NEW EVANGELICALISM DEFINED
Pastor John McKay
GRACE BIBLE CHURCH
The Biblical basis for this paper
is Romans 16:17, "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions
and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid
them."
Also Acts 20, verse 20, "...I kept
back nothing that was profitable unto you..." verse 27, "...I have not
shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." verse 32, "...I commend
you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up
and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified."
A tentative definition of New Evangelicalism...
1. Weakness in the area of the Inspiration
of the Bible. A refusal to call the Holy Scriptures infallible and inerrant.
The New Evangelical will want to degrade the Authorized King James Version
of the Bible and put you under the liberal, critical scholarship. They
deny the Providential preservation of the texts of the KJV.
2. Neo-Evangelicals minimize separation
from the world and worldly techniques. They emphasize staying where you
are rather than come out from among them and be ye separate. They say infiltrate
into unsound groups and take them over or at least be a "witness" to them.
They approve of the use of carnal methods, salesmanship techniques and
"testimonies for Christ" even in the midst of the most sinful contexts.
3. The use of ecumenical
evangelism. The attempt to force modernists and also fundamentalists into
joint projects contrary to Scriptural standards.
4. Willingness to make concessions
to science, especially in the area of the age of the universe. This leads
to viewing the days of Genesis as ages of time and thus, on to some form
of evolution (many times under a deceitful label such as "progressive creationism"
which is another name for atheistic evolution.
5. A subtle indifference
to prophecy and proper Biblical distinctions. The return of Christ before
the Millennium is not stressed and dispensationalism is frowned upon.
6. A love of philosophy and intellectual
status. There is a fervent desire by Neo-Evangelicals to be accepted by
the scholars of the world. There is also a disdain for a simple devotion
to the Christ of the Bible and practical, sacrificial Christian living.
7. New evangelicals over-emphasize
social action as a function of the Church. Instead of recognizing the principle
of Matthew 6:33 (But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you), they insist upon an unBiblical
social aspect of the Gospel.
8. A tolerance, if not an
outright promotion of speaking-in-tongues. This unhealthy backward-looking
unto gifts that have passed away and manufacture of pseudo-gifts is detrimental
to the Churches and divisive because of the anti-Scriptural basis of the
teaching.
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