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In Dr. Lloyd-Jones' lectures to the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students he outlined several general characteristics of the definition of an evangelical. The following are excerpts from that lecture regarding especially human reason and philosophy:
"I am coming increasingly to the opinion that the way in which a man thinks tells you as much about him as what he actually says. His whole method of thinking is one which is of supreme importance. So I would call attention here to certain general characteristics of the evangelical person. First of all, the evangelical is one who is entirely subservient to the Bible.....He is a man of one book; he starts with it; he submits himself to it; this is his authority. He does not start from any extra-biblical authority.
The next thing about the evangelical is that he uses this term as a prefix and not as a suffix. What I mean by that is that the first thing about the man is that he is evangelical. The particular denomination to which he belongs is secondary; it is not primary. In other words, there is all the difference in the world between talking about an evangelical Baptist and a Baptist evangelical.
Another characteristic of this evangelical is that he is a man who is always watching. Now all these things have to be said very carefully because there is a right and a wrong way to watch, but the evangelical is a man who is always watchful, and he is always watchful, of course, because the Scripture teaches him to be so. John comforts the Christians, confronted as they were, even then, by antichrists and false teachers, that they 'have an unction from the Holy One' (1 John 2:20) and that they are to exercise this. They are to be discriminating; they are always to be examining; they are always to be watchful. And so when a man ceases to be watchful, he, to that extent, ceases to be an evangelical. The person who says, 'It is all right; you need not bother; we are all Christians and having a marvellous time together' - and is not watchful, is already departing from the biblical position.
Then I come to another characteristic. This may very well be a highly controversial one, but in my estimate it is extremely important. Is is, and I put is dogmatically and bluntly, that the evangelical distrusts reason and particularly reason in the form of philosophy.....I suggest to you that nothing is more important, in our present situation than just this one particular point. Philosophy has always been the cause of the church going astray, for philosophy means, ultimately, a trusting to human reason and human understanding.
The sum of all I am saying is that the evangelical distrusts scholarship and is watchful of it. That does not mean that he is anti-intellectual; it does not mean that he becomes obscurantist [opposition to the advancement of knowledge - ed.]; but it does mean that he keeps reason and scholarship in their place. They are servants and not masters. Reason must never determine what we believe. The business of reason is to teach us how to believe. it is an instrument....in other words, instead of submitting themselves to the Scripture, they turn to science, to philosophy, or to one of a number of other disciplines, and their position is determined by these things. They allow reason to determine what they believe instead of how they believe and how they think. Not what you think, but how you think.... My contention is that the evangelical, while he realizes the danger of reason and scholarship, is not afraid of them. He does not run and hide, and just turn in on himself and the enjoyment of his own feelings. It is not surprising that the so-called great philosophers are sceptics and infidels. We should expect them to be.....
...when the church has gone down into the trough, in her deadest periods, it has invariably been when she has become subservient to philosophy....the real damage to the life of the church in the last two centuries has been done mainly by theological seminaries....It has not arisen in the churches....Men who have felt called to the ministry and been recommended by churches for ministerial training have gone into the seminaries as evangelicals and true evangelists, and they have come out denying everything, sometimes even departing from the faith altogether. Therefore, if an evangelical is not distrustful of reason and of scholarship, he is not only failing to understand the teaching of Scripture; he is blind to this clear testimony of the history of the Christian church through the centuries. "
Taken from the book, "What Is An Evangelical" by D.M. Lloyd-Jones, publ by Banner of Truth Trust, 1971.
posted by john d.
The next thing about the evangelical is that he uses this term as a prefix and not as a suffix. What I mean by that is that the first thing about the man is that he is evangelical. The particular denomination to which he belongs is secondary; it is not primary. In other words, there is all the difference in the world between talking about an evangelical Baptist and a Baptist evangelical.
Another characteristic of this evangelical is that he is a man who is always watching. Now all these things have to be said very carefully because there is a right and a wrong way to watch, but the evangelical is a man who is always watchful, and he is always watchful, of course, because the Scripture teaches him to be so. John comforts the Christians, confronted as they were, even then, by antichrists and false teachers, that they 'have an unction from the Holy One' (1 John 2:20) and that they are to exercise this. They are to be discriminating; they are always to be examining; they are always to be watchful. And so when a man ceases to be watchful, he, to that extent, ceases to be an evangelical. The person who says, 'It is all right; you need not bother; we are all Christians and having a marvellous time together' - and is not watchful, is already departing from the biblical position.
Then I come to another characteristic. This may very well be a highly controversial one, but in my estimate it is extremely important. Is is, and I put is dogmatically and bluntly, that the evangelical distrusts reason and particularly reason in the form of philosophy.....I suggest to you that nothing is more important, in our present situation than just this one particular point. Philosophy has always been the cause of the church going astray, for philosophy means, ultimately, a trusting to human reason and human understanding.
The sum of all I am saying is that the evangelical distrusts scholarship and is watchful of it. That does not mean that he is anti-intellectual; it does not mean that he becomes obscurantist [opposition to the advancement of knowledge - ed.]; but it does mean that he keeps reason and scholarship in their place. They are servants and not masters. Reason must never determine what we believe. The business of reason is to teach us how to believe. it is an instrument....in other words, instead of submitting themselves to the Scripture, they turn to science, to philosophy, or to one of a number of other disciplines, and their position is determined by these things. They allow reason to determine what they believe instead of how they believe and how they think. Not what you think, but how you think.... My contention is that the evangelical, while he realizes the danger of reason and scholarship, is not afraid of them. He does not run and hide, and just turn in on himself and the enjoyment of his own feelings. It is not surprising that the so-called great philosophers are sceptics and infidels. We should expect them to be.....
...when the church has gone down into the trough, in her deadest periods, it has invariably been when she has become subservient to philosophy....the real damage to the life of the church in the last two centuries has been done mainly by theological seminaries....It has not arisen in the churches....Men who have felt called to the ministry and been recommended by churches for ministerial training have gone into the seminaries as evangelicals and true evangelists, and they have come out denying everything, sometimes even departing from the faith altogether. Therefore, if an evangelical is not distrustful of reason and of scholarship, he is not only failing to understand the teaching of Scripture; he is blind to this clear testimony of the history of the Christian church through the centuries. "
Taken from the book, "What Is An Evangelical" by D.M. Lloyd-Jones, publ by Banner of Truth Trust, 1971.
posted by john d.
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