The Five Fundamentals of The Christian Faith

The Rise of Fundamentalism and the Five Fundamentals

Last Sunday we started the rise of fundamentalism. So the term fundamentalist generally, we said, has a negative connotation in contemporary culture. But the book says, as noted above, fundamentalism began as a movement consisting of Bible-believing Christians.

So the early fundamentalists were people the fundamentals of the faith. So very basic. We talked about some of those men, Dwight Lyman Moody, Cyrus C .I. Schofield, I'm not sure what the I stands for, and then Billy Sunday.

So Moody lived from 1837 to 1899, Schofield 1843 to 1921, and Billy Sunday 1882 to 1935. So what was the big issue with the fundamentalists back in the, what was it, 1930s, 1940s? And it's still an issue today.

What was the sort of the flashpoint in the early part of the 20th century? I'll give you a little hint. This teaching contradicts the Bible and they slipped it into the public school curriculum and it's still there today.

Yeah. So basically any child who goes to the public school system, I mean they're taught that the Bible's not true, there is no God, or something along those lines. If it's not explicitly taught, it's underneath the surface.

And oftentimes it is explicitly taught. So yeah, evolution was the big issue, but we're probably not going to talk about evolution today. We'll keep, we'll save that for next week with the scopes, monkey trial, and all of that.

But Ray, you have a question? Yeah, it's called the theory of evolution, but as you know, it's taught as though it's a fact. If you are a professor in a university and you don't believe in evolution, I mean, you're seen as an outcast, you're backwards, you're unintelligent, and that's obviously how they view Bible believers.

But like I said, we'll get into that probably more next week. The book says in 1910, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church articulated five fundamentals, which they believed articulated the heart of Orthodox Christianity, specifically in the face of liberal attacks.

These five fundamentals were as follows. So this is where you had to write into your book, and hopefully you got the right answers. The first fundamental of the faith is what? The inerrancy of Scripture.

And really, if you don't get this right, everything else is going to be off from that point on. This is why I'm pretty sure our church doctoral statement, it begins with the authority of Scripture, because that's the basis for everything.

You take that out, what do you have left? You have opinion. So the first fundamental of the faith, to be a true Orthodox Bible-believing Christian, you need to believe in the authority or inerrancy of Scripture.

The second fundamental is the virgin birth and deity of Jesus Christ. Did you get that? Is that what you had written down? Now, that's sort of two different things, okay? The virgin birth and deity of Christ.

But really, the deity of Christ is because of the virgin birth, right? The two go hand-in-hand, because if Jesus is born of a virgin, who's his father? God. And if God's his father, then Christ is divine, by definition.

So that's the second fundamental. The substitutionary atonement of Christ is the third fundamental. Four, the bodily resurrection of Christ. And then number five, the authenticity of Christ's miracles.

And if you look it up, sometimes there's different lists of the seven fundamentals of the faith, but here we're dealing with five, the five original fundamentals. Now, do you agree with this list? Is there anything you think should be on here that isn't?

I mean, personally, I would want to add the return of Jesus as a fundamental. To be a true Christian, you have to believe Jesus is coming back. There's probably a lot of things you could add, but let's just stick with these five things right here.

Inerrancy and Preservation of Scripture

So, the inerrancy of Scripture. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 5, verse 18. First, we need to establish, does the Bible teach the inerrancy of Scripture? What does inerrancy mean? Who remembers the definition?

Yeah, inerrancy means no errors. The other word that's similar to it is infallibility, which means there can be no errors. And I think we talked about this, that that doesn't really apply to any one Bible translation.

I mean, I know there's people who think that it applies to the King James Version, and if that's your conviction, that's fine. But, generally, we would say that any one translation could have an error.

It could be a scribal error. It could be a printing error. So, I don't believe the NIV is inerrant. I don't even believe the New King James Version is necessarily inerrant. But, the original writings, the original autographs written by Jeremiah or Matthew or the Apostle John, they were truly inerrant and infallible.

