Evangelical Theology, what is it.

[Gregory Matthews]

Dennis Wicklunds is contributing to a discussion in another thread in regard to the Trinity. In that thread, he makes reference to Evangelical Theology (ET), and ties it to the doctrine of the Trinity, and the Roman Catholic Church.

I thought that it might be of interest to discuss ET, but to keep from hijacking that thread, I have opened a new one here.

Some of questions might include:

What is ET (Evangelical t heology, not the movie.)?

Are SDAs Evangelical?

Do SDAs accept ET?

Is the doctrine of the Trinity founded in Roman Catholicism?

There may be others.

[Gregory Matthews]

The Evangelical Theological Society has the following statement of beliefs:

"The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs. God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory."

It is short, simple and faily clear. Each memer of the society is required to reaffirm belief in that statement each year.

[Gregory Matthews]

Comments on the above statement of belief:

1) That statement quite clearly ties Evangelical Theology (ET) to the standard doctrine of the Trinity. Anyone who understands Evangelicals, would probably say that Evangelicals do accept the doctrine of the Trinity.

2) Does that statement make a doctrinal statement that is accepted by all who call themselves Evangelicals? No, it does not. If you study the history of the Evangelical Theological Society you will see that some well known people, who have claimed to be Evangelicals have been brought up on charges related to their claimed rejection of some aspects of that statement.

3) To me, in my understanding, Evangelicals hold the following beliefs: Christ did all that was needed, and therefore accomplished our salvation, on the cross. The Bible is authorative, over all else as a revelation of Jesus Christ, and of what God wants of us today. The doctrine of the Trinity. A desire to fulfill the command of Christ to convert those who are not saved. Salvation comes by the merit of Christ, and not our works.

4) I will suggest that it should be evident from either what I have stated in #3, or from the above posted statement of belifs, that ET differes from Roman Catholic doctrine. ET places the Bible in an authorative position, over every thing else. Roman Catholic theology adds the witness of the "church" throughout the years.

5) Yes, ET accepts the doctrine of the Trinity, but on the basis of the teaching of the Bible, and not the RC Church.

6) In another post, Dennis has pointed out that the Roman Catholic Chruch claims to be responsible for the Protestant churches accepting the doctrine of the Trinity. If that is accurate, so what. It also claims to be responsible for changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. I reject that claim, just as I reject the claim that the doctrine of the Trinity came from the RC Church.

7) There is a fundamental mistake that is made in this claim. That mistake is a well known error in research: Correlation is not cause. i.e. The fact that the RC Church teaches the doctrine of the Trinity is not proof that others got it from them and not the Bible.

[Gregory Matthews]

One more question: Do you think that the statement of belief of the ETS is one that agrees with SDA beliefs?

[archierieus]

Correct me if I am wrong, Gregory, but I had understood that the Seventh-day Adventist church is considered to be an evangelical Protestant church. I seem to recall reading that assessment in references sources.

Regards, Dave

[Gregory Matthews]

Correct. That is a major reason why I have asked the question.

Since we are considered to be an evangelical denomination, what is meant by the term "evangelical theology?"

Does the word "evangelical" when used to say that we are an evangelical denomination mean the same as when one uses the same word in the pharase "evangelical theology?"

[Clio]

Evangelical when used as an adjective.

adj 1: relating to or being a Christian church believing in personal conversion and the inerrancy of the Bible especially the 4 Gospels; "evangelical Christianity"; "an ultraconservative evangelical message" 2: of or pertaining to or in keeping with the Christian gospel especially as in the first 4 books of the New Testament 3: marked by ardent or zealous enthusiasm for a cause [syn: evangelistic]

I don't believe I have any issues with the above definition of evangelical. That entry is from the Princetom Dictionary.

The American Heritage dictionary has more:

e·van·gel·i·cal Audio pronunciation of "Evangelical" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (vn-jl-kl, vn-) also e·van·gel·ic (-jlk)

adj.

