As in a court of law, confession means admitting that you’ve done something wrong, or that your values were leading you down the wrong path of conduct. “Confessing that Jesus is Lord” means admitting you rebelled against Jesus, perhaps in ignorance that He is Lord. Just as in court, confession is something you say out loud. You can confess to a mature Christian, a pastor, a counselor, or to God in prayer. (Before you confess to a human being, make sure they have the training and credentials to deal with the issue you are confessing.) Many people stop at confession, but it is really the second step in a process. Compunction leads to confession, which leads to repentance, which is a change in your values, and that leads to a change in your conduct. The technical term for a person who admits that they did something wrong and then never tries to fix it is “hypocrite.” In the ancient church, catechumens were required to stand on a box in front of everyone and confess their sins to the the entire congregation. This eventually ran into practical problems, because a convert’s confession could implicate other people, especially if they were a government official. Since we are not supposed to confess other people’s sins, catechumens were given the option of confessing to a clergyman privately. That began in the fourth century and eventually that became the norm. It is still the practice among Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, and Catholic Christians, though among Anglicans and Lutherans, it is optional.
Consecrate, Consecration
A dedication ceremony that sets people or objects aside
for a holy purpose. A church can consecrate buildings,
furniture, crosses, candlesticks and so on, or it can consecrate
people for a holy purpose, such as lay reader or missionary.
Consecration can be for a limited period of time, such
as a person’s term of office, and it usually has a limited
scope, such as for reading scriptures publicly. The inner
nature of the object or person being consecrated is not
changed. The only thing that changes is an object’s function
or a person’s tasks. See also sanctification and ordination.
The word communicate originally meant to
take Communion. People who are excommunicated are
barred from Communion for disciplinary reasons, but may
still participate in other parts of the service. In the ancient church, excommunicated people had to start over as catechumens, and after they completed the process, they were welcomed back to Communion.
Forgive, Forgiveness
The unilateral act of a creditor who cancels a debt,
notifying the debtor that repayment is no longer necessary. Theologically, forgiveness cancels the guilt but not the consequence of the sin. If you are forgiven for robbing a bank, you still have to give the money back.
Free will
Free will is a person’s capacity to freely chose to repent
and be saved. All branches of the historic Church affirm
that we have free will, except theological traditions that are heavily influenced
by Augustine’s later writings. Those who deny free argue that it impugns
God’s sovereignty. The rest of the Church disagrees, observing that scriptures
tell us to choose and to obey, two things we cannot possibly do without free
will.
Grace
God’s unmerited love and favor toward sinners, the divine
gift that brings about contrition, penitence, repentance,
and the works of obedience in response to forgiveness.
Guilt
A legal term that is often used instead of compunction.
The word guilt has the unfortunate implication
of a hopeless situation, so it is better to use the terms
compunction or contrition in a theological setting. Feelings
of guilt are only constructive if they lead to repentance, forgiveness,
reconciliation, justification,
and sanctification.
Heaven
In scripture, the word heaven has three meanings:
The sky, where the clouds are and
where weather happens. This is probably the meaing
in Matthew 3:16. We use heaven in this sense
when we describe an approaching thunderstorm by saying
that the “heavens are angry.”
The place where the stars and planets
are located, as in Matthew 24:29. We use heaven in
this sense when we talk about the grandeur of the “heavens”
while looking at the nighttime sky.
The place where God abides with His angels, as in
Matthew 3:17.
In popular religion, good people zip off to heaven at the
time of death. In Christianity, when Christians die, their
souls go to Paradise (Luke 23:43, also called the Bosom
of Abraham) to await the Resurrection and the Last
Judgment, after which they live in the New Jerusalem, also
called the New Earth.
