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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