From the back of A Prelude to the End of the World, by Brandon Wallis

Glossary of Terms and of KJV Words

Print this (PDF) More free resources

Glossary of Terms

The following terms are used in this book and may be unfamiliar. The definitions are the book’s own and are meant to be plain. Old words from the King James text are defined separately in the Glossary of KJV Terms that follows.

abomination of desolation — The act foretold by Daniel and Jesus in which the Antichrist sets himself up in the rebuilt temple to be worshiped, at the midpoint of the tribulation.

Abrahamic covenant — God’s promise to Abraham of a land, a nation, and a blessing for the whole world (Genesis 12; 15), made by God alone and never withdrawn.

aionios — Greek: everlasting; the word used of both eternal life and eternal punishment (Matthew 25:46).

aliyah — Hebrew: “going up”; a Jew moving to the land of Israel.

allegorize — To treat a text as a picture of something else instead of taking its plain meaning.

amillennialism — The view that the thousand years of Revelation 20 are a symbol of the present age, not a future reign of Christ on earth.

Antichrist — The world ruler of the tribulation, empowered by Satan, who makes a covenant with Israel, breaks it, demands worship, and is destroyed at Christ’s return.

apocalyptic — Having to do with the end of the world; also a kind of writing, like Revelation, that uses visions and symbols.

apostasia — Greek: “falling away” in 2 Thessalonians 2:3; a defection, its only other New Testament use being of Jews who “forsake Moses” (Acts 21:21).

apostasy — Falling away from the faith once held.

apostle — One sent with authority; the twelve chosen by Jesus, and Paul.

Armageddon — The gathering of the world’s armies in the valley of Megiddo in northern Israel for the final battle against Christ.

ascension — Jesus’ visible return to heaven forty days after His resurrection (Acts 1).

atonement — The covering and removal of sin by a sacrifice; Christ’s death on the cross.

autonomy — Self-rule; deciding for oneself.

Babylon — The ancient city on the Euphrates; in this book, also the false religious, political, and commercial system that began at Babel and returns at the end.

bema — Greek: a raised platform or judgment seat; the place where Christ rewards believers for their service (2 Corinthians 5:10).

bride of Christ — The redeemed of all ages, united to Christ; the church is part of it, joined by the Old Testament saints and the tribulation martyrs.

canon — The list of books God inspired; the Bible.

catastrophic — Causing great disaster.

charagma — Greek: “mark” in Revelation 13:16; a stamp, brand, or official seal, the badge of an owner on a slave or the stamp that made a document valid.

church — In this book, the body of believers from Pentecost to the rapture, distinct from Israel.

church age — The period from Pentecost to the rapture.

coalition — A group of nations acting together.

comeliness — attractiveness; good looks

consummation — Completion; the final bringing together.

counterfeit — A fake made to look real.

covenant — A binding agreement; God’s covenants are His sworn promises.

Davidic covenant — God’s promise to David that his descendant would reign on his throne forever (2 Samuel 7), fulfilled in Jesus.

Day of Christ — The rapture, and what follows it in heaven for the church (Phil 1:10). In 2 Thessalonians 2:2, where the King James also reads “the day of Christ,” the context is the Day of the Lord (see Chapter 3).

Day of the Lord — In this book, Daniel’s seventieth week, the whole seven years, beginning with the covenant. In its widest biblical sense the term runs on through the kingdom to the passing of the heavens (Zech 14; 2 Pet 3:10).

decree — An official order.

demons — Fallen angels who follow Satan; called devils in the King James Version.

desolation — A state of ruin and emptiness.

dispensation — An administration; a way God has ordered His dealings with man during a stretch of history.

dispensational — Reading the Bible as a series of such administrations, taking prophecy literally, and keeping Israel and the church distinct.

doctrine — Teaching; what the Bible teaches on a subject.

dominion — Rule; the right to govern.

ecumenical — Seeking to unite different churches or religions.

eisegesis — Reading into a text what one already believes.

ekklesia — Greek: assembly; the word translated “church.”

eschatology — The study of last things; the doctrine of the end times.

eternal state — The new heavens and new earth after the millennium and the final judgment; eternity.

exegesis — Drawing out of a text what is actually there.

exile — Being forced to live away from one’s homeland.

False Prophet — The second beast of Revelation 13, a religious leader who directs the world to worship the Antichrist.

first resurrection — The raising of all the saved, in stages: Christ the firstfruits, the rapture, the two witnesses, and Christ’s return for the tribulation martyrs.

futurist — One who reads Revelation 4–22 as still future; the reading of this book.

Gentiles — All people who are not Jews.

geopolitical — Having to do with nations and their power.

glorified body — The resurrection body, like Christ’s, that believers receive at the rapture.