And basically, there's only a few verses, a very small number of things that are in question, and it doesn't affect this doctrine, really, of the inerrancy of Scripture. Okay, you're in Matthew chapter 5, right?

Let's just see what Jesus said about the Word of God. Jesus said in Matthew 5 verse 18, He said, For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled.

You could make a strong case that what Jesus is saying here, and what I believe He is saying, is that at least the writings of Moses, and the lock sometimes refers to the whole of the Old Testament, not even the dotting of an I or the crossing of a T is gonna pass away.

So, it's true and God's Word is preserved. I would say this is a good verse on the preservation of Scripture, because really, if God inspired His Word, but then it wasn't preserved, I mean, what good is that?

If it was inspired and then lost to history, then we don't have it. But Jesus says not one thing will pass away from the law. Here's another verse, you don't have to turn there, but Psalm 119 verse 160, it says, The entirety of your Word, O Lord, is truth, and every one of your righteous judgments endures forever.

So, according to the Psalmist, the entirety of the Word of God is what? True, and if it's true, it's what? Without error. Okay, any questions or comments so far? Let's say, and this may be true, let's say you know somebody who, they identify as a Christian, they're part of a different type of church, and they say, well, you know, I believe a lot of the Bible, but there's just some parts of the Bible that, you know, I just don't think this part's true.

I don't agree with this part. I think, you know, the book of Revelation or whatever they say, I think this wasn't really authentic. What would your reaction be? Let's say your friend or family member or somebody who's, they say they're a Christian, but they're denying parts of the Bible.

What would be your response? Where do you stop? And that's a good question. And how do you determine that? How do you determine what parts are true and what parts are not? It's kind of left up to the individual to just pick and choose what they like and what they don't.

I just have to believe that God was involved in putting the 66 books of the Bible together. I mean, this is something that, I mean, it's true, Roman Catholics have extra books in their Bible. Granted, that's true, but whether you talk to any Protestant, Baptist, Evangelical, non-denominational, the old-school Methodists, you know, the Presbyterians, I mean, just, this is something that Evangelicals have always agreed on, the 66 books of the Bible.

This is, this is the Word of God and it's all true. Let's turn to Matthew 24. Jesus, once again, commenting on the authority of Scripture. I would say, you know, listen, if somebody were to say they deny certain parts of the Bible, I would have serious questions about their salvation, their faith.

Not that I would, you know, question. I'd probably see where they're coming from and try to figure out why are you denying this or that in the Bible. But really, if someone denies the authority of Scripture, that would make them unorthodox.

And you just have, yeah, you have to wonder, like Ray said, like where does it end? What else do you deny? So, I'm not going to say that if someone has doubts about that, that means they're automatically unsaved, but you're on real, real thin ice at best, and it's probably worse than that.

Matthew 24, 35. Who wants to read that? Larry? Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. Okay. I mean, that's a pretty clear statement. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.

Of course, I can already anticipate what somebody might say. You know, there's the red letter Christians, right? Yes, well, I believe that. I believe what Jesus said is right, but it's that Paul guy. I just don't know if I believe him.

So, yeah, well, but if you take the entirety of all the statements throughout the Bible about the Bible, about God's Word, they're all saying the same thing. It won't pass away. It's true. It's inspired by God, etc.

Let's go to 2 Peter 1, and this will be the last point we'll make about the authority or inerrancy of Scripture. But, I mean, do you agree with this? This is a fundamental belief. It's like a core belief that if you don't have this right, it's gonna create big problems.

So, let's see. 2 Peter 1, 2 Peter 1, 20 and 21. Mark, you want to read that when you get it? 2 Peter 1, 20 and 21. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in the old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Okay, what is he saying? That Scripture is not the product of man, it's the product of God. It's the Word of God. Okay, who believes that? Raise your hand if you believe that. Does that make you a fundamentalist?

