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Evangelicalism and Its Future

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Title: Evangelicalism and Its Future


1
Evangelicalism and Its Future
  • Gregory C. Strand
  • Director of Biblical Theology and Credentialing
  • EFCA 2009 Leadership Conference
  • June 24, 2009

2
  • What does it mean that we part of the Evangelical
    Free Church?  When we say we are evangelicals,
    what do we mean?  Today the term is used with
    various meanings sociological, political,
    theological which carry with it significant
    implications.  In light of this, do we no longer
    use the word, or do we work hard at defining the
    word rightly?  We will focus on what this term
    means biblically and theologically, and trace the
    evangelical movement through history.  We will
    also attempt to address the future of
    evangelicalism, and how it is that we will, by
    Gods grace, keep the evangel, the gospel, the
    good news, at the center of evangelicalism.

3
I. Introduction
4
  • What would things look like if Satan really took
    control of a city? Over half a century ago,
    Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse
    offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon
    that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio.
    Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over
    Philadelphia, all of the bars would be closed,
    pornography banished, and pristine streets would
    be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at
    each other. There would be no swearing. The
    children would say, Yes, sir and No maam,
    and the churches would be full every Sundaywhere
    Christ is not preached.
  • Michael Horton, Christless Christianity The
    Alternative Gospel of the American Church (Grand
    Rapids Baker, 2008), 15.

5
II. The Demise of Evangelicalism
6
  • Michael Spencer, The coming evangelical
    collapse, The Christian Science Monitor
  • http//www.csmonitor.com/2009/0310/p09s01-coop.htm
    l
  • Blog http//www.internetmonk.com/

7
  • We are on the verge within 10 years of a
    major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This
    breakdown will follow the deterioration of the
    mainline Protestant world and it will
    fundamentally alter the religious and cultural
    environment in the West.
  • Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a
    house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25
    and 35 percent of Americans today are
    Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century,
    Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be
    living in a very secular and religiously
    antagonistic 21st century.
  • This collapse will herald the arrival of an
    anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian
    West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to
    levels many of us have not believed possible in
    our lifetimes, and public policy will become
    hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing
    it as the opponent of the common good.
  • Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of
    ministries will end. Christian media will be
    reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian
    schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced
    the grace and mission of God will reach to the
    ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism
    as we know it is close.

8
  • Evangelicals have identified their movement with
    the culture war and with political conservatism.
  • We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our
    young people an orthodox form of faith that can
    take root and survive the secular onslaught.
  • There are three kinds of evangelical churches
    today consumer-driven megachurches, dying
    churches, and new churches whose future is
    fragile. Denominations will shrink, even vanish,
    while fewer and fewer evangelical churches will
    survive and thrive.
  • Despite some very successful developments in the
    past 25 years, Christian education has not
    produced a product that can withstand the rising
    tide of secularism.

9
  • The confrontation between cultural secularism
    and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts
    to "do good" is rapidly approaching. We will soon
    see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be
    viewed as bad by so many, and much of that work
    will not be done. Look for ministries to take on
    a less and less distinctively Christian face in
    order to survive.
  • Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine
    themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will
    find a great inability to pass on to our children
    a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and
    the importance of the faith.
  • The money will dry up.

10
III. Key Works Attempts to Define
11
  • Attempts to Define
  • John D. Woodbridge and David Wells, ed., The
    Evangelicals (Abingdon, 1975).
  • Kenneth S. Kantzer and Carl F. H. Henry, ed.,
    Evangelical Affirmations (Grand Rapids 1990).
  • John K. Akers and John Woodbridge, et al., This
    We Believe The Good News of Jesus Christ for the
    World (Grand Rapids Zondervan, 2001).
  • The Gospel Coalition, Don Carson and Tim Keller
    http//www.thegospelcoalition.org/

