10 Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Evangelicals

On Faith ^ | 11/18/2014 | by Warren Cole Smith

[SeekAndFind]

Warren Cole Smith is the associate publisher of WORLD Magazine. He is the author or co-author of several books, including A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church and Prodigal Press. We asked him to give us 10 things he wishes everyone knew about evangelicals.

1. Evangelicals share a common belief.

Being an evangelical actually means something doctrinally and theologically, namely that salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Evangelicalism is not, or not merely, a demographical subset or sociological tribe. An evangelical is someone who both believes and wants to share with others this evangel, this good news.

2. Jerry Falwell wasn’t the first evangelical.

In fact, when Jerry Falwell started out, he wasn’t an evangelical, but self-consciously fundamentalist — and there was (and is) a difference. Church historian Phil Johnson credits William Tyndale with first using the word “evangelical” in 1531, when Tyndale wrote this: “He exhorteth them to proceed constantly in the evangelical truth.” The great Catholic martyr Sir Thomas More used the phrase a year later to describe Tyndale and other Protestant Reformers. The great missionary movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were evangelical in character — think of the great evangelical statesman William Wilburforce, who fought against the slave trade in Great Britain.

In short, evangelicalism has a long history and is not a recent suburban American phenomenon.

3. Not everyone who calls himself an evangelical is an evangelical.

We have an old saying in my part of the South: “Just because my dog sleeps in the garage, that doesn’t make him a pick-up truck.” Just because a blogger calls himself (or herself) an evangelical doesn’t make it so. You don’t have to vote Republican or go to a particular church, but you gotta believe in that stuff in #1 above, or you’re something else. Beware of “progressive evangelicals” who claim to speak for evangelicals but who, upon examination, reject core doctrines that evangelicals find essential.

4. Most evangelicals do not go to suburban megachurches.

Megachurches grab the headlines, but of the nearly 300,000 churches in the country, less than 2,000 of them have more than 2,000 in regular Sunday morning attendance. The overwhelming majority of new churches in America are small, evangelical churches with an average attendance of less than 200. The average church in America has less than 300 people. We don’t have rock bands, we don’t have light shows and smoke machines, and we don’t have celebrity pastors. We marry, we bury, we baptize, and we try to love our neighbors as ourselves. What you see on television is not who we are.

5. Evangelicals are generous.

Virtually every reputable study, from Arthur Brooks’ book Who Really Cares? to the annual Empty Tombs, Inc. survey on church giving to the work of sociologist Bradley Wright, comes to the same conclusion: theologically conservative evangelical Christians give more money to charity than do theologically liberal Christians and non-Christians. And they don’t just give to evangelical Christian organizations. Liberals and non-Christians talk a good game when it comes to income equality or “social justice,” but evangelicals, not Episcopalians, are keeping the food banks of America alive.

6. Evangelicals love LGBTQIA people.

We are not homophobes. We are homophiles. Our churches welcome LGBTQIA people with the same message we present to all others: “Come as you are . . . but leave transformed.”

7. Evangelicals love the arts.

Ok, it’s true: our music mostly sucks. And so do our movies. At least, the music and movies we’ve made for the past 30 or 40 years. But not all of it, and it hasn’t always been so. I’m astonished and inspired when I see Kent Twitchell’s massive murals of Jesus on the public spaces in Los Angeles. Or Makoto Fujimura’s remarkable abstract expressionist paintings in chic Chelsea art galleries. Or hear anything by Bach.

Sure, contemporary evangelical writers, musicians, and artists are producing a lot of kitsch, but so are non-Christians. (You can’t blame the Kardashians and Honey-Boo-Boo on evangelicals.) And I predict that 100 years from now, if the Lord tarries, Christians will be singing Keith Getty’s and Stuart Townend’s “In Christ Alone” in the same churches that continue to sing Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” and perform Handel’s “Messiah” at Christmastime.

8. Evangelicals are pro-science.

I support this assertion by noting that the rise of the scientific method and some of the great technological advancements of Europe correspond with the rise of evangelicalism in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. In our own day, Frances Collins (who leads the National Institutes of Health and led the Human Genome Project) is open about his Christian faith.

Evangelicals have endured the slanderous label of “anti-science” in recent years because of our skepticism about politically correct theories regarding the origins of man and climate change. In these arenas and many more, evangelicals joyfully go where the science takes us. But when ideology hijacks science — that is, when the pursuit of a point of view outruns logic, history, data, and reason — we rightfully object, and so should all who love pure science.

