Edwin S. Gaustad, Ph.D. was Professor of History and Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside, and former President of the American Society of Church History. He authored over a dozen books including New Historical Atlas of Religion in America and Church and State in America.
“I conclude that the Local Church stands in the tradition of evangelical Christianity…”
From my observation, I conclude that the Local Church stands in the tradition of evangelical Christianity, of the Protestant emphasis on biblical authority, of the great Christian mystics’ and pietists’ concern for the inner life, of the millennia-old expectation of a new age, and of born-again, experiential religion. They meet together, pray together, sing and study together, and grow together. They labor to be loyal to their particular vision of the Christian life. It seems enough. (The Experts Speak Concerning Witness Lee and the Local Churches, p. 200)