Fundamentalism vs Modernism

The Fighting Fundamentalist. I got the idea to talk about this subject after listening to a more liberal pastor talking about how back in the day, he said, back in the day, people considered me a fighting fundamentalist.

And he said this while he was standing next to a progressive who he brought into his church to talk to people.

So here's this evangelical pastor who's kind of liberal and he's standing next to this openly progressive

UCC minister and he's saying, yeah, back in the day, they thought

I was a fighting fundamentalist. And of course the way he said it, this is supposed to be a bad thing, right?

And that's the way many people think about fundamentalism today, that it's bad, it's terrible.

And nobody wants to be around these fighting fundamentalists. So the attitude a lot of pastors and Christians have is, you know, the fundamentalists are like the worst types of Christians because they're always fighting.

Now I will admit there are some people out there that sort of fit the description where they're like, yeah, they're fighting about everything.

Some like third tier issue, they want to fight about it and judge a person's salvation over any little thing.

Okay, that does exist. I have seen that once or twice, but it's extremely rare.

So with that said, being as rare as that is, especially around here, is that the big problem that we face?

No, I think the bigger problem that the modern evangelical

Protestant churches are facing, the bigger problem is more the lack of passion, the refusal to take a stand, the unwillingness to fight the battles that need to be fought.

That seems to be a much bigger problem. Compromise seems to be a bigger problem than fighting fundamentalists.

But I would say that this lackadaisical attitude that kind of permeates the modern church where people won't fight even when faced with heresy and open sin,

I would argue that we could use a little more passion and grit since Christianity to a large degree has become very soft and even as some people describe it, feminized.

But let's just start out by defining this term fundamental. If somebody asked you, what is a fundamentalist or what is a

Christian fundamentalist? What would you say? One definition says the word fundamental can describe any religious impulse that adheres to its basic tenants.

In other words, one definition of the term, a fundamentalist is someone who believes in the fundamentals.

So a fundamentalist is somebody who believes in the core doctrines of the Christian faith.

The virgin birth, the bodily resurrection of Christ, the final judgment, heaven and hell.

The definition continues, however, in modern times, the word fundamentalist is often used in a derogatory sense.

Because I think we've all heard of Islamic fundamentalists and we figure, well, that's bad.

So Christian fundamentalism must be bad too. But typically fundamentalists, at least going by that first definition, typically fundamentalists are just trying to hold on to the fundamental teachings of their holy book, the word of God as opposed to people who are more liberal or another term is modernist.

But those who are liberal who start to soften up and compromise and eventually that leads to either watering down or dismissing or denying parts of the

Bible that don't line up with modern sensibilities. Because we all have this choice, either I'm going to go with what the

Bible says or with what the culture says. And a lot of people, a lot of modern evangelicals want to find some sort of middle ground.

And what that is really is it's compromise and some do it intentionally. I actually heard, but as for this claim that fundamentalism is such a huge problem,

I actually heard one Christian say that he would never attend one of the local churches in the area because he noticed that the women who go there, they all wear long skirts down to their ankles.

I'll never go to that place, he said. He was upset about it. And I thought, you know, that's a bizarre thing to be upset about.

In the culture we live in where, you know, immodesty seems to be everywhere, you're going to get upset because the women, they dress modestly.

I don't know. It just seemed odd to me. But or here's another attitude. You believe that?

You believe that? Pastor Hughes is the King James version of the Bible. Can you believe that? I've heard people like express disgust.

Like I would never go to a church that uses the King James version. Like there's people out there who think this way and it's just bizarre.

If you really think that's the problem in the modern church, like you're crazy. One article about fundamentalism says this, the fundamentalist movement has its roots in Princeton Theological Seminary because of its association with graduates from that institution.

Two wealthy church laymen commissioned 97 conservative church leaders from all over the

Western world to write 12 volumes on the basic tenets of the Christian faith. They then published these writings and distributed over 300 ,000 copies free of charge to ministers and others involved in church leadership.

The books were entitled The Fundamentals and they are still in print today as a two volume set.

I've never read those books but the article continues, it says fundamentalism was formalized in the late 19th century and early 20th century by conservative

Christians such as John Nelson Darby, Dwight L.

Moody, B .B. Warfield, Billy Sunday and others who were concerned that moral values were being eroded by the modernists.

So back in the late 1800s, okay think about this, they were concerned that moral values were in decline in churches in the late 1800s,

I mean you can just imagine what they would say today. And these are men that are very well respected,

D .L. Moody, B .B. Warfield, but now if somebody's concerned about moral values and they're preaching against LGBT, you know, they're just being divisive and we don't want to be one of these fighting fundamentalists, okay.

So at least by this definition, if you believe this definition, a fighting fundamentalist would appear to be someone who fights the good fight of the

Christian faith and just preaches the word of God and believes it and wants to follow it. They stand up for the core doctrines of the faith and they oppose sin and heresy.

And if you take those principles and apply them right now, I guess that means you're a fighting fundamentalist,

I don't know. As opposed to being, you know, worldly or being liberal. So you know, which is the bigger problem right now,

I mean you tell me. But apparently, fundamentalism, you know, that's the issue.

Well, and I want you to be clear on where I'm coming from.

I've never identified as a fundamentalist. I don't think people,

I don't ever remember being called a fundamentalist. You know, in the past six months,

I've gone to a movie theater. In the past six months, I've listened to secular music.

Although I find it harder to do that, you know, and not actually by choice, technically.

But you know, based on the lyrics, I find it harder and harder to listen to secular music.

But you know, I'm not like offended by stuff like this. You know, my daughters wear pants.

