What is an Evangelical and Who Cares?

I wrote in The 10 Second Rule, that some words wear out. By that I meant, that over time certain words lose their true meaning. The term evangelical is just such a word. Today most Protestants consider themselves evangelicals unless they are theological liberals. To be an Evangelical has also become synonymous with “republicans right wing evangelical,” and therefore associated with a political party.

So what is an evangelical?

The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and Life Way Research spent the last few years trying to find a common definition to clear up the confusion.

Rather than trying to define an evangelical by behavior, they choose to define one by what they believe – their theology. However, to my way of thinking, our behavior flows from whatever it is that we truly believe and I’ll illustrate how that works in real life as we work through these ideas.

In the end, the NAE simply restated what most true evangelicals have always believed, and here they are;