First Timothy chapter 3, I always wear a suit coat on
Sunday on Wednesday nights but I don't usually wear a suit.
I'm very dressed up for something for Wednesday night.
And but I was Henrico actually Appointed hired.
I don't know what to do with the exact, right word is but a new
fire chief and he asked me to come and do the invocation for
his swearing-in Ceremony this afternoon.
I was very privileged to be able to do that and God's given us
really some good opportunities with the chaplain chaplain.
See the chaplain program and being able to Branch out and do
some other things as well because of it.
And so looking forward to that I'm actually going to a Fort Lee
army base tomorrow. They're doing a prayer breakfast
down there and they invited me to come and be a part of that as
well. And so we'll be doing that first
thing tomorrow morning for a few hours.
And again just just great opportunities and not not out
there trying to make a name for myself or anything like that.
But obviously the this is a little bit loud, turn it down.
Thank you. But the just just the more
opportunities got gives us the more opportunities.
We have to get the gospel out. So we'll take them and we'll use
them and I'll just trust that God knows.
What's best? And so I want to what I want to
talk about tonight and I usually have a lot of Bible verses that
we turn to and I'm not going to do that tonight.
I really want to kind of set the stage for what we're going to be
talking about over the next couple weeks.
But really what I want to talk about.
This is this is right along with the whole idea of what it means
to be a Baptist and we just went through that entire thing.
We use that acrostic what you know, what are the Baptist
distinctives. And we're not going to we're not
going to review those tonight just for the sake of time but I
want to talk about the meaning of biblical fundamentalism and
it's very misunderstood. It's very, it's being distorted.
You have Neo Independent Baptist, you have new
Independent Baptist, a lot of things that are changing and and
really there's a lot of I don't know if hesitancy is the right
word, but really, it's just, it's just a round, the word
fundamentalist. I considered myself to be an
independent fundamental Baptist, and, of course, now that's being
defined as ifb, you know, and people are, people are using
that as a disparaging term, you know, you're an ifb and, and,
you know, in there are certain there are certain just like
there is within any dump denomination.
That gives it a bad name for certain for certain reasons and
because of certain things, Is but the whole movement if and I
don't even really like using that word movement, but the
whole, the whole idea of being an independent fundamental
Baptist is being distorted. And so I want to, I want to
really kind of set the record straight talk about what it is
and so because again, we live in a day when fundamental or
fundamentalist have been misused, it's been abused.
It's been misapplied, both in our secular end is as well as
within Christianity, but the Word, fundamental, simply means
of central importance, or affecting the underlying
principles. And structure of something that
word fundamental has been used for years and years and years to
mean the exact same thing. Right?
When we hear the news media talks about Islamic
fundamentalist we automatically think of terrorists, right?
Because they are holding true. When we hear of radical
fundamentalist, we think of people who are off base in some
extreme or or harmful way, but the connotation that has led a
lot of Americans to fear that. Fundamental or two to question
those who claim to be fundamental when it pertains to
their belief in the Bible. But think about it, this way.
If you were to take the example of a basketball coach, who
believes in the fundamentals of basketball, you would not have
any hesitancy to applaud that coach.
Right to say, man, there's a coach who sticks with the
fundamentals of basketball. And what does that mean?
It means he's teaching, he's teaching them how to pass, how
to shoot, how to play defense, how to play all Offense and and
doing that in a fundamental way. And you might imagine someone is
focusing on those things that those are the fundamentals of
basketball. They are of central importance.
If you're not teaching somebody how to do that in basketball,
you're not teaching them the fundamentals and they're not
going to learn how to play basketball very well.
So in fact, those skills are so important when it comes to the
structure of that sport that if you compromise or if you change
that or if you forget that, you're not going to have the
sport of basketball, you might have some other Name that
similar to the sport of basketball.
You might have another game. That is an offshoot of the game
of basketball, but you don't have the game of basketball
anymore when you get away from the fundamentals of what
basketball is. And so the what the original
sport of basketball was intended to be.
And again, that's exactly what we're talking about when we're
talking about a fundamentalist or somebody who is a fundamental
Christian. We are literally just focusing
around the central importance of the word of God, the doctrines
of the word of God. So we're going to discuss this
idea really for three primary reasons, and I want to give you
those tonight, as we as we head into this and really before we
get into the lesson tonight, but the first reason, why is for
those Christians that are seeking to understand more
clearly, what Biblical fundamentalism truly is.
And again, there's a lot of, there's a lot of misconception
around that idea of being a Biblical fundamentalist.
There's a lot of confusion today on Bible versions.
A lot of confusion on Bible interpretation.
There's a lot of confusion. On ecumenical relationships.