By this definition, at least by the old definition, it would make you a fundamentalist. Because, again, you just believe in, like, the basic fundamental teachings of Christianity. The Bible's true. I mean, what more simple thing can you have than that?

Hey, I am a Christian, I believe the Bible. And it seems so obvious, right? Now, I suspect, at the same time, not all of you go by the label of fundamentalist. You probably don't introduce yourself to people and say, hey, yeah, I'm one of those Christian fundamentalists.

I think the problem with labels like that, and that's fine if you don't, because labels tend to carry a lot of baggage. So, even if this is what you mean by, I'm a fundamentalist, if somebody hears you say, I'm a fundamentalist, they're gonna oftentimes assume they're very worst.

Like people said, that fundamentalism brings all sorts of negative things into their mind. But, again, it's just believing the basics. Okay, so the inerrancy of scripture. Any final questions or comments on that before we move on?

Mark. In 2 Peter 3 .15 -16, where Peter's speaking about Paul's writings, and refers to them by way of, as they do also in the other scriptures, under their own instruction, doesn't that put the writings of Paul and the Apostles on the same page?

That's it. That's a good point. I'm glad you brought that up, because a lot of these verses, whether it's Jesus in Matthew 5 or Psalm 119, someone could say, well, okay, that's true, but that only applies to the Old Testament.

Where does the Bible, you know, say this about the New Testament? And Mark's absolutely correct. According to Peter, Peter calls Paul's writings what? He calls them scripture. So, it was understood in the early church that the Apostles were writing scripture.

I mean, at least Peter understood that. He identified that. So, yeah. Does everyone see that? And he says some, you know, some of the things that Paul writes about are hard to understand. And that's true as well.

Right. And you could make an argument that, right, that's New Testament. Yep. Very good. Good. Okay. Anything else before we move on to the second fundamental? All right. The second fundamental is the virgin birth and deity of Christ.

The Virgin Birth and Deity of Christ

Let's turn back to Matthew. Matthew chapter 1. There's several verses we could go to to talk about Christ's deity, but again, it's the it's the virgin birth, really, that's the, or at least one of the underpinnings, or one of the things that lays the foundation of the deity of Christ.

Because, again, if Jesus is not born of a virgin, that means that he's the son of Joseph or some other guy, as the Jews claim, you know. So, it's, it really, it really hinges on the virgin birth. So, here's what Matthew wrote, Matthew 1, 22 and 23.

Well, let's go back to verse 21. Matthew 1, 21, and she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Who's, who's talking here? The angel, right?

So, all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated, God with us.

So, Jesus being born, this is God being born. God is now with you, because Jesus, God in the flesh, has come to this earth. So, according to Matthew, Matthew the Apostle, his interpretation of Isaiah was this, Isaiah 6, 6, 9, is it?

7, yeah, sorry, 7, 14. That's, I was thinking of Isaiah 9, 6. I had it backwards. Isaiah 7, 14, let's go back there. Isaiah 7, 14, and usually I bring this up around Christmas time, that, I mean, this is another verse the liberals really, I don't know if they attack the verse as much as they try to re-redefine it or reinterpret it.

Isaiah 7, 14 says, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign, behold, what? Okay, who said the young girl? Who said that? All right, see, I know Mark doesn't have the Revised Standard Version, but if you look at the Revised Standard Version, and there's probably one or two others, it does say the young woman will conceive.

You know, the word Alma in Greek, or excuse me, Hebrew, can be translated as young woman, but we already saw in Matthew, Matthew's interpretation is that Isaiah was prophesying about a virgin conceiving.

That's clearly what the scripture teaches, teaches that in Luke as well. Yes, Mark. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign, behold, a young lady shall have a child that is not a sign, having a baby.