Hell
In scripture, the word hell translates the Hebrew
word sheol and the Greek word hades, both of which refer
to the realm of the dead. Before Christ, the souls of all
the dead, whether wicked or righteous, went to this realm
to await the Resurrection and the Judgment. In popular
religion, hell refers to the place of eternal
torment, which is called the Lake of Fire, Tartarus, or
Gehenna in scripture. According to Jesus in Matthew 25:41,
this place of eternal torment was designed for the devil
and his angels, not for humans. Thus humans can escape
this fate through repentance, forgiveness,
reconciliation, justification, and sanctification.
Holy
The word holy has two meanings:
Intrinsically holy. Only God is
intrinsically holy.
A mundane object or person who is set aside for a
holy purpose.
The words saint and holy have
the same meaning. The only difference is in the usage:
we use saint to refer to people and holy to
refer to objects.
Justify, Justification
The act of God that frees a sinner from the penalty of
sin.
Ordination
A church ceremony that acknowledges that God has called
a person into professional ministry and formally delegates
the duties and responsibilities of clergy to that person.
In most cases, there is a lengthy ordination
process that includes systematic examination and approval
before the ordination is performed. Ordination is generally
for life. An ordained person, like a lay person, can be
consecrated to carry out a specific task or office. See
also sanctification and consecration.
Original Sin
Original sin is the doctrine that as descendants
of Adam, we inherit his sinfulness, just as we inherit
his humanity. In the west, primarily because of St. Augustine,
this concept grew to include the idea that we inherit Adam’s
guilt. Calvin took Augustine’s position to the extreme,
teaching that we are totally depraved and without any natural
virtue or worth whatsoever. The eastern Church teaches
that we have inherited from Adam the state of
sin, but not the guilt of sin. Therefore, despite
original sin, we still possess the small amount of goodness
necessary to realize our sinfulness, to choose good, and
to repent of evil. The eastern Church teaches that if we
were totally worthless, we would be totally irredeemable.
Penance
Any voluntary act that results from repentance. Penance
is a concrete expression of gratitude for the forgiveness
of a debt that can never in fact be repaid.
Penitent, Penitence
Willingness to correct a wrongdoing, synonymous with
repentance.
Predestination
Predestination means that our destination is set in advance. Calvinists argue
that predestination implies determinism; that is, that
all things have been decided in advance and that we have
no free will; we are like actors
saying our lines in a play. Therefore, they argue that
some people are predestined for eternal punishment. The
rest of the historic Church argues that since it is not
God’s will for anyone to be lost (Matthew 18:14), all people
are predestined to live with God in His glory. However,
since they have free will, some may choose not to realize
their destiny and end up in hell. They also note that if
a person’s eternal fate was determined in the beginning,
the Judgment took place on the first day, when in scripture
it takes place on the last day.
Providence
God’s benevolent intervention to supply needs.
Repent
The literal meaning is “to change one’s mind.” The Greek and Hebrew
words that are translated as repent can either
mean a simple change of mind or a realization of sin with
the accompanying resolve to reform. In some Bible translations,
we find God repenting. In the original language, it simply
means that God changed His mind. Technically, repentance is
the change of mind and penance is the change of
deeds. For example, realizing that you were wrong to steal
something is repentance, while returning the stolen
goods is penance.
Repentance
Willingness to correct a wrongdoing, synonymous with
penitence.
Saint
The words saint and holy have
the same meaning. The only difference is in the usage:
we use saint to refer to people and holy to
refer to objects. A saint can be any of the following:
A person who has been set aside
for a holy life; in this sense, all Christians are
saints, as in Philippians 1:1.
A person whose life is upheld as
spiritually exemplary. In some churches, there is a
process for recognizing saints. In the Roman Catholic
Church, it is a formal, centralized process. In Orthodox
churches, the process is not centralized. In the Episcopal
Church, it is done informally by the Prayer Book committee.
In common usage, the word saint can refer
to a deceased Christian, as in the phrase “my sainted
mother.”
Sanctify, Sanctification
To set a person apart for a holy purpose. In most usages,
sanctification is an act of the Holy Spirit that permanently
transforms the person’s inner nature. See also consecration and ordination.
