Deck 20: The Rise of Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity

Question 1

Why does the author say that only half of American Christians affirm that they are born again or to have accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior?

A) Being baptized means nothing unless the faith is personalized
B) Most American Christians do not understand what these terms mean
C) Many take these to be as much cultural statements as religious ones
D) It is a style of speaking about faith associated with the Evangelical tradition

Answer 1

D

Question 2

What did the term evangelical originally mean?

A) It was used to distinguish Calvinist Christians from Lutheran
B) It designated the German Pietistic movement
C) It meant all Christians
D) It was first used in American Revivalism

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Generally speaking, what is Evangelical Christianity's relationship to Christian sacraments?

A) They only believe there are two: Baptism and the Eucharist
B) They emphasize all the sacraments, but think that the Eucharist is only a symbol of the body and blood of Christ
C) They have little interest in the sacraments, except baptism
D) They reject all sacraments and focus on faith

Answer 3

C

Question 4

How did the author characterize the theology of Dwight Moody?

A) Virtually anti-intellectual
B) Virtually the same as Jonathan Edwards
C) Virtually mimicking Calvin's Institutes
D) Virtually radiant

Question 5

What did the Scopes trial seem to make intellectually unacceptable?

A) Evolution
B) Biblical criticism
C) Biblical literalism
D) Any kind of theocracy

Question 6

When did the Evangelical movement ramp up its scholarly energies?

A) By the 1920s
B) By the 1940s
C) By the 1960s
D) By the 1980s

Question 7

Why were more fundamentalist members of the Evangelical movement critical of Billy Graham?

A) He was too modern
B) He relied less on the Bible and more on personal stories of conversion
C) He was too ecumenical
D) He was divorced and remarried

Question 8

Did Billy Graham teach that the second coming of Christ was imminent?

A) Yes, he thought the rapture was virtually upon us
B) Yes, except he also said that Christ was coming gently, thus no rapture
C) No, he believed that this was the second to last dispensation
D) Graham refused to publicly discuss his opinion

Question 9

Does the author think that Billy Graham's personal life matched his public ministry?

A) No, Graham preached about the sanctity of marriage, but was himself divorced and remarried
B) No, Graham spoke about sacrifice and simplicity but lived lavishly and ostentatiously
C) Yes, he thought Graham lived with great integrity
D) Yes, but only later in his career, as his early career was filled with moral contradictions

Question 10

Generally speaking, which of the following tenets do American Evangelicals not believe to be true:

A) The Bible is infallible
B) The Bible provides the content for all doctrines
C) Christ will literally institute a thousand-year reign before the last judgment
D) Doctrine means little as long as you have faith in Christ

Question 11

How large is the National Association of Evangelicals?

A) Over 5,000 independent churches
B) Over 10,000 independent churches
C) Over 20,000 independent churches
D) Over 45,000 independent churches

Question 12

Early in Jerry Falwell's career, what was his ministry's relationship to politics?

A) He shied away from it
B) He risked his life for the civil rights movement
C) He frequently preached on public policy issues related to morality, but refused to endorse any particular politician
D) He decried any relationship between church and state

Question 13

Evangelical leaders, such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, formed the lobbying group called:

A) The Christian Right
B) The Association of Truth
C) The Moral Majority
D) The Foundation of Faith

Question 14

The author said that American Evangelicals today are:

A) Virtually allergic to politics
B) Heavily in support of the Republican Party
C) Politics' great unknown
D) A wild card in every election

Question 15

What best reflects the author's interpretation of the conversation between Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack?

A) He framed it as a kind of biblical reflection, however skewed, of how God worked in the Old Testament
B) Even though it represented conflating cultural interests and theology, it channeled centuries old manifest destiny
C) He found it refreshingly honest
D) He showed how it worked in the same way as Jonathan Edwards and the revivalists of the eighteenth century

Question 16

What is Manifest Destiny?

A) The belief that the United States is a Christian nation endowed with great responsibility
B) The belief that the United States has the singular role in controlling or at least affecting world politics
C) The belief that Evangelical Christians will, as a group, manifest the truth of the gospel for the nation
D) The belief that God's destiny for the human race will be manifest in the Evangelical Church

Question 17

What denomination do most of the largest mega-churches represent?

A) Southern Baptist
B) Northern Baptist
C) Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
D) Most of them do not have a denominational affiliation

Question 18

When Rick Warren began the Saddleback Valley Community Church, why did he downplay its association with the Southern Baptist Convention?

A) He was in a public dispute with its leadership
B) He found it did not sit well with focus groups
C) He wanted to create a new type of worship service that was at odds with the Baptist tradition
D) He did not downplay its association with the Southern Baptist Convention, but highlighted it

Question 19

What is Rick Warren's response to the charge that he created a church and worship style that is market driven?

