Lecture Notes Review: Church, Sacraments, Gifts, and Eschatology

Flashcards for reviewing vocabulary related to church, sacraments, spiritual gifts, and eschatology.

Church

The community of all true believers for all time.

Ekklesia

Greek word for church.

Invisible Church (Universal Church)

The church as God sees it, composed of all Christians, all over the world, from all times.

Marks of the Church

Right preaching of the word of God, right administration of the sacraments, and proper church leadership through the offices of elders and deacons.

Visible Church (Local Church)

The church as Christians on earth see it, composed of gatherings of local groups of believers to worship together.

Believable Profession of Faith

A central component of the Baptist view of baptism which holds that only those who have given reasonable evidence of believing in Christ should be baptized.

Believer's Baptism

Baptism is an outward proclamation of the inward act of salvation, following salvation when an individual understands and accepts the Gospel.

Covenant Community

Community of God's people; Protestant proponents of infant baptism view baptism as a sign of entrance into this community.

Immersion

Mode of baptism in the New Testament in which the person was put completely under water then brought back up again.

Paedobaptism

View that children in Christian households should be baptized as infants.

Communion

Term commonly used to refer to the Lord's Supper.

Eucharist

Another term for the Lord's Supper (Greek for 'giving of thanks').

Consubstantiation

Jesus is present 'in, with, and under' the elements of the Lord's Supper in a special way.

Lord's Supper

One of the two ordinances that Jesus commanded his church to observe, a sign of continuing fellowship with Christ.

Symbolic Presence

The common Protestant view that the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper symbolize the body and blood of Christ.

Transubstantiation

The elements literally become the body and blood of Jesus when they are blessed by the priest in mass.

Cessationist

The view that some spiritual gifts have ceased after the apostolic age in the early church.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit

All abilities that are empowered by the Holy Spirit and used in any ministry of the church.

"Sign Gifts"

Prophecy, healing, speaking in tongues, etc.

Office (as distinct from gifts)

A publicly recognized position of a person who has the right and responsibility to perform certain functions for the benefit of the whole church.

Eschatology

The study of the 'last things' or future events.

Imminent

Jesus' return could happen at any time.

Preterist

Belief that Christ returned spiritually in AD 70 when the Jewish temple was destroyed, negating any additional future return.

Second Coming of Christ

The sudden personal, visible, bodily return of Christ from heaven to earth.

Amillennialism

The view that there will be no literal thousand-year bodily reign of Christ on earth prior to the final judgement and the eternal state; the millennium describes the present church age.

Great Tribulation

Expression from Matthew 24:21 referring to a period of great hardship and suffering prior to the return of Christ.

Historic Premillennialism

Christ will return to the earth after a period of great tribulation and establish a millennial kingdom.

Millennium

The period of one thousand years mentioned in Rev. 20:4-5 when Christ will be physically present and reign in perfect peace and justice over the earth.

Postmillennialism

Christ will return to the earth after the millennium, which is an age of peace and righteousness brought about by the progress of the gospel.

Pretribulation Premillennialism

Christ will return secretly before the great tribulation to call believers, and then again after the tribulation to reign on earth for a thousand years.

Rapture

The taking up or snatching up of believers to be with Christ when he returns to the earth.