Agnostic: An agnostic thinks it impossible to know the truth in matters such as God and the future life with which Christianity and other religions are concerned. Or, if not impossible, at least impossible at the present time {http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/humftp/E-text/Russell/agnostic.htm}

Amillennialist [ also termed nunc-millennialism or inaugurated millennialism ]: This group believes that the Kingdom of God was inaugurated at Christ's resurrection (hence the term "inaugurated millennialism") at which point he gained victory over both Satan and the Curse. Christ is even now reigning (hence the term "nunc-millennialism" - nunc means "now") at the right hand of the Father over His church. After this present age has ended, Christ will return and immediately usher the church into their eternal state after judging the wicked. The term "amillennialism" is actually a misnomer for it implies that Revelation 20:1-6 is ignored; in fact, the amillennialist's hermeneutic interprets it (and in fact, much of apocalyptic literature) non-literally.{http://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/mill.html#conc}amillenialists believe that there is not a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ, and no seven year great tribulation - that in general they believe Revelation is talking about the Roman Empire - Amillennialists read the millennium as symbolic also, but are typified by their denial of a present or future millennium -hence the term "A-millennialism". Amillennialism is the eschatological view that does not read the millennium spoken of in Revelation as literal or futuristic. Nearly all of the early church fathers were amillennialists of one sort or another.


Arminian: These five proposed, known as the Arminian Articlesanti-Calvinist corrections are summarized below:
1.God has decreed to save through Jesus Christ, out of the fallen and sinful human race, those foreknown by him who through the grace of the Holy Spirit believe in Christ; but God leaves in sin those foreseen, who are incorrigible and unbelieving (Election conditioned upon foreknowledge).

2. Christ's death was suffered on behalf of all men, but God elects for salvation only those who believe in Christ (Atonement is a universal moral influence).

3. Freedom of will is man's natural state, not a spiritual gift - and thus free will was not lost in the Fall. The grace of Christ works upon all men to influence them for good, but only those who freely choose to agree with grace by faith and repentance are given new spiritual power to make effectual the good they otherwise impotently intend (Free will and partial depravity).

4. The grace of God works for good in all men, and brings about newness of life through faith. But grace can be resisted even by the regenerate (Resistible grace).

5. Those who are incorporated into Christ by a true faith have power given them through the assisting grace of the Holy Spirit, sufficient to enable them to persevere in the faith. But it is possible for a believer to fall from grace. {http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arminianism}

Calvinist: Calvinism is often identified in the popular mind, with the "five points of the doctrines of grace", remembered by the English acronym: TULIP.

1. Total Depravity
All men are guilty in God's sight, and undeserving of life. [See Genesis 3, Romans 3:10-18]
2. Unconditional Election:
Election means "choice". God's choice from eternity, of who he will bring to himself, is not based on foreseen virtue, merit or faith in the persons he chooses but rather, is unconditionally grounded in his own mercy. [Romans 9, Ephesians 1:3-5]
3. Limited Atonement:
Also called "definite atonement" meaning that, Christ's death actually takes away the penalty of sins committed by those upon whom God has chosen to have mercy. It is "limited" then, to taking away the sins of the elect. [John 10:14-15 & 26-28]
4. Irresistible Grace:
The saving grace of God is not resistible. Those who obtain salvation do so because of the relentlessness of God's mercy. Men yield to grace, not finally because God found their consciences more tender or their faith more tenacious than other men. Rather, willingness and ability to do God's will, are evidence of God's faithfulness to save men from the power and the penalty of sin. [John 15:16]
5. Perseverance of the Saints:
Those whom God has called into communion with Himself through Christ, will continue in faith and will increase in faith and other gifts, until the end. [John 10:27-29] {http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvinism#Popular_summations_of_Calvinist_theology}
The Arminians believe, it is conditional; the Calvinists, that it is absolute. { http://www.arminian.us/} deficiencies


Cessationist vs Non-cessationist
"Cessationism" is here defined as the thesis that some of the gifts (and their corresponding offices) described in the New Testament are ordinary and perpetual, while others were extraordinary and have accordingly been withdrawn from the life of the church with the close of the apostolic age. {http://pages.sbcglobal.net/dcrow/dcrc/articles/irons_cessation.html#Positive}
When considering the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the cessationist believes that certain gifts (typically those specifically mentioned in 1st Corinthians 12:7-11, generally identified as the miraculous gifts), ceased long ago, when the apostles died and Scripture was complete. The non-cessationist does not believe Scripture supports this point of view. The non-cessationist believes that God continues to gift believers and perform miraculous acts as He did in the days of the Bible. {http://www.hhbc.com/pdfs/Cessationism%20and%20Non-Cessationism.rtf}

