Dear Readers,

THE HISTORY OF FUNDAMENTALISM (I)
(Originally by Ko Lingkang. Published and Adapted with Permission)

The Fundamentalist Movement

The fundamentalist movement can be said to have come about as a response to the liberals who crept into the mainline denominations in the early 20th century.

The Rise of Modernism

Inroads of Falsehood

After the 16th century Reformation, the Protestant Church soon became infected by various forms of unbelief from the 17th to the 19th century. There were English Deism, French Naturalism and German Rationalism:

(1) English Deism believes that God created the world and left it alone to run on its own. This belief says there are no miracles in the Bible and there is no Word of God. The Bible is the word of men since God has distanced Himself and left man to fend for himself.

(2) French Naturalism believes that Mother Nature is the god of the universe. There is no personal God who is living and true at all. Nature is what we have and all there is to our existence. The god of the naturalist is science. Science is the determining factor of what is true and what is false. Naturalism rejects all the miracles in the Bible as science cannot prove the reality of miracles.

(3) German Rationalism glorifies reason. Man is the final determinant of what is true or false. Man’s ability to reason things through inadvertently turns the Bible into a common book. Again it rejects the miracles of the Bible for man cannot explain God’s miracles if he rejects Him and His Word and works. It is this evil that has produced the deadly “science” called textual criticism.

All three of these false teachings began to make gradual inroads into the professing Church, particularly into its educational institutions. Learned men began to declare that “all that claimed to be divine revelation must be squared with human reason, and that, if it was not reasonable, it was not valid.”(Pickering) The age of reason was the beginning of the rejection of God and His Holy Word. Man puts himself on a pedestal and starts to question the Word of God. Settled doctrine like the inspiration of God’s Holy Word was re-examined and redefined to suit man’s way of thinking. Any doctrine that is not pleasant to man must be rejected or reviewed completely. Man is now god. The Bible is his servant. He decides what is and what is not part of God’s Word. To say that there are mistakes in the Bible is part of the day to day language of the “reasonable” man. Evidence becomes the highest priority in the determining of truth.

This is the kind of arrogance and egocentric behaviour that will inevitably lead man down the road of ultimate destruction. Rationalism possesses a humanistic approach to Scripture. The rationalist criticizes the Bible and subjects it to all sorts of critical analysis so much so that the Bible is reduced to no more than the work of any ordinary and fallible man like Shakespeare. Such irreverence cannot be tolerated and must be denounced and avoided at all costs. These attitudes must not be found in the membership of conservative churches and especially in the ranks of leadership. Every Christian must have the highest reverence for God’s Holy and perfect Word. The Word of God must be our Judge and not the other way round. Modernistic textual criticism is precisely what it calls itself, criticizing the Biblical text and alleging that it contains mistakes.

Doctrinal Deviation

When the authority of the Bible is undermined, its cardinal doctrines would one by one be surrendered. It is a matter of time. In order for the believer not to slide down the slippery road of destruction, he must not allow falsehood, no matter how appealing it may appear, to lull him into complacency and to surrender his fundamentals.

The doctrines that were rejected by the naturalists, modernists and liberals included (1) the full inspiration, inerrancy, infallibility and authority of the Word of God, (2) the deity of Christ Jesus Christ, (3) the virgin birth of Christ (4) the miracles of Christ, (5) the supernatural creation of the world and man, (6) the total depravity, corruption and ignorance of man, and (7) the necessity for man to be spiritually regenerated or born again.

Thus unbelief from Europe crossed the Atlantic Ocean to infect many church-related Bible Colleges and theological seminaries in the United States. Many seminaries have capitulated to the errors of unbelief. They graduate hundreds of pastors who bring poisonous and deadly doctrines into churches all over America and infecting their congregations at will. Generations of hard work were neutralized by one generation of compromisers beginning with pastors who were infected with unbelieving and unbiblical doctrines. Salvation in Jesus Christ alone was at stake. The eternal destiny of the souls of people all over the world was at risk for America was the heartland of Christianity. Hundreds, if not thousands, of missionaries were sent worldwide from America since the turn of the 20th century with their “new” doctrines. This unbelief and apostasy culminated in the doctrine of Unitarianism. Unitarianism was not a total rejection of God but a redefinition of God. It is a deceptive system of thought.

The system of thought called `Unitarianism’ arose early in Europe, surfaced in England around the 1770’s, and became prominent in the United States at about the same time. The rise of Unitarian unbelief is traced to the “Congregational churches of New England where the old‑time gospel of the Puritans had been preached, but where unbelief began to flourish. Harvard College was taken over by Christ‑deniers in violation of ethical principles and in definite breach of trust with those who founded the school. Old foundations established by the Pilgrim Fathers for the perpetuation and teaching of their views in theology were seized upon and appropriated to the support of opposing views. A fund given for preaching an annual lecture on the Trinity was employed for preaching an attack upon it.” (Pickering)

These attacks began to gain much ground. And today, the attacks continue to mount. There seems to be no way of stopping the downgrade of conservatism today. Conservative Christianity seems to be dying, but God always has His remnant. The Word of God to Elijah is very apt at this time. 1 Kings 19:18 says, “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.”

(To be continued)…