A viewer asked Pastor Joel Webbon a long question which he had to rightly phrase before he could answer it. He spent the initial couple moments doing that, which likely benefited many other viewers. He boiled it down to a statement similar to the title of this post.
He provided a definition for the following 3 terms: evangelical, reformed and Calvinistic Baptist. Then he talked about how those fit under the umbrella of evangelicalism.
I was grateful to have heard this message because I finally understand how John MacArthur’s dispensational views impact his ministry. He has a biblical ministry…, not worries about that, but Pastor Joel states clearly how MacArthur and Baucham differ which includes their end-time views….
Pastor Joel’s explanation is a bit wordy, but he is seemingly deliberately being repetitive so that newer believers might hear what he is saying.
The following points are highlights, they leave out many connecting statements; if you are new to this material, you might want to read and listen?
[Bracketed statements and emboldening are mine.]
- Pastor Joel spent a couple of minutes restating the question so that he could distinguish the points the questioner seemed to be asking about
- Definition of evangelicalism: It is a broader category than ‘denomination.’ Christian denominations fall under the umbrella of evangelicalism; but not all denominations fall under that term.
- The chief characteristic of an evangelical church is that it holds to the biblical gospel: that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone; in Christ alone; according to scripture alone; for the glory of God alone [all of this was just explained in a recent post which is linked below the video]
- The Roman Catholic Church does not hold to a biblical gospel.
- Joel talked of a movement started by Billy Graham in the 1990s called Evangelicals and Catholics Together; Graham wanted to unite them for his own reasons; that would not have worked because they still hold to the anathemas of the Council of Trent, damning the biblical gospel as it was preached by the apostle Paul [see Romans 3, 4 and Galatians 3 for your own study]
- A historian doing a survey, or someone conducting a poll about Christianity may say that evangelicals, Catholics, Unitarians… all fall under the umbrella of Christian evangelicalism; but theologically speaking (according to the definition above) only churches proclaiming a biblical gospel are truly evangelicals
- [In our day however, everyone who professes the name of Christ seems to call him/herself an evangelical; that is whether they subscribe to the prosperity gospel; the word-or-faith gospel, the Catholic gospel, etc.]
- Joel stated that under the category of evangelical would be Baptist; reformed Baptist; Presbyterian; Ref. Presbyterian; Lutheran; Anglican…
- So, Evangelical / ism, is not a denomination
- To answer the main part of the question, Joel used an illustration that compared two well-known preachers, John MacArthur and Voddie Baucham
- Voddie Baucham is a reformed Baptist because he holds to the 1689 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith [In case you don’t know, a confession of faith takes all the doctrines of the Bible about a given topic and presents them in an orderly manner to aid students of the Bible to grasp Bible doctrine. Some topics that are used to order Bible doctrine include, Creation, Providence, Justification, Adoption, Saving Faith and very important topics like that.]
- Joel explains that MacArthur does not hold to all the doctrines of the 1689; he apparently subscribes to parts of the Westminster Confession of Faith (Presbyterian)
- Reformed Baptists believe in Covenant theology; MacArthur has dispensationalist leanings (Joel explains the technicalities]
- Those who hold to covenant theology tend to be A-millennial or Post-millennial; MacArthur is Pre-millennial, as are most dispensationalists
Link to recent post on the biblical gospel:
https://sheeplywolves.com/will-catholics-go-to-hell/
The following link is to a playlist at Pastor Joel’s YouTube website, it is to a playlist of clips on various questions of the faith; I was going to post his video page, but cell phone users might not be able to access that much, hopefully from the playlist one can navigate elsewhere on his site:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6hBsuxOZCENiBBaImMRVoCgzCWn8myjS
The following playlist at Pastor Joel’s YouTube site is answering more serious questions about applied theology:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6hBsuxOZCEP2zdGsF6GfpOy68U4z1jNj
To hear a radio talk show with Pastor Joel and some other pastors teaching the 1689 Baptist confession, click: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgj_n-LOlhA