Evangelical Movements

This semester, as a class, we have peeled away the layers of what evangelicalism and fundamentalism means throughout history, especially in our Western culture. I am intrigued with them both and their very presence in many of our modern-day congregations, as well as the secular parts of our society. After visiting Grace Covenant Church of Austin, Texas, many of the attributes that have been emphasized in books such as Rediscovering an Evangelical Heritage by Donald Dayton and American Apocalypse by Matthew Sutton, I experienced while visiting Grace.

As we have peeled away the layers of what evangelicalism and fundamentalism means throughout history, especially in our Western culture I am intrigued as to both and their very intense presence in many of our modern-day congregations. “Yet, the vast majority of evangelicals around the world today hail from Holiness, Pentecostal, and charismatic congregations”. After visiting Grace Covenant Church of Austin Texas, much of those aforementioned ‘typical’ contributions that have been emphasized in books such as The American Evangelical Story by Douglas Sweeney and American Apocalypse by Matthew Sutton, I experienced ever present at Grace.

Sinitiere, P. L. (2013). Will the evangelical church remove the color line?: Historical reflections on divided by faith. Christian Scholar's Review, 43(1), 41-63. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.library.trevecca.edu/docview/1443781598?accountid=29083

The Baptists and Evangelical methods were becoming fast-growing religions in the country. The Evangelical instinct favored average people over privileged and high classed people. The reason to this was their belief that deliverance was more important at the moment. Evangelical churches were determined by the idea of travelling from place to place. It also included the Calvinist tradition, which emphasized upon the thought of shallow corruption of the nation. Their idea was that a single could only be rescued through the assistance of God. Otherwise, the new evangelical settled their belief that an individual could claim their “free will” in determining to be relieved. By that suggestion, the salvation was wide-open to

Nineteenth century America contained a baffling cluster of Protestant factions and categories, with distinctive teachings, practices, and hierarchical structures. However, by the 1830s these bodies had a profound zealous accentuation in like manner. Protestantism has constantly contained a critical outreaching strain, yet it was in the nineteenth century that a specific style of zeal turned into the overwhelming type of otherworldly expression. What most importantly else portrayed this zeal was its dynamism, the pervasive feeling of lobbyist vitality it discharged. As Charles Grandison Finney, the main outreaching of mid-nineteenth century America, put it: "religion is the work of man, it is something for man to do." This fervent activism included a critical doctrinal move far from the predominately Calvinist introduction that had portrayed a lot of eighteenth-century American Christianity.

This sermon revolved around the topic of Arminianism (stereological thought that involves the Protestant Community, which is based on Dutch Reformed theologian, Jacobus Arminius). Edwards’ main focus with this sermon was to let people know that God gave them the power of faith to help lead them to salvation.

While reading this book, the differences between the ideas of Wesleyan belief and Fundamentalism become clear. In the introduction, Al Truesdale lays out the book’s thesis, saying that, “We shall see that differences between fundamentalism and Wesleyan theology are so important that denominations in the Wesleyan tradition cannot adopt fundamentalism without forfeiting essential parts of what it means to be Wesleyan.” (pg.8). Both traditions have high views of scripture, but the main differences that the book describes is that Weslyans, “developed a doctrine of scripture that focused on its role in transforming the believer’s inner being as the ground for reordering behavior. Fundamentalism, developed a doctrine of scripture that tended to focus on reordering behavior in obedience to a body of propositional truths.” (pg. 27). In other words, many of the differences between fundamentalists and Wesleyans are due to their differing views on how the Bible should be viewed. Throughout the book, this viewpoint holds true throughout each topic of

Evangelicalism originated in 1738, with many theological sects of christianity assisting to its association. The religions that help assist Evangelicalism is English Methodism, the Moravian Church, and German Lutheran Pietism. Conspicuously, Methodists were at the seed of precipitating this new movement during the First Great Awakening. Today, Evangelicals are located over many Protestant sects, as well as in different churches not subsumed to a specific sect. Many major leaders and major figures of the Evangelical Protestant movement were George Whitefield, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Billy Graham, Harold John Ockenga, John Stott and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. The movement acquired huge momentum during the 18th and 19th centuries with the Great