1. Of, relating to, or in accordance with the Christian gospel, especially one of the four gospel books of the New Testament.

2. Evangelical Of, relating to, or being a Protestant church that founds its teaching on the gospel.

3. Evangelical Of, relating to, or being a Christian church believing in the sole authority and inerrancy of the Bible, in salvation only through regeneration, and in a spiritually transformed personal life.

4. Evangelical

1. Of or relating to the Lutheran churches in Germany and Switzerland.

2. Of or relating to all Protestant churches in Germany.

5. Of or relating to the group in the Church of England that stresses personal conversion and salvation by faith.

6. Characterized by ardent or crusading enthusiasm; zealous: an evangelical liberal.

I have no issues with meanings 1,2, and 6 when applied to me. As far as they go. I take issue with meaning 3, in that it is salvation by grace and faith alone, but the writers of this entry clearly don't understand it sufficiently to clearly state that. Either that, or they tried to be politically correct.

I think you have to state that when used with these meanings, yes, we are an evangelical denomination.

[Gregory Matthews]

In my thinking, the SDA Church is evangelical. To me, that involves some simple constructs. An evangelical, in my thinking:

a) Has a mission to convert others to Christianity. This is the fundamental aspect of what makes one an evangelical.

An evangelical is one who believes that Christ did on Calvary all that was necessary for human salvation. The central focus is on Christ and the cross.

c) Jesus Christ was fully God. This does have a Trinitarian aspect.

The Bible is authorative for life and teachings, today.

You will note that I have stated the above a little differently from what the ETS stated. But, this is where I am coming from.

[Kevin H]

Seventh-day Adventism is an orginized religion, but on the other hand it is a movement that transends typical denominational. Our pioneers came from different denominations where they were asked to leave because they accepted some ideas that went beyond their creeds, and they united in an orginazation that united around only a couple of pillars and would otherwise be welcoming of new ideas and differences in perspective as long as it was not fanatical.

So with us today, some approach Adventism with a Baptist approach, others are more Methodist-Weslyian, others are Lutheran in their apporach to Adventism. We have some who are high church, others more low church and we tend to compromise by having mostly mid-church services. We are from many denominatinal outlooks but which share our pillars. From the 1800s until the late 1930s we offered the Jews from the Jewish Gettos in Europe a Jewish version of Advenitsm, and of course they approached (the last ones most likely died in the late 1980s, I knew about them when they were still alive in the early and mid 80s, but they were in their late 80s and 90s of age at that time)Adventism from a Jewish perspective. Although the church put a stop to the Seventh-day Adventist Jewish movement in the 1930s and required Jews to convert to Christianity to join, many Jewish converts still say that they fell in love with Jesus and Advenitsm but not Christianity and that they were only Christians in name because they had to be to be Church members, other Jews attend church faithfully but refuse to join because they refuse to become Christians, but these people also approach Adventism from Jewish perspectives. There are muslem mosques, who like the Waldencies, have a simple primitive godlyness, some that have accpted Jesus as God and love him, and among these are those who have fallen in love with Adventism, and they approach Adventism from a Muslim perspective.

Yes, several Seventh-day Adventists are Evangelicals. But several of us ARE NOT. I am not an Evangelical, and my most impressive professors from College and the Seminary were the non-evangelicals.

Evangelicals are welcome to join our church, but Seventh-day Adventism is not Evangelical. It is an umberella that has room for evangelicals and us non-evangelicals as well. What scares me is that too many of the evangelicals in our church want to make us into another evangelical church, which would cut out too many of the rest of us. I feel we made a horrible mistake in the 1930s by wanting to be a strictly Christian church and stoping the spread of the Seventh-day Adventist Jewish movement. I hope that we don't get any more narrow.

Jesus said "I am the good shepherd" and "I am the door" and illuatrated it with a man who was closed out of the sheepfold by bad shepherds. Don't fence me out.