Right, a sign, another word for miracle, signs, powers, wonders. If a young woman has a child, that's not exactly a miracle, is it? It's only a miracle, it's only a sign, if it's a virgin conceiving. Okay, so according to the Bible, Jesus was born of a virgin, God is his father, that makes him the Son of God, that makes him divine.

He has equality with the Father. Okay, pretty, pretty basic. Any questions on that? Okay, so we talked about what if, what if, a friend, family member, someone you know who's a Christian, they denied the inerrancy of scripture.

I would be very concerned about them if they did that. But what if somebody denied the virgin birth or the deity of Christ? To me, this is even more obvious. If someone denies the virgin birth or the deity of Christ, they're just, they're not saved.

I mean, bottom line, I mean, this, this is key. Because the inerrancy of scripture, you can make arguments about, okay, yeah, but the translations aren't technically inspired and it kind of muddies the water a little bit.

This is clear. You deny the deity of Christ, that puts you outside of the Christian faith. I mean, that, that's a open and shut case. And not just my view, but any, any Bible-believing pastor I know, I think, would say the same thing.

I mean, this is the whole confession of faith. Jesus is what? Yeah, he's Lord. As in, he's, you know, the Lord, he's the Son of God. That's the confession of faith that saves. Mark, you got something?

Anyone who preaches another gospel and that I've talked about, let them be anathema. Right, yeah. It's kind of a hard pill to take. And if you're dealing with somebody that's denying the virgin birth.

Right. The deity of Christ. Yep, yep. Scripture. That's why the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons in a lot of the Seventh-day Adventists, this is why they were considered, those groups were considered cults, because they denied the deity of Christ.

I mean, that, that was understood for a hundred and something years. I sat in Sunday school class in a Presbyterian church and somebody talked about the myth of the virgin birth. Right. Right out there.

And not a single person in that class repeated it. Yeah. Obviously a liberal Presbyterian church. In Pennsylvania. Yeah, you would, I don't know, they're everywhere. Right. Yeah, I mean, that's a serious, it does violence to the person and work of Christ.

Because then Jesus is just a man. And how can just another guy die for your sins? I mean, can Mark die for our sins? If Mark was crucified for us, well, good would that do? No offense, Mark, but. Yeah, Larry.

Right. Amen. Okay, good. So I think we're pretty set on that. Okay. The third fundamental of the faith, the substitutionary atonement of Christ or his death. This is a little more, I don't know, technical or theological with the language.

The Substitutionary Atonement of Christ

Let's turn to Romans chapter 6, 23. There's probably several verses we could point to, but this is understanding what the cross was all about. Why did it have to happen like that? Why did Jesus have to die?

What did the cross mean? What was it all about? Again, you go to what the liberals, you know, they deny this as well and attack the authority of scripture. They would say Jesus died as an example. You know, I've heard people say that Jesus was setting an example of like pacifism.

You know, he could have told his followers to rise up and fight. But, you know, the real Christian message is pacifism and Jesus laid down his life as an example. Okay. Well, I mean, that's not true because when Jesus comes back, there's going to be a war.

I mean, he's not a pacifist, but other people say it's an example of love. Well, how is that? I don't know. I mean, it is obviously if you believe what the Bible says, but what is Romans 6, 23 say who wants to read that?

Linda. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Okay. That's the wrong verse. What am I looking for? Hmm. Okay. That's that is the wrong verse. And I'm not sure what I had in mind when I wrote that down.

So Let's see. Second Corinthians. Second Corinthians 5, 21 for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. There is a verse similar to this that I was thinking. Obviously, it's not Romans 6, 23. But yeah.

Second Corinthians 5, 21. God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us. I mean, how many verses say that Christ died? He died for our sins. Like he took our place, right? The just for the unjust, which versus that there's all sorts of passages that say something along those lines that Christ was the substitute.

He died in our place. I mean, this is the whole concept of the gospel that because we sinned, I mean, that's what Romans 6, 23 does say. We deserve death, right? Because of our sin. But Jesus who didn't have any sin, he took that penalty for us.

