Posted on 03/01/2016 6:48:33 PM PST by truthfinder9
It wasn’t even intentional on my part. I just noticed a few weeks ago that I had stopped describing myself to people as an “evangelical.” I had begun, subconsciously, to say that I am a “gospel Christian.” When I caught myself doing this, I wondered why and the answer wasn’t long in coming.
The word “evangelical” has become almost meaningless this year, and in many ways the word itself is at the moment subverting the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Part of the problem is that more secular people have for a long time misunderstood the meaning of “evangelical,” seeing us almost exclusively in terms of election-year voting blocs or our most buffoonish television personalities. That’s especially true when media don’t distinguish in election exit polls between churchgoers and those who merely self-identify as “born again” or “evangelical.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
ping
Whatever. Haters gonna hate.
I associate the term with those huge non denominational, personality driven, urban churches with a drum set and giant screens everywhere.
“Evangelical” has become as meaningless a word as “conservative”.
my definition of evangelical is a fundamentalist or one who believes the Bible literally.
Just a random observation, “evangelical” used to be an adjective, and at some point became a noun.
Every generation, it seems, needs to coin a term for those followers of Christ who don’t fit the stereotype of what the current descriptive word has come to mean.
Protestant worked for a while and when it became associated with liberal mainline churches, then evangelical became the descriptive word, and as you pointed out has now become meaningless.
Something will come along.
I prefer Christ follower. But it’s awkward.
That's probably the way more Christians would define it, but the world has corrupted the meaning.
Protestant or Baptist etc worked fine. The giant non denominationals with the TV screens and preachers who become minor local celebrities needed a name. They list no affiliation on the sign out front.
Evangelicals stuck as a catch all. That’s my theory.
Years ago I considered myself an evangelical.
Sadly, the witness and testimony of what is known as the evangelical church has, over the last 30+ years or more, been very contrary to the character of God, the Lord Jesus. Many who call themselves evangelicals sadly are just self-righteous and religious.
I love them, and accept them in Christ. But I cannot identify with their testimony as a group. But that applies to many other named groups of Christians.
I believe we should just be known as Christians - without labels, qualifiers, or other identities......the labels only divide. Not only in the early church were believers simply known as Christians, but in every move of God in church history, those involved almost always refused to take any name but Christian. It was later that names were given to them - Baptists, Moravians, Wesleyans or Methodists, etc.
Jesus last prayer before his crucifixion, which he prayed openly before His disciples so they would catch its significance and importance, carries weight that few Christians give it. And the focus of His prayer was two-fold - heavenward, that believers might be one with Him and the Father even as they are one; and earthward - that all Christians may be one, even as Jesus is one with His Father. Why? “That the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.”
Why has our witness to the Lordship and Saviorhood of Jesus so totally failed to touch the world?
I would say it’s primarily because our witness and testmony has been mostly hollow - and Christians are more divided than any group on earth - just as Satan would want, and has worked so successfully to achieve.
On the other hand, Jesus prayer was answered. All true Christians are one (Eph. 4:1-6), and as Paul instructed, we are to PRESERVE our unity OF THE SPIRIT. WE ARE ONE IN CHRIST - IN THE SPIRIT.
You cannot preserve that which you do not have. So what we preserve is what God did in Christ, making us all one.
Only as we stand in the reality of that truth, embracing one another as brothers and sisters, with love and grace, can the world see our oneness.......
And I must ask this question: if Jesus prime burden and heart-cry just before the cross was the oneness of his children - do we give this matter the same place and priority that He did? Do we pray fervently for our oneness - as He did?
Evangelicals believe in introducing the unsaved to Christ.
One can easily be evangelical without being fundamentalist.
the Amish are fundamentalists but not particularly evangelical.
The Methodist church is evangelical and not fundamentalist.
The real truth is this: Evangelical really means that the Christian is Baptized in the Holy Ghost, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.
Being born again is just the first step to Christianity. But, if you want the true FULL experience of knowing Christ, then speaking in other tongues is the answer.
Remember, after Jesus was crucified, was placed in a tomb, and then was resurrected, all the disciples, including Jesus’ mother (Mary), were gathered in the upper room AND ALL WERE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT, WITH THE EVIDENCE OF SPEAKING IN OTHER TONGUES.
So, while there are many claims about the “evangelical vote”, unless those voters are speaking in other tongues, that are not “evangelical”, they are just Christians.
Chapter and verse?
Where did Jesus teach that?
And the Holy Spirit tells us that exactly where in Scripture?
I guess them ordinary Christians are just second class citizens then.
Not really good enough like all those tongues speakers, eh?
There are other gifts of the Holy Spirit. And other Charismatic Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Speaking in tongues isn’t necessarily the most important.
They are all important.
>the Amish are fundamentalists but not particularly evangelical.
Until I learned of Amish Sheet party rituals to expand genetic diversity, I did not know how practical they really were.
Remember, after Jesus was crucified, was placed in a tomb, and then was resurrected, all the disciples, including Jesus’ mother (Mary), were gathered in the upper room AND ALL WERE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT, WITH THE EVIDENCE OF SPEAKING IN OTHER TONGUES.
The speaking in tongues was foreign languages as evidenced from the passage in Acts 2.
Acts 2:8..And how is it that we each here them in our own language to which we were born?"
The gift of tongues that day was to advance the spread of the Gospel to those who did not speak Hebrew. Recall there were many people from around the eastern Mediterranean that were present that day.
The ability to speak a foreign language as guided by the Holy Spirit is not a requirement for salvation. It is not the "true" experience of knowing Christ.
It is but one of the many spiritual gifts the believer may or may not be given.
The true experience of knowing Christ is being forgiven by Him for your sins.
That’s too bad. Being an evangelical is the best thing that ever happened to me.
Gospel Christian. I like it.
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