9. Evangelicals value quality education for all.

Because evangelicals operate most of the private schools in the country, and because most of the nation’s two million homeschoolers are evangelical Christians, we are often accused of being anti-public education and of having abandoned the public schools. That is simply not true.

For one thing, I state the obvious: evangelicals whose children do not attend the schools still support them with our tax dollars even though 100 percent of those dollars go to other people’s children. Secondly, most Christian schools I know about are generous with scholarships for those who would not otherwise be able to afford the school.

But the key point is that evangelical commitment to quality education for all means we do not support the government having a monopoly on education. The real threat to quality education for all is the near monopoly of the government-run education system, not the small-but-vibrant private Christian and homeschool sector. Private Christian education and homeschooling are the way up, not the way down.

10. Evangelicals are diverse and tolerant.

Evangelicals have never been, and are certainly not now, old white Americans. By some estimates, China has 30 million evangelical Christians. Some countries in Africa and South America have evangelical majorities. Here in the U.S. you can find millions of Hispanic evangelicals. That diversity is the result of — and has led more deeply into — a culture of tolerance evangelicals don’t get credit for.

No one values the free and honest exchange of ideas more than evangelical Christians. The Bible teaches evangelicals: “Come, let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18). We take that idea seriously. However, evangelicals believe mere tolerance is a low standard for those called to the much higher standard of love. Tolerance says, “Put up with those different from you.” Love says, “Help them achieve God’s highest and best.” (See #6 above.) Further, evangelicals see nothing tolerant in an ideology that brands any and all dissenting ideas as “hate speech.” Neither do we believe that tolerance demands us to view all ideas, beliefs, or behaviors as equally true and valid. Evangelicals believe some ideas are good and true and some are bad or false. Saying so does not make one a bigot.

[Fester Chugabrew]

10According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. 11For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. -1 Corinthians 3

[ifinnegan]

Of course Evangelicals are pro-Science.

I’m not sure Collins can be considered an Evangelical, though.

[PROCON]

6. Evangelicals love LGBTQIA people.

We are not homophobes. We are homophiles. Our churches welcome LGBTQIA people with the same message we present to all others: “Come as you are . . . but leave transformed.”

The word homophile refers to an individual who accepts homosexuals, a supporter of certain rights of homosexuals, one who has positive thoughts about homosexuality, or an advocate of its social acceptance.

Many so called evangelical churches openly embrace and promote the homosexual life style/agenda.

They are an abomination.

[FourtySeven]

Re #1: doesn’t it also mean believing Jesus is God?

[Enlightened1]

What about the Clergy Response Teams?

Do you think it’s okay that they spy and report on their congregation to the Feds in order to keep getting that tax free status?

Oh yeah there are strings attached... Well if they want to keep their tax free status.

[kidd]

Many have been genuinely saved from a life of drugs, alcohol or promiscuity because of Evangelicals. I’ve met a dozen such people, and they are deeply grateful to God.

[ansel12]

Many so called evangelical churches openly embrace and promote the homosexual life style/agenda.

If they are our most conservative voting block, how many is many?

[PROCON]

Many so called evangelical churches openly embrace and promote the homosexual life style/agenda.

If they are our most conservative voting block, how many is many?

Poor choice of words on my part, should be:

A few so called evangelical churches openly embrace and promote the homosexual life style/agenda.

[Raycpa]

I suppose the author is saying we love homosexuals just as we love all sinners and we welcome them to our churches and pray that the holy spirit will transform homosexuals just like he transforms all sinners.

[outinyellowdogcountry]

Good stuff. I was reading an old thread last night about Calvinism/Arminianism/Catholicism and it was a downer. Goodness we all are an opinionated bunch when we need to go back to essentials and that is the cross of Christ.

[Arthur McGowan]

Being an evangelical actually means something doctrinally and theologically, namely that salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

I can't think of any Protestant belief that more blatantly flies in the face of the teaching of Jesus Christ in the gospel. Read St. Matthew's account of the Last Judgment, where the criterion of judgment is charity, and faith is never mentioned.

[Raycpa]

The goats and sheep were already separated.

[sasportas]

"salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone."

Of course, every page of Paul's epistles, for instance, have the great themes of "grace" and "faith in Christ Jesus" in them.

