Origin of the Fundamentalist Fellowship

I.    Origin of the Fundamentalist Fellowship

A.    At a preconvention meeting in Buffalo, New York, in 1920, Fundamentalists and conservatives launched a group they called the National Federation of Fundamen­talists of the Northern Baptists.

B.     Its purpose was to rescue the NBC from its drift into modernism.

I.    Baptist Fundamentalism Organized

A.    Facing the uncertain decade of the twenties, Fundamentalists and conservatives were now beginning to organize themselves

1.    In 1919, Fundamentalists began to cooperate across denomina­tional lines to establish the World’s Christian Fundamen­tals Association (WCFA),

2.    many Northern Baptists, while working with the WCFA, felt that they also needed an organized effort within their own denomination to focus on specific problems.

II.    Origin of the Fundamentalist Fellowship

A.    At a preconvention meeting in Buffalo, New York, in 1920, Fundamentalists and conservatives launched a group they called the National Federation of Fundamen­talists of the Northern Baptists.

1.    Its purpose was to rescue the NBC from its drift into modernism.

2.It soon became the Fundamentalist Fellowship, 3.still later the Conser­vative Baptist Fellowship, and 4.finally the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship. a)It continues today as a separatist testimony, far stronger than at any time in its long history. b)The organization has always been a loose fellowship of individuals, for many years not even keeping a directory of its supporters.

B.    In May 1920, 156 conservatives issued a call for their supporters to attend a preconvention meeting on June 21-22 in the Delaware Avenue Baptist Church in Buffalo, New York. Their purpose was "to restate, reaffirm, and re-emphasize the fundamentals of our New Testament faith" and "to stop our drift toward... rationalism and materialism."

C.    the sessions were moved to the Civic Auditorium, where an estimated three thousand attended.

D.     Fun­damentalists must evaluate their roots in the light of history.

1.    As yet there was no major American precedent for what is now regarded as the practice of biblical separation.

2.    For a time, the denominations seemed salv­able.

3.    many Fundamentalists, for too many years, nursed the false hope of rescuing their denominations.

4.    They lacked the militancy that today’s Fundamentalist believes the Scriptures require for true obedience.

5.    Those 1920 preconvention messages contain some valuable lessons from church history.

E.     Jasper Cortenus (J. C.) Massee (1871-1965), pastor of the Baptist Temple in Brooklyn and president of the preconvention conference, delivered the opening address.

1.Referring to the crisis in the seminaries, Massee employed some vivid imagery: a)"If we would save them, we must cease now to let Philistine teachers plow with our edu­cational heifer, lest our denominational Samson, stripped of the goodly garments of his faith and virtue, fall under the witchery of a scholastic Delilah, and be permanently shorn of his strength, blinded as to his spiritual eyes, and bound to the unspeakable service of godless and mocking masters." b)" Massee ironically refused to "acknowledge the necessity of furnishing specific cases . . . though we are quite able to do that." Furthermore, said Massee, "We would not write nor consent to the writing of a formal creed." c)Calling for loyalty to the convention, Massee concluded with this appeal: "We will not go [into the convention] with swords sharpened to conflict, but with spirits prayerfully called to unity."

2.Professor Frederick L. Anderson (1862-1938) of Newton Theological Institution gave an address on "Historic Baptist Principles," a)in which he asserted, "I oppose any creedal statement whatever in the Northern Baptist Convention." b)W.Cummings (1864-1931) who quoted Fosdick favor­ably, 3.William Bell (W. B.) Riley (1861-1947), a)in his message on "Modernism in Baptist Schools," named men and schools (including Chicago, Rochester, and Crozer) as examples of unbelief. b)Riley also carefully explained that the purpose of the conference was not to compel anyone to consent to particular views of eschatology, but rather to highlight historic fundamentals.

4.Perhaps the most stirring message came from the only non-Northern Baptist, J. W. Porter, the Southern Baptist editor of the Kentucky state convention’s paper, The Western Recorder. It is only regrettable that none of the primitive recording devices of the day captured the tone of this warning: a)Contending for the faith is not a matter of choice, but of positive command. It is impossible to obey Christ and please God without contending for the faith.... Surely we can afford to contend for him who contended with death and hell for us. . . . It will not suffice to say, "My faith is all right, though there is a little error in it." With equal propriety, we might say of a glass of water, that "It is good drinking-water, though it has a little poison in it." A pie is not acceptable to the average man, or woman, though it contain only one fly. One fly is quite enough to make saint, or sinner, say "good-bye" to an otherwise excellent pie. The churches are on the Mountain of Temptation. Only recently they have been offered the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them, if they would substitute social service for a blood-bought redemption. b)Porter went on to describe the nature of the enemy’s attack: "The rattlesnake before he strikes, gives his deadly rattle; the viper, before he vomits his venom in the veins of his victim, gives his hiss; the tiger, before he rends his prey, gives his growl; and the wild eagle, before he seizes his victim, gives his scream of warning; but this ecclesiastical Goliath, in the guise of a friend, without warning, sought the destruction of doctrines and denom­inations." c)Porter concluded with a discussion of labels: "Those who are set for the defense of the gospel are quite commonly termed ’narrow’ . I must plead ’guilty’ to the impeachment. Truth is, and evermore must be, narrow." Porter was pastor of the First Baptist Church at Lexington, Kentucky.

