Gerstner, John H.The Theological Boundaries of Evangelical Faith. David P. Wells (編). The Evangelicals. John D. Woodbridge. Nashville: Abingdon Press. 1975: 21–36. ISBN 0-687-12181-7. Despite the dominant usage of euangellismos in the New Testament, its derivative, evangelical, was not widely or controversially employed until the Reformation period. Then it came into prominence with Martin Luther precisely because he reasserted Paul's teaching on the euangellismos as the indispensable message of salvation. Its light, he argued, was hidden under a bushel of ecclesiastical authority, tradition, and liturgy. The essence of the saving message for Luther was justification by faith alone, the article by which not only the church stands or falls but each individual as well. Erasmus, Thomas More, and Johannes Eck denigrated those who accepted this view and referred to them as 'evangelicals.'
