Seventh, Evangelicalism is distinctive for the way it looks equally to both the past and the future. In its very essence, Evangelicalism goes back directly to Jesus and the Scriptures, not just as a matter of historical roots, but as a commitment of the heart and as the tenor of its desire and thought; and not just once, but again and again as the vital principle of its way of life. To be Evangelical is therefore not only to be deeply personal in faith, strongly committed to ethical holiness in life, and marked by robust voluntarism in action, but to live out a faith whose dynamism is shaped unashamedly by truth and history. Evangelical Manifesto
I'm an evangelical but very much ashamed by some others who take the label. Their lives, attitudes and behaviour do not match their words. Their Gospel is shallow and seems irrelevant and unconnected to the Christ of the Bible. In the USA there is now a movement, seeking to separate evangelicals from "two opposite tendencies to which Protestantism has been prone: liberal revisionism and conservative fundamentalism." I've only started to look over their material but I'm already very interested. More from the seventh assertion
The Evangelical principle is therefore a call to self-examination, reflection, and a willingness to be corrected and to change whenever necessary. ... to be Evangelical is to recognize the primacy of the authority of Scripture, which points us to Jesus, and so to see the need to conserve a form behind all re-form. We therefore regard reason and faith as allies rather than enemies, and find no contradiction between head and heart, between being fully faithful on the one hand, and fully intellectually critical and contemporary on the other.I need to spend time reading and thinking about their position. The Steering Committee contains people who I deeply respect and whose intellectual work has been soundly challenging. Want to read more? They are here.