And there's a, there's a vast movement out there.
That's trying to water down the truth.
And, you know, to blend all of the religions together for the
sake of unity, and for the sake of Tolerance, and that is not
Christianity. We're moving away.
When you move away from the fundamentals, you are moving
away from what it actually is, you're moving away from the
things that are of central importance.
And the more you move away from those things, it's a dangerous
course. It's quickly going to take us
away from what Biblical Christianity is all about.
Not all roads, lead to the same place, not all religions are
teaching the truth, not and and I'm going to try not to get
sidetracked on some of these things.
But there's so many of these things that are out there in our
culture today, you know. Well you just need to find your
truth. No, you didn't need to find your
truth. You need to find the truth.
Doesn't matter what you think the truth is, it matters what
the Bible says. The truth is and whatever you
think, doesn't matter when it comes to comparing it to the
word of God. If it lines up with the word of
God, then you're right. If it Line up with the word of
God, then you're wrong and it doesn't matter what your truth
happens to be. So hopefully that will clarify
for us. What?
A fundamental bible-believing, Christian really is, that's the
first reason. The second reason is that there
are those that are outside of biblical fundamentalism
attempting to redefine who we are.
And again, the secular media, the liberal Elite of our culture
are trying to redefine those, who believe the Bible literally.
And they say that we're extreme, or they say that we're even
dangerous, right? Again, it's the ones who are who
are preaching, what has been preached for hundreds and
hundreds of years from the Bible, but because culture has
changed in the last 25 years and the mindset around.
A lot of these things that the Bible preaches and teaches
against or for that matter. Even the things that the Bible
preaches and teaches in favor of it has changed culturally and so
religion has changed along with it but the Bible didn't change.
So when we continue to preach, the things that are in the Bible
that have been preached for hundreds and Thousands of years,
all the sudden were extreme and we're dangerous.
And that's not the case. We're just trying to stick to
the fundamentals of the word of God.
That's going to hopefully help us to see through the smoke and
mirrors of the secular world and help us to truly understand that
the ideas that bible-believing Christians hold to.
And we've already talked about some of that when it comes to
the Baptist distinctive. So we're not going to spend a
lot of time necessarily speaking directly to those but biblical
fundamentalists are no more dangerous or extreme than a
Basketball coach that's holding to the fundamentals of
basketball. So, regardless of how they look
at us from the outside, or what they perceive us to be from the
outside, or however, they are trying to redefine us from the
outside, it's no different than what we've always been.
We simply believe the basic doctrines and the values of the
Bible, and that's what we're going to explore as we as we get
through these lessons over the next few weeks.
So, the third reason, then why it's necessary to help us
understand these things. And why we're going to discuss
these is because there are those within the Fundamentalism who
are trying to redefine who we are.
And as we as we get into it, I'm going to give you some names of
some people who are kind of leading that charge and leading
the charge away from what the Bible is teaching and what we
have always stood for. So, there are those who are
polarizing around personalities and polarizing around
methodologies or institutions. And again, it's a lot of times
in its, it's It's an attempt to build a greater constituency
around themselves and and try to gather more people to to
themselves or, you know, gain more popularity or whatever
else. There's a lot of different
reasons why people do that. But we're hearing the word
fundamental applied to personal preferences or matters of taste
rather than to the unchanging truth of the word of God and we
have to protect that at all costs.
So the truth is that we're going to look at over the next few
weeks or just just as much a fundamental part of our American
history as they are a part of our Jannetty.
And again, it's not that we're coming up with something new.
It's not that we're trying to redefine who we are.
It's not that we're that we've gone more extreme.
It's just that we feel like this is what the Bible says.
This is what we've always stood for.
This is what we've always believed and as the world and
Christianity changes were not changing and so that gives us a
bad perception in a lot of ways. But this this is what has always
been taught and preached. And so tonight, I really want to
give you the First in this little say series it's really
more of a miniseries. That's kind of a part of this
series and what it means to be a Baptist.
But it's the topic that we're going to look at tonight and
it's really kind of the the overall theme of the entire
thing, which is the meaning of biblical fundamentals.
I want to give you a little bit of history with that tonight.
But in first Timothy chapter 3 there, I want to kind of set the
table, or give you a little bit of a background into exactly
what we're talking about here. In 1st, Timothy Chapter 3, and
verse number 15, Who wrote the book of 1st Timothy?
Say it Paul, right, right. And who was he writing to
Timothy, right? Timothy was a young preacher
boy. If you will, under Paul's
Ministry, Paul was helping to train Timothy.
And so a lot of first and second, Timothy and Titus are
considered to be the Pastoral Epistles.
