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Who are Evangelical Christians, Anyway?
A Few Basic Points about Christian History
Christianity began in approximately 30 A.D. at Jerusalem, in the land that was then the Roman province of Judea and is now the focal point of the Palestine/Israel conflict. Christianity takes its name from Jesus Christ, who was a historical figure who claimed to be the Son of God. Other comments and actions which He and others made establish that "Son of God" means that Jesus is actually part of God, the Creator of the Universe in a rather complicated manner that we will deal with in later chapters. After arrest by the Jewish authorities, He was tried for blasphemy and executed by the Roman authorities by crucifixion -- death through slow suffocation by being hung on a cross. As a proof that Christ was truly the Son of God, He was resurrected three days later and appeared in bodily form to several of his followers, or disciples, and then to over 500 people. Christ then ascended into Heaven.
His followers began to preach the message of the good news, or Gospel, to anyone who would listen. This Gospel was that God had removed all barriers between Himself and humans by the atoning sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ, and had demonstrated the Truth of this through miracles such as the Resurrection of Jesus and many other events documented in a series of three eyewitness and one journalistic account known collectively as The Gospels. Jesus promised eternal life and a substantial healing in this life if we would accept this and follow Him as Lord.
The new religion grew rapidly, and became the state religion of the Roman Empire in the early 300's. The Bible is the compilation of the writings of these disciples (the New Testament), combined with much older writings sacred to Jews and Christians alike (the Old Testament). Gradually, the leader of the church in Rome -- the Pope -- became acknowledged as the leader of the religion. In 1054, the Eastern Mediterranean churches broke from Rome in what is known as the Eastern Schism. The Eastern churches today are known as Orthodox churches, while the Roman church is known as the Roman Catholic Church.
In the 1530's, another great break came. Martin Luther, a German priest, became upset at the differences he noticed between the New Testament teachings and current practices in the Roman Catholic Church. His protests started the Protestant Reformation, which created a second large break in Christianity. In this case, Northern Europeans split from the Roman Catholic Church and formed other groups, or denominations. Luther's term for his followers, translated from the German, is Evangelical -- those who proclaim the "good news". Today this term is applied in a narrow sense to the specific groups known also as Lutherans, in a more general sense to a wide range of denominations which emphasize the doctrine of salvation through grace (as opposed to works), and in the widest sense to most Catholic and Protestant groups which argue that salvation can come to almost any man who believes in Christ (as opposed to legalistic groups that require specific behaviors and liberal groups which argue that salvation has already come to all). We'll have more details on this in a later chapter.