Who Do Evangelicals Think They Are?

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As we try to understand the current religious and political landscape in the United States, we are confronted with the question of Evangelicals. Who are these people? What do they want? Why do they support the President in such ardent, fervent fashion? To understand this question, we must apply the questions that N.T. Wright employs in his book, the New Testament and the People of God, to address the concerns of this influential group.

            The first question Wright asks, is “Who are we?” This question refers to a group’s self-identification.  Who do Evangelicals think they are?  This is apart from any external source labeling them or any reference to the truth (i.e. historical, etc). The answer helps us understand the motives and the worldview behind their behavior.

            Much like the Pharisees in the New Testament period, today’s Evangelicals believe they are the last remnant who have been faithful to God throughout history.  The church has become corrupt, especially in the teaching of the Roman Catholic church.  Therefore, the Reformation is viewed as an essential turning point in the faithfulness of God’s people (the Protestants). But now, even the mainline churches that historically stem from the Reformation have turned their back on Jesus and embraced liberal theological doctrines.  (The Orthodox don’t even come into the picture as they have largely been forgotten by the Non-Catholic Christian Church).  Now it is up to the Evangelical church to be the sole steward of the eternal truths that God has passed down from the Bible. The Evangelical Church must keep itself pure from the luring chorales of the Mass, but also the tempting call from the camp of liberal theologians.  The Evangelical church sees itself that it must keep itself pure from these teachings.

            Because of this, the Evangelical church sees itself as besieged by outside forces.  The secular culture seeks to make them conform to the principles of the world. This is most evidenced by the cultural phenomena we see like ‘the war on Christmas,’ or removing prayer from school or removing monuments of the Ten Commandments. Everywhere the Evangelical church looks, it is surrounded by enemies.  This does not lead to despair, however, because the Evangelicals are the true Church, who have remained faithful to God and God will not abandon them.  They latch onto the book of Revelation for proof that God will reward their faithfulness and will defend them from all of these enemies.   

            But the flip side of this is that Evangelicalism also finds itself falling apart in the middle.  For centuries, the doctrine of “Jesus and Me” have been preached to the point that many do not feel it necessary to be among other believers.  The first part of the fallout of this doctrine was the growth in non-denominational or independent churches. By pulling away from larger bodies, individual congregations had more freedom, but also less accountability.  While denominations used to be kept together by subscribing to documents like the Westminster Confession of Faith, now each church is free to create their own standards.  Now there is no glue holding Evangelicals together…just a vague sense of we well….we kind of agree on some stuff…but it’s not substantial and not solid enough to hold things together.

            This feeling has trickled down to the individual level.  Most Evangelicals will talk about their ‘personal relationship’ or ‘personal walk’ with Jesus because that is what matters the most.  Evangelicals see themselves, not as a ‘block’ or a ‘group,’ but as a loose affiliation of ‘Jesus followers’ who all have the same instantaneous access to God through the Bible, prayer and the Holy Spirit.  Each of them are on their own individual journey, but they are marching to the same destination, much like the pilgrims did in Ancient Israel.

            There is a sense that that a lack of cohesion or unity is missing.  Often times, an Evangelical leader like Francis Chan will try to call their followers back to a more communal experience…authentic Christianity, purpose driven Christianity, Ancient-Future Christianity, just to name a few. These movements are often very popular but very fleeting, because of the lack of glue keeping them together. And so the Evangelical Church struggles with the sense of being church.  The Bible reminds them that they must be together and united as a people, but they often times find this just out of reach and this leads to confusion.

            While this is written to interpret but not critique Evangelical Christianity, this lack of unity is a critique.  The Evangelical church finds itself fracturing more and more under the weight of their own theology. This had led to more and more Christians trying to discover, ‘God’s plan for the Church’.  House churches are starting to replace megachurches, just as megachurches replaced mainline churches.  There is a nervousness present in Evangelicalism because the future is uncertain for the movement.

            At a time when we have more people in seminary receiving MDiv’s than we have churches, we have more Bibles available to us than ever before, and everybody s

eems to be putting their opinion out there (the irony is not lost), what does the future of Evangelicalism hold? What can bring them together, what can ensure that they are able to defeat their enemies and win the day.  Well to understand that, we need to ask the next question: Where are we?