Calvinism: a system of Christian doctrines based on the teaching of John Calvin, one of the great reformers of the 16th century; not to be confused with Hyper Calvinism, which took Calvin's teachings beyond what Calvin taught and beyond biblical boundaries.
Canaan: The land promised to Abraham and his descendants.
Canon: [canon – a rule] refers to the Scripture; the collection of writings accepted as the authoritative rule of faith.
Catholic: commonly used to refer to the Roman Catholic denomination. Literally, means ‘according to the whole’, hence the term ‘the holy catholic church’ in the Apostles’ Creed refers to the whole church worldwide.
Cessationist: A person who believes that the miraculous gifts given to individual people [tongues, healing, miracles] ceased at the end of the Apostolic age, being only intended as signs confirming the message of the apostles. Until the 20th century this was the majority viewpoint among protestants.
Charismatic: Literally, gifted. In contemporary Christianity, used to refer to the movement popularised from the late 1960s onwards, which taught the baptism of the Spirit as a second experience, speaking in tongues as evidence, various other sign gifts [healing, prophecy], and ‘slaying in the Spirit’, etc.
Cherubim: Winged heavenly creatures first mentioned in Genesis 3:24 where they barred the way to the Tree of Life. Also: on the Atonement Cover/Mercy Seat [Exodus 25:17-22 etc]; on the tabernacle/temple curtain’s [Exodus 26:1,31]; and in Ezekiel’s various visions of the Lord.
Chosen: Chosen by God for a specific purpose.
Christ: The Anointed One: the Messiah anticipated throughout the Old Testament.
Christian: Biblical meaning: follower of Jesus Christ.
Christocentric: Christ-centred
Christological mystery: a mystery of the same kind as the union of God and man in the person of Christ: that Christ is both fully God and fully man – unity without fusion, distinction without division, and without reduction of either. Similar mysteries are found in prayer, salvation, and the Trinity.
Christology: the study of Christ.
Church: biblically, the body of true believers, either locally or generally. [Greek: ekklesia – called out]
Church [visible]: The body of people associating with a church group or denomination. Contains both genuine and non-genuine believers.
Church [invisible]: The full number of genuine believers world wide, past, present and future.
Compassion: Deep, overwhelming love for a person in need, overlooking the person’s unworthiness, and expressed in kindness towards that person.
Conscience: An inner awareness of right and wrong, varying in degree from person to person.
Condemnation: the body of valid information regarding a person’s legal guilt, and/or the judgment and penalty this guilt rightly and legally incurs.
Confess [Confession]: To admit or acknowledge oneself a sinner who sins [1 John 1:8-10]. Misunderstood by some to mean individually naming each sin one has committed.
Covenant: biblically, an arrangement imposed by God upon one or more people, in which God commits to certain promises, and may or may not impose certain conditions.
Covenant, Abrahamic: the covenant made with Abraham [Genesis 12,15]. Unconditional. Fulfilled in Christ.
Covenant, Davidic: the covenant made with David [2 Samuel 7:12-17]. Unconditional. Fulfilled in Christ.
Covenant, New: the new covenant, promised in Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36, etc and established and ratified by the blood of Christ [Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 8]. Unconditional.
Covenant, Sinai [or ‘old’]: the covenant made with Israel [Exodus 20-24]; subsidiary to the Abrahamic covenant. Conditional. Fulfilled in Christ.
Creation [create, Creator]: God created all things out of nothing, in six literal days, by the power of his word [Genesis 1 and 2].
Curse: From God’s perspective: to pronounce judgment on.