Christian Zionism: "a movement, largely among Gentile Christians, supporting the right of the Jewish people to return to the Promised Land which has, of course, happened right before our eyes during this century" {http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/czionism.html}

Covenant Theology: New Covenant Theology (NCT) is a biblical approach to understanding God's unfolding plan of salvation. The focus of this approach is the work and person of Jesus Christ with emphasis on what God has accomplished and fulfilled in Christ for the elect. The Lord Jesus is the grand theme of both the New and Old Testament Scriptures which unifies all of the Bible as evidenced in Ephesians 1:7-10: The primary premise of NCT is that the New Covenant as mediated by Christ is a brand NEW covenant, which totally replaces the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant was a covenant that God established with the ancient Nation of Israel only. The terms of this covenant were the Ten Commandments or Tables of Stone. Thus, the Ten Commandments were the essence of the Old (or first) Covenant only and Not the essence of all of God's law in every era. As the essence of the Old Covenant, the Ten Commandments function as its representative.

Dispensationalist: According to dispensationalists, God has two distinct bodies of people with whom he is working: Israel and the church. There is a separate plan for each of these two peoples. Israel is said to be an earthly people, while the church represents a heavenly body. they teach that Jesus came to earth the first time fully intending to establish an earthly millennial kingdom with his chosen people, Israel. When the Jews rejected Christ's legitimate offer of the kingdom, say the dispensationalists, that kingdom was then postponed until the second coming of Christ. Then the same earthly Davidic kingdom which they are supposed to have refused will be established in the form of the millennium. During the millennium all the plans which were supposedly thwarted by the Jews at the first advent will be carried out in a literal manner. Because of Israel's rejection, the kingdom was postponed until the second advent of Christ. The millennial kingdom was offered, and postponed; but it will be instituted on earth after Christ's return. Since the kingdom was postponed it is a great error to attempt, as is so commonly done, to build a kingdom on the first advent of Christ as its basis, for, according to the Scriptures, the kingdom which was offered to Israel was rejected and is therefore delayed, to be realized only with the second advent of Christ.
The kingdom, because it was rejected and postponed, entered a mystery form (Matt 13) for the present age This mystery form of the kingdom has to do with the Church age when the kingdom of heaven is embodied in Christendom. God is now ruling on the earth insofar as the parables of the mystery of the kingdom of heaven require. In this mystery phase of the kingdom, good and evil mingle together and are to grow together until Christ returns.
The kingdom is to be reannounced by a Jewish remnant of 144,000 in final anticipation of Messiah's return. At the beginning of the great tribulation, which occurs immediately before the return of Christ, the Church will be raptured, taken out of the world, to be with Christ. An election of Israel is then sealed by God to proclaim throughout all the world the Gospel of the kingdom (Matt 24:14), i.e., that the Davidic kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, is about to be set up.
The millennial kingdom will then be realized as Christ returns in power and glory at the conclusion of the tribulation. Then Israel, which has been gathered from its dispersion through the earth to Messiah, will accept Him as such, and will enter the millennial kingdom as the covenanted people (George E. Ladd, Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God, pp. 50,51). {http://www.graceonlinelibrary.org/full.asp?ID=178}

Dispensational Premillennialists hold that Christ will come before a seven-year period of intense tribulation to take His church (living and dead) into heaven. After this period of fulfillment of divine wrath, He shall then return to rule from a holy city (i.e., the New Jerusalem) over the earthly nations for one thousand years. After these thousand years, Satan, who was bound up during Christ's earthly reign, will be loosed to deceive the nations, gather an army of the deceived, and take up to battle against the Lord. This battle will end in both the judgment of the wicked and Satan and the entrance into the eternal state of glory by the righteous. This view is called premillenialism because it places the return of Christ before the millennium and it is called dispensational because it is founded in the doctrines of dispensationalism.

Fundamentalist: Self-described Fundamentalists frequently consider themselves "non-denominational", and indeed the movement is found in many denominations. They are typically pessimistic in their expectations for the future of the world (see dispensationalism), and committed to separation from what they believe to be theological, scientific and moral error. Although the modern movement formed within many of the established denominations, their tendency toward separation swelled the ranks of peripheral spinoff denominations, produced a multitude of new groups, and often made the choice of congregational independence appear to be the more faithful choice.
Christian fundamentalism is characterized as well by a more strict moral code compared to mainstream Protestantism, by which the fundamentalist believer seeks to distinguish himself from the world and identify himself with the community of the faithful. . The term Fundamentalist Christian, against the unheeded objections of nearly all to whom it is popularly applied, now describes any conservative adherent to Christianity, who clings to views of morality, sin, salvation through Christ alone, or other views based on the truth and authority of Scripture, which have been discarded in favor of more skeptical or pluralistic views, by the more widely respected authorities and scholars of religion. Notwithstanding this loose use of the terms, there is some awareness that Fundamentalism has a specific, historical meaning.{http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_fundamentalists}


