Three Reasons Why We Shouldn't Abandon Fundamentalism

Christians should not abandon Fundamentalism because it is truly a doctrinal position, and not just a ministry method.

Fundamentalism has been the center of quite a bit of controversy in recent years. Many forms of media set out to cover the latest scandals of abusive church environments, fallen leadership, or outlandish behavior. Unfortunately, many of these cases play a part in branding Fundamentalism as some kind of fanaticism, controlling cult, or just an awkward group of people stuck in the past.

While most of the accusations that get attention are true, they certainly aren't the norm, but this doesn't stop the average Christian from reeling back at the term. The undiscerning media consumer might be tempted to write off all Christians who carry the name “Fundamentalist” as extremist.

I've heard the question from visitors at our church, “This isn't an Independent Fundamental Baptist church, is it?”, to which I replied, “Well, yes, but not that kind.” You see, there are many cases where churches have latched on to a name that they don't understand. They would shout “Amen” all over the service but might not have the slightest clue what the Fundamentals of the faith are.

The temptation to avoid or abandon Fundamentalism is founded in an unsettling ignorance of what the Fundamentals of the faith really are. I want to make an appeal to church leaders to step back into the history and doctrine that brought us the name Fundamentalist.

1. Fundamentalism is a Doctrinal Position, not a Ministry Method.

When some people think of Fundamentalism, their mind immediately goes to the piano playing, the old hymns, long creaky pews with felt cushions, and loud preaching. While these are blessed memories that shaped many of our lives, they are not the definition of Fundamentalism.

Fundamentalism became a term to describe a conflict that is a hundred years old.

Many of the theological seminaries, especially Princeton, were involved in a struggle between traditional belief in the Bible, and new propositions in the scientific community that seemed to conflict with the Bible. The two sides taken were the Modernists (also sometimes called Rationalists) and the Fundamentalists.

The Modernists tried to make arguments against the traditional authorship and dates of the Bible, against the historical reality of any supernatural events that were recorded in the Bible, and against anything presented in the Bible as conflicting with a modern understanding of science. This position involved denying the virgin birth, sinless life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This involved denying that God created the earth in six days, as is recorded in Genesis 1. This involved denying that any miracles in the Bible were actual events.

On the other hand, the Fundamentalists sided with the Bible. They chose to believe, whatever the cost, that the Bible is inspired by God, that it is inerrant, and that it contains the truth of God revealed to man. They chose to believe that what it says is literally true. Many of the men who made the decision to side with the Bible lost their positions in denominational churches, seminaries, and had to start from scratch as far as the ministry was concerned. These men banded together in the controversy to write a series of pamphlets defending their faith.

These pamphlets were published and distributed to Christian ministries throughout the world and were eventually collated into a few volumes collectively titled The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth.

A serious look at this history will quickly inform the reader that these men were not setting out to defend their creaky wooden pews, hymnals and loud preaching (well, maybe the loud preaching). They were setting out to defend before the world of skeptical scholars, the core tenets of orthodox Christianity.

So what are the Fundamentals of the faith? The Fundamentals contains 90 chapters, but these can be summarized into a few basic categories.

1. The Inerrancy of the Bible.

2. The Literal Interpretation of the Bible.

3. The Virgin Birth of Christ, fully God, fully Man.

4. The Historical Reality of Christ's Miracles.

5. Salvation by Grace Alone through Faith Alone in Christ's Substitutionary

Atonement on the cross.

6. The Bodily Resurrection and Ascension of Christ.

7. The Physical Return of Christ.

While there may be more to add to this list, no Christian can claim to believe what the Bible teaches, and just throw these tenets off to the side as being irrelevant or outdated. These are timeless truths that are meaningful to Christianity in every age. The Church will never outgrow these doctrines.

2: The Opposite of Fundamentalism is Unbelief.

Fundamentalism must be recognized for what it is: the defense of the historical doctrines of Christianity. There might be cause in some cases to move the emphasis away from “Fundamentalism” as a name, but to abandon Fundamentalism as a belief system in whole or in part would be to eventually abandon the faith. The doctrines listed above are what make or break Christianity. It might be said that these doctrines are the irreducible complexity of Christianity.

The authority of Scripture is the supreme source of faith and practice.

What we believe, why we believe it, and what we are to do about it, comes from the source of truth. If we do not believe it is true, why would we believe anything it says? The inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible is the pillar upon which Christianity stands or falls. God revealed the truth about Himself, and to reject this is to make God out to be whatever you want Him to be.

The interpretation of the Scripture is necessary to ascertain the truth. Each author of the scripture picked up their pen with an objective in mind: to communicate the truth that had been revealed to them by God. We cannot make of their writings whatever we will. They are intelligible communication from an intelligent being and must be understood intelligibly.

The Bible is not a code, and it is not a puzzle. The Bible is a message that should be understood in its plainest sense. If the Bible cannot be trusted to mean what it says, can it be trusted in any of what it says?

Consider the doctrines of Fundamentalism in terms of the centrality of Christ. Christ is the center, the main point, of each of these doctrines. What Christians believe about Christ matters, and it is a matter of eternal consequence. Which truth about Christ is worth compromising? Christ must be accepted for who He is, and not for whoever we want Him to be. There are plenty of churches that would claim to be Christian, all the while refusing to believe the truth about Christ. Without Christ there is no Christianity.

In all of its perfection, to have the Bible without having Christ, is to have no Christianity at all.

There is a point to the message of the Bible, and the truth about Christ is the entire point. To miss this point is to miss the message altogether.

3: Fundamentalism is not about Preferences.

This may be redundant, but it should be very clear by now that Fundamentalism is about the essential doctrines of Christianity. Inversely, this means that it is not about anything else. Fundamentalism is not about the preferences of an individual, or of an era. Fundamentalism is not about a certain style of dress, a certain style of music, a certain translation of the Bible, a certain church polity, or a certain order of services. It is not about personalities, preaching styles, or things of the past.

If the core of Fundamentalism is to believe the Bible, especially in what it says about Christ, then this means that Fundamentalism should not be concerned with the areas where the Bible has been silent. The Bible speaks to the most important issues of our day, but it does not speak to every issue of our day. The Bible does not contain the answer to every problem. It contains everything that we need for faith and practice. This means that there are things that we do not need to worry about.

Times and cultures change, but the Bible is timeless and applicable.

Consider the inerrancy of Scripture as concerns the topic of preferences. The Bible is inerrant because it is the perfect Word of God. If the Bible is perfect, this means it contains everything we need (the sufficiency of Scripture), and if it does not contain something, it must not be important enough for us to need it.

God gave us such a perfect Word that it contains everything we need, and nothing that we don’t. The law of the Lord is perfect, and this means that it is the perfect standard. It is a relief to know that we are not to be tasked with adding to perfection, by going beyond what it says in areas that are unclear.

Move your feet, not your faith.

Christians need to stand on the fundamentals of the faith. They need to be firmly grounded in the clear teaching of scripture as the foundation of their Christianity. It takes courage to stand on the Word in the face of opposition, but there is nothing else to stand on. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”.

The Big Idea:

Label or no label, Christians need to be serious about the fundamentals of the faith, to know what they believe, and why they believe it. But this should also be regarded as an appeal to take this faith and run with it. Truth demands a response, and this response should be to do the work of the ministry with fervor and devotion, in the power of God.

For more information, contact Nathan Wilder at naw4717@gmail.com