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Tag: Church

Church: Religion? Philosophic Discourse? or Cultural Calling?
The instant you say, ‘church,’ you dip your toe into waters of reactions which you know not how hot or cold, how shallow or deep, how stagnant or storm-tossed the hearer of your faith.

Do you dare even ask?
- Are YOU a CHRISTIAN?
- Where did you worship last Sunday?
- Do you belong to OUR church?
- What are you currently studying from the Bible?
- Would you talk of JESUS with me?
- May I SHARE the Good News of my Biblical Christian faith?
Just imagine the wide range of reactions of any other soul to ANY of these questions of the faithful evangelical Christian daring to share the Gospel of their Biblical Christian church.

An even more troubling question:

Does a Christian dare engage OTHER ‘christians‘ in a conversation about Christ (the Namesake of our Christian faith) addressing ALL of these questions and more about our Biblical Christian faith?

Have YOU, in fact, tested these troublesome waters?

IF SO, perhaps you too have received a baptism of hot opposition or a cold withdrawal of the flesh from the waters of faith.

That would be evangelism = a RED FLAG of RELIGION to which a world (inclusively with some calling themselves a ‘church,’) will often react with ears that do not hear, as well as the rhetoric of rebellion against the Lord God and anarchy against salvation of the sinful soul.
- Perhaps evangelism nets too few caught in the rising waters of a cultural flood of this world reacting to the ‘church,’ by denying Christ Jesus.
- Maybe a pure Biblical Christian faith offends some tiptoeing into the mire of murky waters of philosophic denial.
The [*] wicked fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They act corruptly, they commit abominable deeds;
There is no one who does good.
Psalm 14 :: Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) * wicked – one who rejects wisdom in rebellion against God
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(Although some these wicked fools have crept into pulpits of places which call themselves, 'church.')
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ANY constant questioning of authoritative adherence to the Word of God, the Holy Bible of our Christian faith, should sound an alarm to the faithful:

Beware of the tempter in sheep’s clothing.

Who else would deconstruct the Biblical Christian foundation of the Church, only to reconstruct our faith by compromises of the only Truth, replacing authoritative Scripture with several shifting pebbles of heretical half-truths ‘reasoned’ by the wicked at war with Christ?

So I ask you .. I ask us:

Who are these 21st century Christians?
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What are YOUR answers to my earlier questions I dare to ask my fellow evangelical Christian believers and worshipers of Jesus Christ? (ADD your Comment on Scripture to this Saturday Post of TalkofJESUS.com) 
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Our church in Christ Jesus has no place for the unrepentant wicked fool; for our Gospel is for those who believe.
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I began this Saturday Post series as a deeper discussion of DOCTRINE (or teaching) of the Church. The alarm of the watchman on the wall rang in my ears while hearing about a subtle teaching, an undercurrent of doctrine seeping into the evangelical christian church.

Evangelical RECONSTRUCTION was something I naively had never heard of; YET now I will raise the trumpet of warning to sound the alarm:
Something’s wrong with our church!

(Who wouldn't agree?) YES it is.

So why not RECALL it?

(Send it ‘back to the manufacturer? Can’t do that. So how can WE evolve the church into a 21st c. style faith?)
Tear it down to the ground demolishing doctrine by doctrine.

Then WE can RECONSTRUCT that which WE have deconstructed to fix the church how WE want.

But WE had better do it subtly (so as not to offend anybody) and stealthily (without account of a foundational Biblical Christian teaching).
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A 21st c. RECALL of the CHURCH is just what WE need for OUR Evangelical Reconstruction of the Church into a socially acceptable gathering which will attract any follower from religions of every culture of our world.
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NOT!

To borrow from the Apostle Paul refuting premises of clear untruths:

By no means!

Perfect Teaching (for God’s imperfect ‘church’)

https://talkofjesus.com/talk-jesus-com/what-is-doctrine/
διδασκαλία – didaskalia – doctrine (19x), teaching (1x), learning (1x). – source: BlueLetterBible.org

Doctrine, whether by preaching or teaching or proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is foundational to faith and therefore never to be torn down by any mortal sinner. Scripture affirms God’s truth and the trustworthy teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ for those who believe.

