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Brother David Cloud
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Updated May 30, 1998 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, 1701 Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277) - The following is part one of a three-part article entitled Fundamentalism, Modernism, and New-Evangelicalism by David W. Cloud, copyright 1995. It was first printed in O Timothy magazine, Volume 12, Issue 1, 1995--
Evangelicalism of the 1990s is a different creature from that of the 1940s and earlier. Fifty years ago the term "Evangelical" was a word which referred to firm, Bible-believing Christianity. Though the term "Evangelical," like Fundamentalism, has never had an established definition, as a rule it had traditionally described Protestants who were stridently anti-Roman Catholic and who preached the new birth. For the most part, the Evangelicals of Europe and North America a generation ago were stalwart soldiers for Christ.
Some trace the term "Evangelical" to the English revivals of the Wesleys and Whitefield. Others trace it back further to the earliest days of the Protestant Reformation. In either case, we can see that Evangelicalism of old was dogmatic and militant. It was old fashioned Protestanism. Luther was excommunicated by the Pope; John Wesley was barred from Anglican churches. Anyone familiar with the old Lutheran and Methodist creeds can understand why this was the case. Those men, though we Baptists don't see eye to eye with them on many important points, definitely stood militantly for what they believed to be the truth. Not only did these Evangelical Protestants define what they believed the Bible taught, but they defined it in contradiction to error. This is exactly what the New Evangelical refuses to do.
Consider examples of this from the Methodist Articles of Religion:
"Transubstantiation, or the change of the substance of bread and wine in the Supper of our Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ, but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of the ordinance, and hath given occasion to many superstitions. ... The Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshiped."
"...the sacrifice of masses in the which it is commonly said that the priest doth offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, is a blasphemous fable, and dangerous deceit."
David Otis Fuller, speaking of these Evangelical soldiers of bygone days, said, "Each man possessed the same fierce conviction-- that all truth is absolute, never relative. For these men, truth was never a nose of wax to be twisted to suit their system of dialectics or deceptive casuistry. Two times two made four. In mathematics, their supreme authority was the multiplication table; in theology, their absolute authority was the Bible" (D.O. Fuller, Preface, Valiant for the Truth, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1961, pp. ix,x).
Baptist C.H. Spurgeon is another example of what "Evangelical" meant in
generations past. Charles Haddon Spurgeon's ministry was characterized by faithfulness to the truth, holiness of life, a pure gospel of grace, and unhesitating exposure of error. Though slandered, hated, and misunderstood, Spurgeon did not draw back from separating from the Baptist Union of Britain because of the false doctrine which was being countenanced. He also stood unhesitatingly against Roman Catholicism. Consider this excerpt from one of Spurgeon's sermons:
"It is impossible but that the Church of Rome must spread, when we who are the watchdogs of the fold are silent, and others are gently and smoothly turfing the road, and making it as soft and smooth as possible, that converts may travel down to the nethermost hell of Popery. We want John Knox back again. Do not talk to me of mild and gentle men, of soft manners and squeamish words, we want the fiery Knox, and even though his vehemence should бе ding our pulpits into blads,' it were well if he did but rouse our hearts to action" (Sermons, Vol. 10, pgs. 322-3).
When was the last time you read something like that in Christianity Today!
Old Spurgeon hit the nail on the head. Sadly, today's Evangelicalism is indeed in the business of turfing the road of Romanism to make it smooth for those traveling thereon to Hell.
Many other examples could be given to show that Evangelicalism of past generations involved contending for the faith. Evangelical warriors of a bygone age did not fail to label Rome "that old harlot, drunk with the blood of the martyrs" and would have considered it unthinkable to have fellowship with Romanism or Modernism or with any other form of apostasy.