He was essentially training. Timothy, how to be a pastor and
of course, then Paul did leave him in different places and he
was able to continue on that work, but that will give you a
little bit of context and what we're talking about here, Now,
does anybody else? And you can probably look at
this in your Bible and see this, but what else do we see in first
Timothy chapter 3? What do we see in first?
Timothy chapter 3 qualifications for a pastor and the
qualifications for a deacon, right?
So that's that's the context of the chapter verse number 15,
says this. But if I tarry long that thou
mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of
God, which is the Church of the Living, God, the pillar and the
ground of Truth. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest In the Flesh.
Justified in the spirit seen of angels preached unto the
Gentiles believed on, in the world received up into Glory.
Now that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself
in the house of God, he was not yelling at Timothy for running
around in the auditorium and jumping on the chairs.
That's not what he was saying. You better behave yourself.
He wasn't telling him, he wasn't talking to him.
That way, he was saying and talking about the idea of what a
church ought to be. And the way a church out a
function in the way of church ought to run.
So in our text here in 1st Timothy Chapter 3, The Apostle
Paul is writing to Timothy with respect to the church and he's
reminding Timothy that the church is to be the pillar and
the ground of truth. If the church is not doing that,
then what else do you have that? You can fall back on if the
church is not the pillar in the ground of truth.
Then where can you turn right now?
Obviously, we always have the word of God.
We have the Bible and that is our that is are Our ultimate
truth. And there are plenty of churches
out there who are not standing on the truth of the word of God.
And so they're, they're ultimately not the pillar in the
ground of truth. But that's what the church is
intended to be. And that's what it's supposed to
be. And I believe that without
bible-believing churches, America would collapse.
And that's why we're seeing America collapsing.
Now, because we're moving away from this bible-believing, and
we're moving more into preferences and more into
seeker-friendly things, where we'll do whatever we have to do,
to get people to come in and as long as people.
Pilar coming in, then. We're successful.
And that's not the case. Yes, we want people to come in.
Absolutely. We want people to come in and we
should be doing everything we can to try to get them to come
in. But it's not, it's not the
pragmatism idea where the ends justify the means.
And if that means that we gotta get up and dance around on the
stage and have all this contemporary Christian music,
then we'll do it. If it's going to bring people in
or you know, if we just do this or do that, or whatever else, it
is that they're doing in these new modern churches, today to
try to get people in and it's working.
They're getting people in but they're not.
Giving them the truth and that church is not the pillar in the
ground of truth. It's a country club with a with
the Christian name on it. Well, if you can call it that
you know, the rock or the bridge I mean that's a that's a generic
name for a country club, you know?
I mean even country clubs are more specific about what they
are. Then a lot of these churches
nowadays. But in 1st Timothy Chapter 3,
and verse number 16 Paul is elaborating on the truth.
He says, and without controversy great is the mystery of
godliness God was manifest In the Flesh.
Justified in the spirit, seen of angels preached unto the
Gentiles believed on in the world received up into Glory.
So in this, in this verse here, Paul is Paul is giving a
first-century statement of faith.
If you will we have a statement of faith for our church.
But he's claiming the fundamentals of the faith that
God became a man, right? And that Christ Jesus, as the
God man was crucified. He rose again?
The third day, I mean Paul is laying down some fundamentals
here and he Was telling Timothy, these are the things that you
need to be standing on, right? So he's reminding Timothy that
the church is supposed to be the pillar in the ground of truth.
But in our day, what's happening is these truths are being
tested, their being there being questioned everywhere.
And it's vital that we know what the truth is our that we know
what we believe and we know why we believe those things, right?
We've been doing a series for a long time and there's a lot of
different off shoots going, a lot of different directions.
But what, what I believe and why it's important to Why we say, we
believe the things that we believe and well that's just
what my church teaches is not a good enough answer.
Well, it's somewhere in the Bible that's not a good enough
answer. You need to know why you believe
the things that you believe otherwise you're going to get
somebody to come in here and start teaching things that are
moving away from those fundamentals and you're just
going to follow them because you don't even know why you believe
what you believe in the first place.
So Christians have to not only attend biblically fundamental
churches but they have to adhere to the fundamental truths and
the the doctrines of the Bible, if we want to truly stand for
our faith and where they start, moving away from those
fundamentals, we either need to do everything.
We can to try to bring them back to that, or we need to leave
because if it's if we're not preaching the fundamentals of
the faith, if we're not preaching those true.
So the word of God, then we shouldn't be there, something
has to change and of course if our Christian Life is Let me say
it this way. Thank God for the exterior
manifestations of an inward change right when God changes
our heart. It ought to change the way we
look on the outside too. But if your Christian Life is is
just about an exterior look and you don't know the scriptures,
you don't know. You know, the, the Bible and the
verse is that form your beliefs, then you're a very, very shallow
Christian. And we need a clear
understanding of the basic doctrines of the word of God.
