In order for us to communicate effectively with each other, we must have a common language, or in simpler terms, a common understanding of words and their meanings.  

Some of these words help us understand doctrine, and some are expressions of doctrine.  Matter of fact, the previous sentence is an excellent example.  What does doctrine mean?

A doctrine is a basic, fundamental, foundational teaching. 

Fundamental is simply a beginning or foundation of something, in this case, a teaching.  Fundamental math is arithmetic, 1+1=2, and we build upon this basic precept or teaching.

A precept is a foundational doctrine, teaching, or law.  This is an important point, in that, a bible precept is a spiritual law.  Like gravity is a natural law, spiritual laws control (and explain) how things work in the spirit realm.

Prov 4:1-2
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.
For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.

Isa 28:9-10
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?
them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

So why is a foundational teaching, fundamentals, or doctrine so important.  Because it establishes and teaches us "truth", which we believe in, measure everything too, and build upon. 

If someone comes along and says that 2+2=6 (which is to build on something like 1+1=3), we are going to say "WHOA... STOP... WHAT IS THAT?".  And we are not going to believe in or stake our lives on something that was built with that error. 

So, Foundations Class teaches us doctrine that helps us to firmly understand what we believe, and helps us to act on what we believe.  If I understand it better, I can act upon it better (that is, live it), and explain it to others better (evangelism).   Again, even in this paragraph, we are using christian terms that should be explained.

Truth is the "Word of God".  Jesus is the Truth / the Word manifested in the flesh (John 1:14, 14:6, 1 John 1:1-2).

Ps 119:43
And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judgments.

Ps 119:142
Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.

Ps 119:151
Thou art near, O LORD; and all thy commandments are truth.

Evangel means to announce or proclaim good news.  An evangelist is a proclaimer of good news, specifically the gospel.  Evangelical people are people who believe in the gospel thru evangelism.  That is, someone has to tell you about Jesus, you have to hear, believe in your heart, and receive in your heart thru confessing with your mouth (Rom 10:8-17).

Gospel is a greek word meaning "good news", particularly, the good news of Jesus Christ.

The devil is an accuser using lies (John 8:44), specifically, one who seeks to cause humiliation or disgrace to by making malicious and false statements.  He knows the importance of words (God's Word is His Law) and meanings and tries to change them to keep people in darkness.

Dan 7:25
And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws...

Isa 5:20
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

For example, "gay" used to refer to someone who was cheerful, joyous, happy.  Joy comes from the Lord and the word "happy" biblically speaking (which means as the bible uses and means the word verse as the world uses and means the word) is the same word as "blessed".  Only God can bless, but the devil has perverted the word to mean a cursed sexually-deviate sinner.

Did you know that biblically speaking the day starts at sunset (Gen 1:5, 1:8, etc.).  It symbolizes man coming from darkness under sin to the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. But the devil has changed it to be midnight to midnight.  Why?  It is his dream that man go from darkness - into light - and back into darkness.  Words and creation that God has made to proclaim Himself (Rom 1:20), the devil tries to pervert to keep man in darkness.

Rom 1:20
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

2 Cor 4:4
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

You see, god means creator.  The devil is not the "god" of earth, that is the planet, but Jehovah (God, the Father) is (Gen 24:3).  The devil is the "god" or creator of this world, that is the culture of man keeps people in darkness.  It does not matter whether it is American culture or Nigerian culture or whatever, if you look at it, you will see how it is created to keep you in debt, sin, and darkness. 

Which brings us to a good point.  Who is God?  But to be more precise of the christian:
Elohim is the Hebrew word that we would translate as the Trinity.  It means, that God - the Godhead (Col 2:9) - is made up of the Father (Jehovah), the Son (Jesus Christ - Jehoshua Messiah), and the Holy Spirit. They operate in total unity as one entity, there common factor being Love (agape).

Jehovah is God, the Father, and means "I am that I am" (Gen 3:14, 6:13) or the "external existing one".  There are may so called "gods" out there; to merely say "God" is not necessarily to convey Who we mean.  If you say "God" to a muslim, he will be thinking "Allah" (a Babylonian Moon god), not "Jehovah" of Israel.  They are not the same god, nor have the same words or way(s).  The word "Jehovah" is in the Old Testament 6209 times, but is normally translated in the King James as "the LORD", which is misfortunate as it dilutes christians' knowing with surety the name of their God (6209 times).  In contrast, Adonai is the actual Hebrew word for "Lord" (a ruler) and is translated as "Lord" (notice the capitalization difference) in the King James. 

Jehoshua (commonly shorted incorrectly to Yeshua), which means "Jehovah is salvation", is the Hebrew for Jesus, which is English for Iesous or Ieesou, which is the Greek as in the original New Testament.  If a Hispanic man's name is Juan, and if I speaking English ask him his name, he could say John, but his legal name is Juan. 

The Bible, which means "holy book", does not give a personal name for the Holy Spirit.  The King James inappropriately translates the Greek word pneuma, which is "spirit" as "ghost" (about 90 out of 388 times), don't know why.  The New King James corrected this.  

Our English language does not do a good job conveying the different meanings or types of love.  The greek language uses at least four words:

Agape is the God-type of love. A love of commitment / of covenant, of giving your word and changing not, even if it means loss or hurt on your part to fulfill your word (2 Tim 2:13, Heb 13:8).  Are you a person of your word?  Did you know that all liars go to hell (Rev 21:8)?

What does it mean to love God?  It does not mean a feeling as much as a commitment to obey His Word (1 John 5:3), because we know He loves us and His Word is where our protection and provision is (Deut 7:9).  Ever tell your child not to play in the street?  It was not a matter of feeling, but commitment for protection. 

