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In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Jesus gives his apostles instructions to spread the Gospel to all the earth. This is commonly known as the Great Commission.
After the death of Jesus, some of the disciples or followers of Jesus travelled throughout the region to spread the teachings of Jesus. Among these include Paul of Tarsus and Saint Timothy.
During this century, there was a religious revival in the Americas which is known as the First Great Awakening.
Commentators and historians have described four distinctive characteristics of evangelicals (Bebbington):
Evangelicals generally believe the Bible to be reliable and the ultimate authority in matters of faith and practice and subscribe to the doctrines of sola scriptura and sola fideSola fide (by faith alone), also historically known as the justification of faith is a doctrine held by some Protestant denominations of Christianity, which asserts that it is on the basis of their faith that believers are forgiven their transgressions of. They believe in the historicity of the miracles of Jesus Christ and his literal virgin birth, crucifixion, resurrection and Second ComingThis article refers to the religious usage of the term. For other usages, see Second Coming (disambiguation . The prophecies of a Second Coming are various and span across many religions and cultures. Most notable is the Christian and Muslim belief in the. It follows that they generally adhere to their interpretation of biblical views which may affect their social outlook, believing, for example, that homosexual behavior is sinful and that human life begins at conception.
Active involvement in secular society is a characteristic of modern evangelicals, who see the danger of withdrawal on the one hand, and accommodation, on the other, and try to take the middle course, that of following the biblical injunction to be "in the world yet not of the world". As such, evangelicals are highly active in social causes.
Historically, Evangelicals have often been in the forefront of movements such as abolitionThis article is about the abolition of slavery. For a page on the general concept of abolition, see abolition. For information regarding the abolition of suffering, see abolitionist society. Great Britain and the United States. Abolitionism a political mo, prison reform, orphanageThis article is about the institutions for orphans. For the band, see Orphanage (band). An orphanage is an institution dedicated to caring for orphans (children without living parents). Orphanages often attempt to find homes for children in their care. establishment, hospitalA hospital today is a centre for professional health care provided by physicians and nurses. During the Middle Ages it could serve other functions, such as almshouse for the poor, or hostel for pilgrims. The name comes from Latin hospes (host), which is a building, and founding educational institutions.
Today this activism is also expressed in literacy training, adoption agencies, food banks, and day-care centers for children, as well as more politically controversial causes such as the pro-life movement and the prohibition of same-sex marriage. Within US mainline denominations there is often a political dichotomy, with the non-evangelicals and evangelicals both actively lobbying in Washington, but for opposite causes.
Evangelicals also tend to prefer individual understanding of the Bible and participation in the service by all on an equal footing to a highly structured liturgy and church hierarchy. On the other hand, there is little variation of understanding of the Bible within individual evangelical churches.
Evangelicals can be found in a wide variety of Christian traditions and locations, although they are most commonly Protestant. Many fundamentalists can also be defined as evangelicals, although not all evangelicals are fundamentalists, because they may not hold to a literal interpretation of the Bible. Some Evangelicals also identify with the Pentecostal movement.
A 1992 survey (Green) showed that in the United States and Canada evangelicals make up both the largest and the most active group of Christians (surpassing both Roman Catholics and non-Evangelical Protestant groups).
On a worldwide scale evangelical Churches are (together with Pentecostals) the most rapidly growing Christian churches. The two are even beginning to overlap, in a movement sometimes called Transformationalism.
According to the Washington Post, John C. Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron in Ohio, said that despite many variations, evangelicals generally adhere to four core beliefs:
Barna Research [1] defines an evangelical based on a nine question test covering these criteria