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by on 4.11.08

discerning and eschewing new evangelicalism

In my Church History notes folder I have the reprint of an article written by Dr. Panosian in 1963 for the Nov/Dec issue of Voice of the Alumni, the news-magazine for BJU alumni. The article has a picture of a very young Dr. P. It was written a bare six or seven years from the Billy Graham 1957 New York crusade, the moment when lines were starkly drawn and personal decisions for or against the new evangelicalism had to be made.

Dr. P summarizes the definitions of other men for the (then) new movement. Among those cited are William E. Ashbrook, Harold J. Ockenga, Charles Woodbridge, Bob Jones, Jr., and Robert C. Brien. From these, Dr. P distills this definition:

So Neo-Evangelicalism is a movement, an approach, a group, a theological position, a practice, an attitude, a method and a mood. It prefers positivism without negativism, liberalism to fundamentalism, infiltration to separation, results to principles, scholarship to Revelation, ‘Preaching the Gospel’ without contending for the faith, ‘love’ to Truth, and ‘unity’ to loyalty to the Word of God. Ignoring the injunctions of the Epistles, concerning the believers’ reaction to error, infidelity, and apostasy — mark them, avoid them, rebuke them, have no fellowship with them, reprove, exhort, receive not, try them, from such turn away — the Neo-Evangelical has already been judged by God’s Word. He needs no other judgement.

A few thoughts flow from this…

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Filed Under: Church History, Fundamentalism, New Evangelicalism
by on 4.10.08

new evangelicalism – course and consequences

I’ve been blogging my old Church History class notes [minus the doodles] for a little while now. The next two sections concern new evangelicalism:

The Course of Neo-Evangelicalism

  1. Sellout of schools: Fuller Theological Seminary and Wheaton College [as examples]
  2. Emergence of honoured leaders:
    Harold Ockenga
    Carl Henry
    Edward Carnell
    Donald Ray Barnhouse
    Vernon Grounds
    Bernard Ramm
    Alan Redpath
  3. Emergence of Propaganda Vehicles
    Christianity Today (an answer to the liberal Christian Century)
    Christian Life
    Eternity

As I think about this section, I must not have fully understood the lecture, or else ‘sellout’ is my term. Fuller was created for the purpose of advancing the neo-evangelical cause. It has always been committed to a course of compromise, whereas Wheaton turned away from a more militant beginning to the position it holds today.

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Filed Under: Church History, Fundamentalism, New Evangelicalism, Separation
by on 4.9.08

what does a neo-evangelical look like?

I am reading a bit from an interesting book called Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible by R. Laird Harris.

The book is out of print, but if the rest of the book is like the first chapter, I’d say it is well worth having if you can find it. Harris wrote in 1957, although my edition was published in 1969.

Harris writes a lucid style, and his scholarship is excellent. The first chapter is an introduction to his topic. In it he lays out the argument he is confronting, that of attacking the inerrancy of the Scriptures. For the most part he is very strong in his rebuttals (although he concedes too much by being willing to allow for a more than 24 hour day during the creation week). Here is a comment where he emphasizes the need for strong rebuttal of error.

But how about the Church itself? Surely the leaders of our great Protestant denominations have resisted the “acids of modernity,” Unfortunately, it is not so. Painful it is to have to relate how our church leaders have for the most part felt that they could neutralize these acids simply by diluting them slightly. The effort has been not to meet the attack head on but to appease the gathering unbelief at every point and meanwhile to try to salvage some shreds of faith from the general ruin. The result has been a preaching without conviction, a religion without authority, a Christ of human proportions. And in a world sick unto death the Church has turned to the panacea of ecumenicalism to present to the world a united front – united in unbelief. [p. 37]

He sounds almost like a fundamentalist, but, alas, he isn’t one. He is thoroughly a new evangelical as you will see by his brief bio on wikipedia, linked above.

The reason this quote is so striking to me is that it is strong language from a man who took the new evangelical side of the debate in the 1950s. Many of the men who made the wrong choice at that time were fearless preachers of truth in their day.

