ATONEMENT Atonement
英
Atonement is the pacifying of divine justice by Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for sin.
COVENANT Covenant
英
A covenant is a contract or agreement between two or more parties on stated terms.
ELECTION Election
英
Election can denote God's taking a people into covenant privilege, and in theology includes God's gracious choice.
GRACE Grace
英
Grace generally expresses favour and love; toward sinners it includes reconciliation, favour with God, and holy renewal.
IMPUTATION Imputation
英
Imputation is the attributing of a matter, quality, or character to a person.
JUSTIFICATION Justification
英
Justification is a forensic term: the declaring or pronouncing of a person righteous according to law.
PREDESTINATION Predestination
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Predestination is God's decree by which he foreordained what comes to pass for his own glory.
RECONCILIATION Reconciliation
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Reconciliation is the restoring of favour or friendship between those who were at variance, especially through Christ's atonement.
REDEMPTION Redemption
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Redemption denotes recovery from sin and death by the obedience and sacrifice of Christ.
REGENERATION Regeneration
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Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit by which the heart is changed, expressed as being born again.
SANCTIFICATION Sanctification
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Sanctification is God's gracious work by which believers are renewed after God's image and set apart for his service.
TRINITY Trinity
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The Trinity is the union of three in one, applied to the mystery of three persons in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
ADOPTION Adoption
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Adoption is God's gracious receiving of believers into the number and privileges of his children, with the final inheritance in view.
BAPTISM Baptism
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Baptism is a Christian ordinance using water as a sign of cleansing, gospel profession, and the divine work signified by the sacrament.
CHURCH Church
英
The church denotes the assembly of Christians, the visible professing body, the invisible people of God, and particular congregations for worship.
CONVERSION Conversion
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Conversion is a change from sin to God, produced by divine grace and shown in renewed affections, faith, repentance, and obedience.
DEPRAVITY Depravity
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Depravity describes the corruption of human nature through sin, affecting the understanding, affections, and conduct of fallen people.
FAITH Faith
英
Faith is assent grounded in testimony; saving faith is wrought by the Spirit and rests on Christ for life and obedience.
FORGIVENESS Forgiveness
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Forgiveness is the pardoning of an offence, a virtue commanded by Christ toward enemies as well as friends.
JUSTICE Justice
英
Justice is strict regard for the rights of others; God's justice is his righteous perfection in governing and judging creatures.
LAW Law
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Law is a rule of action or command from superior authority, including God's moral rule for rational creatures and revealed ordinances.
MEDIATOR Mediator
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A mediator intervenes between parties at variance; Christ is the God-man who reconciles offended God and sinful humanity.
REPENTANCE Repentance
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Repentance is sorrow for sin that produces newness of life, including conviction, confession, hatred of sin, and renunciation of it.
RESURRECTION Resurrection
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Resurrection is rising again from the dead, especially the last-day resurrection grounded in Christ and essential to the gospel hope.
ADVOCATE Advocate
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An advocate pleads the cause of another; in the gospel Christ is the believer's advocate with the Father.
ASCENSION Ascension
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The ascension is Christ's visible going up into heaven after his resurrection, where he is exalted and continues his work for his people.
COMMUNION Communion
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Communion is fellowship or participation, especially the believer's fellowship with God, Christ, the Spirit, and the saints.
CONSCIENCE Conscience
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Conscience is the inward judgment by which a person approves what is right and condemns what is evil according to a moral rule.
ETERNAL LIFE Eternal Life
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Eternal life is the blessed life given by God through Christ, begun in grace and perfected in everlasting glory.
GLORY Glory
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Glory denotes honour, excellency, and manifest splendour; God's glory is the display of his divine perfection.
HUMILIATION OF CHRIST Humiliation of Christ
英
The humiliation of Christ includes his taking human nature, low condition, obedience, sufferings, death, and burial for sinners.
INTERCESSION Intercession
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Intercession is pleading for another; Christ's intercession presents his finished sacrifice as the ground of his people's acceptance.
JUDGMENT Judgment
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Judgment is God's righteous decision and sentence, applied both to present acts of rule and to the final judgment of all people.
KINGDOM OF GOD Kingdom of God
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The kingdom of God is God's reign, manifested in Christ's spiritual kingdom and finally in his perfect and everlasting dominion.
PROVIDENCE Providence
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Providence is the superintendence and care by which God upholds creation and orders all events according to his wise will.
SACRIFICE Sacrifice
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Sacrifice is an offering made to God; in Christian doctrine the sacrifices of Scripture point chiefly to Christ's one offering for sin.
SCRIPTURE Scripture
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Scripture is the written word of God, given by divine inspiration and appointed as the rule of faith and practice.
SIN Sin
英
Sin is any want of conformity to God's law, or transgression of it, whether in heart, word, or action.
SUPREMACY OF CHRIST Supremacy of Christ
英
The supremacy of Christ affirms his pre-eminence over all creatures, offices, powers, and ordinances as the exalted Lord.
TEMPTATION Temptation
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Temptation is a trial or solicitation by which a person is drawn toward sin, though trials may also prove faith under God's providence.
UNION WITH CHRIST Union with Christ
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Union with Christ is the gracious bond by which believers are joined to him and share the benefits of his person and work.
VOCATION Vocation
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Vocation denotes calling; in theology it may refer to God's call by the gospel and to the lawful duties of a person's station.
WRATH Wrath
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Wrath is God's holy displeasure against sin, not a disorderly passion but the just opposition of divine righteousness to evil.
WORSHIP Worship
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Worship is the reverent honour and service rendered to God, including inward devotion and outward acts appointed by his word.
ZEAL Zeal
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Zeal is warm and earnest concern for God, truth, and duty, needing knowledge and charity lest it become rash or misguided.
PEACE Peace
英
Peace is freedom from hostile disturbance; spiritually it includes reconciliation with God and quietness of heart through Christ.
HOLINESS Holiness
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Holiness is separation from sin and conformity to God's moral purity, both an attribute of God and a required grace in believers.
LORD'S SUPPER Lord's Supper
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The Lord's Supper is a gospel ordinance in which bread and wine signify Christ's body and blood and the church remembers his death.
ASSURANCE Assurance
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Assurance is a settled persuasion of one's interest in God's mercy and promises, grounded in the gospel and witnessed by grace in the heart.
SALVATION Salvation
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Salvation is deliverance from sin and its ruin through God's grace in Christ, including pardon, renewal, preservation, and final blessedness.
PRAYER Prayer
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Prayer is the offering of desires to God for things agreeable to his will, with confession, thanksgiving, and dependence on Christ.
MERCY OF GOD Mercy of God
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The mercy of God is his readiness to pity and relieve the miserable, especially sinners who need forgiveness and grace.
ANGEL Angel
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An angel is a spiritual messenger and servant of God, employed in worship, providence, and ministry to God's people.
ANTICHRIST Antichrist
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Antichrist denotes opposition to Christ, whether in a personal adversary, a corrupt power, or a spirit that denies his truth.
HELL Hell
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Hell is the final state of divine punishment for the wicked, expressing the fearful consequence of sin under God's righteous judgment.
MILLENNIUM Millennium
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The millennium refers to the thousand years in Revelation 20 and the long-debated hope of Christ's reign with his people.
MINISTRY OF THE GOSPEL Ministry of the Gospel
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The ministry of the gospel is the appointed service of preaching, teaching, and shepherding by which Christ's message is publicly served.
ORDINATION Ordination
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Ordination is the church's setting apart of a person for public ministry, ordinarily with prayer and the laying on of hands.
SACRAMENT Sacrament
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A sacrament is a sacred sign and ordinance appointed for the church, visibly representing gospel grace and covenant obligation.
EXCOMMUNICATION Excommunication
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Excommunication is the church's solemn exclusion of an offender from communion for grave and persistent scandal or disorder.
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD Attributes of God
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The attributes of God are the perfections of the divine nature, commonly described as those God uniquely possesses and those reflected in creatures.
OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD Omnipotence of God
英
The omnipotence of God is his almighty power, seen in creation, preservation, redemption, conversion, resurrection, and final judgment.
OMNISCIENCE OF GOD Omniscience of God
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The omniscience of God is his perfect knowledge of all persons, times, places, and things, past, present, and future.
GOSPEL Gospel
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The gospel is the revelation of God's grace to fallen humanity through a mediator, centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ.
APOCRYPHA Apocrypha
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The Apocrypha are books not received into the Protestant canon of Scripture, though some traditions have read them for instruction.
INSPIRATION Inspiration
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Inspiration is God's supernatural influence on the mind, especially by which the prophets and biblical writers communicated divine truth.
PROPHECY Prophecy
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Prophecy is the disclosure of hidden or future things by extraordinary revelation from God, not by human sagacity or ordinary report.
KEYS, POWER OF THE Power of the Keys
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The power of the keys denotes ecclesiastical authority to preach the gospel, administer ordinances, and govern admission or exclusion.
CATECHISM Catechism
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A catechism is a form of religious instruction by questions and answers, especially shaped for gradual and practical learning.
