Question
Why don't Evangelical Christians simply call themselves 'Christians'?
Response
The word ‘Evangelical’ derives from the Greek New Testament term for the ‘gospel’ or ‘good news’ of Jesus Christ. Indeed first and foremost Evangelical Christians are ‘gospel people’, committed to the teaching of Jesus and the apostles rather than to later ecclesiastical traditions. As John Stott points out, this means that Evangelicalism is neither ‘a recent innovation’ nor ‘a deviation from Christian orthodoxy’. Without doubt, then, Evangelicals are Christians before they are anything else. Even so, they have a more specific history, and this helps to explain why they maintain a distinct identity within the wider Christian Church.
Evangelicalism owes a tremendous debt to the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. Led by Martin Luther, John Calvin and others, Protestants re-emphasised core gospel truths which they thought had been neglected by the medieval Catholic Church. These were summarised in three ‘solas’. The first was Sola Scriptura – ‘By Scripture alone’. This stressed that the authority of God’s Word from the Bible must always take precedence over reason, tradition, ecclesiastical structures and human experience. The second was Sola Gratia – ‘By grace alone’. This held that God takes the initiative in salvation, and that without this we are lost, whatever works of penance or charity we may undertake. The third key point was Sola Fide – ‘By faith alone’. This emphasised that having taken the lead in redeeming us, God nevertheless desires that we respond in belief and action. It is with the Reformation that we see the term ‘Evangelical’ first used to describe a specific group or movement within Christianity. Early on, it tended to define the Lutheran outlook, but by the mid-seventeenth century it had come to refer to a broad range of Protestants.
Although the Reformation established the main theological distinctives of Evangelicalism, its social and historical shape was not decisively formed until the 1730s. At that time, an American Calvinist, Jonathan Edwards, and two Church of England ministers, George Whitefield and John Wesley, applied Reformation doctrines to what would become known as ‘revival’. Revival featured itinerant evangelism and a deepened emphasis on conversion, assurance of faith, and personal holiness, as well as a dynamic commitment to social involvement.
The following five points, adapted from David Bebbington and Alister McGrath, sum up the particular characteristics of Evangelicalism as it exists within the wider Christian community:
- Biblicism – A focus on the supreme authority of Scripture for faith and conduct. ·
- Christocentrism – An emphasis on Jesus’ uniqueness as God’s only Son, and as the only Saviour of humanity.
- Crucicentrism – A stress on the saving death of Jesus on the cross, through which sinners are made right with God.
- Conversionism – A highlighting of the need for personal Christian faith, rather than mere cultural identification with Christianity.
- Activism – A commitment to social service alongside evangelism.
Evangelicals typically see these five points as reflecting the core life and mission of the early Church, and many would say that if they had been consistently upheld by the Church since then, there might be no need to use the word ‘Evangelical’. However, both Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy tend to interpret the Bible more strongly through the lens of tradition, while so-called Liberal and radical Christians typically shape their theology more from human reason and experience than from any sense of unchanging biblical revelation. Of course, there are many things which Evangelicals hold in common with these traditions rather than distinct from them, the creeds being an obvious example. Of course, too, Evangelicals often work with non-Evangelical Christians in mission, social outreach, political campaigning and the like. But while Catholics vest great authority in the Pope and in ecclesiastical councils, and while Liberals often assume that scientific and philosophical developments undermine supernatural biblical phenomena like miracles and the resurrection, ‘Evangelical Christians’ keep describing themselves as such because they believe these approaches are less reflective of the authentic ‘evangel’ than their own.
Key Bible Passage
Ephesians 2:5, "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved..."
‘Evangelicals are orthodox, mainline Christians who share much in common with other communities within the Church, but who believe that their own distinctive emphases on the Bible, the uniqueness of Christ, the cross, conversion and activism best reflect the teaching of Jesus and the apostles.’
This response was written by David Hilborn. Copyright © September 2006.
- How does the definition of Evangelicalism given here compare with popular perception of Evangelical Christians in society today?
- When might it be appropriate for Evangelicals simply to identify themselves as ‘Christians’?
- In what contexts might use of ‘Evangelical’ be valid in conjunction with ‘Christian’?
- Would you call yourself an Evangelical? If so, why? If not, why not?
Derek Tidball,Who are the Evangelicals? London: Marshall Pickering, 1994.
John Stott, Evangelical Truth, Leicester: IVP, 1999.
Alister McGrath, Evangelicalism and the Future of Christianity, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1995.
David Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain; A History from the 1730s to the 1980s, London: Unwin Hyman, 1989.
FAQ Disclaimer:
FAQ responses are designed to promote clear biblical thinking about subjects that are often difficult and confusing. The responses are all considered to be compatible with the Evangelical Alliance’s basis of faith but beyond that should not be assumed to represent the Evangelical Alliance’s ‘official standpoint’ on any particular doctrine or issue.
