From: snorthc@nswc.navy.mil (Stephen Northcutt)
Newsgroups: rec.music.christian
Subject: Re: TANGENT: I would like some terms explained.
Keywords: LONG
Date: 19 Aug 92 15:01:00 GMT
Organization: NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER

Below is an attempt to round up all the various defintions bandied
about into a single file, the idea being that communication works
better if the participants have common definitions :-)  Please forgive
author ommsions, there were too many of you, please forgive errors, this
was cut and pasted vis penned under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit :-)

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		REC.MUSIC.CHRISTIAN Definitions

The purpose of this post is to present a set of common definitions that
can be used in rec.music.christian posts.


Charismatic
Like wise the term "Charismatic" simply means "spirit" or "of the spirit"
and is usually used in the respect of spiritual gifts.  There is a sense
therefore in which all chistians are "Charismatic" (-: as it the presence of
Him in our lives, and the evidence of His fruit which is the sign of a
Christian.) The word "charisma" of course has the same root but is
normally used in a secular sense of a strong personality.
Actually, the word "charismatic" is related not to "charisma", but to the
Greek word "charismata", which has to do with spiritual gifts.
Charismatics believe that the spiritual gifts (like those discussed in
1 Corinthians 12) are to be used today.

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Evangelical:
"to preach."

This is a label tagged to those churchs which put a primary emphasis on
the scriptures of Christ telling his discipes to go into all the
world and make disciples.........
Again, I do not know what a church emphasising something other than
he sharing of the gospel would be labeled.

Difference in UK/US usage:

I think you are right in suggesting that there is a difference between
UK and US usage of this expression or though I would beg to differ with the
definition you give below.  There is a body in the UK called the Evangelical
Alliance which acts as a banner for evangelical churches in this country
and acts primarily as a Christian voice on social and political issues,
and also to encourage chuches in sharing together and sharing the gospel.
It has personal membership but also whole church memberships and covers
a very wide range of denominations eg..
Methodist, Baptist, Church of England as well as many pentecostal churches,
Free Churches and so on.  

Each church has to sign its agreement with the EA's statement of faith
which if anyone is interested I can post at some time.  It may give you more
of and idea what Evangelicals here think they believe....

I think in the UK the term seems to be more
inclusive than in the US where the term seems to be equated to "conservative".
The origins of the expression are of course the same as the word evangelism
and it does mean "Good News"

What you describe above is "evangelism" not "evangelicalism".
Evangelicals (mostly) are distinguished by their relience on scripture
(rather than tradition, for example).  They are often quite
intellectually oriented, and there's a lot of emphasis on Bible study
and prayer.  

         I think it's a difference in UK/US usage since I would say
(and so would most British Christians) that an `evangelical' is a
person who believes in (and hopefully practices) evangelism. So a
contrast may be made between evangelicals (who beleive it is vital
to preach the gospel) and universalists (who, because of their
theology, often do not think preaching the gospel to be necessary).
(only an example, don't flame me...). Both may have a deep reliance
on scripture but with entirely different views of it.

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Fundamentalism
 Fundementalism is simply a way of interpreting
scripture, taking it more literally than figuratively.
Originally, a "fundamentalist" was a member of a group of Christians in
the 1920's who left the mainline churches because he or she thought
that the mainline churches and mainline seminaries were promoting
a social gospel that had only a very tenous relationship with the
good news presented in the Scriptures.  These fundamentalists, led
by J. Gresham Machen and Carl F. H. Henry, emphasized the inerrancy
of the Bible, literal interpretation of the Scriptures whenever 
possible, and a life of holiness and obedience.

Not only do fundamentalists believe that
the Bible is the unerring word of God, but that there are no truths of
God which conflict with what the Bible says.  Oh, and there are actually
degrees of fundamentalism - for instance, most Christian fundamentalists
do NOT believe that they are required to follow all of the dietary laws
etc in the Old Testament because of statements in the New Testament
(primarily by Peter and Paul) which declare certain actions as being
out moded.


In the original sense of the word I have no problems calling myself a 
fundamentalist.  The original intent was to call people back to 
biblical revelation and to separate those things that were 
essential to the Christian life from more peripheral issues.  So
far so good.

Today the word "fundamentalist" has a much more narrow and restrictive
meaning in my mind.  Here are some of the issues and viewpoints that
characterize fundamentalism today:

- An alliance with right-wing political ideology, which typically means
that abortion and school prayer are viewed as the primary political
issues to be addressed.

- An emphasis on separation from the world, which leads to bizarre
things like Christian theme parks and CCM (he said, half-kiddingly)

- An emphasis on what Christians should *not* do.  Here's the biggie.
Christianity becomes a series of prohibitions and rules.  This then
leads into an emphasis on what other people, including non-Christians, 
should *not* do, and results in things like Christians picketing
movies, slapping warning labels on rock albums, etc.  

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Holiness. 
The holiness movement is typically the tag used for those groups which believe
that the Christian experience consists of two "crisis" experiences.  The
first crisis experience is that in which one who has no relationship with
Christ realizes his sins and asks forgiveness for them.  The second crisis
is explained as the encounter between one whose sins have been forgiven and
the Holy Spirit when the forgiven person realizes that even with one's
sins forgiven, there is a sin nature still at war inside them.  The
encounter between the person surrendering that 'right to be in charge'
over to the Holy Spirit, so that 'not I, but Christ lives in me' as Paul 
describes it, is often termed 'entire santification' or 'heart holiness'.

The movement typically is based on the preaching of John Wesley during the
18th (I think) century.

Let's make sure that any theological debates on the terms move to another
appropriate newsgroup.  But I think defining the terms that are sometimes
used in describing one's denominational affiliation are useful so that
one gets a feel for the emphasis that a fellowship has.  I have found 
myself that music styles differ between denominations as well as between
individual churchs.  Most fellowships have some sort of common set of
songs/hymns/spiritual praises that they jointly lift up during worship
services.

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Liberal:
I am not sure what the theologic term would be for someone not of this
believe - generally they get called liberals I guess.  This general
'label' would be used for anyone who believes that the Bible (and even
THAT term could be considered vague - what Bible?  King James, Jewish Torah,
Catholic, etc.?) contains 'seeds of truth' but has statements which are
just not true.  Note that I am not talking about a particular TRANSLATION
not having mistakes - but the Bible itself just not being all true.  Generally
this includes disbelief of miracles, of the existance of Christ, or
perhaps of his Godhood, etc.

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Reform:

-- Calvinistic religions where the Bible is interpreted each individual.
The Presbyterian Church and the various Reform Churches are Reform.  {I
understand this better than the other since I have worshiped n
Presbyterian churches all of my life}

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Third Wave Movement
Myself, I'm an evangelical who embraces the spiritual gifts -- part of the
"Third Wave Movement", a term which hasn't really caught on outside of the
Third Wave.  It's also called the "Signs & Wonders Movement", particularly
by those who are opposed to it.


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