Fundamental Baptists

Introduction

This evening we want to consider another name that is commonly applied to churches like our.

Last week we saw that we exist as an independent body.

This is a term we will proudly claim.

We do not subject ourselves to the authority of any other entity besides the Lord Jesus.

We are free to be the unique ministry that this community needs us to be.

The descriptor that we are going to look at tonight is slightly different.

It is different in that it is not always a term that we would claim for ourselves.

Instead this has become more of a derogatory term that is usually meant to be an insulting Jab.

It is supposed to mean that the target is out of touch.

It is supposed to mean that the target is more passionate about other things besides the Bible.

The term that I’m talking about is the term “fundamental.”

There is nothing in our church’s documentation that refers to us as a fundamentalist church.

That wouldn’t stop most of modern christianity for identifying us as fundamentalists.

But is this a fair analysis?

In order to understand that we have to understand what they are actually accusing us of and whether or not there is any truth to it.

Modern perceptions of fundamentalists.

One writer said that “fundamentalist” is a word that that is used by the folks that “take delight in disparaging strong religious convictions.”

I’m okay with being identified as someone who has strong religious convictions.

There are certain things that I am just not willing to bend on.

Another theologian said that “fundamentalists” are those who “parade secondary and sometimes even obscure aspects of our positions as necessary frontal phases of our view.”

I’m not okay with being known for taking secondary issues and making them primary issues.

Those things that I’m not willing to bend on…are they primary or secondary issues.

Fundamentalism began as attempt to refocus Christians on the truth of God’s word.

The term was first used in 1922 to apply to a group Bible-loyal Baptists.

It became an internationally known term in 1925 upon the publication of The Fundamentals.

Christians were being distracted by Evolution, textual criticism, and replacing evangelism with social programs.

The Fundamentals would contain 90 essays attempting to refocus believers in all camps back on the Bible

The forward to the 4 volume collection of essays stated:

This book is the first of a series which will be published and sent to every pastor, evangelist, missionary, theological professor, theological student, Sunday school superintendent, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. secretary in the English speaking world, so far as the addresses of all these can be obtained.

Two intelligent, consecrated Christian laymen bear the expense, because they believe that the time has come when a new statement of the fundamentals of Christianity should be made.

Their earnest desire is that you will carefully read it and pass its truth on to others.

Not even Fundamentalists were immune from distraction.

Within 50 years, cultural battles “eclipsed the theological battle both as motivator and engine of growth.”

The “crusade” of Bible believing Christians shifted until their ministry was “not about how to read the Bible, but how to vote and act on abortion, feminism, homosexuality, school prayer, and host of other related issues.”

All of these things need to be spoken on and acted on by Christians, but we should all understand that these issues are simply symptoms of the fact that we as God’s people have become distracted from what is primary.

There is always going to be a danger of Christians becoming distracted.

Do you know how many times I got distracted trying to write this sermon?

Jesus’ apostles were distracted from His true mission throughout His earthly ministry.

They were consumed with the idea that Jesus was going to set up an earthly kingdom.

Jesus tried to pull them back to the truth over and over.

He did not come to reign, He came, according to Luke 19:10 “10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

This was the fundamental fact of Jesus’ mission.

No matter how much the disciples wanted to focus on their interpretation of His life, they couldn’t change what was true.

By maintaining their distraction, all the disciples did was become disillusioned when Jesus didn’t do what they wanted.

Paul also dealt with people who became distracted from the truth.

Galatians deals heavily with this issue.

Paul tells the churches in this region that they have become distracted.

Galatians 1:6-7 “6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.”

The message of the Bible is not man’s message, it is God’s.

Galatians 1:11-12 “11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

When Christians begin to follow men over God, then we will easily find ourselves becoming more and more distracted from what God intended for us.

Distracted Christians start to do weird things.

Galatians talks about how following men takes the liberty that we enjoy and exchanges it for slavery. (Galatians 2:4)

If you are a Christian you will support these social causes that I support.

If you are a Christian you will oppose these philosophies that I oppose.

Paul says in 2:5 that they didn’t give this an opportunity subjugate them, not even for an hour.

It didn’t matter, either, how great the men were that promoted these distractions, if they were being untrue to the truth then they were not worthy to be followed.

Even Peter had allowed himself to get distracted.

Paul says in Galatians 2:11 “11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.”

What was Peter guilty of that this was necessary?

We aren’t going to get into all of it, but Paul summarizes the issue in Galatians 2:14 “14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?”

Paul uses this as an illustration because the Galatians were being influenced by Judaizers to believe that they had to observe the law in addition to their relationship with Jesus.

Why would a child of freedom want to go back under bondage?

That’s what happens when we get distracted from the truth.

We start to add other rules and conditions to qualify our religion.

Paul refocuses their attention on the truth.

He says this to them in Galatians 5:1 “1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

All of us need someone to refocus us on the truth from time to time.

Fundamentalists were originally an effort to do this for followers of Christ.

So, are we a fundamentalist church or not?

Do we want to be fundamental or do we not?

Well it depends.

Are we talking about a church that refocuses people on the fundamentals of the Christian faith?

The virgin birth

The inerrancy of the Bible

The Trinity

Salvation by grace through faith

The incarnation of Jesus

The work of the Holy Spirit

The presence of sin

The return of Christ

Are we talking about a church that takes secondary or ancillary issues and making them the primary focus?

Music (whether you want it to be more traditional or modern)

Dress

Social issues

Political issues

On one hand, as one writer put it, fundamentalists posses a mentality that is “legalistic and authoritarian” they are “intolerant of differing viewpoints and feel compelled to impose themselves on the rest of the society.”

If they are referencing those who get distracted and begin to follow the dictates and traditions of men, then they are probably right.

That’s exactly what Paul was battling against in Galatians.

On the other hand, it is fairly common for those with strong religious convictions to be misrepresented.

That’s why one man said about fundamentalists, “I don’t feel like we are a bunch of obscurantist, anti-intellectual, pew-jumping, backwoods hillbillies, I consider fundamentalists as simple, Bible-believing Christians.

I’m okay if someone wants to label us “fundamentalists” because of our efforts to point people back to the Bible.

The message of the Bible and the message of the gospel is where liberty and freedom are found.

I’m not okay if we are linked in with the fundamentalists because of our propensity to major on the minors and minor on the majors.