12
  • Some Key Works
  • David W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern
    Britain A History from the 1730s to the 1980s.
    Grand Rapids Baker, 1992.
  • Alister McGrath, Evangelicalism and the Future of
    Christianity (Downers Grove InterVarsity, 1995).
  • Iain H. Murray, Evangelicalism Divided A Record
    of Crucial Change in the Years 1950 to 2000
    (Carlisle Banner of Truth, 2000).
  • John R. W. Stott, Evangelical Truth A Personal
    Plea for Unity, Integrity and Faithfulness,
    Christian Doctrine in Global Perspective (Downers
    Grove InterVarsity, 2005).
  • Douglas A. Sweeney, The American Evangelical
    Story A History of the Movement (Grand Rapids
    Baker Academic, 2005).
  • Michael A. G. Haykin, ed. The Emergence of
    Evangelicalism Exploring Historical Continuities
    (Nashville B H Academic, 2008).

13
  • History of Evangelicalism Series People,
    Movements and Ideas in the English-Speaking World
    (IVP Academic)
  • Mark A. Noll, The Rise of Evangelicalism The Age
    of Edwards, Whietefield and the Wesleys (Downers
    Grove InterVarsity, 2005).
  • David W. Bebbington, The Dominance of
    Evangelicalism The Age of Spurgeon and Moody
    (Downers Grove InterVarsity 2005).
  • John Wolffe, The Expansion of Evangelicalism
    The Age of Wilberforce, More, Chalmers and Finney
    (Downers Grove IVP Academic, 2007).
  • Geoff Treloar, The Disruption of Evangelicalism
    The Age of Mott, Machen and McPherson
    (forthcoming).
  • Brian Stanley, Global Diffusion of
    Evangelicalism The Age of Graham and Stott
    (forthcoming).

14
  • Changing Face of Evangelical Christianity
  • Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom The Coming
    of Global Christianity (New York Oxford, 2007).
  • Philip Jenkins, The New Faces of Christianity
    Believing the Bible in the Global South (New
    York Oxford, 2008).
  • Mark A. Noll, The New Shape of World
    Christianity How American Experience Reflects
    Global Faith (Downers Grove IVP Academic, 2009).
  • Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism Freeing
    the Church from Western Cultural Captivity
    (Downers Grove IVP Books, 2009).

15
IV. Important Statements
16
  • Not long after the great Evangelical awakenings,
    the Evangelical Alliance, led by Thomas Chalmers
    in 1846, stated its faith in a cluster of nine
    affirmations 1) the inspiration of the Bible 2)
    the right and duty of private judgment in the
    interpretation of Scriptures 3) the Trinity 4)
    human depravity 5) the mediation of the divine
    Christ 6) justification by faith 7) conversion
    and sanctification by the Holy Spirit 8) the
    return of Christ and judgment 9) the ministry of
    the Word.

17
  • In 1910, five fundamentals were identified to
    distinguish Evangelicals from the liberalism that
    threatened the church 1) the miracles of Christ
    2) the virgin birth of Christ 3) the
    satisfaction view of the atonement 4) the verbal
    inspiration of the Scriptures and 5) the bodily
    resurrection of Christ.

18
  • D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, What is an Evangelical?
    a series of lectures given in 1971 to the
    International Fellowship of Evangelical Students
    contained in the book, Knowing the Times
    (Carlisle Banner of Truth, 1989). Note how
    thorough Lloyd-Jones definition of an
    evangelical is. As helpful as it is, it narrows
    too much.

19
  • Guiding Principles
  • Preservation of the gospel
  • Learning from history
  • Maintaining negatives
  • No subtractions or additions

20
  • General Characteristics
  • Entirely subservient to the Bible
  • Always watching
  • Distrusts reason and particularly reason in the
    form of philosophy
  • Takes a particular view with regard to the
    sacraments
  • Takes a critical view of history and tradition
  • Always ready to act on his beliefs
  • Always simplifies everything
  • Always concerned about the doctrine of the church
  • Tremendous emphasis put upon the rebirth
  • Interest in revival
  • Always gives primacy to preaching
  • Always concerned about evangelism

21
  • Essential
  • The necessity of opposition to doctrinal
    indifferentism (anti-ecumenical).
  • Scripture the only and full authority
  • Creation, not Evolution
  • The Fall and Evil (historicity)
  • One Way of Salvation (atonement)
  • The Church Contemporary Issues