But then number, Read the the primary question about
fundamental, mm, is this, what is your Authority?
What is your Authority? And of course, the very, very
first thing that we talked about when it came to, what it means
to be a Baptist, is what Biblical Authority, right?
The Bible ought to be our Authority.
But what's happening so many times is that it's the Bible
plus tradition or it's the Bible plus preferences or it's the
Bible, plus, whatever else that happens to be.
And if your final Authority is the Bible, then you're going to
believe in. You're going to follow the truth
that are Central and foundational in the Bible.
Well, Or not the media or the intellectual Elite or the
so-called, you know, theologians and and they're the ones
honestly, that drive a lot of this fundamentalism away from
the Bible or if I should even say fundamentals and they're not
driving fundamentals and they're driving Christians away from
fundamentalism because of the things that they're teaching and
preaching and writing books about everything else.
But you know, whatever they say about it, there's nothing to
fear about a fundamental bible-believing Christian
because we are And show to the foundation of Christianity,
adhering, to the fundamental teaching of the word of God is
what made America great. Now, let me give you some
examples here. And again, I'm being very
practical tonight, but I say spiritual at the same time, I'm
not using a lot of bible verses to talk about these things and I
because we're kind of giving you a broad view of it but there's
not only a lot of different isms in the world.
There's a, there's also a lot of fundamentalisms in the world and
if you think about it for a for just a few, Few seconds to try
to think of some other fundamentalist that, you know,
that that would be different from Baptist Independent Baptist
fundamentalist whatever. Obviously I mentioned one a
little bit earlier, but we've all been awakened to the idea of
Islamic fundamentalist, right? And Islamic fundamentalist is
somebody who takes particular portions of the Quran and you
know portions from clerics to a literal extreme that leads them
to go on these jihadist missions.
And you know, that's what Honestly, that's what led to
911. That's what has led to a lot of
these terrorist attacks in a lot of these other places as well,
right? It's Islamic fundamentalism but
they are going back to the fundamentals of their faith.
There's Mormon fundamentalist, right.
Those Mormon fundamentalist would take the Book of Mormon
and claimed it to be equal with the Bible.
The Mormon fundamentalist would believe the book doctrines and
Covenants. And in section of 132 verse 61,
it says, you may have spouse as many virgins as you like,
without committing adultery. Well, that's where they get the
idea of polygamy. Right?
And now there are a lot of them are trying to distance
themselves from that because well we you know, things have
changed, you know, we don't believe that anymore, but if you
are a Mormon fundamentalist, then you will believe that
because it's there and it's in their book and they haven't, it
can't be changed a fundamentalist.
Mormon would have believed the Journal of discourses volume 1
page. 121 says, remember that God, our heavenly father was
once a child and mortal Like we are and rose step by step in the
scale of progress, right? That's what a Mormon
fundamentalist is going to believe fundamentalist.
Mormon would say, they believe the Journal of discourses that
was written by Brigham Young volume 10 page. 223 says the
Lord created you and me for the purpose of becoming Gods like
himself. Now we've gone all the way
through the Book of Mormon and and talked a lot about the
different ideas of Mormonism and everything else, I'm not trying
to do that tonight. But what I'm saying is there's
fundamentalist Mormons and those fundamentalist Mormons are going
to get tin and get into their books and their doctrines and
everything else. And they're going to hold to
those things. But there's there's examples of
groups that believe the basic Central teachings of their
religions. And we have examples of that all
over the place there, examples of how following a like, and
laid down a very dangerous in a very destructive path.
I mean, honestly, you have you have Cults that get started and
books that are written within those Cults.
And those people follow those things and they are, they're
making their way down a very dangerous path.
But, and I think in the same way a fundamentalist Christian, Is
somebody who believes the central basic truths of the
Bible? Somebody who has chosen to make
the Bible, his final Authority for life.
We're not using the Bible, plus some traditions that the church
has done for years. We're not using the Bible plus,
some confessions we're not using the Bible plus like what the
Jews do, the Bible's, the the Jews use the Old Testament and
the talmud and the tell mood is a commentary of the Old
Testament. And what's happened is you've
got commentary on the Commentary on the commentary of the Old
Testament. What they say is that the
average Christian knows more of the Old Testament than the Jews
do because they know so. Well, the tell mood which is all
the commentary on the Old Testament that they don't even
know the Old Testament, right? But that's that's what we're
talking about. We're just getting back to the
basic fundamental Central truths of the Bible.
Biblical fundamentalism has everything to do with.
