Passage

Romans 11

• Glossary Term

  Apostle

  Fairly stable technical term with limited competing everyday usage; main risk is treating 'apostle' as simply a job title ('an apostle of free trade,' a modern loose secular usage for 'a leading advocate') rather than a specific, foundational, non-repeatable New Testament office.

  ROM.11.13

• Doctrine

  Apostleship

  Fairly stable; minor risk of loose secular usage ('an apostle of free trade') diluting the specific, foundational, non-repeatable New Testament office into a generic 'leading advocate.'

  ROM.11.13

• Doctrine

  Effectual Calling

  CRITICAL: 'election,' the key term for this doctrine, has been almost totally captured by its political-voting sense in contemporary English; readers encountering Romans 9's election language without explicit signposting are highly likely to import a political-campaign frame that has nothing to do with God's sovereign, prior, unilateral choice.

  ROM.11.29

• Glossary Term

  Election

  CRITICAL FALSE-FRIEND DRIFT: in essentially all contemporary English usage outside specifically theological contexts, 'election' means a political vote.

  ROM.11.29

• Glossary Term

  Gentiles

  'Gentiles' is a low-frequency, almost archaic word in ordinary contemporary English outside Bible reading; many readers only vaguely know it means 'non-Jewish people' without grasping the specific rhetorical and covenantal stakes Paul assigns it.

  ROM.11.17-24

• Doctrine

  Grace

  CRITICAL: dominant secular senses (physical elegance/poise; a legal/financial 'grace period') carry no theological content, and English-speaking Christian traditions themselves disagree sharply on grace's relationship to works (Reformed 'grace alone' vs.

  ROM.11.5-6

• Glossary Term

  Grace

  CRITICAL FALSE-FRIEND DRIFT: 'grace' in ordinary contemporary English overwhelmingly means physical elegance or poise, or, in contracts and billing, a 'grace period' (a delay before a penalty applies) — a completely secularized sense with no theological content.

  ROM.11.5-6

• Glossary Term

  Israel

  Standard proper name; note the modern nation-state of Israel is a live, politically contested contemporary topic in English-language media and public discourse, so context should clarify when the biblical covenant people, not contemporary geopolitics, is meant.

  ROM.11.17-24

• Glossary Term

  Justification

  CRITICAL FALSE-FRIEND DRIFT: in everyday English, 'to justify' overwhelmingly means to give a reason or defense for an action ('justify your answer,' 'how do you justify that expense'), a rational self-defense completely different from Paul's forensic sense of God declaring a sinner righteous.

  ROM.11.11

• Doctrine

  Providence

  CRITICAL: 'providence' is now a rare, archaic-sounding word; for many American readers the proper noun (Providence, Rhode Island) is now the most common encounter with the word string itself.

  ROM.11.33-36

• Glossary Term

  Providence

  CRITICAL: 'providence' is now a genuinely rare, archaic-sounding word in ordinary speech, and for many American readers the capitalized proper noun (the city of Providence, Rhode Island) is now the single most common encounter with the word string itself — an almost comically literal illustration of the term's obsolescence in its theological sense.

  ROM.11.33-36

• Glossary Term

  Righteousness

  In contemporary usage, 'righteous' and especially 'self-righteous' carry a strongly negative, sanctimonious connotation — nearly the opposite of Paul's sense of a right standing before God received as a gift.

  ROM.11.11

• Doctrine

  Salvation

  CRITICAL: English-speaking Christian traditions are themselves divided over 'being saved' as a single datable past event (revivalist/altar-call traditions) versus an ongoing, lifelong reality (Catholic, Orthodox, many mainline Protestant traditions); this curriculum should state which sense a given passage intends.

  ROM.11.11

• Glossary Term

  Salvation

  CRITICAL DENOMINATIONAL CONTEST: English-speaking Christian traditions are themselves divided on 'being saved' — revivalist/altar-call traditions often treat it as a single, datable past-tense event ('I got saved on such-and-such date'), while Catholic, Orthodox, and many mainline Protestant traditions treat salvation as an ongoing, lifelong reality worked out over time.

  ROM.11.11

• Doctrine

  Unity of Jews and Gentiles

  Contemporary post-Holocaust theological caution about supersessionism (the idea that the church simply replaces Israel) means Romans 9-11's argument should be presented with care and precision, consistent with Paul's own insistence on God's continuing faithfulness to Israel (11:1-2, 28-29).

  ROM.11.17-24