.. so that we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, ..
Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Church in Ephesus 4:14 Legacy Standard Bible

This same Apostle (to the Gentiles) confesses in his first letter to the pastor, Timothy 1:15

.. that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

And the Apostle Peter fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying,

“Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
the Good News of Luke 5:8 Legacy Standard Bible

Some call Peter and Paul, Saints (and they are); yet all of God’s faithful are saints to the Lord.

Psalm 34:9 (WLC 34:10) יְראוּ אֶת־יְהוָה קְדֹשָׁיו כִּי־ אֵין מַחְסוֹר לִירֵאָֽיו׃
Yodh
Oh, fear Yahweh, you His saints;
For there is no want to those who fear Him.
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Do YOU FEAR THE LORD GOD, oh you sinner?

The MARQEE denominational name of your 'church' matters NOT, my fellow sinner. 
Seek the salvation of the Lord, my dear fellow saint, His redemption of your soul to eternal life witnessed in the Gospel of the Christ JESUS.
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Perfect Preaching (Teaching)

Is based on & does not manipulate Scripture.

THE LORD GOD IS! (God IS God and mankind is not.)

God spoke to and through men whom the Lord God chose and commanded to write HIS words.

“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent;
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not establish it?
Numbers 23:19 LSB

ONLY Scripture – Sola Scriptura

All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,
2 Timothy 3:16 LSB

NOT ‘some,’ NOT ‘select scripture’ ..

AND separate from the truth that some church pastors will never reprove or correct those wayward weak sheep of their own flock,

ALL of the WRITTEN WORD OF SCRIPTURE IS GOD INSPIRED!

Mortal SINNERS DO NOT get to reconstruct what GOD has said.

(But false teachers of every era subtly seek to lead Christ’s lost sheep into the abyss of disbelief.)

Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”

The Apostle John’s Good News for you is:

.. that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.

Evangelical RE-construction of the Church
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Source material for the following is transcribed (written as accurately as possible) from the A.D. 2022 podcast 'Just Thinking,' previously recommended and linked on TalkofJESUS.com and used with permission of its author. - RH
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In deconstruction everything is a SOCIAL construction, including the church.
Darrell Harrison
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By the way, this Saturday Post series, Church – Who are these 21st c. Christians? - is directed toward faithful evangelical Christians who fear God and believe Scripture as a warning and caution for infidelity to Christ we increasingly hear from the pulpits of our RE-engineered 21st c. 'churches.' - RH

I will add brief comment to Harrison's outline below for your consideration and intentional thinking about the teaching of your church. Why not add your own thoughts in the Comments at the bottom of this post. 

God-willing, we will continue the course of identifying the faithful of our 21st century 'Church' next Saturday.
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Evangelical Deconstructionism

Most of the points quoted may be found in the Just Thinking Podcast near 1:32.

FIVE-POINT PROGRESSION of Evangelical Deconstructionism
1. EMBRACE and posit [plant or assume] the idea [philosophy] that the CHURCH is a SOCIALLY constructed system, NOT a divinely ordained idea [institution] that originated in the mind of God.
2. ASSUME that this socially constructed system is designed to be exclusive of certain intersectional identities, traditions and behaviors.
3. IDENTIFY subjective [reasoned in the mind] points or cracks in that socially constructed system that have failed [as reasoned by the philosopher] AND need to be fixed [or reconstructed].
4. APPLY a hermeneutic [interpretive explanation] of SUSPICION to that SOCIALIALLY-CONSTRUCTED system so that ANYONE [who even remotely] connected to that system is deemed UNTRUSTWORTHY.. deemed an enemy.
5. RECONSTRUCT this SOCIAL SYSTEM [church, etc.] into the IMAGE and likeness of the CULTURE with socially acceptable.. [everythingology].
Have you heard the alarm?

“Therefore watch out, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you:
Acts of the Apostles 13:40 LSB [in context 13:23-41]

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Gospel of Matthew 7:15 LSB – a warning of Jesus

“Now why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?

Gospel of Luke 6:46 LSB – CHALLANGE of the Lord Jesus Christ to followers

What must we do?

Does YOUR local church have a new cultural calling to evangelism?

Please comment below on what you observe of Evangelical Deconstructionism?

