[ Note: This post appeared in the Lawrence Journal-World. I was asked to write it for the Faith Forum section. ]
How do you define the word “evangelical”?
After the 2004 election, Tom Brokaw did a report about evangelicals called In God They Trust.
National Public Radio came out with The Jesus Factor—a program about “the growing influence of America’s Evangelical Christians.”
Obviously, evangelicals are getting noticed. My concern is that evangelicals will be thought of only as a politically powerful anti-gay marriage, anti-evolution and anti-abortion special interest group. These are important issues, but not the primary message evangelicals have for the world.
“Evangelical” comes from “evangelion,” a Greek word meaning “good news” (“gospel” in Old English). I know it’s hard to swallow for people who think of evangelicals as “bad news,” but at its root, the word “evangelical” means “one with good news”!
In my mind, how one defines that “good news” determines whether one is an evangelical. What is this “good news” evangelicals have? Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead (1 Corinthians 15). Why is this good news? The Bible says God met our greatest need. If that need is not met, we will be eternally separated from God in hell.
Many reject that idea, and certainly everyone’s entitled to an opinion about spiritual matters. But, evangelicals base our opinions on a plain reading of the time-proven Scriptures—the Bible. That Bible reports we need to be rescued from our sin-condition, and the “good news” is, God intervened!
Jesus’ death and resurrection—according to the Bible—makes Him the only available Savior. God offers eternal life—heaven—as a free gift to anyone who will trust Christ alone with his eternal destiny.
How do I define “evangelical”? One who believes this good news.