A) He saw this as part of a larger anti-Christian expression of the larger culture
B) He insists that there is no way a mega-church could operate without understanding the market forces
C) He pointed out that this was exactly what Jonathan Edwards did during the First Great Awakening
D) For him, it is simply a question of relevance, and he insists that his parishioners are extremely committed

Question 20

Who delivered the prayer invocation at President Obama's first inauguration?

A) Rick Warren
B) Joel Osteen
C) Jerry Falwell
D) Poet Maya Angelou

Question 21

How many Pentecostal Christians are there worldwide, if one were to include charismatic Christians in mainstream churches?

A) 100 million
B) 200 million
C) 500 million
D) A billion

Question 22

Do most Holiness Churches believe that Christ is returning soon?

A) Yes
B) Yes, many do, but many do not
C) No
D) Many of them split into separate denominations on this question

Question 23

Who is William J. Seymour?

A) He founded the Mukti Mission in Kedgaon India
B) He started the American Pentecostal movement in Los Angeles
C) He wrote the book, The Baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire
D) He was a radio personality who became Pentecostalism's most public voice

Question 24

What is the Finished Work program?

A) The belief that one who is baptized by the Holy Spirit does not sin again?
B) The belief that after baptism in the Holy Spirit, one was called to finish the commandment of Jesus to baptize the whole world
C) The belief that after the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there was a further baptism in the gifts of the Holy Spirit
D) The belief that one's initial infant baptism constituted the only possible baptism, even if the gifts of the Holy Spirit came later

Question 25

How did Oral Roberts shock the Pentecostal world?

A) By starting a university
B) By being the first Pentecostal Christian to start a weekly national television program
C) By being ordained a Methodist minister
D) By starting the Christian Broadcasting Network

Question 26

How many Roman Catholics are charismatic Christians?

A) Over 10 million
B) Over 30 million
C) Over 50 million
D) Over 120 million

Question 27

What is a positive confession?

A) One not only confesses one's sins but also confesses one's gifts to be used for ministry
B) One claims a gift from God and has faith that God will bestow it?
C) The practice of confessing Jesus as Lord within a Pentecostal worship service
D) It is Pentecostalism's term for evangelization

Question 28

Does the author believe that most Pentecostal scholars are biblical fundamentalists?

A) Yes, but he shows how this can still be intellectually supported
B) Yes, and he critiques this position
C) No, and this is in contrast to popular Pentecostalism
D) No, and this is aligned to popular Pentecostalism

Question 29

In terms of the forms of Christianity, what does the author think is the trend in America?

A) He thinks that Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity will become even more dominant
B) He thinks Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity will hold its own with mainstream Protestant Christianity
C) He thinks Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity will continue to suffer setbacks in numbers and influence
D) He believes American Christianity is so fluid that it is impossible to imagine future forms

Question 30

Which form of Christianity has become most publically active in the political realm?

A) Roman Catholic
B) Mainstream Protestantism
C) Evangelicalism
D) Pentecostalism

Question 31

The term born again is regularly identified as an Evangelical identifier.

Question 32

Early Evangelicals of the nineteenth century were known for their scholarly rigor.

Question 33

The Scopes trial showed that biblical literalism could be intellectually grounded.

Question 34

Billy Graham's ministry was particularly ecumenical.

Question 35

Billy Graham taught a form of biblical literalism and taught that the rapture was virtually upon us.

Question 36

Jerry Falwell was invested in mixing the Evangelical message with politics from the beginning of his ministry to the end.

Question 37

Since the 1990s, Evangelical voting for American Presidents has been highly Republican.

Question 38

The author was highly critical of the conversation between Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson on the occasion of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.

Question 39

Virtually no mega-churches are denominational.

Question 40

The Pentecostal movement focuses on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Question 41

The fullness gospel is also known as the fourfold gospel and the foursquare gospel.

Question 42

The oneness gospel believes that Jesus is the incarnation of the Trinity.

Question 43

The Pentecostal movement did not become mainstream until the 1980s.

Question 44

Prosperity Preaching is particularly a Pentecostal phenomenon.

Question 45

The Assemblies of God is currently one of the largest denominations to preach the positive confession formula.

Question 46

The author claims that late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Evangelicalism was unintellectual. Do you think his opinion is warranted? Do you think that modern Evangelicalism is intellectually weak? Defend your position.

Question 47

The author provides part of a dialogue that Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson had on the 700 Club television show just after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He was clearly critical of their arguments. What were his criticisms and do you think they were justified? Provide argumentation that both supports and challenges their dialogue.

Question 48

What are the benefits and problems for Christians of tying theology to a particular political agenda or party? Defend your answer.

Question 49

What do you see as the assets and liabilities of mega-churches in terms of living out an authentic Christian faith?

Question 50

Given that the gift of tongues was part of the biblical witness and that it has risen in popularity worldwide today, what do you make of this experience?