Christian Cyclopedia

(from Gk. for “Gospel”). Term meaning loyal to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Luth. Reformation was evangelical. Later the term described those who emphasized the doctrine of atonement for sin. Evangelicals are known for miss. work, personal piety, and opposition to ritualism and modernism. In the 20th c. a liberal ev. movement tried to combine the zeal of evangelicals with liberalism. In Eng. the term is applied to the Low* Ch.