What somebody believes about the word of God.
Biblical fundamentalism is what? Going to be is what separates
those who believe God's word is infallible from those who
question, the word of God. We're going to talk a little bit
about the history here in just a second or the birth of
fundamentalism in America and we're going to see that there
are a lot of people who have questioned the legitimacy of the
Bible, but it separates that biblical fundamentalism is going
to be what separates those who believe the Bible is the final
Authority from those who accept some other authority, like
papal, Authority, or No experience or any of these other
things. So, how did fundamentalism in
America come around? Well, over 100 years ago?
And here's a name that you'll recognize Charles Spurgeon
battled for Bible beliefs in London.
It's it became known as the downgrade controversy.
What was happening, there was a lot of things that were
happening in in the world at that time and in and I say in
the world, but really in Christianity, in general around
that time, but He stood against the theologians and Pastors in
the Baptist Union, who began to accept evolution as a way of
creation. Now, I know that sounds to be
completely opposite of each other.
How do you accept evolution as a way of creation?
Well, what they what happened was and we're going to talk
about this in just a little bit, but the idea of evolution was
introduced as a scientific fact and because Evolution was an
alternative to Creation which is what the Bible.
Very plainly says in the very first verse in the Bible, in the
beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.
If you believe in evolution, then you have already distanced
yourself from the word of God based on the very first verse
that we find in the Bible. But what happened is the idea of
evolution came about and all of these not just feel logical
liberals. But anybody who wanted to try
to, in any way. Oppose this the Bible jumped on
this idea of evolution. Well then it kind of made the
Christians look like they were a little, you know, Awkward.
They were a little bit out of touch with what was going on in
the scientific world. So they started trying to marry
the idea of Evolution To Creation and believe it or not.
Scofield is one of the ones who jumped on that and and and
introduced what was what is known as the day age Theory.
We're basically one day was not a 24-hour period, like we know
it to be and like, what we believe in the Bible, but one
day was an Age. So God created the plants and
then allowed them to evolve in this age and then he went on to
the next thing and and created the animals and they were able
to evolve through that whole process and it wasn't just a
24-hour period. It was an age, it was an ERA and
so they believe that God created those things.
But then they then they tried to marry that with the idea of
evolution. Well, that just really started
making everybody question everything that they knew about
the Bible and so Charles, Urgent preached against that false
teachings and ultimately led a great number of people out of
the Baptist Union when the members of the Baptist Union
would not sign a statement of faith.
Declaring that the theory of evolution was against the Bible
on, this was this was Baptist. This was back in the 1800's so
that encroachment of theological liberalism was not limited to
England. It found its way to America and
Fundamental Bible Doctrine was generally.
Well known it was for the most part believed in America.
You didn't need fundamentalism because everything was
fundamentalism. It was just Christianity.
It's just what it was. There was no such thing as
fundamental Christians, and then liberal Christians, or whatever
else, because it was just, that's what if you are a
Christian, this is what you believed, right?
But, you know, it doesn't doesn't take long for you to go
to Washington DC and start walking around.
A lot of those monuments, in a lot of the Bible verses that are
found. Channel 2, our Christianity are
edged, all over the place inside the capitol.
Inside the, you know, inside the White House on the Supreme
Court, building mean all over the place.
You see Bible verses etched on those buildings and it just you
know just again just proves that that Fundamental Bible Doctrine
was generally well known and believed in early America but
fundamentalism as a movement really didn't gain any any steam
or any momentum until after the Civil War.
Because after the Civil War, a great theological compromise,
also started to take hold in our country and German rationalism
began to find its way into the American pulpits.
If there's anything that has been a huge detriment to
Christianity, it's this German theological mindset and I'm not
blaming the Germans. I'm just saying that that was
really kind of where the birth of a lot of this theological
liberalism was, that's where a lot of it started and American
started going. Were there to these German
universities and coming back with a huge skepticism of the
Bible and of the doctrines of the faith.
And then those are the ones who started getting into these
institutions of Higher Learning where, you know, you had places
like Harvard, that was, you know, started to train preachers
and now all the sudden Harvard is not even, it's not even
doesn't have anything to do with Christianity at all.
How does that happen that happens?
Because you allow this theological liberalism to get
in. Everybody starts questioning
everything about the The Bible instead of just believing it by
faith. Which by the way the Bible has
never been disproven ever not in one area of science.
Not in one area of archaeology, not in one area of anything.
Has the Bible been disproven? There's been many times when
they thought they've disproven the Bible but then it always
turns out that the that whoever it was, that was disproving.
The Bible ended up getting proven wrong later on.
Bubble has never been proven wrong.
And so this German rationalism Movement that began in the 1700s
with these German Scholars and religious leaders.
