Say a coworker tells you she attends an evangelical church, then asks what kind of church you go to. If you worship with us, you might answer, "We're simply Christians." She might come back with, "So you're evangelical?" Well, that's a fair guess. Here at Christians In Honesdale we share some of what evangelicals believe about the Bible and about Jesus. Where we part ways is on what happens when a believer is baptized, and on whether Christians should be split into denominations at all. By the way, "evangelical" isn't one church either. It's a broad movement spread across many denominations.
A Word With a Long Reach
The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) says the word comes from the Greek euangelion, meaning "good news," the gospel. It describes a community drawn from many traditions. Some are Reformed, some come out of Holiness churches, and Anabaptists, Pentecostals and Charismatics are part of it too, along with others. Forty evangelical denominations belong to the association, plus thousands of churches, schools and ministries. Not every evangelical body has joined, though. The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest of them, isn't a member. The NAE also notes that many evangelicals rarely use the word for themselves, and it says shared core convictions are what hold the movement together.
A note on the Greek: Euangelion joins eu, "good," to the root behind angelos, "messenger." Mark opens his Gospel with it: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1). In that plain sense every Christian ought to be evangelical, a person of the good news. What I want to look at is the modern movement that goes by the name.
What We Hold in Common
Those convictions are set out in the NAE's Statement of Faith. It calls the Bible "the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God." It confesses one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It says Jesus is God, that He was born of a virgin, lived without sin, worked miracles and died to atone for sin, and that He rose bodily, ascended to the Father, and will return in power and glory. It teaches that both the saved and the lost will be raised.
We believe every one of those (2 Timothy 3:16-17; Matthew 28:19; Matthew 1:23; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Acts 1:11; John 5:28-29). The NAE and LifeWay Research also count it a mark of evangelical belief to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus as Savior. We care about that too. Jesus told His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19-20). Keep that last part in mind, because we'll come back to it.
Where Baptism Fits
So where's the difference? The NAE and LifeWay Research identify evangelical belief with four statements, and one of them says, "Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God's free gift of eternal salvation." The NAE also cites historian David Bebbington, who describes the belief that lives need to be transformed through a "born-again" experience and a lifelong process of following Jesus. Its Statement of Faith says "regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential" for lost and sinful people to be saved. Regeneration means the new birth.
Now, we wouldn't argue with that wording. Christ alone saves (Acts 4:12), and no one sees the kingdom of God without being born again (John 3:3). What we're really asking is what the Bible says the new birth is, and when it happens.
The NAE's Statement of Faith doesn't mention baptism at all, and its churches don't all practice it the same way. Many baptize believers by immersion, while evangelicals in the Anglican, Methodist and Reformed traditions baptize infants. Across the movement, though, baptism is generally treated as something that follows salvation, not as the moment sins are forgiven. The Evangelical Free Church of America, as one example, says in its Statement of Faith that Jesus gave the church baptism and the Lord's Supper, and that "they are not the means of salvation." It adds that when they're celebrated in genuine faith, they "confirm and nourish the believer." Among the verses the EFCA's annotated copy lists for that line are Acts 2:38 and Colossians 2:12. We'll look at both of those.
We agree completely that salvation is a gift. Grace means God gives it to people who had nothing to bring and could never repay it. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).
So what did people actually do when they first heard the gospel? Think about Saul, later called Paul. He met the risen Jesus on the Damascus road, and for three days afterward he didn't eat or drink, and he prayed (Acts 9:9-11). He believed. He was as sincere as a man can be. And yet when Ananias came to him, he said, "And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name" (Acts 22:16). A man who believed, and had been praying for three days, still had sins to wash away.
On the day of Pentecost the crowd asked Peter what they should do, and he told them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38).
A note on the Greek: "For the forgiveness of your sins" is eis aphesin tōn hamartiōn. Jesus used the same phrase at the Last Supper: "for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:28). Nobody reads that to mean Jesus shed His blood because sins were already forgiven. The phrase points forward, to forgiveness received, in both places.
Jesus had already told Nicodemus, "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Paul writes that God "saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). That's the same regeneration the NAE rightly calls essential, and Paul connects it with a washing in the very verse that rules out works. Peter wrote, "Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:21).
A note on the Greek: "Washing of regeneration" in Titus 3:5 is loutrou palingenesias. Loutron is a bath or washing, the same word Paul uses for "the washing of water with the word" in Ephesians 5:26. Palingenesia is "new birth," literally being born again.
So we teach that baptism, immersion in water, is where God washes a believer's sins away, as confirmed in Acts 22:16 concerning Saul. It earns nothing. I mean, the person being baptized doesn't even do the work. Someone else puts them under the water and raises them up. Paul speaks of "having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead" (Colossians 2:12; see also Romans 6:3-4 and Galatians 3:26-27). God does the work in it. Faith trusts Him enough to obey.
A note on the Hebrew: Baptizō means to dip or immerse, which is why Paul can call baptism a burial. The Greek Old Testament uses the same word for Naaman, the Syrian commander with leprosy. Elisha told him to wash in the Jordan seven times, and Naaman went away angry. Weren't the rivers back home better? But in the end "he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God," and he was clean (2 Kings 5:14). The Hebrew verb is wayyiṭbōl, from ṭābal, "to dip," and the Greek translation renders it ebaptisato. The Jordan had no power of its own. God healed him, and He did it when Naaman obeyed.
What about the thief on the cross? People ask about him all the time, and it's a fair question. Jesus forgave him while Jesus was still alive and on earth. The command to be baptized into His death was given after His resurrection (Matthew 28:19; Romans 6:3). We've written more about him in our post on the thief on the cross.
Simply Christians, Not a Denomination
The NAE affirms "the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ," and it brings believers from many denominations together in one association.
We want unity too. Every Christian should. Paul pleaded with the Corinthians "that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you" (1 Corinthians 1:10). He told the Ephesians there is "one body" (Ephesians 4:4). And Jesus asked the Father that all who believe in Him would be one (John 17:20-21). So is an association of separate denominations the oneness Jesus prayed for? When the Corinthians started saying "I follow Paul" and "I follow Apollos," Paul's answer was, "Is Christ divided?" (1 Corinthians 1:12-13). That's why we don't think of ourselves as a denomination, and why we don't join denominational bodies or associations of churches. Christ is the only head of the church (Colossians 1:18). In the New Testament each congregation had its own elders, the men who oversee it (Acts 14:23), and no headquarters above them.
We're an independent congregation with no headquarters or denomination behind us, so we can only speak for ourselves. Evangelical churches vary widely, and so do congregations that share our convictions, so what's written here describes this congregation and no other.
Underneath the labels is something far more important. Sin separates every one of us from God (Romans 3:23), and only Christ brings us back. What He asks of a person who wants to be saved is worth getting right.
Sit Down With Us and Read Acts
Read Acts 2, 8, 16 and 22. In each chapter people heard about Jesus and believed. Pay attention to what they did right after believing (Acts 2:38-41; Acts 8:35-38; Acts 16:30-33; Acts 22:16), and how long any of them waited. Drew De Grado is our evangelist, and we'd be glad to read these chapters with you. You can set up a Bible study, read more about who we are, or contact us with a question.
Our gatherings:
We gather in Suite D at 416 Main Street, Honesdale, PA 18431. Park and come in at the rear of the building.