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
August 27, 2022
Syncretism – a little leaven added to Christ’s Church
Leaven & Syncretism

In an earlier Saturday Post in this series I coined the teaching, preaching and study of Everythingology – definition:

1. Endless study of everything;

2. Theoretical theology of humanity as god.

Today our focus turns toward the ‘isms‘ applied to the Church. Specifically, syncretism is form of everythingology stirred into the beliefs of Christians and leavening the 21st century Church to its own destruction.

First, a couple of definitions for my fellow amateur theologians of the Church:

Syncretism
- Reconciliation or fusion of differing systems of belief, as in philosophy or religion, especially when success is partial or the result is heterogeneous. – source: Wordnik.com
‘What’s wrong with that,’ you may ask. Sounds like a pretty good thing. ‘Can’t we all just get along?”

I even saw some syncretism on a bumper sticker of a pastor’s car.
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We'll get back to the definition of Syncretism shortly, but here is where understanding leaven comes into our understanding. (So let's take a Biblical view at leaven -- and this, from the New Testament.)
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Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
Paul’s first letter to the Church at Corinth 5:6 LSB

ζύμη – leaven
- metaph. of inveterate [chronic, deep-rooted] mental and moral corruption, viewed in its tendency to infect others
Leaven is applied to that substance which is small in quantity, yet thoroughly pervades a thing by its influence. The NT uses it in both a positive (cf. Mat 13:33) or negative sense (e.g., “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump”).
- ζύμη zýmē, dzoo’-may; probably from G2204; ferment (as if boiling up):—leaven.
- source: BlueLetterBible.org linked above
Where Everythingism Leavens the Church

Note our definition of Syncretism where philosophy and religion, specifically Christology, intersect.
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Two additional definitions [linked above]:

- The merging of two or more originally different inflectional forms.
- The attempted reconciliation or union of irreconcilable principles or parties, as in philosophy or religion; specifically, the doctrines of a certain school in the Lutheran Church, followers of Callixtus, who attempted to effect a union among all Christians, Protestant and Catholic. Sec syncretist.
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Our 20th century trained tolerances sometimes cause us to pause, if not cringe, at any Scriptural reference to a culture other than our own. For example:

One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”
Paul’s letter to Titus 1:12 LSB

Where does the Apostle Paul come off by saying this to a Pastor Titus about the culture of Crete?

(And dare we preach this in our mostly white or mostly black evangelical Christian churches?)

Syncretism from ancient Greek philosophy

The connection is true (as Paul says) and intersects once more with an origin of syncretism found in nearby ancient Greek philosophy.

That, of course, would be the world of the Greek culture of the Roman Empire; a world which universally embraced MANY gods — Greeks and Cretans and Romans to whom the Apostles proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ.
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From συγκρητίζω (sunkrētízō) +‎ -μός (-mós), or possibly from συν- (sun-) +‎ Κρῆτες (Krêtes, “Cretans”) +‎ -ισμός (-ismós, “-ism”) if the verb is a back-formation. - source: Wikipedia
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Doesn’t Syncretism Multiply our numbers of Christians in the Evangelical Church?

If you do not agree with the Biblical caution of Paul for the churches in Crete; then, my fellow “evangelical Christian,’ you may want to reconsider a long-stagnant fermentation of Greek philosophy into a 21st century self-definition of syncretist:
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What is it to be a Syncretist 
"Syncretism is the science of integrating and understanding all fields of human knowledge, whether it be theological, philosophical, alchemical, astrological or spiritual. 
All fields of human knowledge can be syncretized and unified rather than divided, dividing and separating is the modus operandi of the control... - Syncretism Society [not linked here]

Consult your philosophers and alchemists (think magic potions) and astrologers (zodiac signs, earth worshipers) and spiritualists (palm readers or an enlightened Buddhist monk on a mountain).  
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Are these the humans YOU count as those in the Sunday gathering (or broadcast) of your evangelical church?

HOW WILL YOU CONVERT THEM TO CHRIST?
- Does the world see YOU and beloved friends of your local evangelical CHURCH as worshipers of Jesus Christ?
Here is the ‘Did god REALLY SAY’ QUESTION of the SYNCRETIST:
- WILL YOU AFFORD THE SAME HONOR TO BUDDA, VISHNU and MUHAMMED as you do Jesus?
That’s syncretism.