And they were trying to marry secular thought with Biblical
teaching. And the intention was to bring
secular reason to Biblical teaching and essentially to
remove the Divine to remove the miraculous from the word of God.
And when you follow that, course, the scripture became
subject to human reasoning, and when you, when you subjected to
human reasoning, now it's you know, it's it makes the mind,
the final Authority rather than the truth of the word of God.
And that movement was nothing less than a direct spiritual
attack on the Christian faith, but it was, it was around that
time. The, the late 1800s, when a lot
of these, theologically liberal ideas began to swirl, in Europe,
in Germany and made their way to America.
Well, a lot of German Scholars, of that day were prejudiced
against the scriptures, and I'll read you a few quotes.
I'll give you a picture of this guy because he was one that was
very well known as name was Immanuel Kant, but he wrote in
the late 1700s that Quote, a man's conscience was equal to
the word of God. A man's conscience is equal to
the world of to the word of God. He questioned the the atonement
of Jesus Christ. He questioned a lot of other
things that got people thinking in that direction.
But other theological theologians in the school of
so-called higher criticism, began to question all the rest
of the foundational doctrines of God's word, 11 of those guys was
a was a guy by the name of Frederick shrill mom.
Ochre. That's not a German name.
I don't know what it is, but he said Doctrine is only the
expression of feeling the Bible is not our final Authority.
When you start making statements like that, you are treading on
very, very dangerous ground. The Bible is not our final
Authority, it's your mind. It's what you think.
Well, that's what, that's why do you think there's people running
around saying find your truth? You know, Live Your Truth.
It started in there. Another one his name was Ernst
trost but he said The early 1900's quote that Evolution was
the unfolding of the new out of the old and that Jesus Christ
was merely a symbol of the highest truth.
Someone can know in essence there were not only questioning
but they were beginning to literally tear apart.
The word of God in their seminaries and in their
conferences, all over Europe and eventually it made its way to
America. And again, that movement,
questioned every literal detail of the Bible, the Bible said it.
Well, now we need to question it and see if we can prove whether
it's right or not. And if we can't Prove it, then
it's wrong. And that I mean if you're if you
could if you can take any part of the Bible and say that you
don't believe it for this reason or that reason or whatever, then
you can do that with the entire rest of the Bible or at the very
least you can't tell somebody else that they can't do that
with the entire rest of the Bible because that's exactly
what you've just done. But then in nineteen are, sorry,
1859 Charles Darwin, published the book called the origin of
the species by the way. Charles Darwin was not the first
one to come up with the theory of evolution, Charles Darwin was
the one who popularized the theory of evolution in his book,
the origin of the species and a lot of people as I kind of
mentioned already including so-called clergy began to hold
to the concept of evolution. One of those men of out of many
who started to propagate. This liberalism was a guy by the
name of William, Rainey Harper. It was the founder of Chicago
University and there's actually a university that's named after
him now. But he said, this, we need to
recognize the humanity of Jesus and the mistakes of Jesus, and
we need to stress the dignity and the Divinity of man.
If that is not taking everything that the Bible teaches and
everything that is the fundamentals of the faith and
taking Jesus, who is God and trying to bring him down to
human level, and taking man, who is human and bring him up to the
god level, then you've turned everything in the word of God on
its head, and then nothing is sacred.
Nothing is truth. Nothing is fundamental anymore.
But I think it's pretty interesting to note too that
these same liberal themes in the same Rationalism is still being
taught in seminary, still being preached in pulpits.
All the way across America to this day.
But a lot of those main Mainline denominations could never be
classified as fundamental because they, you know, their
preachers are denying the fundamental truth of the word of
God. But in the face of compromising,
the late 1800s, and the early 1900's came, the rise of what
became known as biblical fundamentalism and biblical
fundamentalists. Because when all of this was
going on, you had a whole group of people who are starting to
say On why are we questioning the Bible through a secular
lens? Why are we trying to prove the
Bible through secular theology or secular secular terminology?
Why do we have to prove the Bible in this way?
The Bible stands on its own two feet.
The Bible stands for itself, we don't need other people doing
that. So God's stirred the hearts of
men who are Faithfully serving him turn over to Jude and
there's only one chapter in Jude.
But these men took a stand on the word of God and they
followed the teaching that we find in Jude verse 13.
Jude 13. Beloved.
