What is an Evangelical?

Last updated on: January 26, 2019 at 1:51 pm by Esther O’Reilly

What is an Evangelical? 2019-01-26T13:51:25-05:00 Esther O’Reilly

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Wikimedia Commons

Last week, various people in my feed began retweeting this summary of what makes “a true evangelical” from Dr. Dustin Benge, a lecturer and administrative research assistant at The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies on the campus of Southern Seminary. Benge pulled these twelve points from the book What is an Evangelical? by David Martyn-Lloyd Jones (ML-J):

A true evangelical:

Bible-centered

Watchful

Distrusts reason

Low view of the sacraments

Studies history critically

Acts upon beliefs

Simplifies everything

Loves the church

Stresses new birth

Loves revival

Loves preaching

Evangelists

ML-J

— Dustin Benge (@DustinBenge) January 24, 2019

Needless to say, some evangelicals took issue with some of these points. Most of the backlash I saw was, I think rightly, focused on points 3, 4 and 7. To be fair to Dr. Benge, he clarified that the word “low” in “low view of the sacraments” should be understood in the theological sense—the evangelical view is “low” versus “high,” not “low” versus reverent. The distinction matters. However, some who understood it still registered an objection.

A little historical context might be helpful. The book Benge is quoting is a compilation of sermons by Dr. Jones, given over a span of 35 years from 1942-1977. Interested readers can look at a biography of Jones here. A giant of mid-20th century Welsh Reformed thought and preaching, he became intensely concerned that evangelicalism was slipping away as a meaningful concept. These sermons were his way of planting a flag and bracing against the coming tide of liberalism. In 1966, he urged a hard break of faithful evangelical clergy with denominations he believed had been compromised. This set him on a collision course with John Stott, who admired Jones but took issue with his radical separatist philosophy. Eventually Stott won the day. However, as the ensuing decades have shown, Jones’s concern about the Church of England wasn’t ill-founded.

Fast-forwarding to 2019, Dr. Benge sees himself as carrying Jones’s torch here in the states. Liberalism has found yet new depths to plumb since Jones’s day, and the church has fractured to a level perhaps even he couldn’t have predicted. In our current cultural milieu, the injunctions to be “watchful,” to be “Bible-centered,” to “act upon beliefs” and to “study history critically” feel more timely than ever.

And yet, I share the frustration of evangelicals who took issue with points in this list. My own parents both came out of American fundamentalist evangelical backgrounds. Happily, they outgrew them without the bitterness that typifies the kind of “ex-vangelicals” who write tiresome tell-alls today. Both recognized the immense debt they owed to their own parents and church communities. The intensive training in Scripture and passion for the gospel never left them, even though they might have left particular fundamentalist tenets behind. I think they, like me, would find commonality with Dr. Jones and Dr. Benge on most of these twelve points. But both of them would be surprised to hear that they are disqualified from the evangelical faith for believing reason should be embraced rather than distrusted. They would also be surprised to hear that they are on a slippery slope to liberalism for believing that not everything can be “simplified.”

The question of sacraments is, of course, a long, rich and time-honored debate. At the time Jones was preaching, a sacramentalist evangelical would have been considered oxymoronic. But things have changed, partly through the work of people like Richard John Neuhaus. Socially and culturally, the idea of what makes an evangelical has broadened to include those who hold a more than memorialist view of the sacraments. Many a faithful Anglican and Lutheran holds this in one hand while holding a commitment to the faith once delivered to the saints in the other.

I place myself broadly in this sacramental Protestant tradition, though I have yet to find a denomination whose complete suite of particular tenets I can whole-heartedly sign on to (which basically makes me an Anglican). It seems to me that this enlarging of the tent has, on the whole, been a good thing for evangelicalism. I could understand the frustration better if it were an actual denomination with a specific creedal core. As it is, since the term has always been primarily a socio-cultural one, I see nothing wrong with expanding its use to reflect socio-cultural shift. This is not to disparage evangelicals who have a strongly principled memorialist stance. I merely suggest that if one is looking for dangerous signs of compromise in evangelicalism writ large, one might have better targets than, say, a Missouri Synod Lutheran who affirms the Real Presence.

