Reformed Perspective Vocabulary

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Used with permission: Dr. Cornelius Plantinga Calvin Seminary Grand Rapids MI.

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Triune: Being a triple and a unit at the same time. To say that God is to say that God three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) but only one God . That is, God is a trinity.
Covenant Promises: God;s Promises in the covenant of Grace is that he will love his people, protect them, and help them. God also promises to bless the whole world through his people.
Attributes of God: God's characteristics or qualities such as goodness and greatness. Describing God's attributes helps us understand, praise and imitate God.
The Kingdom of God: God's reign over HId universal realm. Covenant, prophets, priests, human kings, and the church are all tools, or instruments, of the Kingdom of God. Like a mustard seed, the Kingdom starts out small but grows and grows. The things that Kingdom people cherish and value -- like humility, forgiveness, kindness __ seem "Upside - down to people who are not members of the Kingdom.
Sovereignty of God: The attribute of God which means that he is supreme in control.
Bible: The book that contains the writing and scriptures that Christians recognize as the written word of God.
Providence: The care of God shows for all his creation. God preserves our world, rescues his people, works fro good, and controls history. Providence lets us trust and thank God.
Misery: The pain and suffering that come from sin; the fallout that comes from the fall. Among the fallen world's miseries are disorders, estrangement, and death.
Redemption: To rescue someone by paying a ransom. Just as God redeemed Israel from the land of Egypt, so Jesus Christ redeems us from the slavery of sin and death by paying the ransom price of his lifeblood.
Reconciliation: Restoring peace and harmony to estranged parties. Jesus Christ brings peace and reconciliation by acting as arbitrator, or mediator between God and humanity.
Image of God: The likeness of God in human beings. We see image of God in us by our ruling over creation, by our fellowship with each other and by any right actions we do. The image of God means being like Christ.
Faith: The bong to Christ from our side. Faith includes belief in the promises of God and trust in Jesus. Justification is received by faith.
Evil: The combination is sin and misery that we see in the world around us. Evil originated in the angel world but comes to us through the fall of Adam and Eve.
Shame: A sense of humiliation after sin. People who are ashamed feel as if they'd like to crawl under something or have some covering hid them from view. The fall brings shame into human race.
Confessions: Carefully organized, written statements of doctrine approved by the church.
Repentance: The complete turning around of our lives. Repentance is like dying and then being born again.
Reformed: To be Reformed is to confess the common Christian faith with a special accent. In particular, it means to accent such things as the authority of sricpture, the sovereignty of God, personal integrity in the life of holiness, and the need for a view of world intergrity (sometimes called a "world-and-life view" or :Kingdom vision".)
Corruption: The seeping or flooding power of sin. Sin seeps into every part of human life, straining and spoiling thoughts, words, deeds, feelings and inclinations.
Law of God: The statement of what God wants from us. The law of God is a training guide for the new life of liberty.
The Fall: The event in which our first parents disobeyed God and thus brought evil into the world.
Guilt: What we have when we break God's law and deserve the laws penalty. Guilt includes what we have when we do wrong, it also includes what we have when we fail to do right. When we fail to do right, guilt is called debt.
Freedom: The removel of the things that drag is down and the opening up to joyful life in God. (Because if we are not slaves to him, we will be slaves to something else.)
Greatness of God: An attribute of God meaning that God is awesome. God's greatness is the power behind this goodness.
Forgiveness of Sins: The subtracting, or putting away, of sins so that they are no longer held against us. When God forgives our sins, we can be at peace with him.
God's Speaking: God's communication to us. God speaks in his world, in his word (including the Bible), and by his son. God's speaking tells us that God is a personal, caring, and saving God. So when God speaks, we ought to respond.
Estrangment: A disorder in which persos or things that ought to be friends become strangers instead, for example, when people are estranged from God, they see God not only as a loving father but as an embarrassment or even as an enemy.
Atonement: The process by which Jesus Christ put right what sin put wrong. Christ's suffering and death are an atonement, a making amends, for sin.
Inspiration of Scripture: The process by which God "breathed" into the biblical writers what he wanted them to write God moved influenced and inspired them by the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit now inspires us to recieves and believe in the Bible.
Incarnation: The event in which the eternal Son of God took on human flesh, which we celebrate at Christmas.
Doctrine: The church's teachings about God and our salvation, based on the Bible.
Common Grace: God's way of partly stopping corruption so that human life can continue. Common grace explains why unbelievers often show behavior--better
Disorder: The loss of harmony and right relation in the universe. Disorder shows up in relations between God and humanity, between some humans and others, between humanity and nature, and even within individual human beings.
Authority of Scripture: The power of the Bible to influence our believing and acting. Because the Bible is our authority, it can even give commands that we must obey. The Bible is authoritative because God is its author and because only in the Bile do we find Jesus Christ, our rescuer.
Infallibility of Scripture: The quality of the Bible that means it will not fail. By the Bible's unfailingness or infallibility we mean it does not decieve us, make mistakes in presenting God's word, or fail to reach its goal of helping people get saved and then lead thankful lives.
Original Sin: The corruption and guilt that the human race has inherited from Adam and Eve. The doctrine of original sin tells us that sin is universal, that it keeps reproducing , and that it is extremely hard to get rid of.
Sanctification: The lifelong conversion by which Christians becoome gradually holier--that is, more like Jesus Christ. Sanctification is the solution to the problem od pollution. We want to live the life of holiness because of our desire for God, or gratitude to him, and our faith in him.
God's Word: What God says in his speaking. Some of what God says is written down in the Bible. That is why the Bible is sometimes called God's word. Everything important about God is "lived out" by his son, Jesus Christ. That is why he is sometimes called the word of God.
Justification: God's acceptance of unacceptable people. Justification includes the forgiving of our sins and the adding to us of Jesus' righteousness.
Grace: Loving Kindness to a person in misery, especially when a person is miserable because of his or her own sin. Grace is then undeserved favor or kindness.
Circumcison: The Old Testament sign and seal of the covenant of Grace.
Covenant: A solemn agreement or pact. In a covenant there are always promises on one side and often obligations on the other. Covenants are usually signed and sealed, sometimes bu strange acts.
Covenant Obligations: The duties God's people owe to God. These are especailly obedience (because Gos is patient and King), trust (because God is savior), and thanks (because God shows Grace).
Tragedy of the Fall: The fact that the fall happens not to unimportant creatures (whose fall wouldn't matter so much) but to people made in God's image. The fall is also tragic because it includes trickery, foolishness, pride, and disastrous results.
Satisfaction: Giving someone what he has coming, so as to :fill up an empty place" in him. Through his death Christ satisfies God's justice by obeying God perfectly, as we cannot, and be suffering the penalty for our disobedience.
Goodness of God: An attribute of God meaning that he satisfies the needs of all his creatures.
Creation: The sovereign act of God by which He brought into being the whole universe from nothing. Creation shows God's sovereignty, goodness, greatness and his image in us.

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