“The New Testament is pretty clear if someone preaches a false gospel . . . that we are to reject that and have nothing to do with them.”
—Justin Taylor, as quoted in an interview with CNN today regarding the recent Rob Bell brouhaha
evangelicalism
Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism
Coming in fall 2011:
Structure:
Introduction: Collin Hansen
- Fundamentalism: Kevin T. Bauder
- Confessional Evangelicalism: R. Albert Mohler Jr.
- Generic Evangelicalism: John G. Stackhouse Jr.
- Postconservative Evangelicalism: Roger E. Olson
(The authors respond to the other essays, following the format of the Counterpoints series, which breaks down into two categories: Bible and Theology [formerly called Exploring Theology] and Church Life.)
Conclusion: Andrew David Naselli
More on this later. We still have work to do.
The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
“The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.”
That’s the opening line to Mark Noll’s The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind 
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994).
Carl Trueman plays on that title in his latest book: The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Chicago: Moody, 2011). (This 41-page book is available only electronically in the Kindle format.)
Some excerpts:
Is there an evangelical mind active today? Nearly two decades ago Mark Noll concluded any evangelical mind had gone soft through lack of use. Today the question is whether a healthy evangelicalism exists to host such a mind. I am not sure, theologically, that such a thing still thrives. (p. 13) [Read more…] about The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
Who Are Evangelicals?
Christopher Catherwood [grandson of David Martyn Lloyd Jones], The Evangelicals: What They Believe, Where They Are, and Their Politics (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 27, 71–72, 76:
This . . . is the major divergence between evangelicals and other Protestants: we still hold to those two Reformation truths of sola fide and sola scriptura . . . .
Who Are Evangelicals?
For many readers who might not know any professing evangelical Christians, the answer to this chapter’s question might seem a simple
one, if what you see in the newspapers is any guide. An evangelical is a white, middle-class male Republican from the southern part of the United States (or, as we now have to add, a white female Republican from the rural West of America).
Now, for sure, many evangelicals would indeed fit into this description, and they are the demographic about which the mainstream news media writes the most. But, in truth, this description presents a highly misleading picture, and also a dangerous one, as it confuses evangelicalism as a whole, which is a worldwide, global movement, with just a tiny segment of it, and gives it a political coloring that is utterly atypical of evangelicals in most countries today. For it is now widely said that the average evangelical is an economically poor black Nigerian woman with numerous family members suffering from HIV/AIDS.
So wrong gender, wrong skin color, wrong country, wrong social class—in fact wrong everything when it comes to the stereotype of evangelicals we commonly see on television or in the newspapers. For the fact is that the overwhelming majority of evangelical Christians today do not live in the West at all but in what most commentators refer to as the Global South, or the Two-thirds World, since most of the world live there. . . .
[I]t is now true: African Christians are more typical of twenty-first-century Christianity—and, I would add, of evangelical Christians—than those in the now predominantly secular West.
Conservative Evangelicals Are Not New Evangelicals
Kevin Bauder, a self-identified fundamentalist, hits a home run with “Let’s Get Clear on This.”
Some excerpts:
- Conservative evangelicals are different from Fundamentalists, but they are not new evangelicals.
- Conservative evangelicals have majored on the centrality of the gospel and the exaltation of God.
- Nevertheless, some Fundamentalists have managed to convince themselves that conservative evangelicals are the enemy.
- [Some fundamentalist leaders are] recognizing that the Fundamentalist label is no guarantee of doctrinal fidelity. They are aware that historic, mainstream Fundamentalism has more in common with conservative evangelicals than it does with many who wear the Fundamentalist label.
- Conservative evangelicals are not our enemies. They are not our opponents. Conservative evangelicals have proven themselves to be allies and even leaders in the defense of the faith.
- If we attack conservative evangelicals, then we attack the defense of the faith.
