Your humble writer is an evangelical Christian. Since "evangelical" is a term that is at once both so fluid and so loaded (so that it can denote almost anything its adherents or detractors wish it to mean), it begs clarification.
Strictly speaking, "evangelical" means "of or pertaining to the 'evangel.'" "Evangel" is an anglicized form of euangelion, a Greek word meaning "good news," which in the Bible refers specifically to the Gospel: the good news of Jesus Christ. ("Gospel" itself is the modern form of the Old English godspell, which literally meant "good news.")
In other words, I am committed to the truth of the Gospel: the good news that God gave His only Son Jesus Christ to die on the Cross for our sins, for it is only by Christ's mediating work on the Cross that we can be reconciled to a just and holy God.
"Just hold it right there!," you respond. "Does anyone really believe this stuff any more?" Let me say plainly: I am Jewish by birth (half-Jewish technically, but on my mother's side, which makes me wholly Jewish according to rabbinic tradition) and was raised as an atheist. I spent the bulk of my adult life somewhere on the continuum between open agnosticism and thoroughgoing skepticism. It took many, many years to come to terms with what the Bible says, and when I did, I'd learned through many hard lessons that it had to be on the Bible's terms, and not my terms. (You can read my testimonial here for more background.)
Reading the Bible on its own terms, we learn that Jesus Christ existed from before the foundation of the world, dwelled among us in human form, led a sinless life, suffered and died for our sins in accordance with what was foretold in the Old Testament, was raised from the dead, appeared to many witnesses after His resurrection, sits at the right hand of God, and will return at the end of time to judge the living and the dead.
"Christ" is the Greek term for "Messiah," the anointed descendant whom God promised to David, who would reign on his throne forevermore. God's promise to us is that if we repent for our sins—for none of us is truly righteous—and place our faith and trust in what Jesus Christ did on the Cross for us, we will have eternal life in fellowship with God as His adopted children, made citizens of an everlasting Kingdom by God's grace and for His glory.
If you want to know more about who Jesus Christ is, please see Two ways to live: The choice we all face. If you have questions or want to know what to do next, please contact me at sa_ewing AT hotmail DOT com.
Now, for those keeping score at home:
In practical terms, I'm a baptized member of a church in the Mennonite Brethren tradition, which practises believers' baptism. I affirm the Five Solas and the Doctrines of Grace (the foundational principles of historical orthodox Protestantism), the full inerrancy of Scripture in its original languages, and the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ for our sins, as set out in the Pentateuch, taught by the Prophets, proclaimed in the Gospels, exposited in the Epistles, and brought to its denouement in Revelation.
I affirm my church's Statement of Faith, which reflects a century-plus-old lineage of denominational confessions. It is also consistent on key matters of doctrine with the historic confession for those who affirm the historic Protestant essentials together with the practice of believers' baptism: the 1689 London Baptist Confession.
I also affirm in whole the following modern evangelical declarations and statements: the Cambridge Declaration; the Chicago Statements on Biblical Inerrancy, Hermeneutics, and Application; and the Confessional Statement of the Gospel Coalition.
To sum up and elaborate, somewhat more poetically: I am broken branch regrafted into God's olive tree (Romans 11:23), a child of the Old Covenant by the flesh (Exodus 24:8) and of the New Covenant by the Spirit (Jeremiah 31:33, 1 Corinthians 11:25). In soteriology reformed, in hermeneutics covenantal, in ecclesiology credobaptist, and in eschatology posttribulational.
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