What is an Evangelical and Who Cares?

You probably noticed there’s no photo today for this blog. Our grandson Ezra, Tendero age 17 types all my blogs and posts photos I select every week. Not only does that save me time, he earns him a little spending money but it also forces him to read every blog and so far he’s flat out in love with Jesus. However he’s been in Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids Michigan since Thursday with a serious eye infection that they’ve been unable to diagnose or treat effectively. Please pray for him and his parents who sleep at the hospital caring for him.

But why no photo? Because I’m 76 and never bothered to learn how to post a photo for my blogs. Susan and I are constantly asking our grandchildren to fix something on our phones, or iPads. When they do their rolled eyes tell us “These people need adult supervision!” So, today no photo and maybe even next week. I’m banking on the fact that you read my blogs for the content and don’t really give a rip about the photos. So here goes;

I wrote in The 10 Second Rule, that some words wear out. By that I meant, that over time certain words lose their true meaning. The term evangelical is just such a word. Today most Protestants consider themselves evangelicals unless they are theological liberals. Unfortunately the term Evangelical has drifted over the last 30-40 years to become synonymous with “republicans right wing evangelical,” and therefore associated with a political party.

So what is a theological evangelical?

The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and Life Way Research spent the last few years trying to find a common definition to clear up the confusion.

Rather than trying to define an evangelical by behavior, they choose to define one by what they believe – their theology. However, to my way of thinking, our behavior flows from whatever it is that we truly believe and I’ll illustrate how that works in real life as we work through these ideas.

In the end, the NAE simply restated what most true evangelicals have always believed, and here they are; An evangelical believes with conviction;

1. The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.

2. It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.

3. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection is the only sacrifice that can remove the penalty of my sin.

4. Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.

Who cares?

Why do we care who calls themselves an evangelical or not? Well, for one, many people like to think of themselves as a “conservative Christian,” but in fact, they aren’t! In a national phone survey conducted by Life Way Research, 59% of Protestants self-identified as evangelicals. However, only half of them strongly agreed with all four statements above and therefore, are not evangelicals at all!

What the researchers concluded was, that the term conservative Christian has drifted to mean Christians who are conservatives on social issues, but not necessarily on theological issues.

You know you’re an evangelical if…

Jeff Foxworthy is a stand-up comic, who’s trademark jokes begin with this line, “You know you’re a redneck if…” And then he’ll deliver a humorous punch line that has some truth in it.

So, here’s why being a true theological evangelical is so important today, and how that ought to work itself out in how we behave.

1. You know if you’re an evangelical if you have enough concern for spiritually lost people to regularly share the gospel with them. If you don’t do that, you should not consider yourself an evangelical.

2. You’ll know if you’re an evangelical if you make your moral choices based on what the Bible commands regardless of what your friends think, or what you personally desire. So, if you’re publicly or privately not living living in serious obedience to the teachings and commands of the Bible, you’re not an evangelical regardless of your insistence that you, “believe in the Bible.”

3. You’ll know you’re an evangelical if you are convicted that without people believing in Jesus Christ as the only way to be right with God, they are lost. If you believe there are other ways to God, you are not an evangelical.

4. You’ll know if you’re an evangelical if you consider God, speaking through the Bible, to be your ultimate authority for your faith and life, and not your church, or any human. And that you wake up every day understanding the purpose for your very life is to do the will of God.

Are all true Christians, evangelicals?

I need to say, that even if you don’t believe strongly in the four pillars of evangelicalism, you still may be a Christian. Why? Because to be a true follower of Jesus, requires more than simply believing a set of doctrinal positions. Jesus never called us to be evangelicals. He called us to “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” True followers of Jesus are so convinced of his divinity and sacrifice for them that they’ve committed their lives to living for God and loving others more than themselves. .

The defining character of true faith in Jesus Christ is courageous obedience to everything Jesus taught – and not doctrinal perfection!