I’m tired…… and sometimes
a little angry at all the confusion I see around one word. That word is evangelical. When I say there is confusion around this
word that’s probably an understatement; more like massive delusions in some
cases. Perhaps it might be helpful to
share up front what evangelicals are not.
They are not white. They are not
Republican. They are not conservatives. They are not nationalists. And they certainly are not racist, bigoted,
homophobic, and hateful as some like to portray them.
So what is an evangelical
then? I think Ed Stetzer of Christianity
Today gives a pretty good summary in listing four distinct beliefs that
evangelicals hold.
·
The Bible is the
highest authority for what I believe.
·
It is very
important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ
as their Savior.
·
Jesus Christ’s
death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my
sin.
·
Only those who
trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God's free gift of eternal
salvation.
Evangelical comes from the
word evangelion which refers to sharing the good news about Jesus Christ. So to
all of my Christian friends out there I would just like to say if you buy in to
the four points listed above you are an evangelical regardless of what your political
persuasion. Based on those points I am
proud to wear the evangelical badge. I
think the thing that saddens me most is that more and more I am hearing other
Christians speak derogatorily about evangelicals even though using the identification
above they are likely evangelicals themselves.
So I guess this blog entry
is just a friendly reminder to my left leaning Christian friends that those
Christians who may be more conservative then you are not the enemy. They are your brothers and sisters in
Christ. And yes a decent chunk of them
even voted for Trump. Some did so
because they actually liked him as a candidate.
I believe most did so because they saw him as the lesser of two evils
that they felt forced to choose between.
Either way I think it’s important to point out that this group of people
believes our calling to care for the least of these is just as important as you
do. The Christian left does not have
sole claim there. There are just two
very different philosophies as to how you go about doing so and the government’s
role is in doing so.
The bottom line is we are
all called to the two greatest commandments Jesus gave us; to love God with all
our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as
ourselves. And if you ask me those four
points I listed should be at the core of what all Christians believe; not just
those who identify as evangelical. Personally
I always found the term “evangelical Christian” to be redundant. Because whenever I would read a definition of
evangelical I would come away thinking “how is that different than simply being
Christian?” Biblically speaking it’s
not. So maybe we should be done with the
term evangelical all together and we’ll just call ourselves Christians. One big massive world-wide group of people
with all kinds of political persuasions with one thing in common; we’ve all
repented of our sins to God and have accepted His love and grace in making
Jesus our Lord and Savior. It’s either
that or we all work at redeeming the word evangelical together and bring it
back to its true Christian meaning. I could
get behind that too but unfortunately at this point I think the former would be
a lot easier.