When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common
salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you
that ye should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once
delivered unto the Saints. What happened was they began to
earnestly contend for the faith again where before they didn't
really have to. Because everybody who was a
Christian believed, essentially the same thing, they believed
those fundamentals, they believe that Jesus was God, they
believe. He died on the cross, they
believe that he rose from the dead, they believed in the
Virgin birth. They believe that the Bible was
the final Authority. Now, you would all this
theological liberalism that was swirling all over the place and
it became necessary for them to take a final stand if you will
against all of those things. And so they began to they
started to earnestly contend for the truth, through preaching, in
their own pulpits. But they started to host Bible
conferences and they started to publish books and they started
newspapers that were crying out. Against this rationalism and
this theological liberalism and not all.
But a lot of the things that we still see in existence today
when it comes to Publications and everything else, got its got
their start back then because there was such a necessity
necessity to stand up against those things beginning in the in
1878. And I know this goes a ways
back, but the premillennial Bible Conference and also what
became known as the Niagara Niagara Bible conferences and
maybe some of these are names. That you'll recognize, but you
had a Jay Gordon. He was a, he was a pastor from
Boston. You had John Duffield.
He was a, he was from Princeton College Hudson Taylor, he
founded, the China, inland mission.
We Blackstone he was a Methodist preacher who wrote the book
Jesus is coming. It was a best-seller in that
area. A lot of others that were around
their two names that you would recognize and names that you
would at least know whether or not you know who they were.
But there's dozens and dozens and dozens of these men who Came
out in strong, stand of the fundamental doctrines of
Christianity, and especially the word of God, they were all men
who rejected this allegorical, allegorical rationalism.
And this rationalistic approach to the Bible.
They believe the word of God to be the truth, as it was the
literal word of God. And so during those conferences,
do a lot of these fundamentalist leaders created, Statement of
faith statements of faith. I guess it's probably the best
way to do it, but that affirm their belief in everything that
I just mentioned, when it comes to the authority of the word of
God. The the literal return of Jesus
Christ. And, and the, you know, the duty
of Christians everywhere to preach the message of the gospel
and they laid down those fundamentals.
And so the impact of those conferences was was very
profound was a great book. If you, if you, it's pretty
thick and I think I think I had to read it when I was in.
College but I referenced it again and found a lot of great
information in it but it's called in pursuit of Purity and
David Beale was the guy that wrote that but but this is what
he said, was a result of the Niagara Bible Conference.
There was five major outcomes and I'm just going to read them
to you because this is what he said.
But number one, the conference spawned new missionary activity
and evangelism number to the conference, contributed to the
rise and spread of large Bible Conference movements, The number
three, the conference had a significant impact on the rise
of the Bible Institute and Bible College movement number for the
conference, gave early expression to fundamentalisms
emphasis on concentrated, Bible study and he says number five
that the conference. Precipitated a vast amount of
fundamentalist literature especially on the subject of
Prophecy, the person and work of Christ, the Holy Spirit and
missions, but a great emphasis and honestly, where before there
was no need for that, there was no necessity of that.
Now, Was because of this theological liberalism and
honestly, it's just as much of a need for that today as there
ever has been because it's only getting worse, where, you know,
where before all of those ideas had been introduced and
everything else. Now they're here and they're
here to stay because of so many different institutions that are
doing that. Let me let me share with you
one, quote and will be closing up here very quickly.
But he said this, this is an account from somebody who had
tended, this Niagara Bible. Conference.
And he said this those were the days of Brooks and West and
Parsons and Erdman and Moorhead, and Nicholson, and Needham and
Gordon. Oh, what discussions were held
in those dates, how? The Lord Jesus Christ was
exalted, how the Holy Spirit was honored and how the Bible was
expounded, the bread of life, broken and distributed at the
Niagara Bible Conference is feeding the children of God and
this land to this day, there have been Bible conferences
since all stimulated by this one but they have been like so many
steeping zuv the same tea. So, after the turn of the
century, you had a lot of these men that began to emphasize the
fundamentals as they were called.
And this is, so you can see where the ideal fundamentalism
is starting to get its rise, but are a Tory, that's a name,
you'll recognize row. Lot of books, about the person,
and the work of the Holy Spirit TT Shields J, Frank Norris lot
of these men and men that that, hopefully, at least a little
bit. You recognize their names, but
when they stood up reach, I'm on the fundamentals.
Nobody questioned. What they were saying about the
word of God because it was just, it was the word of God.
And that's what they were teaching and preaching.
And so, those in a lot of others, took a strong stand
against liberalism took a law, strong stand against rationalism
and they earnestly contend for the faith and defended, the
fundamental doctrines of God's word.
But the thing is, most of those men died before 1950.
This happened in the late 1800s, early to Middle 1907 by 1950.