So he died in our place as a substitute. Aaron. Yeah, I'm not. I'm not sure. Yeah. Romans 6, 10. I mean, that's a good one. That's a good one too. So a lot of different passages. Isaiah 53 talks about the Lord made his soul and offering for sin.

This is the whole purpose of the sacrificial system. The children of Israel were guilty, but instead of God punishing them, what did they do? They offered this innocent animal as a sacrifice to pay, even though that didn't really pay for sin.

It was all pointing to Jesus who took our place. Okay, so this is the substitutionary atonement of Christ. If a person denies this, I would just argue they really don't understand what the gospel is if they deny this.

Any questions or comments on that? Yeah. Right. They're like, who let this fundamentalist in to the church? Okay, the next fundamental, the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 15.

The Bodily Resurrection of Christ

Of course, this was the passage I spoke on last Sunday for Easter or Resurrection Sunday. And there's a whole list of verses that teach the resurrection. I mean, just too many. We spend the rest of the class looking them up.

See, nobody denies that the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead. So why do people reject it then? Why do people deny it? I mean, it goes back to the denial of the first part that the scripture is true or authoritative because they say, well, a person can't rise from the dead.

That's impossible. Yeah, but what you're saying is it's impossible for God to raise someone from the dead. It's a matter of lacking faith in what God can do. And if you believe God is the creator and he made everything, I don't see why it's so hard to believe he could raise Jesus from the dead.

Okay, 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you first of all. Okay, this is of first importance. This is the most important thing to believe. That what? Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

So this is the bodily resurrection. Here's the thing. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, what does that mean? There's no what? No hope. The dead do not rise. So you have no hope of eternal life. Paul goes on in the chapter.

He's like, well, that turns the apostles into false witnesses were of most of all people, the most to be pitied. Yeah, you have no hope. It also means the Bible isn't true. If Jesus didn't rise, but the scripture says he did, it makes the Bible false.

And yeah, the entire Christian faith cracks and crumbles and collapses. That's why churches that deny the resurrection, these liberate, they turn into social clubs for, you know, well, they turn into social clubs for people, you know, to get together and do whatever they do.

But they don't really believe the Christian message. Now, does that make you a fundamentalist to believe in the resurrection of Christ? Well, again, in the early days, this was the terminology because this is so basic, it's fundamental.

Okay, the fifth one, the authenticity of Christ's miracles. Here's where I want to turn to you. And I'd like a little help from the class here. What verse would you turn to to defend the authenticity of Christ's miracles?

I'm turning to you because I couldn't, you know, I mean, my response would be, well, the whole New Testament speaks to it. Any verse where it's recording that he did it. But can you think of one good verse?

I couldn't think of one particular verse, but I could point to. Well, let's see. Let's go to Matthew again. We've been looking at Matthew a lot. So it's been a while, a few weeks or whatever, since I preached from Matthew.

So what's the last miracle that I covered? I mean, we talked about the feeding of what, the 5 ,000. We talked about Jesus walking on the water. Let's see, Matthew. Let's see, Matthew 14, Matthew chapter 14.

It says in verse, let's see, verse 26. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, it is a ghost. And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, be of good cheer.

It is I. Do not be afraid. I mean, according to the New Testament, Jesus walked on the water. He fed the 5 ,000. He gave sight to the blind. He cleansed the lepers. I mean, just a long list of miracles that he did.

Here's the thing. If he didn't do any of that, then again, what do you have? You have a book that is absolutely filled with fables and myths. And just to let you know, that's the attack of the liberals against the Bible, that the Bible is mythical and you just got to get the nuggets of truth out of there, like love your neighbor and stuff like that.

And that's good enough. But yeah, there's no real hope for the life to come. There's no real hope beyond the grave, which means there's, you know, all you have is eat, drink and be merry. So these are the five fundamentals of the Christian faith.