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Calvinism
[Doctrine & Theology]Calvinism is a theological tradition rooted in the teachings of the Reformer John Calvin. It emphasizes the sovereignty of God in salvation and is commonly summarized by five points drawn from the Canons of Dort, known by the acronym TULIP.
Dispensationalism
[Doctrine & Theology]Dispensationalism is a theological system that reads biblical history as a series of "dispensations" (economies) through which God deals with humanity, and that distinguishes between Israel and the church. It originated in nineteenth-century Britain and has also significantly shaped the understanding of the end times in Korean churches.
Nicene Creed
[Doctrine & Theology]The Nicene Creed is a confession of faith first drafted at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and expanded at the Council of Constantinople in 381. It summarizes the Trinitarian faith and is one of the principal ecumenical creeds, accepted by the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and Protestant churches alike.
Westminster Confession of Faith
[Doctrine & Theology]The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith produced by the Westminster Assembly in seventeenth-century England. Together with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms prepared by the same assembly, it serves as the doctrinal standard for most Presbyterian churches worldwide, including most Presbyterian denominations in Korea.
Liberal Theology
[Doctrine & Theology]Liberal theology is a movement in Protestant theology, emerging in the nineteenth century, that treats modern reason, scholarship, and individual religious experience as important criteria for understanding the faith. Among Korean Protestant churches, the term is used chiefly as a critical label by conservatives.
Covenant Theology
[Doctrine & Theology]Covenant theology is a theological system, developed within the Reformed tradition, that seeks to understand the whole of Scripture and the history of salvation as a unity centered on the covenants (relationships grounded in promise) that God has made with human beings.
Heidelberg Catechism
[Doctrine & Theology]The Heidelberg Catechism is a Reformed manual of Christian instruction produced in 1563 in the Palatinate region of Germany. In 129 questions and answers, it explains the core of the faith in terms of comfort and gratitude.
Anabaptists
[Denominations]The Anabaptists are a Protestant movement that arose in Zurich, Switzerland, during the sixteenth-century Reformation. They rejected infant baptism and baptized only those who had personally professed faith. The Mennonites and the Hutterites belong to this tradition.
Protestantism
[Denominations]Protestantism is a major branch of Christianity that separated from the Roman Catholic Church during the sixteenth-century Reformation. The term refers collectively to a number of denominations, including the Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Holiness, and Pentecostal churches.
Independent Church
[Denominations]An independent church is a Protestant church that does not belong to a denomination; each congregation manages its own affairs and makes its own decisions. Because such churches do not identify with any particular denominational tradition, they are also called "nondenominational churches."
Plymouth Brethren
[Denominations]The Plymouth Brethren are a Protestant denomination rooted in the Brethren movement that began in Dublin, Ireland, in the 1820s. They have no clerical order separating pastors from laity and no denominational organization. Instead, their church life centers on local assemblies led by elders.
Congregational Church
[Denominations]The Congregational Church is a Protestant denomination that follows congregational polity, in which the entire membership (the congregation) of each local church makes the final decisions on church matters. It arose from the Puritan and Separatist movements of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England.
Prosperity Theology
[Controversies]Prosperity theology is a teaching that emphasizes that those who have faith will receive the blessings of health and wealth. In Korea it has often been criticized as gibok sinang ("blessing-seeking faith").
Contemplative Prayer
[Controversies]Contemplative prayer is a form of prayer that uses few words and rests silently in the presence of God. Some embrace it as a spiritual discipline, while others regard it as a departure from biblical prayer.
Reformation
[History]The Reformation was a sixteenth-century reform movement in Western Europe that sought to correct the teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church in light of Scripture. Its beginning is usually dated to Martin Luther's publication of the Ninety-five Theses in 1517, and Protestantism emerged from this movement.
Shinto Shrine Worship
[History]Shinto shrine worship was a policy under Japanese colonial rule by which the Government-General of Korea compelled Koreans to bow at Shinto shrines (jinja), the sanctuaries of Japanese Shinto. In 1938 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church adopted a resolution accepting the practice, and the resistance movement that opposed it produced both prisoners and martyrs.
Robert Jermain Thomas
[People]Robert Jermain Thomas was a Welsh missionary of the London Missionary Society. In 1866 he sailed up the Taedong River as an interpreter aboard the American merchant ship General Sherman and was killed at Pyongyang. Korean Protestants commonly regard him as their first martyr.
Pseudo-Christian Groups (Saibi)
[Heresies & Cults]Saibi is a Sino-Korean term meaning "something that appears similar but is not genuinely so." In Korean Protestant churches it is used alongside "heresy" (idan) to assess groups that operate under the name of Christianity while departing from its doctrine or engaging in antisocial conduct.
Heresy Counseling
[Heresies & Cults]Heresy counseling is a Protestant counseling and educational ministry that helps people who have joined groups that denominations have designated as heretical or pseudo-religious return to established churches, and that educates church members in advance so that they are not drawn into such groups.
2 Kings
[Bible]Second Kings is a historical book of the Old Testament that records, in twenty-five chapters, the later history of the divided kingdom, from Elijah's ascent into heaven through the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah to the release of the captive King Jehoiachin.