It was at this point that there came yet another division--that of New Evangelicalism. When godly men began to separate completely from Modernism and to refuse to have anything to do with those churches and institutions which were protecting the Modernists, there were many who claimed to be Evangelical Bible believers yet did not agree with the principle of separation. Until that time the term "Evangelical" generally referred to those who preached the necessity of the new birth through faith in the Blood of Jesus Christ and who stood firmly for the pure doctrine of the Scriptures. Evangelical had referred, in other words, to obedient, Bible-believing Christians. Now there arose those who claimed the title "Evangelical" but who ref used to obey some of the teachings of Scripture. These began to be called "New Evangelical."
Sadly, therefore, Evangelicalism is no longer a term for the stalwart defense of the Word of God. A generation of Evangelicals has arisen that, though rich in all manner of worldly benefits, has abandoned the spiritual zeal of their forefathers. Blindly following their compromised leaders, Evangelicals of this generation have removed the landmarks and knocked down the fences which were carefully set up by their wise forebears. With the rise to prominence of Billy Graham, another kind of Evangelicalism emerged.
The term "New Evangelicalism" was coined by the late Harold Ockenga to define a new type of Evangelicalism and to distinguish it from those who had heretofore bore that label. Ockenga has had a phenomenal influence upon today's Evangelicalism. He was the founder of the National Association of Evangelicals, co-founder and one-time president of Fuller Theological Seminary, first president of the World Evangelical Fellowship, a director of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and chairman of the board and one-time editor of Christianity Today. In the foreword to Dr. Harold Lindsell's book The Battle for the Bible, Ockenga stated the position of New Evangelicalism:
"Neo-evangelicalism was born in 1948 in connection with a convocation address which I gave in the Civic Auditorium in Pasadena. While reaffirming the theological view of Fundamentalism, this address repudiated its ecclesiology and its social theory. The ringing call for a repudiation of separatism and the summons to social involvement received a hearty response from many Evangelicals. -- It differed from Fundamentalism in its repudiation of separatism and its determination to engage itself in the theological dialogue of the day. It had a new emphasis upon the application of the gospel to the sociological, political, and economic areas of life."
Ockenga and the new generation of Evangelicals, Billy Graham figuring most prominently, determined to abandon a militant Bible stance. Ockenga contended that Evangelicals should practice infiltration rather than separation, meaning they should stay in the apostate denominations and organizations and try to change them from within rather than separate from them and serve God in pure churches and organizations. He contended that Evangelicals should practice dialogue rather than exhortation, that they should not be negative in their message by rebuking and warning false teachers publicly, but should attempt to change the false teachers through dialogue. He taught that Evangelicals should reexamine their idea of worldliness and not be as strict about separating from worldly evils as Bible-believing Christians had been in earlier days. Ockenga decided that Evangelicals should consider the possibility that modern science was right in some areas where it disagreed with the Bible. The prime example of this was in the origin of the world. Ockenga did not think Christians should so easily ignore the teaching of evolution as separatists were accustomed to do. He taught that there could be a synthesis between modern science and the Bible, and it is this New Evangelical principle that led to such strange ideas as theistic evolution.
Ockenga also believed that Christians should aim to meet Modernists and the men of the world on their own scholastic level and therefore contended that Christian leaders should be as well educated in the social sciences and liberal arts as unregenerate scholars and as well-versed in Bible criticism as the Modernists. The idea was that the Christian leader should seek to influence men through human wisdom and scholarship rather than purely though the power of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the Word of God as we see in the ministries of the Apostles.
God says, "Walk ye in the old paths," but the New Evangelical reassesses the old paths. God says, "Remove not the ancient landmarks which thy fathers have set" but the New Evangelical has removed them one by one. God says, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness," but the New Evangelical reasons that such fellowship is necessary. God says, "A little leaven leaventh the whole lump," but the New Evangelical thinks he can reform the already leavened lump. God says "evil communications corrupt good manners," but the New Evangelical thinks good manners can uplift evil communications. God says, "I resist the proud but give grace to the humble," but the New Evangelical thinks the way to reach the world is by meeting them on their own proud territory, matching them scholarly degree with degree.
