Glossary

believer

I use the word “believer” to refer to Christians, regardless of denomination, who truly believe in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit with conviction and faith. They aren’t merely a Christian by convention or tradition but worship God in Spirit and in Truth.

Christian

The term “Christian” is a generic reference to all people worldwide who say they believe in Jesus Christ and/or belong to a Christian church or other Christian group. This is a broad definition, disregarding doctrine or measure of personal conviction. Unbelieving Christians therefore also form part of this definition.

church

Lowercase “church” refers to man-made organizations, often with buildings, leadership structures, administration, programs, etc.

Church

Uppercase “Church” is synonymous with the term “Body of Christ” describing collections, communities, families or individuals of local and worldwide believers. This only ever describes people and not organizations. A church building is therefore not part of the Church.

god

When typing “god” in lowercase, I’m not referring to the one true omnipotent God, but rather to humans as gods, or to demons and evil spirits who some worship as gods.

God

Various references to God are capitalized out of respect: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Him, He, Himself, Father, Heavenly Father, Lord, Yahweh, I Am, Adonai, Savior, Word, Truth, etc.

Father God

Even though God also has tender nurturing qualities, I only ever refer to God in the paternal male gender. However, this is not to imply that God is human or even has a gender. In the Scriptures He is likened to a father.

satan

The proper noun “satan” is intentionally typed in lower case because he is the fallen angel, cast down from heaven.

vision

An image or moving scene displayed upon the canvas of the imagination of an person awake, not asleep, from an external source, like God.

Word of God

When using the term “Word of God” I never simply mean the Bible, but instead refer to divine communication issued by God Himself in the moment. This is God speaking personally to someone, like He spoke to Moses and Samuel in the Old Testament, to Jesus and Saul (Paul) in the New Testament, and to numerous others. However, such divine communication can also be through dreams, visions, divine knowledge and other forms. At times it can most certainly also be Bible scriptures quickened by the Holy Spirit. The Word of God is, first and foremost, God, as made clear in the book of John chapter 1. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is also known as the Word of God, a man born on Earth whose Father was God, who was in God, and who heard, believed and did exactly as God spoke.