MARKS OF AN EVANGELICAL

The following things may be said to be marks of an evangelical.  I do not subscribe to the point of view which describes people as ‘evangelical Christians,’ because there is no other kind of Christian but an evangelical one.  The two terms are co-terminus.

An evangelical is concerned above all else to promote the glory of God in Christ.  What he believes, how he worships God, his life – these all seek to further God’s glory.

An evangelical is anxious to preserve the gospel of Christ for future generations.  This is the only message the world needs to hear, so it has to be preserved at all costs. 

An evangelical takes the lessons from history with great seriousness.  Ignorance of history probably accounts for more errors in the church than anything else. 

An evangelical is not only interested in preaching a positive message, but will also preach the great negatives of the biblical faith.  A battery with only one pole is quite useless to start your car; so a message that is only positive lacks the power it needs to effect anything for God’s glory or man’s good.  He is not afraid of the great negatives of the Bible, or that may be reasonably derived from its teaching.

An evangelical will neither add anything to Scripture, nor will he subtract anything from it.  He will not do this by avoiding in Scripture what does not fit in with his own prejudices.  Nor will he see himself primarily as a denominational man, but as an evangelical first and foremost.

He will be vigilant about the Gospel and about the various trends that come and go, and will not allow himself to be derailed by these fads and fashions.  As one of God’s watchmen, he will sound a clear alarm at the first approach of attack on our like precious faith.  Not only does he distrust reason as the final arbiter in disputes or in the formulation of doctrine, he uses his reason in his bid to come to terms with the teaching of the Bible.  He approaches his ministry in a scholarly manner, but he does not see scholarship as the ultimate authority in matters of religion and theology.  He applies his God-given intellect to think his way through the various offers that present themselves, usually in the name of scholarship, but he is not afraid of the scholars or their views. 

The true evangelical is the man who preaches the great salvific doctrines of the Bible with a passion that is contagious.  He knows the urgency of the times, and the uncertainty of another day of grace.  He shows his hearers their lost and helpless condition without Christ and urges them to trust in Christ alone for eternal salvation.  He emphasises the need for the new birth, and presses upon sinners the indispensability of the death of Christ for salvation. 

The evangelical, then, is different from other ‘theological’ people in that he, and he alone, takes biblical revelation with utmost seriousness.  It is he, and he alone, who seeks to bring glory to the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  And it is he, and he alone, that is genuinely concerned about the salvation of the world.  Soli Deo Gloria