Gog and Magog — The leader and land of the northern coalition that invades Israel in Ezekiel 38–39; also the name given to the last rebellion after the millennium (Revelation 20:8).

grace — God’s undeserved favor; salvation as a gift, not a wage.

great tribulation — The second half of the tribulation, three and a half years of unequaled trouble (Matthew 24:21).

great white throne — The final judgment of the unsaved dead after the millennium (Revelation 20:11–15).

Hades — Greek: the place of the dead; “hell” in the King James Version. For the lost, a holding place until the great white throne.

hadith — Sayings and deeds attributed to Muhammad, collected after his death.

harpazō — Greek: “caught up” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17; the source of the word rapture.

Hasmoneans — The Jewish dynasty that ruled an independent Judea between the Maccabees and Rome.

hermeneutics — The rules by which a text is interpreted.

historicist — One who reads Revelation as a map of church history.

hyperinflation — Money losing its value very fast.

idealist — One who reads Revelation as timeless symbols rather than as events.

idolatry — Worship of anything other than God.

imminence — Being able to happen at any moment, with nothing that must come first.

immutable — Unchanging.

inference — A conclusion reached by reasoning from what a text says, rather than something the text says directly.

infrastructure — The basic systems a society runs on: roads, power, water, communications.

intercession — Praying or pleading on another’s behalf.

Israel — The nation descended from Jacob; God’s covenant people, distinct from the church.

jizya — The tax Islamic law imposes on non-Muslims under Muslim rule.

judgment seat of Christ — See bema.

justification — God declaring a sinner righteous on the basis of faith in Christ.

lake of fire — The final and eternal place of punishment for Satan, his angels, and the lost (Revelation 20:10–15).

lawlessness — Living without regard for God’s law.

listed — pleased; wished

literal interpretation — Taking words in their ordinary sense unless the text itself shows a figure of speech.

Lucifer — The name the King James text gives, following the Latin, in Isaiah 14:12, to the fallen angel who became Satan.

Mahdi — The deliverer expected in Islamic teaching to rule the world at the end.

manifestation — A showing; something made plain to see.

mark of the beast — The mark required in the right hand or forehead to buy or sell under the Antichrist (Revelation 13:16–18).

martyr — One who is killed for his faith.

mediator — One who stands between two parties to bring them together.

Messiah — Hebrew: “anointed one”; the promised King and Savior of Israel. Christ is the Greek form.

mid-tribulational — Holding that the rapture comes at the midpoint of the tribulation.

midpoint — The middle of the seven-year tribulation, when the Antichrist breaks the covenant and the great tribulation begins.

millennium — The thousand-year reign of Christ on earth (Revelation 20).

mystery — In the Bible, a truth once hidden and now revealed, not something unknowable.

nephesh — Hebrew: soul or life; the word for the living creatures of Genesis 1, never used of plants.

Nephilim — The giants of Genesis 6, the offspring of fallen angels and human women, on this book’s reading.

new covenant — The covenant God promised to Israel in Jeremiah 31, ratified in Christ’s blood, whose spiritual blessings the church shares now.

olethros — Greek: ruin or destruction; the word in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, which need not mean ceasing to exist, and in Paul’s usage does not.

Olivet Discourse — Jesus’ teaching on the end times, given on the Mount of Olives (Matthew 24–25).

omnipresent — Present everywhere at once.

pantheism — The belief that God is everything and everything is God.

paradise — The place of the righteous dead; since the resurrection of Christ, in heaven.

Pentecost — The day the Holy Spirit came and the church began (Acts 2).

perdition — Destruction; ruin.

persecution — Being harmed or killed for one’s faith.

pestilence — Deadly disease spreading widely.

pharmakeia — Greek: sorcery; the root of the English word pharmacy.

post-tribulational — Holding that the rapture comes at the end of the tribulation, together with the second coming.

postmillennialism — The view that Christ returns after a golden age brought about by the spread of the gospel.

pre-wrath — Holding that the rapture comes at the sixth seal, before the trumpets and bowls.

precedent — An earlier example that sets the pattern.

premillennialism — The view that Christ returns before the thousand years and reigns on earth; the view of this book.

preterist — One who reads Revelation as mostly fulfilled in the first century.

pretribulational — Holding that the rapture comes before the tribulation; the view of this book.

projection — A description of what something may be like, reasoned from the text and from history; not itself Scripture.

prophecy — God’s foretelling of the future through His prophets; also His message through them.

protoevangelium — Latin: “the first gospel”; the promise in Genesis 3:15 that the woman’s seed would bruise the serpent’s head.

