Evangelical Drift

This is my 51st and final issue as editor of Cross†Way. The magazine, and those that preceded it in the Church Society family line, have been concerned to uphold Biblical teaching within the Church of England. We might prefer to only concentrate on good things, but we learn from Scripture, more or less from beginning to end, that teaching the truth means opposing what is false. From the beginning of Church Association this organisation has identified itself as evangelical. It is striking therefore to discover that many now consider that evangelicals are the dominant group in the Church of England and see this being demonstrated in senior appointments. If this is so then what passes as evangelical today is not what our forebears considered such.

About a decade ago I heard Brian Edwards (then with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches) list the areas of ‘evangelical shift’ as he called it, in the wider movement. The list as I recorded it was as follows:

1. Inerrancy – that it is unimportant.
2. Eternal punishment – that it is unacceptable.
3. Justification by faith alone is not primarily forensic but has to do with covenant
4. The biblical role of women is unpopular
5. Knowledge of Christ for salvation is unfair
6. Condemnation of all homosexual behaviour is unnatural
7. The absolute omniscience of God is unscriptural
8. The Old Testament law of God is irrelevant

Brian gave examples of authors and books for each, or at least most, of these. Some of these have impinged more on the work Church Society during my time as General Secretary and featured more frequently in Cross†Way during my time as editor.

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