Must the CHURCH MULTIPLY our inclusion of so many anti-Christs of rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers.. upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of dishonest gain? [see: Titus 1:10-11]
- Didn’t these come to your ‘CHURCH’ because YOU, being Christ-like, live differently than others?
What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.
Second letter of the Apostle Paul to the Church in Corinth Greece 6:15-16 NLT

How are Christians Different?

We examined philosophy (briefly).

Even Atheists make a religion of their teachings against God.

Religion, as we have seen, has many faces.

Even Atheists make a religion of their teachings against God, especially preaching a philosophic evangelism against Jesus Christ and against the Church and ALL Christians.

IS SYNCRYTISM a religion or is it a PHILOSOPY?

As you can see from their own self-defining society, we should probably be asking all of these syncretist churches:

SO WHY DON’T YOU TOLERATE ALL philosophies, ALL religions (as you claim), ALL gods and ALL idols and ALL human behaviors including worship of Jesus Christ? — AND WHY can’t you ever be ALL-INCLUSIVE of Christians?

“All fields of human knowledge can be syncretized and unified rather than divided..”

ANSWER: Because we are divinely ordained. [Isaiah 43:21] Although all have sinned [Romans 3:23] and deserve the wrath and punishment of God [Ezekiel 7:8], WE who believe in and follow our Lord Jesus Christ will have ETERNAL LIFE [numerous N.T. Scriptures].

Sadly, by their own disobedience to the Lord God and Jesus Christ, OTHERS will be judged!

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:31 LSB

Let no one deceive you with empty words,
for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Letter of Paul to the Church in Ephesus [Greece] 5:6 LSB

For many deceivers have gone out into the world..

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
Second letter of the Apostle John to the Church 1:7 LSB
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I could launch into a full sermon from John's letter and his CAUTION to the CHURCH here -- briefly --
Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. - v.9
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting [fellowships] participates in his evil deeds. vs.10-11
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- The syncretist will NOT allow the true Biblical Christian into their all-inclusive fellowship.
- The Apostle John cautions that true believers should NOT EVEN GREET one who wants to become part of Christ’s Church who does not live [abide] in the teaching of Christ.
Syncretism, Humanism, Universalism, and ALL of the diverse ism’s of the philosophers who constantly ask their disciples, “DID god REALLY SAY…” would lure the faithful to turn altogether toward dark pits bubbling with the leaven of evil to torment all souls.

A Unitarian Universalist CAUTION:

One closing thought. (I cannot even begin to list every syncretist so-called ‘Church,’ but here’s an approach.)

The individual unitarian (all truths are equal) and humanist (man is god) are “anti-Christs” by definition. Their own false premise of self stands against salvation where Jesus must mediate between God and mankind. [1 John 2:1-2, 1 Timothy 2:5] For He IS both GOD and man. [John 10:30]

Faithful evangelical Christian theologians more studied than this lay theologian in such divisive arguments of philosopher-syncretists have CAUTIONED the Church many times in the past.

.. I have written three pieces about the Christological debate, and about the gravity of allowing flagrant Unitarian heresy to be unanswered, unchecked, and undisciplined in the church. The central issue is neither one of semantics nor of [church creeds], but rather of salvation, (whether Jesus can in any sense mediate between God and mankind if he is not himself both God and man) and of discipleship (for we cannot worship him, believe in him, or obey him if he is not God).
Already by the middle of the first century, the deity of Jesus was part of the faith of the universal church. It cannot and must not be compromised today.
John Stott – Christ the Cornerstone Conclusion – JESUS IS LORD! HAS WIDE RAMIFICATIONS; pp. 202-203

Stott has much more to say about this, some which I may quote as we continue in this Saturday Post Series: A 21st c. RECALL of the CHURCH {linked at the top of our homepage.

Please COMMENT and tell us what YOU observe and think about the leaven of SYNCRETISM in your church. – RH
August 20, 2022
Is the CHURCH still Christian?
What makes a church Christian? Can we tell from it’s SIGN on the DOOR or internet invitation? Does a traditional denomination make a church Christian? OR does its NAME etched in its brand guarantee preaching of Biblical Christianity?