Qur’an — The book of Islam.

rapture — The catching up of living believers, with the resurrected dead in Christ, to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17).

reconvergence — Coming back together after being scattered.

redemption — Buying back; Christ’s purchase of sinners by His blood.

regeneration — The new birth; also, the renewal of the earth in the kingdom (Matthew 19:28).

relativism — The belief that there is no fixed truth and each person decides for himself.

remnant — The faithful few who remain.

replacement theology — The teaching that the church has replaced Israel and inherited her promises; rejected in this book.

Restrainer — The one who holds back lawlessness until the rapture (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7); in this book, the Holy Spirit working through the church.

resurrection — The raising of the dead to bodily life.

Satan — The adversary; the fallen angel who leads the rebellion against God.

scoffer — One who mocks.

seals, trumpets, bowls — The three series of seven judgments in Revelation 6–16.

second coming — Christ’s visible, bodily return to earth at the end of the tribulation.

second death — The lake of fire; eternal separation from God (Revelation 20:14).

secular — Without reference to God.

seventieth week — The final seven years of Daniel’s seventy weeks (Daniel 9:24–27); the tribulation.

Shekinah — The visible glory of God, as in the cloud and the fire.

Sheol — Hebrew: the place of the dead; see Hades.

shofar — A ram’s-horn trumpet.

sleight — trickery; sly dealing

sovereignty — God’s complete rule over all things.

speculation — A guess about what may be, beyond what the text says; labeled as such in this book.

stoicheia — Greek: elements; the basic building blocks of the physical world (2 Peter 3:10).

syncretism — Blending different religions into one.

telescoping — The way the seventh seal contains the seven trumpets and the seventh trumpet contains the seven bowls.

theocracy — Rule by God.

totalitarian — A government that controls every part of life.

transcendent — Above and beyond creation.

tribulation — The seven-year period from the Antichrist’s covenant with Israel to the second coming; Daniel’s seventieth week.

two witnesses — God’s two prophets in Jerusalem during the tribulation (Revelation 11).

typology — The study of types—persons, events, or things in the Old Testament that picture Christ or His work.

tyranny — Cruel and oppressive rule.

unprecedented — Never having happened before.

unregenerate — Not born again.

vindicate — To prove right.

wrath — God’s settled anger against sin.

Glossary of KJV Terms

The following terms appear in the King James Version quotations throughout this book. Modern equivalents are provided for readers less familiar with KJV language. These definitions also appear inline in the text in square brackets ([like this]) where each term first occurs in a chapter. The definitions follow the sense of the Hebrew or Greek word behind the English as given in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the standard lexicons at blueletterbible.org, checked against the Oxford English Dictionary for what the word meant to the translators of 1611.

abide — remain; continue

abomination — something deeply offensive to God

affrighted — terrified

arrayed — dressed; clothed

asp — cobra; poisonous snake

asunder — apart; in pieces (Heb 4:12).

athirst — thirsty

balances — scales

bare — bore; carried

beguiled — deceived; tricked

beseech — to urge; to beg earnestly (2 Thess 2:1).

bondage — slavery

bondmen — slaves

bowels — the inward parts; the seat of feeling (Ps 22:14).

brake — broke

brethren — brothers

brimstone — burning sulfur

builded — built

candle — lamp; light

candlesticks — lampstands

causeth — causes

censer — incense container

charity — love; the word the King James uses for the Greek agapē (1 Cor 13:1).

chasteneth — disciplines; corrects as a father corrects a son

cleave — to cling or bond together (Dan 2:43); also to split apart (Zech 14:4)

cockatrice — a viper; a venomous serpent

cockcrowing — the rooster’s crowing; the hours before dawn

commendeth — demonstrates

compassed — surrounded

consent — accord; agreement (“with one consent”)

consolation — comfort; firm encouragement

consummation — final end; completion

conversation — conduct; way of life; in Philippians 3:20, citizenship

corruptible — perishable; able to decay

covetous / covetousness — greedy / greed

craft — deceit; cunning

creature — creation; created thing

damnable — destructive

darkly — dimly; obscurely

decease — departure; death

delicacies — luxuries

despisers — haters

devils — demons

devoureth — consumes; devours

disannul — invalidate; cancel

divers — various; many different

divination — fortune-telling

doctrine — teaching

dominion — ruling authority

dumb — mute; unable to speak

earnest — guarantee; down payment; (of expectation) eager

edify — build up; strengthen

effeminate — a man who takes a woman’s role, in the sexual sense of 1 Corinthians 6:9.