A lot of these men who were the first in the, Only
fundamentalist died by 1950 since the 1950s a lot of
different Baptist groups have come into existence but most of
those Baptist groups came out of other Baptist groups that were
turning away from fundamental doctrines and becoming
increasingly allegorical or rationalistic in their approach
to the Bible. And so, what's happened is
though, as a result of these men standing for the fundamentals
are over 13,000, independent fundamental Baptist churches in
the United States. And that number is dwindling
because a lot of them are changing from what they used to
be. Sadly even those that would be
what we would consider in our circle of influence.
In our circle of friends that are changing from become from
being independent, fundamental Baptist to taking that name off
or you know we're still Baptist but we're not independent
fundamental Baptist because we don't like the connotation that
comes along with that. We don't want people to get the
wrong idea of who we are or whatever else.
And you know a lot of those things are Aging and moving, but
what a rich history we have is bible-believing Christians.
That's, you know, the fight that they had to go through in the
things that these men had to stand for what a great heritage
of Faith that's been handed down to us.
So, what was it that they were contending for?
Was it was it the architectural style of a church building?
Was it, the color of the pews was that the, you know, the
color of the walls, you know, their favorite personalities,
our institutions, where they were they contending for?
Reference or taste know they were, you know they were
fighting for what they believed and they were fighting a greater
enemy for a greater truth. They were trying to take back
what was trying to be, what had been changed.
And that was the the great fundamental doctrines that we
find in the word of God. And maybe, for somebody who is a
non-Christian looking at it from the outside.
You know where they were? They I guess the question would
be where they contending for something dangerous, right?
Because now if you're a fundamental is if you're a
Christian fundamentalist, your extreme, you're dangerous.
You're you know you're one of these Bible Thumpers or whatever
else they want to say about it. You you're the ones that need to
be eliminated, your the far-right conspiracy.
And it's I mean we're not we're not even political right?
But but you're dangerous, if you believe the fundamentals of the
Bible. During today's misuse of that
word fundamental and secular media.
What were these men fighting for.
They were literally fighting for the fundamentals of the truth of
the word of God, that's not dangerous.
That's necessary. Because the more, it moves away
from that the farther you get away from that, the less you
have Christianity, and the more Christianity dies, the less you
have to pass on to the next generation and eventually there
will be no Christianity at all. We have got to stand for the
fundamentals of the faith. It's not just about preference,
it's not just about, you know, We need to do it because of this
or that we've got to do it. Because if we don't there will
be no Christianity to pass on to the next Generation.
The more you water down, I mean, it's like it's like if you take
if you were to take a glass of Kool-Aid let's say and you take
a An Empty Glass and you dump half of the glass of Kool-Aid in
it and half a glass of water in it.
You still have Kool-Aid but it's very very watered-down right
now, you take that one and mix that with another half glass of
water. And is still Kool-Aid, but now
it's watered down even more. And now you take that glass and
you dump it in there with and eventually you really can't even
taste the Kool-Aid in it at all and they still call it Kool-Aid,
but it's not right. And that's exactly what's
happening. When we're passing these things
down to the Next Generation. If we don't take a stand on the
fundamentals of the faith and stand for those things that we
find in the word of God and hold those standards high in every
aspect of what we're doing. Then eventually it gets so
watered down that what you have is not even Gianna T anymore.
And now you have a whole group of people who are still
Gathering or still getting together for church, they're
still doing all these things but what their but what they're
doing is not Christianity, it's just a country club, it's just a
gathering and so it's not that it's not that we are dangerous
or that we're trying to stand up because we love controversy or
because we like to be in the minority or any of those things.
It's because if we don't do it then who's going to and if you
don't hold that line and you start letting that line, Of the
next generation is going to let it go even more and the next
generation is going to let it go even more and eventually you
don't have anything that resembles what we find in the
word of God is Christianity. So that's what we're going to
discuss over the next few weeks. We're going to find out that
quite the opposite of. What the perception of
independent fundamental Baptists is is actually the opposite of
what a lot of people think these.
These men were fighting for the very truth that makes us free,
right? You shall know the truth and the
truth shall set you free. And that's exactly what they
were fighting for, and that's exactly what we need to continue
fighting for today. Let's talk some more about this
as we get into it over the next couple weeks, but let's pray.
And then will be dismissed. Father, we love you again, we
thank you for what these men that went on before us, stood
for what they were willing to fight for what they were willing
to lose in order to preserve the truth that we find in the word
of God. I pray that you would help us to
stand strong on those truths, but it should help us to never
let Let them bend, never let them slip and God that we'd hold
the standards high in every aspect of Christianity that been
handed to us. God, I pray that you'd help us
to pass on to the next generation of strong firm,
foundation in the word of God, a strong Authority in the word of
God and God that we would continue to stay in for the
fundamentals of the faith. Thank you for all that you do
for us in Jesus name. Amen.