The 1921 Fundamentalist Fellowship Meeting
I. The 1921 Fundamentalist Fellowship Meeting
A. There were seven speakers for the preconvention 1921 Fundamentalist Fellowship meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, including two Southern Baptists (Sampey and Scarborough) and one Canadian Baptist (Shields).
1.1921 Fundamentalist Fellowship Speakers a)Jacob Heinriehs (1860-1947) (1)vice-president of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (2)"The Authenticity and Authority of the New Testament" b)Walter Benwell Hinson (1860-1926) (1)East Side Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon (2)"Return of the Lord" c)Jasper Cortenus Massee (1871-1965) (1)president of the Fellowship (2)opening address d)D. F. Rittenhouse (1882-1943) (1)First Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio (2)"The Proof of the Resurrection" e)John R. Sampey (1863-1946) (1)professor in Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (2)"Jesus and the Old Testament" f)Lee R. Scarborough (1870-1945) (1)president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (2)"The Supreme Passion of the Gospel" g)Thomas Todhunter Shields (1873-1955) (1)Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto (2)"The Cross and the Critics"
2. These were seven powerful, doctrinal sermons, and Massee published them the following year under the title Baptist Doctrines, with a foreword by Curtis Lee Laws.
B.Although Baptists privately kept alive the controversial issues regarding eschatology, 1.they attempted to downplay the subject at the early Fellowship meetings.
2. During the 1930s and 1940s, however, the question of the rapture would erupt into heated debates.
C. In 1921, the only message on prophecy was by W. B. Hinson, who preached a classic on "The Return of the Lord."
D. Hinson avoided controversy, saying that "whether we call ourselves Premillennialist, or Postmillennialist, or Promillennialist, our hearts, loyal ever to the great King, will beat high with rapture and loving desire at the mention of the Lord’s return. . . . Therefore whatever our distinguishing views regarding the future may be, I can allow no man to place his fellow outside the circle of sympathetic devotion to the Lord Jesus; or to be regarded unfriendly in this hour when the coming back of Him we love is the central thought of our meditation.". While the message would not satisfy today’s most outspoken pretribulationists, it was indeed characterized by moderation and, on a technical exegetical basis, it would stand the test of careful scrutiny.
E. Massee, in his opening address, proposed an end to Northern Baptist support of the New World Movement; he now called for the adoption of a doctrinal statement "to which all teachers in all Baptist educational institutions shall be required to give annual assent in writing."
F. During the business sessions, a major topic of discussion was the matter of creeds.
1. Neither the NBC nor the SBC had ever adopted any kind of formal confession, and the liberals had determined to keep it that way.
2.Fundamentalist Fellowship, preparing its strategy for the 1921 NBC meeting, voted almost unanimously to present a confession of faith to the convention for adoption. a)This brief, seven-article statement of faith, known for a time as the Des Moines Confession, was written by Curtis Lee Laws, in consultation with J. C. Massee, Floyd Adams, and Frank Goodchild. b)Often referred to as the Goodchild Confession, this was the original statement of faith of the Fundamentalist Fellowship.
(1) the confession said nothing concerning the Bible’s inerrancy, only that "the Bible is God’s word, that it was written by men divinely inspired, and that it has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct."
(2) Regarding prophecy, the statement only affirmed Christ’s "personal visible return to the world."