What’s YOUR image of the evangelical christian?
What is it that they do? Where do YOU hear about them?
How do YOU become one? (Would you even want to add YOUR name to a list of evangelical Christians?)
This all-American anomaly does seem more prevalent in certain months of certain years. It’s practically an insult, isn’t it?
Who is calling out these evangelical christians so visible in the media?
Good News – Bad News
First, the Good News.
εὐαγγελιστής – Evangelist (noun) – The Evangelist brings good news! It’s the name given to the NT heralds of salvation through Christ who are not apostles.
Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” And Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said,
“Do you understand what you are reading?”
And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
Acts of the Apostles 8:26-40 Legacy Standard Bible
GOOD NEWS: Philip is a Biblical example of an Evangelical Christian.
Evangelicals are preachers – those who have received their Gospel from the angels of God!
Christians are called to proclaim Jesus Christ, preaching His Gospel Good News to those drawn by God to eternal life.
For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard.
Hebrews 4:2 – HNV
Now the Bad News (and it is two-fold).
Many evangelical christians do NOT follow Jesus Christ
- Many who hear the Good News proclaimed will not benefit.
- Some who claim to bring their good news to all do not preach Christ. (Listen with caution to where these so-called evangelicals would lead you and their loyal herds into the turmoil of this world.)
Listen to the sound reasoning of the Apostle Paul as he encourages believers of the Church at Corinth:
But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake. – 2 Corinthians 4:3-5 CSB
A Christian Evangelical
The authentic evangelical Christian claims no Lord other than Jesus Christ or agenda before the Gospel of Scripture.
Roger@talkofJESUS.com
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is foremost in the proclamation of the evangelical.
- Political and cultural cause do not become a gospel for an authentic evangelical Christian.
It is both true and troublesome that the label ‘Christians‘ was first used in Antioch (Acts 11:26) to malign followers of Jesus Christ compared to other religions and contemporarily used to claim or malign Jesus as a cause for or against culture unrelated to Christ.
Not every evangelical is so, just because someone called them an ‘evangelical christian’ away from the context of worship.
- The authentic evangelical worshiper will not ride every wave of contemporary culture or cling to cultural traditions of their past.
- An authentic evangelical church does not blindly follow the vision of a pastor ahead of the Gospel which God has revealed in the Bible.
- The authentic evangelical preacher does not substitute his own words for the true Gospel written in Scripture.
What is it that authentic Evangelical Christians do?
They evangelize good news of Christ.
The Gospel is Good News for sinners saved from death and the judgement of God. But the NEWS of Jesus Christ is NOT a topic shared by the world set against God.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ the HEADLINE of media?
Hardly.
What is it that Republicans do? They evangelize the good news of the republic (regardless of who they claim as their god).
And what is it that Democrats do? They evangelize the good news of democracy (regardless of what universal religion of the masses they claim).
Who is calling out these evangelical christians so visible in the media?
The opposition – opponents both of each other and against Jesus Christ.
So what is the business of media (including, of course, SOCIAL MEDIA)?
NEWS that sells.
Viral News that spreads through the unconsciousness of addicted consumers of culture.
NEWS creates COVID
– a Culture Of Viral Influential Destruction
of its consumed viewers, readers, listeners and virtual audience.
Whenever the world believes they can once again crucify the Lord God on their cross,
the NEWS maligns evangelical christians as human examples
demonstrating how God cannot save their world or their souls.
From Tents to Stadiums & Community to MEGA-Church
The Apostles of the first century Church appointed other men like Philip to serve their growing church and preach the Gospel. These men and women were evangelical Christians in the fullest sense, proclaiming Gospel Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord to all the world — men, women and children of every culture and nation.
Their churches (some to which we have letters from the Apostles) were mostly house churches or gatherings of the saints in certain public places.
Evangelism was by word of mouth and by their own example of Christ-like uniqueness from the cultures in which they lived.
Peter, John, Paul, Philip, Barnabas, Luke and many others represent Christ as evangels of their first century lives. They traveled between communities, wrote letters, sent money and pastoral advice and stayed with these believers for a time when the Spirit led them to build up the Church.
Paul made tents for travelers, but by the days of the explorers of later centuries, larger tents became meeting places – a public square in the middle of nowhere as in the days of the Tabernacle of Moses.
Evangelical Christians have gone into all the world in every century between the first and twenty-first an proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
a Glance at Evangelicalism Divided
The impression of Christ by the evangelical of the twentieth century became tainted by evangelicals themselves, a trend which has multiplied into further contention in our cultural churches of the twenty-first century.
We will continue our look at Evangelical Christian Churches NEXT TIME in a brief overview of 1950-2000 by Iain Murray.
Stay tuned…
