Featured Neo-evangelicalism

Think that it was basically Evangelical in theology, but was not into being separated from culture, and was not staying away from current theological viewpoints, so would be those who held to essential Christian doctrines, but also were mixing in with current cultural and theologically threads.

 

Yep! That's it. Total disaster. That's how the Church got into the mess it's in today.

 

TC's quote of Ockenga was spot on, but I have to give my own definition.

New Evangelicalism (also called Neo-evangelicalism) is the position that opposes both personal and ecclesiastical separation, raises social action to a level equal with the Gospel, and embraces cooperative evangelism (which includes liberals in mass evangelism efforts).

 

I thought that it was mainly those who decided to not separate from other Christians, and who also decided to use at times critical understandings of the scriptures, and consider modern viewpoints regarding bible, salvation etc?

 

First of all, it depends on what you mean by "Christian." If by that you include theological liberals (no virgin birth, no deity of Christ, etc.), then yeah, New Evangelicals decided not to separate from them. Instead, their position is "infiltration," meaning, "If we make nice with liberals, we can win them to Christ." Of course, that never happens.

At any rate, the original fundamentalists did not separate from other evangelicals, but did from liberals. On the other hand, new evangelicals were known to separate from Bible believing fundamentalists. Billy Graham and his father-in-law, L. Nelson Bell (and the whole team, actually) did so, as did the Zondervan brothers and many others in 1957.

The idea that the new evangelicals began considering modern ideas about the Bible, including various types of liberal criticism (higher criticism and the like), that was linked to their desire to make nice with the liberals. It was kind of, "If we show that we respect liberal scholarship, maybe they'll start respecting our scholarship in turn." Once again, never happened.

 

Lest anyone doubt my previous two posts about the new evangelicals (Graham & Bell especially) wanting to make nice with the liberals, here is a quote from a Bell letter to John R. Rice on April 16, 1956 (from the John R. Rice Papers, Box 1 Folder 16):

"It is my own personal feeling that Fundamentalism is losing its witness because it, only too often, has degenerated into 'attacking' and 'fighting' individuals and personalities in the name of 'defending the faith'. There has been too little positive presentation of the truth; too much anti-intellectualism; and a tragic lack of Christian love displayed.

"I believe that Billy is on the road to winning a great victory for our Lord by winning many liberals and modernists back to the evangelical faith."

Of course, this was a pipe dream and never happened. On the other hand, Bell himself became very nasty in personal letters when writing against John R. Rice, Bob Jones and others in 1957. So much for Christian love.

 

I respect Dr Graham for staying faithful to Christ and to his wife, but really disliked how he met with and made the church of rome out to be saying same Gospel as he was all of the time...

 

Even his fundamentalist critics admit to his faithfulness and his financial purity. But that thing about the Catholics.... Years ago in 1970 none other than Ian Paisey wrote a book about that, Billy Graham and the Church of Rome.

 

I really wonder what happened to him, for if you watch his crusades/messages from the 50's/60's. he seemed to be thundering like a john the Baptist, and was not bellying up to Rome!

 

The following information is from Ian Paisley, Billy Graham and the Church of Rome.

1. In 1957 he was already sending converts back to the Catholics (testimony on p. 20). This practice apparently began as early as 1955 (p. 17).
2. In 1963, the local Catholic bishop stood beside Graham and blessed the converts as they came forward in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
3. In 1967, Graham was given an honorary doctorate from Belmont Abbey College.

I could list a lot more compromises in this area, but this is a start.

 

Yeah, they have a huge nose!

 

Another thing that he did was to break down the barriers down south between whites and blacks, as he demanded that there be no ropes separating the two groups at his crusade!@