Phileo is the soulish or emotional type of love.  It is how we "feel".  It is used for any type of soulish affection, as father/mother, son/daughter, husband/wife, friend/friend. 

Eros is the physical type of love.  It includes sensual as well as sexual.  A hug, a kiss, etc...

Staroge (spelling?) is the fatherly type of love.  A father's love is strong, and corrects to protect, as well as imparts what he has or is... truth and life.  John the Baptist came in the (Holy) spirit (attributes) of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.  What did Elijah do?  He established the School of the Prophets to impart what he had to the next generation.

Lets now concentrate on some words:

Iniquity - (Hebrew "avon") perverseness and/or crookedness of character, it conveys the idea of an arrow shaft that is crooked and will never hit the true target because it will always go astray due to its nature and character.  This also could be see as immoral lusts.
(Isa 59:2-3, Jam 1:14-15)

Transgression or trespass means to revolt (to break away from just authority) or rebel against the commandment(s) of God. It is the actual act, not the motive or character.  A person's iniquity would cause them to transgress, which is sin.

Sin comes from a root word meaning "to miss", conveying the meaning of the act of the arrow missing the target.  So sin is the actual action (Jam 1:14-15).  Sin is an offense (being offensive to God, and His commandments, in His Face) as is a crime that transgresses (or rebels) against a law. 

Death is "separation".  Physical death is separation of your eternal spirit/soul from your physical body.  Marital death is separation of rib (wife) from rib cage (husband), because they were to be "one flesh".  Spiritual death is separation of your spirit from intimate contact with God thru the Holy Spirit.
(Isa 59:2-3, Jam 1:14-15)

Life, which we sometimes use the Greek word Zoe for, then means intimate union with.  If you understand that biblically speaking the word "know" means an intimate experiential knowledge of (like a husband and wife know each other sexually) and not a head knowledge (as I know George Bush (who he is, but not personally)), then you can understand John 17:3, 17:21.
(Rom 8:2, 8:10)

Grace is normally defined as "favor".  If you ask someone to give you something, if he is not a liar, his word is his will.  If he says "yes", then you have grace (or favor) with that person.  However, the Lord has taught me that His Grace includes the gift itself.  That is, God's grace includes His capabilities.  For example, if I need a $100 and I ask you for the $100, you saying "yes" is your willingness or favor, but I need more that just your "yes", I need your $100... So your "yes" and your $100 (your capability) is your "grace" to me.  Another example, the bible says faith comes by hearing (Rom 10:17) - that is, I did not have faith of my own capability, but had to receive it from the God of faith (Rom 4:17), that is, His capability or His grace, before I had it to use - by grace thru faith (Eph 2:8).  So, if I find I cannot overcome my flesh (a lust or sin), or God asks me to do something that is beyond my capability, when I ask and receive His Grace, I receive His capability to overcome and perform His Will.  The "Vernon Williams" definition of grace is "God's willingness to use ALL that He has and ALL that He is, upon your behalf, to make you a success in every endeavor, ALL His power, ALL His authority, ALL His kingdom, ALL His angels, whatever you have need of, He has committed to you (2 Cor 1:20)". 

Faith is an action (and supporting actions of the first action) based upon a believe.  If you believe a certain chair will not support you, you will not sit (act in faith) on it.  But merely believing that a chair will support you is not faith, but the action of sitting down on the chair is faith (an action).  If I am believing in faith for healing, I might have an initial action of faith of having my pastor pray over me, and I can continue to support that action of faith by speaking (which is an action) words of faith over my body (other supporting actions include fixed on hope, patience, etc.).
(Jam 2:20-26)

Righteousness is normally defined as "right with God".  But that is very limited.  The American Heritage Dictionary defines righteous as "meeting the standards of what is right and just; morally right; guiltless".  That is, righteousness is "meeting the standards of legal (according to God's Laws / Word) and moral justice in the high court of heaven", which has been done by the blood of Jesus (that is His death, the judgement or penalty for sin).  Beloved, we are now the righteous, the guiltless in the eyes of God, Jesus having meet the standards of justice, bearing the penalty of our sin for us.  We who are cleansed by His blood are now the righteousness of God, thru faith in Christ Jesus.
(Rom 9:30, 1 Cor 1:30, Eph 4:24, Phil 3:9)

Atonement means "to cover", and is used to refer to the old testament sacrifices, which could not remove the conscience or memory of sin.  But Jesus' blood redeemed us, that is, redemption means "ransom in full" as in buying back a slave (or something from the pawn shop), that is, Jesus paid the full price (for sin, which is death) to buy us back to God (bought with a price 1 Cor 6:20, 7:23).
(Lev 1:4, Heb 9:25-10:4)

Church, which is the Greek word ekklesia, means "the called out".  It refers to the believers in Jesus Christ, also called the Body of Christ, and is not a physical building (sanctuary or tabernacle).
(1 Cor 1:2, 10:32, Eph 1:22)

Sanctify is to set apart for God's use alone.  All believers are saints, those who are sanctified by the blood of Jesus.
(Acts 26:18, 1 Cor 6:11)

Glory, from the Hebrew word Shekinah, means the physical presence of God being manifested in some tangible way.
(Ex 16:10, 1 Kings 8:11)

Abba - means Father, referring to Father, God.
(Rom 8:15)

Hosanna - Hebrew word meaning "God saves".
(Matt 21:9)

Hallelujah - Hebrew word meaning "SHOUT praise unto Jehovah", translated KJV as "Praise the Lord".
(Ps 104:35; 116:19; 147:1)

Prosperity means to have an abundance.  If you need 100% (whatever amount of money that is), if you have less than 100% that is poverty, but to have 100% or more is prosperity.
(Ps 35:27, 118:25, 3 John 2)

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