22
  • Secondary Truths Not Essential to Unity
  • Election and predestination
  • Age and mode of baptism
  • Church polity
  • Prophetic interpretation pre-, post-,
    a-millennial
  • Sanctification
  • Charismata, the spiritual gifts

23
  • J. I. Packer, The Evangelical Anglican Identity
    Problem (1978). (These six fundamental
    convictions are picked up by Alister McGrath,
    Evangelicalism and the Future of Christianity,
    (Downers Grove InterVarsity Press, 1995),
    55-56.)
  • The supremacy of Holy Scripture.
  • The majesty of Jesus Christ.
  • The lordship of the Holy Spirit.
  • The necessity of conversion.
  • The priority of evangelism.
  • The importance of fellowship.

24
  • David W. Bebbington, The Dominance of
    Evangelicalism The Age of Spurgeon and Moody, A
    History of Evangelicalism (Downers Grove
    InterVarsity Press, 2005), 21-40. (These were
    originally spelled out in his highly praised
    work, Evangelicalism in Modern Britian A History
    from the 1730s to the 1980s (London Unwin Hyman,
    1989)). In these pages he spells out four marks
    of evangelicalism, a quadrilateral of priorities.

25
  • The Bible, biblicism (The place of the Bible,
    always the supreme evangelical court of appeal,
    can be explored first.p. 23), The Cross,
    crucicentrism (The second distinctive aspect of
    the evangelicals was their attachment to the
    doctrine of the cross. The sacrifice of Christ
    on Calvary was the way in which the salvation
    described in the Bible was won for humanity. p.
    26), Conversion, conversionism (A third
    characteristic of the movement was that its
    members looked for conversions. p. 31), and
    Activism (The final mark of the evangelicals was
    an eagerness to be up and doing. This activism
    was in a sense a logical corollary of the
    awareness of having undergone conversion. 36).

26
  • Timothy George, The Unity of Faith
    Evangelicalism and Mere Christianity, in
    Touchstone 16/6 (July/August 2003).
  • Evangelicalism is a renewal movement within
    historic Christian orthodoxy, a movement that has
    been shaped synchronically by four historical
    complexes or moments, which continue to shape
    Evangelical theology and identity today. (p.
    59).
  • The Trinitarian and Christological Consensus of
    the Early Church.
  • The Protestant Reformation.
  • Evangelical Awakenings.
  • The Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy.

27
V. Definitions
28
  • Sociological (Social Sciences) (consider the many
    polls and surveys done by Gallop and Barna)
  • Political (cf. Tony Campolo, Red Letter
    Christianity A New Name for Progressive
    Evangelicals http//www.christiantoday.com/artic
    le/red.letter.christianity.a.new.name.for.progress
    ive.evangelicals/22438.htm
  • Historical (cf. the History of Evangelicalism
    series by IVP Academic)

29
  • Sociological, historical and theological, e.g.
    Bebbington and Packer
  • Biblicism
  • Crucicentrism
  • Conversionism
  • Activism
  • (cf. Haykin, The Emergence of Evangelicalism, for
    a helpful, more thorough response)

30
  • Is it altogether appropriate that an activity
    like evangelism, an experience like conversion
    and an observation like the need for fellowship,
    even with their theological underpinnings, should
    be set alongside such towering truths as the
    authority of Scripture, the majesty of Jesus
    Christ and the lordship of the Holy Spirit. . . .
    When we are trying to define our essential
    evangelical identity, that we distinguish between
    divine and human activity, between the primary
    and the secondary, between what belongs to the
    center and what lies somewhere between the center
    and the circumference. (Stott, Evangelical
    Truth, p. 24)

31
  • one must distinguish between, on the one hand,
    the gospel as what God has done and what is the
    message to be announced, and, on the other hand,
    what is demanded by God or effected by the gospel
    in assorted human responses. . . . The gospel is
    what God has done, supremely in Christ, and
    especially focused on his cross and resurrection.
    Failure to distinguish between the gospel and
    all the effects of the gospel tends, on the long
    haul, to replace good news as to what God has
    done with a moralism that is finally without the
    power and the glory of Christ crucified,
    resurrected, ascended, and reigning.
  • D. A. Carson, Editorial, Themelios 34.1 (2009),
    1-2

32
  • Biblical/Theological
  • Define too narrowly we end up with greater
    precision but exclude unnecessarily.
  • Define too broadly we end up with a general
    statement that is too imprecise.

