Understanding the Modern State of Christianity as Evangelicals

Liberalism, in general, was an ideological movement that emerged out of the ideas of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century. It embraced the ideas of individualism which were established in the Renaissance and Reformation era. The Renaissance period sparked a belief in the importance of the individual in society. It helped promote the beliefs of classical liberalism which gradually formed into the liberal ideology of the 19th century. Individuals that were waiting to get their individual rights and freedoms were allowed to finally gain liberty and power through this period of time. Classical liberalism developed

Christianity is one of the most influential religions on both ancient and modern Western society, with the religion based on the teachings of the prophet Jesus Christ who lived approximately between the years of 5 BC and 33 AD. It is claimed that Christ was the son of God whose spirit was embodied and sent to Earth as a human being to bring peace and prosperity to the less fortunate, and absolve the world of its sin. Jesus preached a doctrine of a supreme monotheistic god who ruled over the universe, as well as ethics and morals especially centred on the concept of faith and forgiveness. If one was to live their life in accordance to the Will of God and the teachings of Christ found in the written word of the Holy Bible, one would be absolved of their sin and ascend to the spiritual realm of God, known as Heaven, after their physical death.

Evangelicalism came out of various movements that came in the Protestant church the second Great Awakening” of the 1820s-1840s, resulted in the “Christianization” of young America and the dominance of evangelicalism over the American religious climate ”.The Second Great Awakening marked a fundamental transition in American religious life. Many early American religious groups in the CALVINIST tradition had emphasized the deep depravity of human beings and believed they could only be saved through the grace of God. The new evangelical movement, however, placed greater emphasis on humans' ability to change their situation for the better. By stressing that individuals could assert their "FREE WILL" in choosing to be saved and by suggesting that

The main message in Christianity & Liberalism is what the only object of faith is Christ. Machen composes his book into doctrine, God and man, the Bible, Christ, Salvation, and the Church; he shows all of this doctrine should be directly connected with the faith in Christ. If not, he declares that that should not be Christianity. In chapter 1 and 2, Machen emphasizes that how maintaining traditional doctrine is important. The reason for that is classical conservatives tried to keep the doctrine upon the Bible; however, classical liberalism attacked the traditional doctrine because Machen points out that liberal theologians and preachers want to interpret the truth from the point of a human. Machen even warns that the liberalism is shaking the faith in Christianity. In other words, it could be proper understanding that the liberalism rebelled against the truth and God’s word.

The protestant Christianity was divided into two parts in America. They were Mainline and Evangelical. The Mainline were the liberal mainstream and the Evangelical were the conservative evangelical. The Evangelical was the most powerful Religious force in American society during the 20s of the last century. The status of the protestant evangelical as the mainstream had greatly declined once. This change was caused by the impact of the modernization

Social Gospel Movement - protestant ministers responded to the hands off business economics and the Social darwinism policies; believed that poverty and poor conditions created crime so that he could demand better housing and living conditions for his people; led by Washington Gladden

Social Gospel emerged in the United States around the late 19th and early 20th century. It was an intellectual movement of the Protestant church that applied Christian beliefs to social problems such as poverty, gun control, unemployment, political corruption, alcoholism, crime, drug addiction and war. These social problems inspired the Protestant church to pursue social reform as a reaction to immigration, industrialization and urbanization. Walter Rauschenbusch, a theologian, was the voice for the Social Gospel movement. He was inspired by novels written by Charles Sheldon, who was an author committed and identified as a Christian Socialist.

Perhaps the most powerful, fluent, and forceful paper promoting liberal Christianity is indeed Harry Emerson Fosdick's 1922 sermon “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”. Fosdick seemed as if he was a very captivating human being in history during his time of existence. He wrote one of the most engaging papers that I have yet to read thus this far. It was definitely a wise decision to go ahead and read the two articles discussing fundamentalism to catch me up so that I did not have trouble keeping up with Fosdick's movement that he established in his sermon. Initially, I believe that the arising church is, amongst other things, is a rectifying of liberalism for a postmodern age. And I'm convinced that the same claims made by Fosdick in 1922 are just what we hear form emergents today. There is nothing new that lies under the sun today. It is only natural that the specifics argued for by the modernists are not those of the postmodern emergents.

In his second essay, titled “Rethinking Power” describes this “Constantinian error” and the different ways that Christians try to create change in culture. He focuses on three major Christian culture-changing movements of our day: the Christian right, the Christian left, and the Neo-Anabaptists. All of these movements lack an

Both the Protestant Reformation as well as the Inquisition made immense impacts on the religious society of western civilizations in Europe during 16th century. Both of the very important movements changed the regular Roman Catholic churches forever.  The Protestant Reformation was a movement when groups of people left the Roman Catholic church in hope for a change. This schism was run by Martin Luther and other protestant reformers during the 1500’s and 1600’s. Another movement that changed the Catholic church forever is the Inquisition, which lasted roughly 700 years. The Inquisition was a time of punishing heretics, or people who were guilty of heresy.

Campolo believed that “evangelical Christianity had been hijacked because it had seemingly become anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-muslim, and pro-war. According to Campolo, the Religious Right hijacked it because they believed to be evangelical you had to be a radical conservative and hate everything you don’t believe in, rather than respecting them.

Classical liberalism is the transition from focusing on government to focusing on the rights of individuals. This transition came about during the time of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. The Enlightenment period was when man started to have more faith in his own reasoning. People began to look for evidence on their beliefs themselves and to find proof on these beliefs, so that they could come up with their own opinions on things. One way that they did this was by going back and rereading Roman and Greek texts and retranslating these texts. This new way of thinking also caused the Protestant Reformation to occur. Some of the most influential Enlightenment writers were John Locke, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and the people of France’s National Constituent Assembly.

Christianity has been facing many obstacles from all the non religious world views. There has been a lot of contemporary influence in this modern churches and Christian gatherings as they try to fit in and accommodate the changing world views. Due to all this influences, everything about Christianity is being questioned especially on issues of sex, divorce, marriage and birth control. There has also been a rise in non denominational churches started by individuals or a group of people with no ties or relationships to already established churches

Emerging church adherents see a “cultural shift from knowledge to experience. The traditional evangelical view begins with facts which influence belief, which influences behavior, the emerging church begins with experience which influences behavior, which influences belief.[12] Thus the emergent church places a geat “emphasis on truth.[13]

Gonzales, Justo L. The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day. Peabody,