What is an evangelical?
Published January 28, 2024
Evangelicalism is not just white, not Republican, and not monolithic. It is defined by the good news of Jesus Christ as revealed in scripture.With yet another election cycle we’ve seen polling addressing evangelical preferences.
The New York Times recently introduced us to “evangelicals” who never attend church. Say what?
Yet again we see very little nuance about what is meant by the term “evangelical” and, frankly many who identify themselves as evangelical really aren’t.
I believe evangelicals should reclaim the word and educate people about what it really means. To reclaim evangelical we need to first define the word and discuss characteristics of evangelicals.
“Evangelical” comes from the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον (transliterated “euangelion”) which means “gospel” or “good news.”
The English word “evangelical” first appeared in 1531 when William Tyndale wrote in his commentary on the Gospel of John, “He exhorteth them to proceed constantly in the evangelical truth.” Tyndale used “evangelical” as an adjective that likely meant truth that was rooted in the Gospel.
However, we didn’t see the subgroup of protestant Christianity labeled as evangelicals until the 1730s with the First Great Awakening with George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley being predominant figures.
The English word “evangelical” first appeared in 1531 when William Tyndale wrote in his commentary on the Gospel of John, “He exhorteth them to proceed constantly in the evangelical truth.” Tyndale used “evangelical” as an adjective that likely meant truth that was rooted in the Gospel.
However, we didn’t see the subgroup of protestant Christianity labeled as evangelicals until the 1730s with the First Great Awakening with George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley being predominant figures.
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ReplyDelete"Probably the simplest definition we can give for someone who is an Evangelical is a person who has heard the good news of Jesus Christ, is born again as a result of hearing that good news and seeks to share the good news of Jesus with others." - This is a direct quote from the article by Shane Vander Hart. I'm sorry the link isn't working for you. I subscribe to his column/newsletter at substack and it might be that while it works for me, it isn't working for others. You might want to try subscribing to his newsletter at: https://newsletter.shanevanderhart.com/ . Thank you for letting me know the link isn't working. - Angela Wittman, ed.
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