RE: The Religious Void
January 7, 2021 at 8:19 pm
(This post was last modified: January 7, 2021 at 8:19 pm by HappySkeptic.)
From at Atlantic article:
But the term largely took hold in the English-speaking world more than a century later during the Great Awakening, a series of revivals in Britain and the American colonies led by fiery preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield. Due to their influence, evangelicalism became a synonym for revivalism, or a fervent expression of Christianity marked by an emphasis on converting outsiders. By the early 1800s, it was “by far the dominant expression of Christianity” in the United States.
I was initially connected to the more Charismatic or Pentacostal groups (that believe in spiritual gifts from God), but in the U.S. includes the prosperity-gospel mega-churches, the Billy Graham crusades and offshoots. There can be Evangelicals in regular denominations, that are focused on spiritual revival and "saving" people.
While some often focus on particular sections of the bible (the Pentacostals specifically on the Book of Acts), they all claim to believe that bible is the word of God.
Well, I read the whole bible as a teen. I was told I had to believe it if I was a Christian. I wonder how many Christians have actually read the whole thing? To believe it requires an insane level of suspension of disbelief in science as well as being able to apply some sort of strange moral relativism to this OT Yahweh character. Now, to pass off the OT as stories and allegory destroys any "reality" of the gospel. You can't have the gospel without the story that the OT tells. That is why I often say that I respect the honesty of fundamentalists more than that of "Jesus is Love" Christians (though I think they are crazy).
But the term largely took hold in the English-speaking world more than a century later during the Great Awakening, a series of revivals in Britain and the American colonies led by fiery preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield. Due to their influence, evangelicalism became a synonym for revivalism, or a fervent expression of Christianity marked by an emphasis on converting outsiders. By the early 1800s, it was “by far the dominant expression of Christianity” in the United States.
I was initially connected to the more Charismatic or Pentacostal groups (that believe in spiritual gifts from God), but in the U.S. includes the prosperity-gospel mega-churches, the Billy Graham crusades and offshoots. There can be Evangelicals in regular denominations, that are focused on spiritual revival and "saving" people.
While some often focus on particular sections of the bible (the Pentacostals specifically on the Book of Acts), they all claim to believe that bible is the word of God.
Well, I read the whole bible as a teen. I was told I had to believe it if I was a Christian. I wonder how many Christians have actually read the whole thing? To believe it requires an insane level of suspension of disbelief in science as well as being able to apply some sort of strange moral relativism to this OT Yahweh character. Now, to pass off the OT as stories and allegory destroys any "reality" of the gospel. You can't have the gospel without the story that the OT tells. That is why I often say that I respect the honesty of fundamentalists more than that of "Jesus is Love" Christians (though I think they are crazy).
