Growing Up Presbyterian
The Twelve Doctrines of Christmas
If you haven’t grown up Presbyterian, you might not recognize or understand the terms mentioned in the above song. I added some definitions from Wikipedia (not the best source, but it gives you the idea.)
Doctrine of Perspicuity ~ The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture, is the Scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it may be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.
Dichotomy ~ The belief that humans consist of a soul and a body.
Hypostatic Union ~ A technical term in Christian theology employed in mainstream Christology to describe the presence of both human and divine natures in Jesus Christ. The Gospel of John 10:37-38 quotes Jesus as follows: “…that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
Forensic Justification ~ God’s act of declaring or making a sinner righteous before God.
Five Points of Calvinism ~
1. Total depravity ~ As a consequence of the Fall of Man, every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin and, apart from the efficacious or prevenient grace of God, is utterly unable to choose to follow God or choose to accept salvation as it is freely offered.
2. Unconditional election ~ Before God created the world, he chose to save some people according to his own purposes and apart from any conditions related to those persons.
3. Limited atonement ~ Jesus Christ’s substitutionary atonement on the cross is limited in scope to those who are predestined unto salvation and its primary benefits are not given to all of humanity but rather just believers.
4. Irresistible grace ~ The saving grace of God is effectually applied to those whom He has determined to save (the elect) and, in God’s timing, overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, bringing them to a saving faith in Christ.
5. Perseverance of the saints ~ None who are truly saved can be condemned for their sins or finally fall away from the faith.
Amillennialism ~ The thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20 is a symbolic number, not a literal description; that the millennium has already begun and is identical with the current church age, (or more rarely, that it ended with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 — see Preterism). Amillennialism holds that while Christ’s reign during the millennium is spiritual in nature, at the end of the church age, Christ will return in final judgment and establish permanent physical reign.
Anthropomorphism ~ refers to the perception of a divine being or beings in human form, or the recognition of human qualities in these beings
Tetragrammaton ~ The Hebrew term for the name of the god of Israel in the Hebrew Bible.
95 Theses ~ written by Martin Luther in 1517 and are widely regarded as the primary catalyst for the Protestant Reformation
Note: I believe in Paedobaptism as opposed to Credobaptism.
Paedobaptism ~ Christian religious practice of baptising infants or young children. Infants or young children may be baptized upon request of a parent who professes faith.
Credobaptism ~ A person is baptized on the basis of his or her profession of faith in Jesus Christ and as admission into a local community of faith.
Salvific Monergism ~ God through the Holy Spirit works to effectually bring about the salvation of individuals through spiritual regeneration without cooperation from the individual.
Supralapsarianism ~ The view that God’s decrees of election and reprobation logically preceded the decree of the fall while infralapsarianism (also called postlapsarianism and sublapsarianism) asserts that God’s decrees of election and reprobation logically succeeded the decree of the fall.
About The Author
Hmmm, funny you don’t hear too many sermons on those topics….
I asked N16 if he knew those words. He said he didn’t recognize all the words, but he was familiar with all the definitions. I suspect he is not the typical high school student.
LOLOLOL!