Skip to main content

Who is an Evangelical Christian

By
John Stott lists 6 features of an evangelical Christian belief in the book Evangelical Truth: A Personal Plea for Unity, Integrity and Faithfulness. The 6 features are shared by others like J.I. Packer, Alister McGrath et al. Since these individuals have been associating with IFES in various ways there should not be plausible reasons for members of IFES India to disagree with them. The words may differ, but the points go like this:

1. The supreme authority of the Scripture with matters regarding faith and conduct.
2. The majesty of Jesus Christ, both as incarnate Lord and God and as Saviour of sinful humanity.
3. The Lordship of the Holy Spirit.
4. The need for personal conversion.
5. The importance of evangelism.
6. The importance of Christian fellowship.

The need to assert orthodox Christian belief in clear terms became necessary as various heretical and liberal groups emerged. This kind of declaration is not new. Christian orthodoxy have been proclaimed and reaffirmed over the years as the voice of heresy and liberal belief crept into the Church. The first of such declaration is found in Acts 15. Outside of the biblical history we find such declaration by the Church in 325 AD in Council of Nicaea and others like Council of Ephesus, Council of Chalcedon etc.

The need to reaffirm such historic Christian faith is no less even today. In matters of non-essentials we should be as flexible as a reed; and in matters of essential we should be as firm as a steel. May the Lord help us to preserve love and unity undergirded by His truth.
Labels:

Comments

Jeremiah A V Dumai said…
Today evangelical Christians may need to come out clearly on some of the ethical stand too... certain things which were not there before are getting common. And evangelical Christians may have to respond and tell the world what our stand is in those ethical matters. After all Scripture informs us about 'belief' and 'conduct'.
May 18, 2011 at 3:28 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evolution and Creation

By
Evolution and/or Creation has generated so much of discussion. Whether we like or not the controversy is likely to continue for some more time. Textbooks on Biology are filled with ideas undergirded by the theory of evolution. Christians take on the issue has been diverse. Some see evolution as opposed to the teaching of the Bible underscored in Genesis 1-2. Others see it differently. Young Earth Creationists interpret the Genesis text ‘literally’, and concluded that God created the heavens and the earth some 6,000 to 10,000 years back. Ministries like Answers in Genesis, Creation Ministries International and Creation Science Research etc are proponents of this view. For them theory of evolution is not true and it “propagates an anti-biblical religion”. ( Refuting Evolution , Jonathan Sarfati). Others like Phillip Johnson, William Dembski, Michael Behe, Lee Strobel et al have a different take. Intelligent Design movement’s, perhaps, most able proponent Phillip Johnson in his cha
30 comments
Read more

Welcome to Delhi-UESI

By
UESI seeks to evangelise post-matric students in India, nurture them as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, that they may serve the Church and Society. UESI's doctrinal basis shall be the fundamental, historic truths of Christianity including: 1. The unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Godhead. 2. The sovereignty of God in creation, revelation, redemption and final judgment. 3. The divine inspiration and infallibility of Holy Scripture as originally given, and its supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct. 4. The universal sinfulness and guilt of human nature since the Fall, rendering man subject to God's wrath and condemnation. 5. Redemption from the guilt, penalty, and power of sin only through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. 6. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 7. The necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit to make the death of Christ effective to the individual sinner, granting him repentance toward G
10 comments
Read more

Should Christians support that Indian Penal Code decrimillize homosexual practice?

By
This is a subject that Christians who are students of Social Science has much to say. The primary reason is because when it comes issues on interaction between governance and Christian ethics someone studying Computer Engineering or Geography or something of that sort is not taught in his or her classroom about governance or about Christian ethics. Students who study Political Science know better , or are supposed to, about governance than others. But we need to first ask ourselves what the Bible say about homosexuality. Read the first few chapters of Genesis and one cannot possibly miss out that God first created one male and one female. And it is this one male and one female that God united them in marriage. In the New Testament Jesus went on to quote the Genesis account to make his point about marriage. If Jesus himself affirmed the authority of the Genesis account who are we, after all, to deny the authority of Genesis! To be precise, God's design is that physical union must
6 comments
Read more