7 Ways to Know If You Are Becoming a Fundamentalist

JM said:

A couple of his point hit home...I believe in sharing the pain.

:o

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savedandthankful said:

Why does everyone use the term fundamentalist to discribe extreamism or following teachers as if they are gods? The fundamentalist statement of faith says none of these things.

I suspect there are two types of fundamentalist these days. Media fundamentalists are ultra conservative zealots who have been labeled as fundamentalists by the media, but they're theology is anything but fundamental becase it rejects the teachings about love, compassion and liberty in disputable matters.

The theological fundamentalist is not like this (well sometimes we are because we're sinners, but this is not what our faith is based on). We put what God's word actually
says before religion and we test every speaker and teacher to see if they're view is consistant with the word rather than following them without question. And we don't just quote verses at people, we try to apply them to our own lives.

I notice this man had a lot to say about the bible, but he quoted very little of it himself. Looks like a religious, spiritul leader to me.

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A Fundamentalist Christian is a born again believer in Lord Jesus Christ who:

1. Maintains an immovable allegiance to the inerrant, infallible, and verbally Inspired Bible;
2. Believes whatever the Bible says is so;
3. Judges all things by the Bible, and is judged only by the Bible, aka - "Sola Scriptura";
4. Affirms the foundational truths of the historic Christian Faith:
   a. The doctrine of the Trinity
   b. The incarnation, virgin birth, substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection, ascension into Heaven, and Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ
   c. The new birth through regeneration of the Holy Spirit
   d. The resurrection of saints to life eternal
   e. The resurrection of the ungodly to final judgment and eternal death
   f. The fellowship of the saints, who are the body of Christ;
   ​
5. Practices fidelity to that faith, and endeavors to preach it to every creature;
6. Exposes and separates from all ecclesiastical denial of that Faith, compromise with error, and apostasy from the Truth; and
7. Earnestly contends for the Faith once delivered.
8. Therefore, Fundamentalism is a militant orthodoxy with a soulwinning zeal. While Fundamentalists may differ on certain interpretations of Scripture, we join in unity of heart and common purpose for the defense of the Faith and the preaching of the Gospel, without compromise or division.

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JM said:

Fundamentalism is an ism affected by pietism and moralism. Both of those are bad, bad things.

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daveleau said:

Unfortunately, the term "Fundamentalist" has been twisted by the media to reflect something it was never intended to reflect. The same occurs each time a term becomes commonly associated with politics in America. Fundamentalism was not a bad word until my seminary's founder (the late Jerry Falwell) became involved in political discussions on a national scale. Currently, Evangelical is becoming a pejorative by some groups. Each time we define orthodox Christianity with a term for easy identification based on biblical principles the media distorts the term. Fundamentalist means one who adheres to the fundamentals. It is not an extremist group of Christian believers unless one considers orthodox Christianity as being extreme. There are legalistic people in each group of Christianity. To define a term based on outliers or exceptions plays into the hands of those who misuse the terms, which in this case is the mainstream anti-Christian media in America.

Fundamentalism is simple Christian orthodox beliefs:
* The inerrancy of the Bible
* The literal nature of the Biblical accounts, especially regarding Christ's miracles, and the Creation account in Genesis.
* The Virgin Birth of Christ
* The bodily resurrection of Christ
* The substitutionary atonement of Christ on the cross

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I'm a Fundamentalist as defined here:

A Fundamentalist Christian is a born again believer in Lord Jesus Christ who:

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1. Maintains an immovable allegiance to the inerrant, infallible, and verbally Inspired Bible;
2. Believes whatever the Bible says is so;
3. Judges all things by the Bible, and is judged only by the Bible, aka - "Sola Scriptura";
4. Affirms the foundational truths of the historic Christian Faith:
   
   a. The doctrine of the Trinity
   b. The incarnation, virgin birth, substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection, ascension into Heaven, and Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ
   c. The new birth through regeneration of the Holy Spirit
   d. The resurrection of saints to life eternal
   e. The resurrection of the ungodly to final judgment and eternal death
   f. The fellowship of the saints, who are the body of Christ;
   ​
5. Practices fidelity to that faith, and endeavors to preach it to every creature;
6. Exposes and separates from all ecclesiastical denial of that Faith, compromise with error, and apostasy from the Truth; and
7. Earnestly contends for the Faith once delivered.
8. Therefore, Fundamentalism is a militant orthodoxy with a soulwinning zeal. While Fundamentalists may differ on certain interpretations of Scripture, we join in unity of heart and common purpose for the defense of the Faith and the preaching of the Gospel, without compromise or division.