The result of this new thinking has been dramatic. Within a mere fifty years, Evangelicalism has lost all semblance of its past purity, power, and glory. New Evangelicalism is blind and naked, but is not aware of it. In fact, New Evangelicalism glories in its new-found acceptance by the world and apostate Christendom, its vast material wealth, its satellites and transmitters, its worldwide television and radio networks, its vast publishing enterprises, its massive conferences.
It is God who has commanded that His people separate from error and from those who teach and practice it; it is God who has commanded that His people "earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints." And when these and other aspects of old-time Evangelicalism were rejected, the power and blessing of God was removed just as it was from Samson of old when he broke his Nazarite vow.
Even key Evangelical leaders have noted the spiritual decline of their movement. Harold Lindsell, former editor of Christianity Today, made this amazing statement at the 27th annual conention of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in Apr. 1969: "Evangelical Christianity is in spiritual jeopardy right now. Complacent, affluent, self-satisfied, we are lacking of great spiritual dynamic" (D.A. Waite, What's Wrong with the N.A.E. - 1969?). By 1985, Lindsell had become even more forceful about the decline of Evangelicalism: "Evangelicalism today is in a sad state of disarray. ... It is clear that Evangelicalism is now broader and shallower, and is becoming more so. Evangelicalism's children are in the process of forsaking the faith of their fathers" (Christian News, Dec. 2, 1985).
At the 1976 convention of the NAE in Washington D.C., Francis Schaeffer spoke on "The Watershed of the Evangelical World," which is the perfect inspiration of Holy Scripture. Schaeffer observed: "What is the use of Evangelicalism seeming to get larger and larger in number if significant numbers of those under the name of бе Evangelical' no longer hold to that which makes Evangelicalism evangelical?" (D.A. Waite, What's Wrong with the N.A.E. - 1976?).
The Evangelical world has ignored the concerns of those who have lifted a voice of warning.
New Evangelical thought has been adopted by such well-known Christian leaders as Billy Graham, Bill Bright, Harold Lindsell, John R.W. Stott, Luis Palau, E.V. Hill, Leighton Ford, Charles Stanley, Bill Hybels, Warren Wiersbe, Chuck Colson, Donald McGavran, Tony Campolo, Arthur Glasser, D. James Kennedy, David Hocking, Charles Swindoll, and a multitude of other men. Through publications such as Christianity Today and Moody Monthly, and through publishing houses such as InterVarsity Press, Zondervan, Tyndale House Publishers, Moody Press, and Thomas Nelson--to name but a few--New Evangelical thinking was broadcast across the world. In addition to the powerful influence of the printed page, compromised New Evangelical teaching was promoted by institutions such as Fuller Theological Seminary, Moody Bible Institute, Wheaton College, BIOLA, the Lausanne Conference for World Evangelism (LCWE), the National Association of Evangelicals, the World Evangelical Fellowship, National Religious Broadcasters, Radio Bible Class, Youth for Christ, Back to the Bible, Campus Crusade for Christ, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, World Vision, Operation Mobilization, and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. There have also been countless conferences which have been organized with the main purpose of promoting New Evangelical thought. Two of the largest and most influential were Amsterdam '83 and Amsterdam '86 which were sponsored by Billy Graham Ministries and were attended by thousands of preachers from across the world. Because of the tremendous influence of these men and organizations, New Evangelical thought has swept the world. Today it is no exaggeration to say that almost without exception those who call themselves Evangelicals are New Evangelicals; the terms have become synonymous. Old-line Evangelicals, except for rare exceptions, have either aligned with the Fundamental movement or have adopted New Eangelicalism.
Independent Baptists have historically been separatists and have therefore identified with Fundamentalism--though most Fundamental Baptists reject the interdenominationalism and nonchalantness toward ecclesiology of the Fundamentalist movement as a whole. Today, sadly, there is growing sympathy on the part of many supposed Fundamental Baptists with New Evangelicalism.
Beware of New Evangelicalism. To join hands with New Evangelicalism is to join hands with apostasy and is to turn one's back on biblical Christianity.