There is a group of men today who make bold statements, who seem to hold the truth unflinchingly, but who also have serious issues in their choices of association and affiliation as have been documented time and time again (lately with great surprise among some ‘young fundie’ admirers). We are told that this new crowd of conservatives are different, that there aren’t any neo-evangelicals anymore, etc. To which I can only say:

Really?

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Filed Under: Fundamentalism, New Evangelicalism, Quotables
by on 4.8.08

uh oh . . . blogging kills

Some of us may need to ease off a bit….

They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece — not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: home.

This from the New York Times. It must be true, then. Here’s the link: In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop.

PC World is also reporting on this. Blogging to an Early Grave?

Be warned!

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Filed Under: Blogosphere, Culture
by on 4.6.08

sermons 4.6.08

A good day for us today, with a full Sunday school. Two families who are somewhat sporadic both came today, which expanded our ranks. We work and pray for spiritual stability and consistency here!

Here are the summaries:

The Righteousness of God (Rm 1.17a)

Our subject turns now to the reason the gospel is the power of God unto salvation: because in it (in the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed – not God’s righteousness as such, but the righteousness that is from God through Christ. God’s righteousness is a massive mountain of truth, an impossible barrier for sinful man, but that barrier melts away when righteousness from God comes to us by faith.

Christian Fellowship (1)

We begin a brief interruption of our Basic Theology series to look at the topic of Christian fellowship as taught in the Bible. This topic is largely misunderstood today, reduced to a bare notion of social interaction (coffee, lunch, potluck dinners). While the social interaction is a great blessing of church life, it flows from our fellowship, it doesn’t define it.

Note: this message was prompted by a discussion at a friend’s blog, EX vilis CATHEDRA “Together for What?” by Champ Thornton.

The Compensation Offering (Lev 5.14-6.7)

We continue our series in Leviticus for our Communion service. Our passage covers the fifth and last type of sacrifice prescribed in Leviticus. This is what the KJV calls a ‘trespass offering’. There are several unique features to this offering, but the main idea is that the sinner has defrauded God (or man AND God) and must not only be atoned for but also make restitution. The NT Christian has had his debt of sin paid, but his relationship with God still demands reparation, restitution, or compensation be made to restore the losses our sins have caused to our human relationships. Thank God that in Christ we are enabled to put such things right.

~~~

I trust that your Lord’s Day was a spiritual blessing to you as well, hearing faithful preaching of the rich word of God.

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Filed Under: Sermon Summaries
by on 4.4.08

more ‘dialogue’ sightings

Running the risk of additional misunderstanding, I note today another emergence of the “d” word. It is used in a CT LiveBlog article, “The Politics of Proselytization“. The article comes to no conclusion, but is hopeful, apparently, that somehow everyone can get along. The issue is illustrated by the offense some have taken over a Good Friday prayer by the Pope:

Let us pray for the Jews. May the Lord our God enlighten their hearts so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men…Almighty and everlasting God, you who want all men to be saved and to reach the awareness of the truth, graciously grant that, with the fullness of peoples entering into your church, all Israel may be saved.

We don’t agree with the Pope, or dialogue with him either, but we do agree with this prayer. Apparently the Pope hasn’t figured out dialog either, since he regularly gets himself into un-PC imbroglios like this.

But CT is all about dialog. It is, after all, their word. So we learn from the article that Richard Mouw is all for dialogue (no surprise) but

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Filed Under: New Evangelicalism, Separation
by on 4.3.08

the rise of neo-evangelicalism

Continuing my church history notes from 28 years ago…

Two of the prominent men of the neo-evangelical movement were John Carnell and Carl Henry. My notes at this point say “both from fundamental background.”

Henry was the first editor of Christianity Today, and was

at the time trying to make conservative evangelical orthodox Christianity rationally acceptable.

AIn 1947, Henry articulated something I have headed in my notes as the “NEEDS OF CONTEMPORARY EVANGELICALISM”

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Filed Under: Church History, New Evangelicalism
by on 4.2.08

abpnews takes a turn at defining fundamentalism

The Associated Baptist Press attempts to define the allegedly undefinable! Read all about it in “Fundamentalism & militancy: Defining ‘fundamentalism’“

“They were trying to find the boundaries of authentic Christianity,”

says one commentator.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Church History, Fundamentalism, Quotables
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