Glossary of Terms Used in 'Issues of Life and Death'


The Day of Judgment
This will be the Final Day when God will judge humanity. The wicked will be punished and the good rewarded
Heaven
Ideas on heaven and who will go there, vary among Christians.
  1. The Traditional View
    The good (generally viewed as those who have repented of their sins, put their trust in Jesus as the Saviour who died for their sins and have thus received God's pardon and forgiveness) will go to heaven to be with God forever in a blissful existence. Heaven is a place, Paradise, where everything is perfectly good - "There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away" (Rev 21 v 4)
  2. The Modern View
    For many modern Christians heaven is not a physical place but a state of being or mind. It is being in God's presence. According to this view, everyone has the opportunity to reach heaven, unless they have deliberately rejected God.
  3. The Liberal View
    Many others believe that all go to heaven, but at level suited to how you have lived whilst on earth. In the Bible, in the Gospel of John, chapter 14 v 2, Jesus said, "In my Father's house are many rooms." Christians with a liberal view take this to mean that there are various areas in heaven to accommodate all people, of whatever religion or creed.

Hell
The idea of hell as a place of punishment burning with fire and brimstone does have some foundation in the Bible.
The Creed
A Creed is a statement of belief. There are three main versions of the Christian creed: The Apostles' Creed, The Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed. This is what the Nicene Creed has to say about the future life:
from whence He will return to judge the living and the dead

Purgatory
A place of spiritual purging. In Roman Catholic teaching, it is where souls of those who die in the grace of God go, to purge them from venial sins. It is a place of temporary suffering to prepare them for heaven.
The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church
A systematic scheme of teaching the beliefs of the Church, using set questions and answers.
The Thirteen Principles
These are the fundamental beliefs of Judaism as set out by Maimonides in "The Thirteen Principles of the Faith" in the 12th Century AD
The Tenakh
The Tenakh is the Bible of Judaism. (It is what Christians call the Old Testament) 'Tenakh' is a made up word based on an acronym (a word where each letter is the initial letter of another word). T N KH each stand for Torah, Nebi'im and K(h)etuvim respectively.

The Torah is the Law, the first five books of the Bible (The Pentateuch), sometimes referred to as the Books of Moses. This contains the 613 commandments which are at the heart of Judaism. Because it is believed that God spoke directly to Moses who, thus, wrote down the commandments exactly as God said, the Torah is the most sacred part of the Jewish Holy writings.

The Nebi'im are the Prophets and the Ketuvim are the Writings (such as The Psalms and the Proverbs).

The Talmud
The Talmud is a written record of how rabbis in ancient times interpreted the Torah. It is an extensive commentary on the Torah and its practical outworking.
Sheol
Sheol, in the Tenakh, is a shadowy place to which the dead go. Sometimes it is translated as 'the grave', but it is not the end; life continues.