Religious terms

An enormous range of words and phrases are entirely acceptable as Christians write about God, the life of faith, Christian groups and denominations, theology, and so on. For consistency in Gordon communications, please use the styles set forth below, and spell and capitalize them as shown by example.

IN THIS SECTION:

referring to God
the Bible

denominations and "the Church"
Gordon-specific events and terms

REFERRING TO GOD

Names of God

Please spell and capitalize as shown below.

the Almighty
author of our faith
bread of life
Christ, the Christ
the comforter
the Creator
the Divinity
eternal God
the Father
God, God the Father
the great shepherd
the Holy Spirit

he, him, his
the great I Am
the great high priest
the great shepherd
Jesus Christ
the King, King eternal, King of Glory, King of kings
the Lamb of God
Lord, Lord of all, Lord of hosts

the man of sorrows
the only begotten Son
the Prince of peace
our Redeemer
the rock of our salvation
the rose of Sharon
Savior
the shepherd
the Son, Son of God, Son of man
Spirit of God
the true foundation
the Trinity
the true light
the true foundation
the Truth
the Way
the Word

Possessive forms

Don't add an s when forming the possessive name of Jesus, or of Moses.

in Jesus' name Moses' leadership

Other words that refer to God and to the Bible

In general, Gordon's style is to lowercase words that refer to God and the Bible, and are not used as "names."

apocrypha
biblical, biblically, biblically-based/ biblically based
the divine

godly
the majesty of God
scriptural

A special case:

capitalize Gospel when you refer to a specific book of the Bible (the Gospel of Mark) or to the four-book division of the New Testament (the Gospels)
lowercase gospel in general references to the Christian message
capitalize Kingdom as in Kingdom of God

THE BIBLE

Acts, the Acts, Acts of the Apostles

the Bible
the Gospels (to refer to all four books); gospel in general references to the Christian message
the Holy Bible
King James Version, New International Version (et al)
New Testament
Old Testament
the Prophets (to refer to the Old Testament books of prophecy); the prophets (to refer to the individuals)
Psalms; a psalm; Psalm 23; Psalms 23:2
Scripture
Word of God

Quoting Scripture

Treat quotations from the Bible as you would a quotation from another work. Use double quotation marks before and after it; do not italicize it.

In College communications, always spell out the name of the book; if it includes a number, use an Arabic numeral. Use numerals to indicate chapter and verse. Don't italicize.

1 Corinthians 9:19–23

DENOMINATIONS AND “THE CHURCH”

Capitalize the major words in the names of denominations, their individual members, and organizations and general categories that include multiple denominations and whose names share a widely-recognized word or phrase. Capitalize the word Church only if it is part of the denomination's formal name.

the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. Baptists Holiness churches

evangelical Lowercase evangelical when it refers to a system of beliefs in the Protestant framework, and also when using it as an adjective in reference to the act of evangelizing, as in evangelical outreach.

Church / church Capitalize when referring to the universal body of believers, and in the official name of a church or denomination. Lowercase it in general references, second shortened references to a particular church or when referring to the early church.

We are the Church—God's instruments on Earth.

We're going to church this morning at the State Street Baptist Church.