"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." -- Matthew 6:9

Hallowed Be Thy Name

In order to understand the presence of evangelical activity in our society, it is important to explore beliefs commonly held by evangelical Christians.  The centrality of the Bible as the inspired Word of God has many implications for living a Christian life.

Holy is His Name
The holiness of God as a contrast to human sin.

The Word of God
The centrality of the Bible to evangelical Christanity.


"My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.  For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.  For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.  And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation." -- Luke 1:46-50

Holy Is His Name

Christian obedience to the teachings of the Bible stem from a belief in God as ‘the Holy One’ whose word is law (primarily in the Old Testament) and fulfilled in Jesus in the New Testament.

God’s holiness results in His wrath against sin, as in the following scripture passages:
 

  • "Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing." – Habakkuk 1:13
  • "I will continue hostile to you in fury; I in turn will punish you myself sevenfold for your sin." – Leviticus 26:28
  • "But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and commit none of these abominations, either the citizen or the alien who resides among you (for the inhabitants of the land, who were before you, committed all of these abominations, and the land became defiled); otherwise the land will vomit you out for defiling it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you." – Leviticus 18:26-28
  • "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath." – John 3:36

God’s holy grace is realized in His Son, Jesus:

Because God is holy, God has something Christians desire and have through faith in Jesus Christ.  Evangelicals believe that humans’ relationship with God was satisfied by the sacrifice Jesus made of His own life.  The person and law of God are alien to humans without the perfection of God’s grace: Jesus.

See also Deliver Us From Evil
 
 

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."-- Psalm 119:105
 

The Word Of God

“Evangelicals are those who believe the gospel is to be experienced personally,
defined biblically and communicated passionately.”- Robert K. Johnston


Biblical Definitions of the Gospel

The word ‘evangelical’ comes from the Greek word for ‘good news.’  Evangelicals are ‘gospel’ people and evangelicalism is the movement associated with the gospel.
 
Evangelicals are ‘Bible’ people
Central to evangelical Christianity is the Bible.  An evangelical would agree that the Bible is:
  • the supreme authority,
  • the trustworthy record of God’s revelation of himself to humankind,
  • superior to any other means of direction in the church (such as tradition, reason or contemporary scholarship),
  • sufficient for all the church’s need,
  • to be treated with the utmost seriousness as a guide both to what we believe and how we are to live.
Click to read about
"sola scriptura"
Evangelicals are ‘Gospel’ people
  • The cross of Christ is at the heart of the gospel, according to evangelical belief.
  • Christ substituted himself for us to bear the penalty of our sin.
  • Christ became a human to die for our salvation.
  • Redemption is the key to the interpretation of all Christian truth.