Laity
The members of the church who are not in the clergy. Clergy are the body of people ordained to perform religious tasks.
Law
The Law is God's instructions concerning the moral, social, and spiritual behavior of His people found in the first five books of the Bible. The Law is the very reflection of the nature of God because God speaks out of the abundance of what is in Him. Therefore, since God is pure, the Law is pure. Since God is holy, the Law is holy. The Law consists of the 10 commandments (Exodus 20), rules for social life (Exodus 21 - 23), and rules for the worship of God (Exodus 25 - 31). It was a covenant of works between God and man and was (and is) unable to deliver us into eternal fellowship with the Lord because of Man's inability to keep it. The Law is a difficult taskmaster because it requires that we maintain a perfect standard of moral behavior. And then when we fail, the Law condemns us to death. We deserve death even if we fail to keep just one point of the law: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all" (James ).
The law made nothing perfect (Heb. ). That is why the Law has shown us our need for Jesus and the free gift we receive through Him (Gal. ).
Law of non-contradiction
The Law of non-contradiction is the law that something cannot be both true and not true at the same time when dealing with the same context. For example, the chair in my living room, right now, cannot be made of wood and not made of wood at the same time. In the law of non-contradiction, where we have a set of statements about a subject, we cannot have any of the statements in that set negate the truth of any other statement in that same set. For example, we have a set of two statements about Judas. 1) Judas hung himself. 2) Judas fell down and his bowels spilled out. Neither statement about Judas contradicts the other. That is, neither statement makes the other impossible because neither excludes the possibility of the other. The statements can be harmonized by stating: Judas hung himself and then his body fell down and his bowels spilled out.
In order to make the set of statements contradictory, we would have something like: 1) Judas hung himself. 2) Judas did not hang himself. Since either statement excludes the possibility of the other, we would then have a contradiction.
Laying on of hands
Physical contact by touching of the hands. In the OT and NT it was sometimes used in reference to doing physical harm (Gen. 22:12; Luke ). In the NT it is also used to signify an attempt at healing (Acts ) and commissioning of Holy Work (1 Tim. ). Usually, during the ordination of an elder, hands are laid on him as symbol of a transfer of authority and power.
Liberalism
In Christianity, the movement away from traditional orthodoxy often in an attempt to harmonize biblical teachings with science, humanism, or other secular fields. The result is often a denial of essential biblical doctrines such as the Trinity, the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, His resurrection, and salvation by grace.
Limited atonement
The teaching held in Reformed (Calvinist) circles of Christianity that Jesus bore only the sins of the elect, and not that of the entire world. It maintains that the sacrifice was sufficient for all, but intended for the elect.
Logic
From the Greek “logos” meaning “word.” Logic is study of the principles of reasoning. A set of premises that are examined and arranged so as to bring a conclusion. If A = B and B = C, then A = C.
Deductive logic is the method of validating a claim by means of supportive information where both the claim and the information are necessarily true. For example, People exist. All people breathe. Therefore, all people breathe.
Inductive logic is the method of drawing a conclusion from a set of supportive information, yet the conclusion has not yet been verified. For example, each night I get tired at . Therefore, I conclude that tonight, I will be tired at .
Logos
The Greek word for "word." Mentioned only in the writings of John. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word [logos] and the Word [logos] was with God and the Word [logos] was God." The Logos is sometimes used to refer to the second person of the Trinity as the Son in pre-incarnate form. Jesus is the word [logos] made flesh (John 1:1,14).
Lord's Supper
See Communion
LXX
See Septuagint, The
