Now he is a Reformed Arminian. His website is Evangelical Outreach…I’m confused with how it seems that Baptists, Fundamentalists, Calvinists, or some other various groups term themselves as Evangelicals generically?
You might note that you are confusing a lot of terms. ‘Baptist’ is a denomination, or more accurately a category of denominations. ‘Fundamentalism’ is a movement, and most Fundamentalists do not see themselves as ‘Evangelicals’. ‘Calvinism’ is a theological position.
‘Evangelicalism’ refers to a movement which started within Protestantism following WWII, especially in the late 1950’s, which blends highly conservative Protestant theology with conservative social and political activism. Most Evangelicals seek to minimalize ‘sectarian differences’ over what are deemed 'peripheral theology, as opposed to the ‘core doctrines’ usually assumed to be summarized in historic creeds and Reformational confessions and Articles of Faith. The debate between Lutheran predestarianism, Calvinism, and Arminanism would be demed a dispute over a ‘peripheral’ doctrine, because the positions, rightly understood, are not so far apart as they appear at casual glance. Arminians usually accept Calvinists as Christians, albeit misguided ones, and Calvinists likewise view Arminians. Rather than quarrel and divide over such matters, they look for ways to work together to proclaim the Gospel and to apply political pressure for select issues such as abortion, prayer in public schools, etcetera.
It is confusing but worthy of note that Lutheranism in Germany is known not by Luther’s name but as the ‘Evangelical’ Church’. Some American manifestations of Lutheranism adopt the word ‘Evangelical’ in their name (as in ‘Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’). BUT most Lutherans in the Missouri and Wisconsin Synods deny that Lutheranism is part of the modern movement known as ‘Evangelicalism’.
‘Fundamentalism’ is a much earlier movement which opposed the introduction of ‘modernist’ theology into historic Protestant theological seminaries and some Protestant denominations. It is inherently sectarian, not especially cohesive, and rejected social and political activism to focus exclusively on personal piety and holiness and the ‘preaching of the Gospel’.
Most Baptists adhere to some variant of Calvinism, and the Southern Baptist Convention tends to see itself as definitely part of the ‘Evangelical Movement’.
