Category Archives: Evangelicalism

Looking back, looking forward

Thought, Sola Panel

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Whenever I look back over the history of The Briefing—all 366 issues, all 21 years—I find it almost impossible to resist thinking about my eldest daughter, who (like The Briefing) was born in April 1988. In fact, I’ve used the image so often in the past, I’m sure long-term readers are heartily sick of it by now. (more…)

Review: “The Old Evangelicalism”

Review

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The Old Evangelicalism: Old truths for a new awakening
Iain H Murray
Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, 2005, 226pp.

Recent debates in my circles (about the nature of the Trinity, and about who is suitable to be ordained or to preside at the Lord’s Supper) show an uneasy footing with regard to theologians of the past. Sometimes we are keen to legitimate our standing in the apostolic tradition, and so we selectively cite those earlier divines who shared our opinions. Sometimes we confer on some past thinker a godlike authority, and then proceed to marry our thoughts precisely to theirs. Sometimes we are so convinced of an historically eccentric view, we ignore all our forebears, rebuffing them with a cry of “Sola scriptura!” (more…)

WordWatch: Evangelical

Word Watch

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Is it time for us to stop using the word ‘evangelical’ as our primary self-label?

We have long been used to the media being thoroughly muddled about those who count as ‘evangelicals’ and those who don’t. Odd American televangelists (even the use of that word is a bit of a give away, isn’t it?) and people we would regard as full-on heretics are labelled in the popular media as one of us— as ‘evangelicals’. More recently (over the past six months or so), I have noticed more and more people from a very wide spectrum calling themselves ‘evangelicals’: when asked, charismatics, pentecostals, fundamentalists and others (some from the fringe of their movements rather than centre) identify themselves as ‘evangelicals’. (more…)