F.    The preconvention conference was indeed a hetero­geneous group of conservatives: many weak, some strong, and a few (perhaps unwittingly) on the threshold of embracing liberal ideas.

1.    They had met with a common purpose against the common enemy of rank modernism. Such a diverse group, however, could never succeed in purging their denomination of apostasy.

2.Curtis Lee Laws (1868-1946), in a July 1,1920, editorial in his Watchman-Examiner, described that preconvention group asFun­damentalists, -thus coining a term. a)For the time being, these nonconformist Fundamentalists were pursuing denominational purity with the hope of forcing the modernists out of the NBC. b)Laws defined these Funda­mentalists as those ready "to do battle royal for the fundamentals": We here and now move that a new word be adopted to describe the men among us who insist that the landmarks shall not be removed. "Conservatives" is too closely allied with reac­tionary forces in all walks of life. "Premillennialists" is too closely allied with a single doctrine and not sufficiently inclusive. "Landmarkers" has a historical disadvantage and connotes a particular group of radical conservatives. We suggest that those who still cling to the great fundamentals and who mean to do battle royal for the fundamentals shall be called "Fundamentalists."

G.    Jasper C. Massee, the chairman of the preconvention conference and first president of the Fundamentalist Fellowship, invited the moderately liberal Augustus H. Strong to write the foreword to the thirteen published messages.

1.    Annoyed by newspaper accounts depicting the meeting as militant, Strong declined; but the incident illustrates Massee’s broad spirit.

2.    Massee was hardly ready "to do battle royal for the fundamentals."

3.    Unfortunately, he represented the attitude of most NBC conservatives.

4.    Laws himself was silent on the doctrine of inerrancy and disagreed with the Fundamentalists’ assertion that a modernist could not be a true Christian.

III.    The 1920 NBC Meeting (Buffalo, New York)

A.    At the NBC’s 1920 meeting in Buffalo (June 23-29), the Fundamentalists and less-militant conservatives together probably constituted a majority, but the more politically astute liberals consistently outmaneuvered them on the convention floor.

1.    Funda­mentalist Robert T. Ketcham later recalled that such actions became characteristic of Massee: "The very first battle we joined we would have won hands down if Massee hadn’t thrown the switch under us, and that became Massee’s pattern."

2.    Massee did move that the convention appoint a special committee to investigate the schools to determine their loyalty to Christ and the Bible.

3.    The conven­tion did indeed appoint a Committee of Nine, but it included both tolerant conservatives like Frank M. Goodchild and middle-of-the-road men such as Austen K. de Blois.

4.    Fundamentalists could expect nothing from such an investigation.

B.    The liberals scored other victories in 1920 by leading the convention to join the Federal (now National) Council of Churches of Christ (FCCC), by publicly defending its inclusive policy, and by approving a known liberal missionary.

1.    The missionary was Cecil G. Fielder, whom the Foreign Mission Board, after much conservative pressure, had brought home from India for questioning.

2.    In personal correspondence from the mission field, Fielder had denied Christ’s vicarious atonement. "Atonement must go," declared Fielder, "It remains for us to make our own atonement by living the best life we can. It was not necessary for Jesus to die."

3.    In response, the board had simply requested Fielder to spend a year at Andover Newton Theological Institution. In 1920, after his year at seminary, Fielder appeared once again before the board for reexamination, and it declared him "absolved of all theological guilt" because he had "considerably changed his views.

4.    Fielder expressed his surprise that the board considered him orthodox: "I should be amazed if anyone who really knows anything about me considered that the summary published by the Board indicated any radical change of view on my part.... I used the accepted theological terminology."

5.    Fundamentalists felt that Mr. Fielder had been more honest than the Foreign Board.

C.    National radio broadcasting would make its debut on November 2, 1920, when station KDKA in East Pitts­burgh, Pennsylvania, aired the presidential election results.

1.    ( Harding won by a landslide.) Aided by the new medium of radio, Fundamentalists would wait still another decade before giving up their attempts to purge their denomination from within and to begin their Exodus 2:1-25.     Not only Fundamentalists but modernists also took to the air waves with their message to America.

3.Modernist Harry Emerson Fosdick became very popular with his National Vespers on NBC. a)Millions would listen to Fosdick’s kind, affable, and intelligent voice and wonder what it was that the Fundamentalists were screaming about.