Benge also offered further elaboration on the point about “distrusting reason.” Let’s have a look:

He urged his people to use reason as a servant and not as a master.

“It is when men begin to bow the knee to scholarship, submit themselves to it, and to regard it as the ultimate authority, that I suggest they have sold the pass and ceased to be truly evangelical”.

— Dustin Benge (@DustinBenge) January 24, 2019

He believed evangelicals must always keep their wits about them and refuse to be overawed by the musings of human reason and scholarship.

— Dustin Benge (@DustinBenge) January 24, 2019

There’s a particular important sense in which I think this can be true. It can be true in the sense that the academy has become hostile to the evangelical faith, and that this bias informs much of their scholarship. But some evangelicals, cowed by credentialism, have chosen to give shoddy scholarship the benefit of the doubt. I am particularly saddened to see how this has taken shape in the realm of the sciences and the evolution vs. creation debate, as well as historical criticism and biblical scholarship. It takes no small amount of chutzpah to suggest that perhaps an entire cluster of disciplines just is corrupt, particularly when you don’t have the “right” configuration of letters after your last name.

The problem is that in Jones and Benge’s mind, the maintaining of chutzpah and independent thinking in the face of credentialism (good and needed) is conflated with a general distrust of “human reason.” In some Calvinist circles, I have observed secondhand how this manifests itself as an assertion that faith and reason are inherently at odds. This leads to the repression of honest doubts, discouraging both people who ask questions and people who want to give them answers. I don’t know Benge’s own view on apologetic ministry in the church. I can’t find anything he’s written on the topic one way or the other. I wonder whether he would view it as suspicious by virtue of its over-emphasis on “human reason.” This would certainly be a grave mistake.

The precise meaning of “simplify everything” is even more unclear. If Benge means that evangelicals are to not over-complicate that which is uncomplicated, we couldn’t agree more. But “everything” is awfully sweeping. Does “everything” include the question of what to do with Old Testament accounts of slaughtered babies, or young men sacrificed to bring rain in a drought? Does it include the question of how exactly faith and works work together in the salvation process? Does it include the question of what happens to people who die without hearing the gospel? Can all of these things be “simplifed” in a pat, tidy, easy way? I’m not convinced that they can. (And yes, I say this fully aware that Andy Stanley is eavesdropping and ready to swoop in with an “EX-ACTLY! And THAT’S why…” To which I say: Piss off, Andy Stanley. But that’s for another day.)

Despite my critiques, on Schopenhauer’s principle that truth needs vessels to carry it, I salute Benge’s particular brand of Reformed Christianity for functioning as an effective vessel in these times. We don’t have very many vessels left, and we should seek common ground and forge alliances where we can. So here is my question for Dr. Benge: Do you recognize who all of your allies actually are?

Faith and Culture

Evangelicals

The Church

Previous Post

January 22, 2019

"Bad" Pro-Life Arguments (Which Are Actually Good)

Next Post

February 4, 2019 5 Lessons Jordan Peterson Has Taught the Church

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 3 star 3.5 star 4 star 4.5 star Anatomy of a Song Behind the Songs Blog Stuff Book Reviews CCM CCM vs. SG CD Reviews Christians in Entertainment Christmas Essential 12 Christmas Favorites Christmas Top Fives Concert Reviews Concerts Culture Devotional Thoughts Faith and Culture From the Vault Fun Gospel Singers Gospel Songs Great Music Guest Posts Harmony Master Classes History Holidays Humor Hymns Interviews Marriage in the Movies Monday Morning Humor Movie Reviews Movies Music NQC Odds and Ends Old Movies, New Eyes Old Southern Gospel News Old Stuff Open Threads Other Genres Perfect Tenor Performances Polls Questions and Answers Recently Added SG vs. The Rest of the World Sing It Again Songs Songwriting Southern Gospel Surprise Sunday The Definitive Hymns Theology Toe-to-Toe Top 10 Lists Top 5 Top 5 Lists Two Sisters Review Uncategorized Video Posts Youtube Finds

Select a Month August 2026 February 2025 August 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 October 2023 March 2023 February 2023 December 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 June 2020 March 2020 February 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 April 2018 September 2017 August 2017 May 2017 February 2017 December 2016 November 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What book contains the "Suffering Servant" prophecy?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Zechariah