Defining & Refining CHURCH Labels

As we observed last time concerning labels like ‘evangelical Christians,’ labels don’t generally describe individuals accurately. So too, the names of local churches may appear to be faded remnants of the past or clouded virtual pictures.

Is the Evangelical Christian?

Last time I asked a personal question about evangelicals.

Today, however, we will address the body of believers who evangelize the Lord Jesus Christ, those we corporately we call ‘THE CHURCH.”

Church

So how is a godly Christian to know if OUR church preaches the Lord Jesus Christ according to Biblical Christian teaching of two millennia since the resurrection of Christ Jesus?

We have no idea what communicable doctrines a local church may preach, teach and spread into our local and distant communities.

Who are those Christians in that building?
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I've even wondered this myself about our local gathering of christians and others in weekly worship, social gatherings (formerly called fellowship {archaic}) and sermon discussion classes (formerly labeled Sunday school {also archaic}) or Bible study {an inappropriate label for any group in a church willing to grow our church vision of Evangelicalism}.
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Who are those christians in our church this week:
- Members?
- Attenders?
- Seekers?
- Unbelievers
How many of them are there?

Did they applaud the music?

What do they do when it’s not Sunday?

Will they bring someone else next week? (After all, that’s what evangelical christians are supposed to do.)

And what was it that preacher said? …

Let’s sort out a few common terms before proceeding further.
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Definitions are my own. 
Accompanying questions are my personal musings about these same 'religious' terms.

Dictionary definitions (sometimes linked to source) typically include various shades of grey [gray] as is so popular in a world of tolerance accepting many truths - truths which cannot all be true. As you may or may not realize:

DICTIONARIES provide varying definitions of 'religious' terms which often illustrate editor bias against the LORD GOD and JESUS CHRIST. 
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CATHOLIC, Orthodox & Protestant
- Catholic – In a word, Universal or Everybody, but generally used exclusively to mean ROMAN Catholic Church under universal authority of the Bishop of Rome (THE Pope).
- Orthodox – Generally viewed as VERY culturally TRADITIONAL worshipers in various Eastern regions, i.e. Russian, Greek; also Jewish, (even Sunni Muslim!) (more)
- Protestant – They protest against:
  - Catholics (mostly),
  - authority (generally),
  - other denominations (frequently) and
  - the sins of others (especially) who ought to become more like them.
Christianity is the world’s most popular religion – with over 2 billion followers. Christianity is the main religion in Northern America, South America, Europe, and parts of Australasia and Africa. Christianity has recently been seen as a religion that acts as a bastion of peace – though tragically, Christians are officially the most persecuted people worldwide.
GENERATION95 with list of the 10 largest denominations
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Does this help?
Do you have your own take on Catholicism, Orthodoxy or Protestantism to SHARE in a COMMENT (please)?

Now that we have outlined the BIG divisions of religions, let's get into some of the CHURCH NAMES (denominations, etc.)
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Protestants / Divided
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Partial List:
Protests of Protestants tend to lead to exponential multiplication of church names ~ (add 'ism' for its religion name) 
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- Lutheranism (You know, followers of that Protesting Catholic who famously nailed 99 PROTESTS demanding Reformation.) – 16th c. German
- Moravianism – 15th c. Bohemian Reformation (before Luther)
- Calvinism – 16th c. France – God is King and the Bible’s authority reigns over kings (and church leaders)
- Anglicanism – 16th c. England, founded by Henry VIII,
  - further advanced in 17c. by King James (of Bible fame)
  - (Episcopalism – US after their 18th century secession from the King of England)
- Puritanism – 17th c. Puritans (kicked out of England) desired to further refine the reforms of the Protestant Reformation
- Quakerism (Friends) – 17th c. England (Anglican dissenter), George Fox evangelizes in the Colonies
- Methodism – 18th c. English missionaries, the Wesley’s, evangelizing colonies in America
  - Pentecostalism – 20th c. America, incl. Holiness Pentecostals, Assemblies of God & others
- Presbyterianism – 18th c. Scotland – Presbyters (select Elders) run the church, not Bishops
- Baptists – (‘Baptism‘ better-defined; Many ‘isms’ emerge from the waters of the Baptists.)
- Anabaptists – 16th c. Dutch, including Mennonites and Amish
- Adventism – 19th c. – Worship on Sabbath (Seventh Day), Jesus is coming soon (i.e. Millerites)
Protestant Denominations

I’ve attempted a BRIEF personal impression of ‘major’ Protestant Denominations (divisions of theological thought). For more information view my source for most: Protestantism and open additional link to Major Branches.

BUT don’t let that SIGN on your Local Church mislead you.

There is much more to Protestant theology (the study of God) than simply knowing what denomination a local church promotes. (That’s why choosing a local church can be so confusing.)

Where do Protestant Denominations draw their lines in the sand?
Evolving Revelations of God?
Several compatible truths?
Limited application of the Bible?
Is the Bible infallible?
What translation is accurate?
Can a preacher paraphrase the Bible?
Does God speak through the words of Scripture or the ideas of Scripture or perhaps both?
How does the Holy Spirit impact worship?

Where does Evangelicalism fit into a contemporary culture of Christianity?

Evangelicalism

It’s NOT a denomination or limited to certain Protestant churches. In fact, Evangelicalism is a movement within Christianity not unlike the charismatic and neo-charismatic movements of the twentieth and earlier centuries. And like any movement – religious, political or cultural in nature, its course continually alters.
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I make no claims of expertise on Evangelical Christianity, but defer mostly to one of two sources in what is to follow:
Evangelicalism from multiply-sourced Wikipedia and EVANGELICALISM DIVIDED - A RECORD OF CRUCIAL CHANGE IN THE YEARS 1950 TO 2000, by Iain H. Murray. - RH
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Anyone born in the late 20th century or 1950’s as I was will likely picture one preacher as an icon of Evangelism: Billy Graham.

Graham was a Southern Baptist, but listen to his statement to an audience at the principle Roman Catholic University in the United States:

I have no quarrel with the Catholic Church.
Billy Graham, at Notre Dame, 1978

Evangelical Christianity

The secularism of Christianity and the Church is one of the evil tendencies of the day, and is one phase of universalism which the church is now called upon to oppose.. The Papal Church once sought to make Christianity a universal religion by adopting Pagan rites and ceremonies.
Wm G. T. Shedd, The Presbyterian Review, 1886 – source – ix
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Evangelicalism is by no means non-controversial. - RH
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‘We should be asking: What is a Christian? How can we get forgiveness of sins? and What is a church?’
D. Martyn Lloyd Jones – Evangelical Alliance Conference, 1966- source

Evangelists – εὐαγγελιστής

Evangelists preach the GOSPEL! Tyndale, of 16th century English Bible fame, called these evangelicals ‘gospellers.’

all the churches of the Reformation were ‘of the gospel’ in their creeds and confessions..
by 18th c. ..there were may pulpits from which no gospel was heard and when the evangel was recovered a term was necessary to distinguish its preachers from others.
They were the evangelicals.
EVANGELICALISM DIVIDED – p.1
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It explains much. Even though your CHURCH or Protestant Denomination may claim to orthodox Christian doctrine like the Anglicans and Presbyterians of the 19th century, your local church pastor may not preach the Gospel. Your local preacher may not even be a Christ-believing shepherd and preach from a vision of his own rather than the Good News of the Bible. - RH
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Such a divide away from evangelicalism lies in the tempting of certain preachers to veer away from Scripture toward modernist philosophies questioning God’s sovereignty over the free-will of humankind.

Experience, not teaching, has to be the object of the preacher, ‘the real thing in the religious discourse is an imparting of the religious consciousness’.
Evangelism Divided, p.11, citing an author separating biblical revelation from Christian feeling

Belief is NON-essential for christian worship. (Perhaps Jesus will give everyone a saving grace later.)

‘an atheist who lives by love is saved by his faith in the God whose existence (under that name) he denies.’
William Temple, Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, 1934, – source p.12
- How can evangelicalism be said to represent Biblical essentials?
  - IF one regards as Christians
  - AND works alongside with
  - those who actually DENY these essentials [gospel belief]?
- How can Christian fellowship exist independently of any common commitment to such belief?
- An Evangelical is a person who believes truths essential to salvation and has experienced their power in his own rebirth.
Here is the great divide. The ecumenical people put fellowship before doctrine.
We are evangelicals; we put doctrine before fellowship.
Lloyd-Jones, Evangelical Unity: An Appeal – source pp. 45-46