The version of this essay that appeared in my inbox this afternoon concludes with these two paragraphs:
If we believe that we must respond to conservative evangelicalism, then let us begin by addressing the areas in which they have exposed our weakness. Let us refocus our attention upon the exaltation of God. Let us exalt, apply, and defend the gospel in all its fullness. If we were more like what we ought to be, perhaps we would feel less threatened by those whose exploits attract the attention of our followers.
Whatever our differences, I thank God for John Piper. I thank God for Mark Dever. I thank God for John MacArthur. I thank God for D. A. Carson. I thank God for a coalition of Christian leaders who have directed our focus to the centrality of the gospel and the exaltation of God. May their defense of the biblical faith prosper.
Read the whole thing: PDF | HTML.
Update:
- Dave Doran responds to Kevin Bauder.
- Chris Anderson responds to both Bauder and Doran.
- Dave Doran responds again.
I am a fundamentalist, Calvinistic, separatist Baptist
So writes Mark Dever in a new book based on a conference honoring J. I. Packer at Beeson Divinity School on September 25–27, 2006:
Timothy George, ed. J. I. Packer and the Evangelical Future: The Impact of His Life and Thought. Beeson Divinity Studies. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009. [Amazon | WTS Books]
Sample pages as a PDF include the TOC, preface, and opening chapter by Alister McGrath.
Here’s the opening paragraph of Mark Dever’s chapter, entitled “J. I. Packer and Pastoral Wisdom from the Puritans”:
There are some people for whom it is an honor to be asked to honor, and J. I. Packer is certainly one of them. And this is a surprising honor, considering that I disagree with him on baptism, church, and the resources of and prospects for rapprochement between Protestants and Roman Catholics. After all, I am a fundamentalist, Calvinistic, separatist Baptist—I barely believe in rapprochement with Presbyterians! (p. 87)
In the final section of his essay, titled “Puritans on the Definition of Justification and Questions of Church Cooperation,” Dever respectfully disagrees with Packer on Evangelicals and Catholics Together (pp. 93–96).
In Packer’s response to this book’s essays, he playfully picks up a metaphor in which he is Robin Hood, Timothy George is “Little George,” etc. He writes,
I saw in my Baptist brother Mark Dever a latter-day Sheriff of Nottingham, giving me a passing grade on the doctrine of grace but a firm “F” in ecclesiology. (p. 172)
Related: Mark Dever interviewed J. I. Packer ten years ago.
From Benny Hinn to R. C. Sproul?
Christianity Today interviewed Ted Haggard back in 2005, and Haggard expressed his love for the diversity of evangelicalism (apparently defining the movement from a social science standpoint):
“Evangelicalism is a continuum of theologies all the way from Benny Hinn to R. C. Sproul. The R. C. Sproul crowd has a hard time with Benny Hinn, and the Benny Hinn crowd has a hard time with R. C. Sproul. But they’re all evangelicals.
“Evangelical does not mean any particular political ideology,” Haggard continues. “The African American [evangelical] community has an honorable concern for social justice, and that affects their politics. That concern comes from the Scripture. The Anglo community has a different history, so different Scriptures stand out to them. To the Anglo [evangelical] community, most of their sermons are theological. It’s salvation by grace through faith, and other theological points, so social-justice issues don’t have the same compelling justification.
“I have a deep love and appreciation for that diversity. I think it’s some of the wonder of the body of Christ. I feel like my role is to help the various members of the body respect one another and appreciate one another, and work together.”
HT: Collin Hansen
Collin Hansen Reflects on Young, Restless, Reformed
Collin Hansen reflects on his book Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists. (Cf. my review.)
Note his comments re fundamentalism:
Increasing my coverage of Reformed blogging is not the only change I would make. Readers have emerged from the woodwork to tell me about growing pockets of Reformed interest in Great Britain and among African Americans and fundamentalists. . . . As for fundamentalists, I have heard testimonies of college and seminary students who tell me something big is stirring. Perhaps there is hope that these young Calvinists will rebuild the bridges burned generations ago between evangelicals and fundamentalists.