CONFESSION OF FAITH Confession of Faith
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A confession of faith is a church's ordered statement of its principal beliefs, offered as a summary of doctrine and public witness.
HUMILITY Humility
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Humility is a gracious disposition that refuses self-exaltation, recognizes one's sins and limits, and ascribes all good to God.
FUTURE STATE Future State
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The future state concerns the soul's existence after death and the Christian hope of life beyond the present mortal condition.
ARIANS Arians
英
Arians were followers of Arius, associated by Buck with teaching that the Son was created, subordinate to the Father, and not eternally divine.
ARMINIANS Arminians
英
Arminians were followers of Arminius, described by Buck through the Remonstrant articles on conditional election, general atonement, grace, and perseverance.
DEISTS Deists
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Deists acknowledged God while rejecting revealed religion, preferring natural religion and opposing Christianity's claim to divine revelation.
INFIDELITY Infidelity
英
Infidelity is want of faith in God and disbelief of revelation, which Buck treats as both an intellectual rejection and a moral danger.
SCEPTIC Sceptic
英
A sceptic is one who continually weighs reasons without deciding, a term Buck connects with Pyrrhonian doubt and later religious unbelief.
MARTYR Martyr
英
A martyr is one who suffers death for religion, especially as a witness to the truth of the gospel and to allegiance to Christ.
PERSECUTION Persecution
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Persecution is affliction deliberately inflicted on another, especially the sufferings of Christians for conscience and religion.
DEVOTION Devotion
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Devotion is fervent religious exercise and a holy disposition of mind directed to worship, confession, prayer, and longing for God.
MEDITATION Meditation
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Meditation is serious consideration of spiritual truth, fixing the understanding on divine things for practice and godly affection.
FASTING Fasting
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Fasting is abstinence, especially religious abstinence joined with humiliation, confession of sin, prayer, and seeking God's mercy.
SABBATH Sabbath
英
The Sabbath denotes rest, a day appointed for religious duties and cessation from ordinary work in remembrance of God's works.
WATCHFULNESS Watchfulness
英
Watchfulness is vigilance against spiritual dangers, including Satan's insinuations, worldly allurements, inward deceit, and false doctrine.
ANABAPTISTS Anabaptists
英
Anabaptists are described by Buck as those associated with rejecting infant baptism and insisting on baptism anew, especially by immersion.
LUTHERANS Lutherans
英
Lutherans are treated by Buck as Protestants shaped by Luther's reformation, including justification by Christ's merits and a two-sacrament church practice.
METHODISTS PROTESTANT Methodists Protestant
英
Protestant Methodists are introduced by Buck through the Oxford meetings associated with John Wesley, Scripture reading, disciplined life, and works of mercy.
MORAVIANS Moravians
英
Moravians are presented by Buck as a Brethren movement linked with Moravia, Zinzendorf, older eastern roots, missionary life, and renewed communal witness.
PRESBYTERIANS Presbyterians
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Presbyterians are defined by Buck through government by presbyteries of ministers and ruling elders, with no superior order above presbyters.
QUAKERS Quakers
英
Quakers, or Friends, are described by Buck as a seventeenth-century English society associated with George Fox and inward seeking after divine truth.
SOCINIANS Socinians
英
Socinians are summarized by Buck as followers of Faustus Socinus who denied Christ's eternal deity, personal distinction of the Spirit, satisfaction, and imputed righteousness.
HOPE Hope
英
Hope is the desire and expectation of good, and Christian hope rests on God's promises, perfections, and Christ's offices and intercession.
PATIENCE Patience
英
Patience is a calm and unruffled temper by which a believer bears life's evils and remains steady in duty and happiness.
MEEKNESS Meekness
英
Meekness is a temper not easily provoked to resentment, governing anger and bearing others' anger without returning provocation.
HYPOCRISY Hypocrisy
英
Hypocrisy is seeming or professing to be what one is not, especially the religious imitation of grace without inward reality.
THANKSGIVING Thanksgiving
英
Thanksgiving is the part of divine worship in which received benefits are remembered, valued, acknowledged, and returned in willing service to God.
CHARITY Charity
英
Charity is treated by Buck as one of the chief theological graces, consisting in love to God and love to one's neighbour.
CONTENTMENT Contentment
英
Contentment is a settled disposition in which one's desires are confined to what is enjoyed without murmuring at one's lot or craving more.
DISCIPLINE, CHURCH Church Discipline
英
Church discipline consists in putting church laws into execution, maintaining order, and applying admonition or penalties when needed.
HERESY Heresy
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Heresy is presented by Buck as error held in matters of religion, especially when it departs from received Christian doctrine and divides the church.
