The Evangelical Mythos

Mythos--The pattern of basic values and attitudes of a people, characteristically transmitted through myths and the arts.

Something has been passed on to each successive generation of American Christians. The question we must ask is whether or not the truth of the Gospel has been transmitted or some useless fables.

To be called an Evangelical used to mean something very specific. Calling oneself anEvangelical was a way of identifying oneself with the truth of Scripture, the doctrines of grace and faith, the belief in Christ as the Messiah and the desire to give God glory alone. However, today, through the watering down of Scripture, the doctrines of faith and grace and of the person and work of Jesus Christ and exactly who and what God is, Evangelical has come to mean something much different. All one has to do is turn on the television (TBN etc) and see that many in the church have fallen WAY off the deep end of kookiness and idiocracy. If what I see on TV represents true Christianity than I am damned.

I would argue that Evangelical is an all-inclusive term that does not mean what it used to mean. This is why I cringe when I am lumped in with a bunch of people who claim to be "Evangelical" yet they do not even know what the Gospel is, what the Bible says, what they believe, or even why they believe it.

Evangelicalism has become something you "feel" or "experience" or have a "relationship" with rather than what you "know" and "believe". It has become all about the persons subjective experience rather than about the good historical news of who Jesus is, what God has revealed about himself in Scripture and what duty God requires of man.

Over the next few weeks I want to examine five areas in which the pillars of the church have cracked and in many cases have come crashing down. I want to look at Scripture, Faith, Grace, the person of Jesus and the glory that is due to God alone. I hope that you will come along on this journey and that you will be challenged by God's Word as you ask what myths you may have bought into in the evangelical world.