Evangelicals More Coherent if John Stott had backed Reform

Without the late Revd Dr John Stott, 'there would be fewer evangelicals in the Church of England today, and those in it would be brash, old-fashioned and a little like the church's version of the US Tea Party,' argued Matthew Creswell in his Guardian article of August 4th.

But a strong case can be made that had Dr Stott backed Reform, the Anglican evangelical group formed in 1993 after the Church of England's decision to ordain women as priests, UK evangelicals would be a more coherent force.

Dr Stott was uncomfortable with Reform, despite the fact that its leaders had been hugely influenced by his conservative biblical scholarship and shared his controversial commitment to penal substitutionary atonement. Dr Stott magnificently expounded and defended this classic evangelical doctrine in his 1986 book, The Cross of Christ. To read more, click here.