Question:  What is an ‘Evangelical?”

            Sylvester

Answer:  Dear Sylvester,

            Evangelicals are a part of the Protestant faith.  Evangelicalism was born late in the 19^th century and the early years of the 20^th – as a reaction to what was called “mainstream Protestantism.”  Evangelicals – also then called fundamentalists – were found in virtually all of the Protestant denominations at the time.  They were alarmed at what was loosely called “modernism” – what they saw as a series of compromises in belief about God, Jesus, the Bible and the gospel message itself.

            In the 20^th century evangelicals became distinguished from fundamentalists – whom evangelicals saw as clinging to untenable positions about holiness and purity (positions taken about lifestyle issues, standards of dress and grooming, etc.) – which evangelicals came to see as unnecessarily severe, not necessarily biblical and beyond that, legalistic and controlling.  In the second half of the 20^th century, evangelicals became more affirming of the place of the Christian in the world, and that in order to evangelize (hence the word evangelical) Christians could not live completely apart from the culture.

            Evangelicals are characterized by a strong commitment to the orthodox doctrines of the historic body of Christ, and by the proclamation of the personal relationship with God that is available through faith in Jesus Christ.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht