Defining Fundamentalism

I.    Defining Fundamentalism

A.     Ideally, a Christian Fundamentalist is one who desires to reach out in love and compassion to people, believes and defends the whole Bible as the absolute, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God, and stands committed to the doctrine and practice of holiness.

1.Fundamentalism is not a philosophy of Christianity, 2.Nor is it essentially an interpretation of the Scriptures.

3.    It is not even a mere literal exposition of the Bible.

4.The essence of Fundamentalism goes much deeper than that- B. It is the unqualified acceptance of and obedience to the Scriptures.

1.Moses and the prophets, 2.Christ and the apostles, of Augustine and Calvin, 3.the English Separatists and Puritans, 4.Wesley and White­field, 5.the German Pietists 6.the English Brethren, 7.London’s Spurgeon 8.Princeton’s Warfield C.Theological liberals 1.Fundamentalism is virtually synonymous with orthodox Christianity.

2.    Kirsopp Lake "It is a mistake, often made by educated persons who happen to have but little knowledge of historical theology, to suppose that Fundamentalism is a new and strange form of thought. It is nothing of the kind:

3.    it is the . . . survival of a theology which was once universally held by all Christians."

4.    To the Fundamentalist, however, the most important principle is not perpetuity but authority.

5.    Lake recognized this when he concluded, "The Fundamentalist may be wrong; I think that he is. But it is we who have departed from the tradition, not he, and I am sorry for the fate of anyone who tries to argue with a Fundamentalist on the basis of authority. The Bible and the corpus theologicum (body of theological writings) of the Church are on the Fundamentalist side."

D.The earliest historians of the Christian Fundamentalism movement tend to depict Fundamentalism as 1.having almost mindless adherence to Scripture 2.Fanatical devotion to outmoded principles and practices.

3.The word itself became a kind of derogatory term to denote a mean spirit, a 4.pharisaical character, 5.argumentative person-ready to fight at the drop of theological diphthong.

E.The Fundamentalist was regarded as 1.offensive, 2.ignorant, and 3.hopelessly enamored of the past 4."Fundamentalists split churches."

5.caricatured as devoid of human warmth, 6.callous to the world’s real needs, and 7.habitually uncooperative- 8.always aligning itself against 9.higher education, 10.science, and 11.Cultural interests.

F.    Historically, Fundamentalists have striven progressively for what they regard as biblical purity.

1.This does not imply a belief in perfectionism 2.Their goal has been a position as consistent as possible with the doctrine of holiness.

3.Holiness has consistently positioned historic Fundamen­talism away from the center of organized religion. a.pre-1930 Fundamentalism was nonconformist, while b.post-1980 Fundamentalism has been separatist

4.    Like the English Puritans, most early Ameri­can Fundamentalists attempted to purify or purge the denominations from within.

5.    Like the English Separatists, the succeeding generations came out and started afresh.

6.    The separatist position itself, however, did not completely solidify as a distinct, militant movement until the 1950s.

G.     The following chronological outline depicts this pro­gressively centrifuge nature of mainline American Fundamentalism.

H.Nonconformist Fundamentalism: a.1857 to 1920.

①.The Revivalist Roots and Progress of the Interdenominational Bible and Prophetic Confer­ences Prior to Fundamentalism’s First Major Orga­nization, the WCFA. b.1920 to 1930.

①.    The Fundamentalist vs. Modernist Battle Within the Mainline Denominations.

2.Separatist Fundamentalism: a.1930 to 1950.

①.The Fundamentalist Separation for Mainline Denominations and the Concurrent Rise of Neo- orthodoxy, Neo-liberalism, and New Evangelicalism. b.1950 to 1970.

①.    The Fundamentalist Separation for New Evangelicalism.

I.1970 to the Present J.The Neo-fundamentalist Defection into Broad Evangelicalism.

1.Two themes a.First, Fundamentalism, as a religious principle has always been interdenominational in character and fellowship. Its major fights have occurred within the particular denominations. b.The second and central theme of this study that, while Fundamentalism has always embraced or defended the cardinal doctrines of traditional Christianity, the movement has been characterized by an emphasis on the doctrine and practice of holiness,

①.    a holiness that includes both personal and ecclesiastical aspects. In both the Hebrew and Greek languages, the word holiness, or sanctification, carries the basic idea separation.

②.    The positive side of separation is the concern of biblical fellowship. Progressively, Fundamentalism came to emphasize that the Scriptures clearly teaches certain criteria for true Christian fellowship.

③.    They do regard the doctrine of biblical fellowship as fundamental.