“Dayton’s specific contribution to American religious historiography: popularizing and making accessible a tradition of evangelical social activism” (Dayton and Strong 19).The authors had discovered an evangelical social activism that had been buried and largely forgotten. “Indeed, this social-reform heritage represented the natural fruit of evangelical piety while the now-dominant post-fundamentalist forms of (neo-) evangelicalism represent a deflection from (and perhaps a hijacking of) authentic evangelical identity” (Dayton and Strong 20). Therefore, contemporary American evangelicalism were often portrayed as right wing and socially conservative. What surprise me in this book is that Dayton examines include: Jonathan Blanchard, Charles Finney, Theodore Weld, Arthur and Lewis Taipan, Orange Scott and Luther Lee. They are all from the Arminian end of the evangelical spectrum. If Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney can both be regarded as evangelicals - it raises the question as to how effective and/ or appropriate is the evangelical label? On the other hand, we can see the pattern of reform by Graham by saying, that, “I am convinced that God has called me to be a New Testament evangelist, not an Old Testament

I have chosen to discuss the Christian movement known as the Prosperity Gospel. I will attempt to discuss and explain the Prosperity Gospel movement’s origins, distinctive beliefs along with the impact it has had on Christendom. The Prosperity Gospel movement began to make inroads in American culture in the 1950's. White Christians were benefitting from a post-war economy and were living, in many ways, the benefits promised by this movement.

The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes is correct, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Eccl 1:9). It is especially true in America. Racial and ethnic divisions appear to be just as wide as they were during era of slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow. Within the past century, Christianity in America, particularly Evangelical Christianity has endeavored to address social issues like racism but unfortunately has been relatively unsuccessful. Evangelicalism, particularly white evangelicalism must expand their understanding of cultural engagement to include more than abortion and homosexuality. To be relevant, and maintain any semblance of integrity, evangelicalism must apply different strategies regarding racism, classism, justice, and equality. As an African American evangelical preacher, I believe that Scripture had more to say about liberation other than the famous words in Exodus, “Let my people go!” The question is how is an evangelical who is committed to the sufficiency of

Contrary to a common secular belief, the Bible has been possibly the most influential book known to man. From wars to treaties, the range of influence for God’s Word has been too great to fully understand. In an attempt to try to understand some of the effects, how the book of Romans erupted the Protestant Reformation is an intriguing subject. There were other sources like St. Augustine’s works that contributed a lot to the Reformation efforts, but none were more impactful than the Word of God. The Reformation was a huge movement not only for Christians but also for non-Christians in the realms of politics, economics, and philosophy. These advancements could not have happened if not for the inspiration from Paul’s letter to the Roman church. The philosophy that accumulated around Romans was one of redemption, forgiveness, and faith. Thus, the thinkers behind the Protestant Reformation gained their confidence and their message to begin.

NAE quickly became known as standing for moral and social campaign, and referring to the Bible as the foundation for the American public life policy. That is prevalent in many of evangelicals involved in high level of interaction with the surrounding society and brake the secular system. Ironically, the Protestant evangelical movements in the U.S and the Christian coalition focused their activism mainly on domestic issues that conflicted with the Christian values and beliefs in the late 1970s and the early 1980s with a strong impact on the heart of conservative politics. It is obvious that religious conservatives were central part of the Republican Party and they were becoming the key figures in organization over the country.

In doing so, we can discover that final authority is not in and of scripture itself but of the Triune God who is the Author of scripture. The second obstacle to consider is that many have dismissed scripture as a book of Israelitic & Christian stories. Wright contends that these stories are told to inform us of “internal dynamics” of the past so as to engage us in the present for transformation into Christ-likeness. (p.25). Thirdly, Wright asserts that the question of scripture’s authority should not be viewed as a list of rules where God condescends to man. Rather, scripture should be received as God’s purpose to save and renew the entire world by authorizing the church—God’s agent in the world—with His mission through the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus, it is imperative that biblical scholars “see the role of scripture not simply as being [informative about or revelatory of God’s truth] but as a means of God’s action in and through us.” (p.28)

Church history reveals that a number of serious biblical doctrinal controversies occurred during the late 1800s and early 1900s that gave occasion for the formulation of certain fundamentalist principals to be implemented as a clarification and remedy against unbiblical manifestations. The authority of the Bible was brought into serious question.