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The following are significant differences that we can see today between modern Fundamentalists and those with a Reformed heritage:
Fundamentalism (and its Differences with Reformed Theology)

1) The absence of historical perspective;
2) Ignores the Scriptures highly diverse literary genres;
3) The lack of appreciation of scholarship; aversion toward any secondary theological training; anti-intellectual;
4) The substitution of brief, skeletal, superficial creeds for the historic confessions;
5) The lack of concern with precise formulation of Christian doctrine; highly averse to theology;
6) Pietistic, perfectionist tendencies, often moralistic (i.e., major upon "issues" such as protesting Harry Potter movies; separating with Christians who are not KJV only);Guilt-Centered (Fundamentalism) Vs. Gospel Centered (Reformed) Sanctification
7) One-sided other-worldliness - reclusive: church separate from the culture - the holy huddle (i.e., a lack of effort to impact their communities & transform culture);
8) A penchant for futuristic chiliasm (or: dispensational pre-millennialism);
9) They embrace some form of Manicheanism (or Greek dualism);
10) Often demonize their opposition and are reactionary;
11) Envy modernist cultural/political hegemony and try to overturn the powers that be through political brute force rather than persuasion; Thus are often viewed by outsiders more like a political lobby than representatives of Christ;
12) Arminian tendency in theology (synergistic)
​

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MatthewDiscipleofGod said:

I'm an unashamed Independent Baptist Fundamentalist!

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Big Drew said:

It's just like any other stereotype...many Christians say Pharisee and mean hypocrite, and the like...but not all of the Pharisees were like this...not all fundamentalists are as is described in the video...not all Calvinists damn people to hell...not all Charismatics fall on the floor and flop like a fish...but us humans always want to focus on the negatives, and then the negative minority becomes the majority...in our minds...

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DeaconDean said:

I'm a Fundamentalist as defined here:



Since when, did being a Fundamentalist become a "bad" thing?

God Bless

Till all are one.

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JM said:

Fundamentalism is an ism affected by pietism and moralism. Both of those are bad, bad things.

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Phileoeklogos said:

But you could just as easily say the same for Baptists, or Christianity or religion of any type.

Has fundamentalism been affected by pietism and moralism, sure, any movement going in that direction,(away from liberalism and higher criticism) always will be, moralistic and pieistic is the way its always portrayed by secular media, ie.. "Fred Phelps, fundamentalist baptist", but is Phelps really a fundamentalist? No, he is a denier of the fundamentals.

I see nothing wrong about fundalmentalism as originally defined, but I don't let those who have corrupted it become the definition of it, or those outside the camp media types define it for me.

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DeaconDean said:

That is what I said here:



But yet, because I'm a Fundamentalist, this is charactictic of me:



Strange, for 5 years I have stood against creeds or confessions as the standard for Christians.

Strange that for 5 years I have argued against Manicheanism.

Strange that I a am not "lack of concern with precise formulation of Christian doctrine; highly averse to theology;".

Very strange that I am not anything like point number 6, hum...

Strange that all Fundamentalists are classified as "futuristic chiliasm (or: dispensational pre-millennialism);" as if it is some sort of disease to be avoided as the plague. Hum...

Strange that there are some who hold to a "rapture" theory and yet are condemned by some as I have been and told that I automatically become a "dispensationalist" because of it.

Very, very strange that I most certainly not Arminian/Synergist.

It would seem that the opinions expressed by the above belong only to the author because they certainly do not represent this Fundamentalist!

And there is no way that I can be accused of being an Arminian/Synergist.

God Bless

Till all are one.

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JM said:

Big fan of Biblical christianity but not a fan of Falwell and it is because of folks like him Fundamentalism is to be avoided.

Source:

These were a set of basic truths to which all the conservatives were united in agreement and still are to this day. The following is what came out of the meeting and what Reformed Theology and Modern Fundamentalism still hold in common:
Fundamentalism and its Similarities with Reformed Theology

1) The inspiration and verbal inerrancy of Scripture
2) The Deity of Christ and the virgin Birth
3) The substitutionary atonement
4) Justification by faith
5) The physical resurrection
6) The bodily return of Christ at the end of the age.
7) Christ performed miracles
​

But over time the original reasons for uniting began to fall apart and the differences between the Reformed and other camps began to show. The following are significant differences that we can see today between modern Fundamentalists and those with a Reformed heritage:
Fundamentalism (and its Differences with Reformed Theology)

1) The absence of historical perspective;
2) Ignores the Scriptures highly diverse literary genres;
3) The lack of appreciation of scholarship; aversion toward any secondary theological training; anti-intellectual;
4) The substitution of brief, skeletal, superficial creeds for the historic confessions;
5) The lack of concern with precise formulation of Christian doctrine; highly averse to theology;
6) Pietistic, perfectionist tendencies, often moralistic (i.e., major upon "issues" such as protesting Harry Potter movies; separating with Christians who are not KJV only);Guilt-Centered (Fundamentalism) Vs. Gospel Centered (Reformed) Sanctification
7) One-sided other-worldliness - reclusive: church separate from the culture - the holy huddle (i.e., a lack of effort to impact their communities & transform culture);
8) A penchant for futuristic chiliasm (or: dispensational pre-millennialism);
9) They embrace some form of Manicheanism (or Greek dualism);
10) Often demonize their opposition and are reactionary;
11) Envy modernist cultural/political hegemony and try to overturn the powers that be through political brute force rather than persuasion; Thus are often viewed by outsiders more like a political lobby than representatives of Christ;
12) Arminian tendency in theology (synergistic)
​

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