But to take that as meaning, since we believe in Christ's atonement, we unconditionally have God's grace covering such things as adultery, fornication, idolatry, witchcraft, drunkenness, revellings, and "such like," is utterly false.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal. 5:19-21

Eph. 5:6 says those, even if they call themselves "evangelical," who teach "once saved always saved" no matter what you do nonsense, are deceiving people with "vain words:"

Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

[ealgeone]

The goats and sheep were already separated.

I was going to point that out also.

Disappointing that someone who claims to be a priest would not make this distinction clear.

More cherry picking from Rome I guess.

[ealgeone]

>"salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone."

Of course, every page of Paul's epistles, for instance, have the great themes of "grace" and "faith in Christ Jesus" in them.

But to take that as meaning, since we believe in Christ's atonement, we unconditionally have God's grace covering such things as adultery, fornication, idolatry, witchcraft, drunkenness, revellings, and "such like," is utterly false.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal. 5:19-21

Eph. 5:6 says those, even if they call themselves "evangelical," who teach "once saved always saved" no matter what you do nonsense, are deceiving people with "vain words:"

Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

Ok...let's put some context around this shall we. Something catholicism is reluctant to do.

First...who is Paul writing Ephesians to? Ephesians 1:1...To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus:

For the catholics in the audience...saints are believers in Christ.

This whole letter is written to Believers...keep that in mind and it helps keep the context.

Paul makes it clear that these believers are indeed "once saved, always saved" in Eph 1:13-14 where he describes the saints as being sealed by the Holy Spirit who has been given as an inheritance of our salvation.

No where, repeat, no where, in the New Testament does it ever mention the Holy Spirit ever leaves us or that we are ever unsealed by God or by ourselves.

Fast forward to Eph 5. I've included vv 1-11 for context.

1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;

2and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

3But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;

4and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

5For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

7Therefore do not be partakers with them;

8for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light

9(for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),

10trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

11Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;

the bolded words...sons of disobedience are those who are not believers in Christ.

From Helps Word Studies: for the word disobedience

543 apeítheia(from 1 /A "not" and 3982 /peíthō, "persuaded") – properly, someone not persuaded, referring to their willful unbelief, i.e. the refusal to be convinced by God's voice. This is the core-meaning of the entire word-family: 543 (apeítheia), 544 (apeithéō), 545 (apeithḗs). All these cognates focus on man's decision to reject God's offers of faith, i.e. refusal to be persuaded in their heart concerning obeying His will (Word).

If you read verses 5 and 6 together we see these are people who have rejected God. These are not believers. He further clarifies this in verse 7-8 when he says not to be partakers with them. In verse 8 Paul notes "you were once in darkness" referring to the prior life before Christ.

Now, as believers will we still sin? Yes we will. Paul notes he still struggled with something.

But we have the forgiveness for all we do. Christ died for all of our sins...past, present and future. that is the glory of Christianity.

Do we emulate Christ? Yes we are to do so as noted in Eph 5:1...be imitators of God.

[sasportas]

John Calvin would be proud of you. Not all evangelicals are Calvinists, I might remind you.

[af_vet_1981]

No where, repeat, no where, in the New Testament does it ever mention the Holy Spirit ever leaves us or that we are ever unsealed by God or by ourselves. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

[af_vet_1981]

The goats and sheep were already separated.

The text does not say that. The sheep and goats are the nations (goyim/Gentiles), all gathered before him, and He shall separate them and explain why each is being separated. Works of righteousness or unrighteousness are first and foremost in this text.

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

Look at the other teaching in Matthew 25
1. The ten virgins are all supposed to meet the bridegroom. Five were foolish and took no oil with them. It seems to me many misread this text to equate oil with the Holy Spirit. I would focus more on Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. in light of this warning.
   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
   
   The LORD Jesus warns us over and over and over again in so many portions of scripture.
2. The parable of the talents is also about works of righteousness, and one servant of the Master refused to work, or submit his talent to a broker who could have invested it and given that servant interest.
3. The sheep and goats are about works of righteousness or unrighteousness. Faith is not even mentioned. James walked with, and learned from Messiah. If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

[Arthur McGowan]

More cherry picking from Rome I guess.

Keep the projection going. It's highly effective when you are trying to ignore the plain meaning of Jesus' words in the gospel.