33
  • They relate to the three persons of the Trinity
    the authority of God in and through the
    Scripture, the majesty of Jesus Christ in and
    trough the cross, and the lordship of the Holy
    Spirit in and through His manifold ministries.
    Conversion, evangelism and fellowship are not an
    addition to the first three as much as an
    elaboration of them. (Stott, 25)

34
VI. Evangelicals and the Gospel
35
  • In seeking to define what it means to be
    evangelical, it is inevitable that we begin with
    the gospel. Both our theology (evangelicalism)
    and our activity (evangelism) derive meaning and
    importance from the good news (evangel). (Stott,
    25)

36
  • Evangelical Method
  • Formal principle authority of Scripture, sola
    Scriptura. It alone is norma normans, i.e. the
    norming norm.
  • Material principle substance of what we believe
    the gospel is what we believe is shaped by
    Scripture. The material is always tested by the
    formal.

37
  • 1 Corinthians 21-5
  • The Origin of the Gospel (Stott, 26)
  • Question Where does the gospel come from?
  • Answer It is not a human invention or
    speculation, but the revelation of God. It is
    not human wisdom (1 Cor. 117) or the wisdom
    of the world (1 Cor. 120 cf. 1 Cor. 26), on
    the contrary, Paul calls it Gods wisdom (1
    Cor. 124 27).

38
  • The Substance of the Gospel (Stott, 26-29)
  • Question What does the gospel consist of?
  • Answer In the eyes of the non-Christian world it
    is not wisdom but foolishness not power but
    weakness. . . It is Gods wisdom and Gods power.
    Where are these found, then? Only in Jesus
    Christ and him crucified (1 Cor. 22).

39
  • 1 Corinthians 151-5
  • Christological The gospel centers on the person
    and work (the life, death, and resurrection) of
    Jesus Christ.
  • biblical The gospel is essentially the message
    of the whole Bible.

40
  • historical The gospel is not philosophy or
    advice on how to find God, but rather news of
    what God has done in history to find and save us.
  • theological The gospel tells us that sin is
    first and foremost an offense against God and
    that salvation is first to last the action of
    God, not our own.

41
  • apostolic The gospel is passed on to us by
    Jesus' disciples as authoritative eyewitnesses.
  • personal The gospel must be personally believed
    and appropriated.

42
  • universal The gospel is for every tongue, tribe,
    people, and individual.
  • eschatological The gospel includes the good news
    of the final transformation, not just the
    blessings we enjoy in this age.
  • To the six from Stott, Don Carson adds the final
    two in The Gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians
    151-19), The Gospel Coalition, May 2007.

43
  • The Efficacy of the Gospel (Stott, 29)
  • Question how does the gospel become effective?
  • Answer It does not require the contrived, flower
    eloquence of the Greeks to make it work. . . . In
    place of rhetoric he trusted in the Holy Spirit.
    He put no confidence in his own wisdom or power.
    On the contrary, because of his personal
    weakness, fear, and trembling, he looked for a
    demonstration of Spirits power.

44
  • To sum up, the origin of the gospel was not
    speculation but revelation its substance was not
    the worlds wisdom but Christs cross and its
    efficacy was not due to rhetoric but to the Holy
    Spirits power. Thus, the gospel comes from God,
    centers on Christ and his cross, and is confirmed
    by the Holy Spirit. (Stott, 29)

45
  • Distinction between a boundary-bounded set and a
    center-bounded set.
  • my center-bounded set, Michael Wittmer
  • http//mikewittmer.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/my-cen
    tered-bounded-set/

46
VII. Related Issues
47
  • Evangelicalism and Denominations
  • Global Evangelicalism
  • Evangelicals and Catholics Together

48
VIII. Evanglicalisms Future
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