1) The Bible is literally true. Associated with this tenet is the belief that the Bible is inerrant, that is, without error and free from all contradictions.
Nobody can take that seriously now days who has any intellectual acumen. The Gospels do contain obvious details that are difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile (did Jesus ride one or two donkey's into Jerusalem? And the circumstances of Judas death, are obvious examples). As should be expected from documents that come from different sources from community's with different agendas and were written down some time after the events they reflect.
2) The virgin birth and deity of Christ. Fundamentalists believe that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary and conceived by the Holy Spirit and that He was and is the Son of God, fully human and fully divine.
First off, I believe in the virgin birth, though I believe its symbolism is more important than its strict facticity. Paul was able to preach the Gospel without making the virgin birth a fundamental of the faith. IT seems to me fundamentalists risk making what is really a minor theme in the NT account, into a major theme, overlooking other important themes about Jesus.
I don't know any liberal that denies the divinity of Christ, they just don't believe Greek metaphysical categories are adequate to describe this reality. I am not so skeptical of them, but I still think it is important not to be stuck in a wooden orthodoxy. I think modern theologians can produce valuable insights and reflections on the humanity of Jesus.
3) The substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross. Fundamentalism teaches that salvation is obtained only through God’s grace and human faith in Christ’s crucifixion for the sins of mankind.
Mired in juridical medieval Latin concepts that has little to do with the
Jewish faith of Christ. YHWH does not need blood sacrifices to appease his sense of anger or justice, YHWH is
El malei rachamim, "God, full of mercy".
4) The bodily resurrection of Jesus. On the third day after His crucifixion, Jesus rose from the grave and now sits at the right hand of God the Father.
And how did this all happen? Did he just get up and walk out of the tomb in the same bloody body he died in? If so, how was he much different from other people who have been resuscitated? And when he ascended into heaven, where exactly was he going? As Carl Sagan pointed out, if Jesus traveled at the speed of light upward into the sky, he would still be somewhere in our galaxy.
And the right hand of God... does an omnipresent God literally have a right hand to sit on? Or is this simply a way of saying that Jesus holds the fullness of what is means for a man to embody the promises of the Law and the Prophets, and thus showed himself to be the Messiah and the Elected One of Israel.
I believe Jesus Christ is alive in a meaningful way that we can experience today (I have supper with Jesus every sunday). The exact details of how and what Jesus resurrection was is not important to me. I think that is sufficient basis for me to have a generous orthodoxy towards other Christians, that can encompass the faith of Billy Graham and N.T. Wright, all the way to perhaps Marcus Borg and Jack Spong. Unlike fundamentalists, I am not into having firm boundaries for who is in and out, merely because their way of being Christian is different from mine. I look at the fruits of that faith to know them (as Jesus told us to do).
5) The authenticity of Jesus’ miracles as recorded in Scripture.
Even many modern liberals will grant that at least some of Jesus miracles happened. Marcus Borg seemed to believe his miracles were akin to modern faith healings.
