and the Established Churches

Church members who, in the judgment of the congregation, gave credible evidence of saving faith; in early New England this usually meant giving an account of conversion. Congregationalists and the Puritans: From the Mayflower to the United Church of Christ

Vita (Life)

A medieval biography of a saint, such as Willibald's Life of Boniface or Grim's Life of Becket; it may contain both reliable reports and later legend. From Constantine to the Middle Ages: Persia, Armenia, Alban, Boniface and the Waldensians

Voluntary societies

Interdenominational bodies such as the American Home Missionary Society and the American Education Society, governed by their members, which the Old School replaced with boards answerable to the General Assembly. Charles Hodge and Princeton, Nathaniel Taylor and New Haven: Old School and New School

W

Waldensians

Followers of Valdes of Lyon (1170s), first called the Poor of Lyon; condemned in 1184 for unlicensed lay preaching, they survived in the Alps and joined the Reformed churches in 1532. Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus

Waldensians (Poor of Lyon)

The movement begun by Valdes of Lyon in the 1170s, devoted to poverty and lay preaching, condemned in 1184; its Alpine communities joined the Reformed churches in 1532. From Constantine to the Middle Ages: Persia, Armenia, Alban, Boniface and the Waldensians

Wall of separation

Jefferson's phrase in his reply to the Danbury Baptist Association, January 1, 1802, describing the effect of the First Amendment's religion clauses. The Great Awakening and the Revolution: The Case For and Against a Link, Isaac Backus and John Leland

Waorani

An Amazonian people of eastern Ecuador, formerly called "Auca" by their neighbours; Waorani men killed the five missionaries in 1956 and many later became Christians. Missionary Martyrs and the World Wars: Judson, the Boxer Year, Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Stein and the Five in Ecuador

Warren Association

The association of New England Baptist churches formed at Warren, Rhode Island, on September 8, 1767, which made Isaac Backus its agent for grievances. The Great Awakening and the Revolution: The Case For and Against a Link, Isaac Backus and John Leland

Weekly communion

The practice, common to all three streams, of taking the Lord's Supper every Sunday, following Acts 20:7. The Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Disciples and Christian Churches

West Saxon Gospels

The first translation of the four Gospels into continuous Old English prose, made in southern England about the year 1000 and surviving in at least seven manuscripts. The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

Western revivals

The name used in the 1820s for the revivals of central New York (Oneida County and nearby), which were "western" from New England's point of view. Charles Finney: The Conversion, the Rochester Revival and the New Measures

Western Schism

The division of 1378 to 1417 in which two and later three rival lines of popes claimed office, ended by the Council of Constance with the election of Martin V. The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the Scholastics

Westminster Standards

The Confession of Faith (1646 to 1647), the Larger and Shorter Catechisms (1647) and related documents produced by the Westminster Assembly (1643 to 1649). The Reformed and Presbyterians: Westminster, Scotland and the American Splits (PCUSA, PCA, OPC)

Wicked Bible

A 1631 printing in which the word "not" was left out of the seventh commandment (Exodus 20:14); the King's printers were fined for it. The King James Version of 1611: Hampton Court, the Translators, the Rules and the 1769 Text

Wilburite

Orthodox Friends who followed John Wilbur in resisting Gurney's influence; ancestors of the Conservative yearly meetings. Quakers and the Radical Tradition

Word of knowledge

In Vineyard practice, a specific insight believed to come from God about a person, often used in healing prayer. The Vineyard: Ken Gulliksen, John Wimber, Signs and Wonders and MC510

World Watch List

Open Doors' yearly ranking of the 50 countries where it judges Christians face the most persecution, published each January for a reporting year running from October to September. From 1950 to Now: Behind the Iron Curtain, China, Africa, Latin America, the 21 in Libya, and the Counts

Wycliffite Bible

The first complete Bible in English, made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe's circle: the literal Early Version (about 1382) and the more idiomatic Later Version (about 1388). About 250 manuscripts survive. The Latin Vulgate, the Bible in Old English, and Wycliffe

X

Xenolalia

Speaking a real human language the speaker never learned. Parham and the early Azusa paper expected it to equip missionaries; Pentecostals later dropped the expectation. Pentecostal and Charismatic: Topeka, Azusa Street, the Assemblies of God, the Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave

Y

Yamen

The office compound of a Chinese official; the Taiyuan killings of July 9, 1900, are reported to have taken place outside the governor's yamen. Missionary Martyrs and the World Wars: Judson, the Boxer Year, Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Stein and the Five in Ecuador

Yearly meeting

The independent regional body of Friends, made up of quarterly and monthly meetings; Quaker divisions and reunions are counted yearly meeting by yearly meeting. Quakers and the Radical Tradition