Historical Premillennialists : place the return of Christ just before the millennium and just after a time of great apostasy and tribulation. After the millennium, Satan will be loosed and Gog and Magog will rise against the kingdom of God; this will be immediately followed by the final judgment. While similar in some respects to the dispensational variety (in that they hold to Christ's return being previous the establishment of a thousand-year earthly reign), historical premillennialism differs in significant ways (notably in their method of interpreting Scripture).
The postmillennialist believes that the millennium is an era (not a literal thousand years) during which Christ will reign over the earth, not from an literal and earthly throne, but through the gradual increase of the Gospel and its power to change lives. After this gradual Christianization of the world, Christ will return and immediately usher the church into their eternal state after judging the wicked. This is called postmillennialism because, by its view, Christ will return after the millennium.


Mid-trib: Mid-Tribulationism teaches that the church will enter the seven last years, but will be taken to be with Christ 3 1/2 years later at the mid-point. Typically, this removes the church from the "Great Tribulation" which they believe to be contained in the second half, but does put the church through some of the more tolerable conditions during the first half.

Open Theism: Open theism, also known as free will theism and openness, is the teaching that God does not know all things. That is, He does not know the free will choices that people will make in the future because God either chooses not to know or because the future isn't knowable.

Parousia: "parousia" the Greek word for advent, coming, or presence. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, and it says, 'Advent (often, return; spec. of Christ to punish Jerusalem, or finally the wicked

Partial Preterism: "The term 'partial Preterism' refers to that wide spectrum of thought which is not fully Preterist, but which incorporates some portion of what the Preterist view has to offer. Though there is a wide range of doctrine among partial Preterists, they are united in the belief that some, but not all, eschatological prophecies were fulfilled in the destruction of the Jewish nation in A.D. 70. Most partial Preterist systems believe that the "big three" are yet future - the Great Judgment, the Resurrection and the Return of Christ. While most partial Preterists are tolerant of the those who hold to a fully Preterist view, there are a few that are not. The Reformed Church of the USA and others believe that adherents of the Preterist view are damned and going to hell. Though this intolerant position is condemned by many within their own ranks, there are still many current anathemas on the Preterist view."

The Partial Preterist View (Source: R.C. Sproul, Last Days)

A.D.70
A coming (parousia) of Christ
A day of the Lord
A judgment
The end of the Jewish Age

Still Future
The coming (parousia) of Christ
The day of the Lord
The resurrection of the dead
The rapture of the living
The (final) judgment
The end of history

From -- http://www.preteristarchive.com/PartialPreterism/

Patristic: The study of the writings of the Fathers of the Church, has more commonly been known in England as "patristics", or, more commonly still, as "patristic study".

Postmillennialists: They see the millennium as symbolic of the "church age" progressing through time. They also have a pretty optimistic view of history, that the world is slowly getting better and better.

Post-trib: The 'post-trib' (abbreviation for 'post-tribulation') rapture view is the belief that Jesus will return visibly and bodily to raise the dead Christians and 'catch up' the living Christians at the end of a period of intense tribulation, called by Jesus "great tribulation" [Matt. 24:21]. The post-trib view is the only rapture view which sees only a single future coming of Jesus. Other rapture views, 'pre-trib,' 'mid-trib,' and 'pre-wrath,' all envision the rapture / resurrection as being prior to the second coming of Jesus by months or years. While all the other rapture views see the rapture as a means to take the Church to heaven for a brief period of time to escape God's wrath, the post-trib view sees the rapture merely as a mechanism to gather together all believers in a single location with Christ, to accompany Him in glory as He is revealed to the world. {http://www.geocities.com/~lasttrumpet/post-trib.html}


Preterist: A "full" preterist would interpret passages as Matthew 24 as referring to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70 The term 'Preterist' is a somewhat obscure way of labeling those who believe that the Roman-Jewish War in the first century is to be associated with end-times Bible fulfillment. Based upon revelations throughout God's Word, all of the Bible's eschatology was to fing fulfillment in the latter half of the first century (Please read: The Significance of A.D. 70).
Those who believe (using Sproul's definition) that all eschatological events are in the past are { http://www.preteristarchive.com/Preterism/dennis-todd_p_01.html}


