Where Fundamentalism has failed
Comments: A couple of interesting blog posts by Kent Brandenburg on Fundamentalism are linked below. Frankly Kent and I probably do not see eye to eye on some points. He is strongly KJV and I am not. He has views on women's dress that I cannot concur with. And I am a strong Calvinist and he is not. I also add that my experiences in fundamentalism (largely the GARBC and now 4th Baptist Church) have generally been very positive and I love my own church!.
One think Kent and would agree on is how John MacArthur was savagely maligned on "the blood issue"
Kent writes in Part 2
When Bob Jones attacked MacArthur in their magazine, Faith for the Family, I already knew what MacArthur's position was on the blood of Christ. Fundamentalist leaders said that MacArthur denied the blood. I knew that wasn't true, because I had read through his Hebrews commentary. The type of argumentation used against MacArthur was so superficial and silly that I was mystified. To start, MacArthur did not deny the blood, but even if he did, his error should have been pointed out from scripture. Bob Jones and its surrogates really did argue a strawman at the time. Once they saw that they had misrepresented MacArthur, they should have recanted right away, but they dug in for over a decade in typical fundamentalist fashion. As the winds toward MacArthur began to change among young fundamentalists, Bob Jones came out with a weak apology many years later.
As Kevin Bauder has famously said, there is a fundamentalism worth saving.
In my view Fundamentalism has failed in these areas:
- Where there is showmanship it has failed
- Where there is an authoritative governing structure it has failed (Dictator Pastors)
- Where there is weak preaching (non-exegetical) it has failed
- Where there is a rules-based view sanctification it has failed
- Where guilt is used to manipulate people it has failed
- Where people are ignorant of the Scriptures it has failed
- Where fringe views percolate to the top and become cardinal doctrines of the faith, it has failed.
- Where Calvinism (or more properly the doctrines of grace) are vilified it has failed.
When I Left Fundamentalism part two
As always I appreciate your comments
I can say a hearty "AMEN" to many of those comments, but I am puzzled that a "former fundamentalist" is somehow endorsing Fairhaven Baptist of Chesterton. I grew up in Chesterton, had relatives who were members there, and cannot see how that church can be seen as anything BUT fundamentalist. Maybe it's not Hyles, but please....is he a "former fundamentalist" or a "former Hylesist"?
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side, it is heartening to see a KJV-preferred/only advocate who actually knows more than a few letters in Greek. A lot of the reading I've done of KJV-only activists suggests that they're pretty much monolingual on a particularly good day.
....treasuring the fundamentals and the work many did to prevent liberal theology from absorbing the Church as a whole, cringing at some of the nonsense I've seen in modern fundamentalism....