Elias — Elijah

emulations — jealousy

envyings — jealousies

ephah — a measuring basket

equity — fairness; justice

erred — wandered; strayed

escheweth — shuns; turns away from

espoused — betrothed; promised in marriage (2 Cor 11:2).

fatling — fattened animal

feigned — fabricated; false

fenced — fortified

fervent — intense; burning

forasmuch — because; since

former sea / hinder sea — the Dead Sea (east) and the Mediterranean (west)

fowls — birds

fulness — fullness

glass — mirror

gnashing — grinding; clenching

go to — come; come now (Gen 11:4).

godhead — the divine nature; deity

graffed — grafted

graven — carved; cut into stone or wood (Judg 18:30).

grievous — severe; fierce; painful

guile — deceit; cunning

gulf — chasm; great gap

habitation — dwelling place

harlots — prostitutes

hart — a deer

hath — has (appears throughout)

heady — reckless

heathen — the nations; unbelieving peoples

heresies — divisive false teachings

highminded — conceited; puffed up

hireling — a hired hand

hither — here; to this place

holpen — helped

Holy Ghost — the Holy Spirit; “ghost” is the older English word for spirit (1 Cor 6:19).

imaginations — thoughts; reasonings

immutability — unchangeableness

immutable — unchangeable

incontinent — without self-control

incorruptible / incorruption — imperishable; unable to decay

indignation — fierce anger; wrath

iniquity — wickedness; lawlessness

instantly — earnestly; with urgency, not “at once” (Acts 26:7).

intercession — pleading on another’s behalf

jacinth — a deep blue gemstone

justified — declared righteous

kid — a young goat

kindreds — tribes; clans

languish — waste away; grow weak

lasciviousness — sensuality; unrestrained immorality

letteth — restrains; holds back

longsuffering — patience; patient

lust — desire (not only sexual)

magnify — exalt; make great

manifest — revealed; made known

mansions — dwelling places

marvellous — astonishing

master — teacher

meat — food

meek — humble; gentle

meet — fitting; suitable

midst — middle

miry — wet; muddy

narrowly — closely; carefully

nigh — near

Noe — Noah

noisome — harmful; foul

oblation — offering; sacrifice

omnipotent — all-powerful

ordinances — regulations; decrees

overcometh — conquers; overcomes

overspreading — overwhelming flood

partakers — sharers; participants

pastors — shepherds

patience — endurance (not merely waiting)

perdition — destruction; eternal ruin

perfect — complete; mature; fully trained

perilous — dangerous

pestilences — plagues; deadly diseases

plowshares — farming blades

princes — rulers

principalities — ruling authorities; spiritual powers

privily — secretly

proceedeth — comes forth

pruninghooks — pruning hooks; farming blades

quarters — corners; regions (“the four quarters of the earth”)

quick — living; alive, as in “the quick and the dead” (2 Tim 4:1); keen, as in “quick understanding” (Isa 11:3).

quickened — made alive

raiment — clothing

recompence — repayment; penalty

regeneration — the renewal of all things (Matt 19:28)

reins — the innermost parts; the seat of thought and emotion

renown — fame

replenish — fill

reprobate — disqualified; rejected

residue — remainder

revealeth — reveals (the -eth ending means -s or -es)

revellings — wild parties; carousing

sackcloth — coarse dark cloth of goat’s hair, worn in mourning (Rev 6:12).

sanctified — set apart; made holy

scourgeth — whips; punishes severely

seat — throne

seducing — deceiving; leading astray

seraphims — angelic beings

shew — show; display

shewing — showing; proclaiming

smite — strike; hit

snare — trap

sojourn — to stay for a time as a foreigner (Gen 26:3).

sore — a wound or ulcer; also, as an adverb, greatly (Rev 16:2).

sorer — more severe

sorrows — birth pains (“the beginning of sorrows”)

spake — spoke

spoiled — stripped; disarmed (not ruined)

spue — vomit; spit out

stablish — establish; make firm

stubble — straw; dry stalks

subdueth — subdues

subtil / subtilty — crafty; cunning

sup — dine; share a meal

sware — swore

tabernacle — dwelling place; tent

tabernacles — tents; dwellings

talent — a weight of about seventy-five pounds

tarry — to remain; to wait (Jn 21:22).

temperance — self-control

thee — you (singular, object form) (appears throughout)

thine — your; yours (appears throughout)

thither — to that place; there (Gen 19:22).

thou — you (singular, subject form) (appears throughout)

threescore — sixty

thy — your (appears throughout)

tidings — news

translated — transferred; carried over

travail — labor pains

trucebreakers — covenant-breakers

trump — horn blast; trumpet sound

tumult — panic; uproar

twain — two

unto — to (appears throughout)

uttermost — completely; fully

variance — conflict; discord

vesture — clothing; garment

vile — lowly; degraded; shameful

wax — grow; become

waxed — grew; became

whence — from where

whereby — by which (appears throughout)

wherefore — therefore; for this reason (appears throughout)

whore / whoremonger — prostitute / sexually immoral person

woe — grief; disaster

wrought — performed; accomplished

ye — you (plural) (appears throughout)