Pre-trib: Pre-Tribulationism is a futurist interpretation of end time events. It teaches that the church will be caught up to Christ sometime before the "tribulation" period (which they claim is Daniel's Seventieth Week and thus a seven-year period) begins. This removes the church from the earth and conveys it into Heaven while divine judgment is poured out on the unbelievers who remain. Typically pre-trib teaching includes the belief that there will continue to be people saved who were left behind, many who are converted by the preaching of the 144,000 "witnesses" of Rev. ch 7. These believers are the "tribulation saints" who must wait until Christ returns a second (third?) time to receive their eternal inheritance, although most will be martyred by then. Upon Christ's return with the church, a 1,000-year period of earthly rule by Christ will begin (pre- millenialism). {http://www.souldevice.org/pretrib.html}

Pre-Wrath: "Pre-Wrath" is a view that has espoused in such books as Van Kampen's "The Sign" - it is basically a view that states that Christians will go through the great tribulation, but will be raptured prior to the descending of God's wrath very shortly before Christ's return. Pre-wrathers assert that Christ's parousia will occur after the great tribulation has started, but not before it ends. But they do not place it smack-dab halfway through as normal midtribbers do. In fact, most prewrathers are fairly agnostic about the actual timing in terms of where within the 7 years. But they do say it will be after the 4th seal is broken

Reformed: The Five Sola's of the Reformation:
Sola Scriptura: (Scripture Alone) This principle asserts the supreme sufficiency of God's written Word. No other words are adequate and no other words are divine. Popes, creeds, councils and tradition of men have no authority when they contradict the Holy Scriptures. The Bible is complete and the canon is closed. No further revelation is given. "In these last days He has spoken to us in His Son" (Hebrews 1:2). Jesus Christ has spoken all that is necessary through His apostles in the Bible. The Bible alone is sufficient: 2 Tim. 3:17; Ps. 119:1; Deut. 4:2; 12:30; 29:29; Ps. 30:5-6; Rev. 22:18-19.
Sola Gratia: (Grace Alone) Salvation is by grace alone. The definition of "grace" is unmerited favor. God is never under any obligation to grant salvation. If God's justice required that He give grace to all men, then salvation would not be a gift but an act of justice. If men could earn the grace of God, grace would by definition no longer be grace- it would be merit. "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace" (Romans 11:6). God bestows His grace freely and sovereignly upon those whom He chooses to save. The elect are saved by grace alone: Eph. 1:3-11; 2:8-9; Rom. 9:10-16; 2 Tim. 1:9; 2 Thes. 2:13.

Sola Fide: (Faith Alone) Salvation is through faith alone. In Romans 3:26 the Apostle Paul tells us that God sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice, "to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies the man who has faith in Jesus." Rather than being declared righteous on the basis of our faith plus our deeds, we are declared righteous solely on the basis of our faith in the righteousness of Christ. (Romans 3:20-28). Christ's righteousness is imputed to the sinner not infused or imparted. Without the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us, all the infused grace we have will not save us because we as Christians do sin and fall short of Gods own perfect standard! We are justified by faith alone but not by faith that is alone. Genuine faith is accompanied by the fruit of good works (James 2:14-18). We are not declared righteous on the basis of any work, but only on the basis of our faith in Jesus: Rom. 3:20, 26, 28; 4:2-13; Gal. 2:16; 3:24-25.

Solus Christus: (Christ Alone) Salvation is because of Christ alone. Jesus Christ alone paid the full penalty for the sins of His people and presents them as righteous before the Father, restoring their fellowship with Him. His death was substitutionary in that He offered Himself as a sacrifice to satisfy Divine justice as the sins of His people were imputed to Him on the cross. We are saved solely on the basis of the merit of Christ, none of our own: Gal. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 3:25; 4:25; 8:3; Rom. 1:17; 3:21; 1 Cor. 1:30.

Soli Deo Gloria: (To God Alone be the Glory) In salvation, God alone receives credit and glory. We are saved for His glory, not for our own. His purpose in saving us and in all He does is to magnify the glory of His own great name, to have a people that would sing His praises, live in a way that reflects His character. God alone gets the credit for our salvation, because we did not contribute one thing to it. God alone, therefore, receives glory: Is. 42:8; 43:7; 48:11; Ps. 115:1; Rom. 11:36; 16:27; Eph. 3:21; Phil. 4:20; 1 Tim. 1:17; 2 Tim. 4:18.
http://www.geocities.com/y_a_r_r/sola.htm

Zionism: Zionism, the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel, advocated, from its inception, tangible as well as spiritual aims. Jews of all persuasions, left and right, religious and secular, joined to form the Zionist movement and worked together toward these goals. Disagreements led to rifts, but ultimately, the common goal of a Jewish state in its ancient homeland was attained. The term "Zionism" was coined in 1893 by Nathan Birnbaum. {http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Zionism/zionism.html}