And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
Acts of the Apostles 2:42 Legacy Standard Bible

Further Division

I believe that there is an intolerance of plain, sober, instructive Christian teaching from the pulpit, which is one of the worst signs of the Christianity of this generation.
Alexander MacLaren :: A Fourfold Cord (Acts 2:42) [MacLaren was a Baptist preacher in 19th c. England]
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Iain Murray, Presbyterian preacher at 2000 member National Evangelical Anglican Congress, Nottingham England - 1977
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- What if the first need of the Church and the nation was not Christian unity but the recovery of Christianity itself?
  - In that case the question, ‘What is a Christian?’ demanded a very different order of priority. p.150
When churches loose their influence, when the Christian message ceases to arrest the indifferent and the unbelieving, when moral decline is obvious in places which once owned biblical standards — when such symptoms as these are evident, then the first need is not to regroup such professing Christianity as remains.
It is rather to ask whether the spiritual decline is not due to fundamental failure to understand and practise what Christianity really is.
Iain H. Murray, Evangelism Divided – Retrospect: A Different Approach p. 151
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The urgency of our wrong retrospect on what Evangelical Christianity really is seems even more pressing for the 21st century 'evangelical christian' forty years after Murray stated its importance.

Roger@TalkofJESUS.com  
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Revival of Evangelicalism

Murray continues to make his case for Biblical Evangelical Christianity, a case with which I whole-heartedly agree. – RH

But if the New Testament does settle the question, then we have no liberty to redefine, ‘Christian,’ in terms which neither Christ nor his apostles ever authorized.
source p. 151

Paul writes in his first letter to Timothy of “God our Savior,” who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth. – 1 Timothy 2:4 LSB

Peter asks new-born Christians (that is, born-again Christians) to ‘long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have TASTED THE KINDNESS OF THE LORD [pointing also to Old Testament Scriptures]. – 1 Peter 2:2b-3

THEN, as Murray points out: This precious value, then, is for you who believe. – 1 Peter 2:7a AND from the Gospel of Luke 14:26 with the Lord Jesus instructing his Apostles in the cost of discipleship: “If anyone comes to Me, and does not [by comparison] hate [family we love]..even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
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Murray continues to make a Scriptural case for Evangelical Christianity. 
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WHY would any 21st century Evangelical Christian imagine any other way to evangelize the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ WITHOUT accurately pointing to the BIBLE?

On the basis of these facts [Scriptures listed by Murray] the New Testament shows that one sure test of a Christian profession is how that person reacts to the Scriptures.
Evangelism Divided – A Record of Crucial Change in the Years 1950-2000 – Iain H. Murray

Evangelizing the Pulpits of ‘Evangelicals‘

I offer here one closing thought to preachers in the pulpits of our 21st century Christian, Protestant Churches who belatedly have a ‘come to JESUS moment’ in considering the many Scriptural examples of evangelicalism.

Orthodox Evangelicalism

Looking for something to preach that will evangelize unbelievers to become members of your local church?

Preach Scripture (as written).

GOD has more credibility than YOU. So if you want to draw more worshipers to Jesus Christ, PREACH JESUS CHRIST from Scripture. It’s our most orthodox method to bring fellow sinners into our church.

Orthodox – definition

IF you read some 21st century definitions of Church, Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Evangelical, and OTHER religious terms, you may discover bias of a world listing it as archaic.

Orthodox faith in Jesus Christ from the Bible remains constant even during tides of contemporary ‘christian‘ movements.

Webster’s 1913 Dictionary offers an enduring definition of Orthodox which Pastors may want to consider prayerfully.
1. Sound in opinion or doctrine, especially in religious doctrine; hence, holding the Christian faith; believing the doctrines taught in the Scriptures; – opposed to heretical and heterodox; as, an orthodox Christian.
2. According or congruous with the doctrines of Scripture, the creed of a church, the decree of a council, or the like; as, an orthodox opinion, book, etc.
3. Adhering to generally approved doctrine or practices; conventional. Opposed to unorthodox.
Orthodox Evangelicalism preaches and teaches the Gospel through Scripture.

All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness
2 Timothy 3:16 Legacy Standard Bible

WHAT do YOU and YOUR CHURCH Evangelize?
August 6, 2022