Territorial Bloggings

Rob, over at Love & Blunder, has made a very interesting & thought-provoking posting, wherein he asks & examines the question, “What is an Evangelical?”

Rob brings an interesting perspective to the question/debate, and I won’t even attempt to summarize his very well-written posting. You need to go there & read it, along with the comments, which are also quite good.

In fact, go there now. I’ll wait for you…

…

Ok. Good. Thanks for coming back!
I concur with one point Rob made in particular, and that is the “evangelical” devaluation of the sacraments. While this has historical explanations going all the way back to Calvin & Zwingli, it is still quite sad & disturbing. It’s also quite understandable, given the Reformed/Arminian bent towards works righteousness. It’s appalling how they’ve taken these wonderful gifts of God, by which He comes directly & viscerally to us (i.e., Gospel) and turned them into ordinances — i.e., Law commands that we must fulfill in order to get the job done ourselves.

On a side note, the fact that they’ve co-opted the word “evangelical” is a pet peeve of mine. As “evangel” means “good news,” then “evangelical” means (roughly/loosely) “person of the good news.” In fact, “Evangelical” was a favorite descriptor of Luther & the Reformation fathers. This is why you will see so many older Lutheran congregations with the word “Evangelical” in their formal names. The co-opting of the word by the Methobapticostals is a relatively recent phenomena, and one that is quite sad & frustrating for true, orthodox, Evanglicals.

-ghp

EDIT@8:40pm_04Dec20

You’ll also want to go check out Theresa’s outstanding post on this topic over at Be Strong In The Grace. She has a wonderful take on this whole issue. Highly recommended!

-ghp