What does "biblical Christianity" mean to evangelical Protestants?
Upvote:2
I was flipping through Christianity For Dummies the other day, and I noticed that the author of the book liked to use the term "biblical Christianity," which then made me suspicious about his usage of the term. He claimed that he would write from a neutral perspective and admitted that he came from an "evangelical Protestant" background, but after reading a couple of excerpts, I had the feeling that this guy seemed to conflate evangelical Protestantism and Christianity as a whole. One example was when he said that God intended to save people from Hell without specifying any source where he got that information. I conjectured that people would be saved from sin, not from Hell, which then made me wonder whether there was a difference between "sin" and "Hell". Additionally, some Christian denominations, such as Jehovah's Witness or Seventh Day Adventist, reject Hell; therefore, I felt that the author wasn't doing his research and stopped reading.
Anyway, given that the author comes from an evangelical Protestant frame of mind, "biblical Christianity" is likely a code word for "everything-that-agrees-with-whatever-I-believe-in" with a strong emphasis on sola scriptura.
Upvote:4
Biblical Christianity vs. un-Biblical Christianity
In regards to protestantism, Biblical Christianity could probably be defined or characterized by how one would describe un-Biblical Christianity. What is unbiblical Christianity? It is Christianity (or the claim thereof) that lives or teaches something in contradiction to Scripture.
Naturally, to conclude that something contradicts the truth of the Scripture, one must have an idea of what is meant (ultimately, by God) by what is written. That involves fallible humans, and therein is a source of inconsistency and disunity.
In general, Biblical Christianity means that you live and believe things consistent with the testimony of Scripture. Though some might claim something as narrow as @Anonymous ("whatever-I-believe-in"), I don't think this is what is meant by most people who use the phrase. They are, at least, claiming that what they believe is not their own idea, but is taken from the Bible.
A related phrase, "that's [not] Biblical," answers the question as to whether or not an idea is compatible, harmonious, or incompatible with the Scripture. For people who claim to hold to sola scriptura, the Bible is the ultimate check of any idea, and so everything a Christian believes and does should "be Biblical" because those things should all be harmonious (or at least compatible—an allowance for people who don't agree with you but whose conclusions are at least a reasonable interpretation) with the testimony of Scripture.
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