So I'm not really, I don't really fit into the fundamentalist category. But, I have respect for people who follow their conscience, and in this age, if I had to choose between, you know, kind of the liberal drift, who just kind of goes along with anything, isn't willing to fight for anything, or become a fundamentalist,

I'd rather be a fundamentalist than liberal. I mean, that's for sure. So that's sort of where I'm coming from.

It's just bizarre. Again, there's pastors and Christians that I've heard talk, and yeah, if a church, if the women dress with modesty, if they use, there's some issue with the, like people do not like the

King James Version of the Bible. So if a church, you know, sings the hymns, or they're against alcohol, it's like other

Christians look down on them, and it's, I don't know. You know, there's a lot of problems in the modern church, and I just don't think this is the big problem.

Okay. But what about the bad type of fundamentalism? Let's look at the other side.

It's true, I have run across a few people in my lifetime where there is a bad type of fundamentalism, where if you disagree with them on anything, any little point of disagreement, they will totally freak out.

Or you know, if you have a different view of the timing of the rapture, then that just means you're not even saved. I mean, that is a thing, but again, it's very, very rare.

But I would say that would be a bad type of fundamentalism, where they take a secondary issue or a third tier issue and make it a salvation issue.

But good luck finding that in Western Massachusetts. I'm not saying it doesn't exist anywhere.

It's just very, extremely rare. So unfortunately, though, people who just simply believe the

Bible, you know, they reject LGBT, they think the earth is about 6 ,000 years old, they actually believe

Moses, that God created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day, or they may or may not use the

KJV. You know, people who just believe a literal interpretation of the Bible these days and preach against the moral decline of the country, they get labeled as a fighting fundamentalist.

And isn't it terrible? Well, if somebody's saying that, it just means they're liberal and instead of, you know, when they're convicted, instead of repenting and believing the scripture, they're just going to attack those who convict them.

I think that's what's going on. So the bigger issue in the church is the refusal to take a stand on anything.

I mean, go back to COVID, you know, all the churches that just, they fell in line, did whatever the government said.

I mean, they didn't want to take a stand. And then if you talk to these pastors privately, they knew it was totally bogus, but you know, they had the fear of man and they shut down and did whatever the government said.

You know, that was a time to stand up and say, you know, we're going to worship

God. Thank you for it. If somebody wants to stay home, that's their choice, but we're going to worship God, but or pick a variety of different issues that people don't want to talk about.

People don't want to preach about it because someone might get upset. That's the bigger issue is what I'm saying.

Now, people, if you are old enough, you might have heard. So some of the older listeners, if you're in your seventies or eighties, or if there's any 90 year olds listening, you might've heard about the fundamentalist controversy back in the day where people separated themselves.

Other ministers separated themselves from Billy Graham because this was a big issue.

I don't know if it was in the 1950s, 1960s. But back then, Billy Graham grew up within fundamentalist circles and he either left or was kicked out depending on who's telling the story.

But Billy Graham, and I think he admits this in his biography, he had a crisis of faith.

He wasn't sure because I want to dig down to where this attitude comes from. But Billy Graham, he had a crisis of faith.

He wasn't sure if the Bible was true because you know, all the scientists were believing in evolution and it was being taught and Billy was like,

I don't know, is the Bible really true or not? Long story short, Billy Graham said that he ended up sticking with the

Bible. But around that time, he left fundamentalism and he started to become very ecumenical.

Billy Graham began fellowshipping with the Roman Catholic church, which the Catholic church affirms evolution, by the way.

Billy Graham embraced the Pope. He invited liberals who also embraced evolution.

He invited liberals to help him in his crusades. Liberal pastors who denied the virgin birth and the resurrection sat on the platform with him as they brought in a rock and roll band to open up his crusades.

So Billy was sort of the first superstar preacher to take this approach. Rock and roll followed by a sermon that was sort of relevant to the issues people were going through.

And don't get me wrong. I have listened to many Billy Graham sermons and I actually think a lot of them were pretty good.

But all the good things you can say about Billy Graham, there were the other things, the ecumenicalism, joining up with the

Catholic church, the compromise with the liberals. And then, you know,

I'm not even going to get into Billy Graham's interview with Robert Schuller where he said basically all religions can get you to God.

You can go to my YouTube channel and search Billy Graham and Robert Schuller and you'll see my review of that interview.

But my point in bringing all this up, most evangelicals today are products, whether they know it or not, they are products of Billy Graham.

That, okay, yes, you know, the Pope and liberals and people who believe in evolution, well, you know, heresy and all that.

I don't agree with that, but I'm willing to compromise. I don't agree with that, but let's not make a big deal about it and be one of those fundamentalists.

So Billy Graham linked arms with those people and now that has led to modern evangelicals doing either the same thing or they've taken it a step beyond that.

But here's a verse that I think applies, 1 Corinthians 5, 6, it says that a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Here's another verse, 2 Corinthians 6, 14, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

So the first problem we have today, many churches are not following the scripture. They do not practice any ecclesiastical separation.

They're willing to join hands with anyone and everyone. Even the Mormons as seen in the

TV show, The Chosen, they are affirming the faith of Mormons.

So my friends, long story short, the problem today is not fundamentalism. The problem is liberalism.

The problem is modernism. The problem is compromise, not the fighting fundamentalists.

So don't be fooled. And also, oh, these fundamentalists, they just want to fight about everything.

Have you noticed that the liberals are fighting? The progressives, the liberals, you better believe they're fighting for their causes.

They're fighting for what they believe in. So in conclusion, the fighting fundamentalists, they're not the problem in the modern church.

They're not the reason why Christianity is in decline in America. It's probably more the previous generation of Christian leaders who decided they no longer want to fight about anything.

I'll close with what Jude, the half -brother of Jesus, wrote. He said, we need to earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.