The English language is constantly changing over time as you will notice if you read the original 1611, Authorized Version of the Bible. Sometimes the changes are improvements, but often they are for the worse. The destruction of the once useful term “gay” would be a recent example, as is the word “Evangelical” that has fallen prey to redefinition to the point of uselessness.
A substantial number of those who call themselves evangelical have come to believe things that are unbiblical such as the ordination of women, homosexual marriage, socialism (“social justice”), and even theistic evolution. OPC pastor Dr. Carl Trueman has written that, “If evangelicalism has no boundaries, then no boundaries can be transgressed.” His point is if you can believe anything and call yourself an evangelical, then the term evangelical is meaningless.
But it is not just that the term is amorphous, a significant number of those who call themselves evangelical disdain the biblical doctrines of the reformation as articulated in our confessions. There are evangelical leaders who ridicule simple, word-centered worship, doctrinal preaching, catechizing of children, Psalm singing, and church leadership through godly men.
The term evangelical has out lived its usefulness and it is time to retire it. I am Reformed and I am Presbyterian, but I am not an evangelical. If you want to know what I believe, read the Westminster Confession not Christianity Today. If you want to know who I want to be identified with, don’t look to evangelicals like Rachel Held Evans, Rob Bell, or Mark Driscoll. No, I want to be identified with godly men like J. Gresham Machen, Robert Reymond, John Murray, and John Knox–Reformed and Presbyterians all.
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