"Fundamentalism" in current religious terminology, as far as Christianity is concerned, means belief in the strict and literal interpretation of the Bible as the inerrant Word of God. It is belief in the factual, historical record of the sacred Scriptures, the inspiration, and so incontrovertible truth of its doctrines, submission to which is therefore required by God and is the duty of all men.
As used by Christian liberals the term "fundamentalist" has a pejorative connotation, and "Christian fundamentalists" are superciliously looked down on for their convictions and often criticised by a nominal liberal Christian establishment. Unfortunately, this term has now come to mean something more sinister in people's minds because of Islamic religious fanaticism, and the term "Islamic fundamentalist" now has a resonance increasingly with the Christian "fundamentalist"! All this is plainly the evil work of Satan seeking to deceive the minds of men, neutralise any positive witness to the saving message of the Cross, and blind men's minds to the gospel of the glory of the Son of God.
However, historically fundamentalism has been identified with the proclamation of those salvation truths which make up the body of doctrine known as "the gospel", the propagation of which is the glory and joy of those who have been styled "fundamentalists". In the days of doctrinal indifference, ecumenical compromise, and inter-faith confusion in which we live, these beliefs are increasingly criticised and those who hold and teach them stigmatised and ridiculed as bigots and extremists. "But wisdom is justified of her children" (Mt 11.19).
In face, therefore, of such opposition, we who do believe these gospel doctrines, and glory in them as God's gracious revelation and the means of the salvation of our souls, do well to examine again the fundamentals of our faith and the gospel we proclaim.
It is a gospel which offers salvation from divine wrath and judgment by God's grace as its source, the blood of Christ as its procuring cause, and faith as the principle on which it is received. To do this we shall first define, then identify, and finally amplify our terms.
Definition
Fundamentalism focuses most sharply on the gospel truths of the Christian faith. It is those revelations or truths from God contained in His Word, truths which are absolutely imperative (or fundamental) to man's salvation, and apart from which he would suffer God's righteous wrath and judicial consignment to eternal hell. That is, those truths, the acceptance of which have to do with man's eternal well-being as a possessor of eternal life enjoyed in heaven, or his rejection of which will mean loss of well-being and seal his eternal doom and anguish in the lake of fire.
Identification
What then are those truths absolutely fundamental to the gospel message, and apart from which there is no valid Christian gospel? The fundamental doctrine of the Christian gospel involves the truth about God, Christ, and Man, received on the authoritative basis of the Christian Holy Scriptures (the Bible) as the inerrant and infallible Word of God:
1. God: His reality (being) and holiness.
2. Christ: His sinlessness (which predicates His deity and humanity), sacrifice, and resurrection.
3. Man: his sinfulness and need for repentance and faith.
4. Scripture: accepted as the inerrant and infallible source of all truth.
Amplification: God - His reality and holiness.
His reality
The first truth of divine inspiration is the reality and existence of a Creator God. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen 1.1). He is the source of all being, all life, everything which has its existence within the universe. He is the Creator of man: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen 2.7). Man thus has a duty and obligation toward God as his Creator.
God is essentially a communicating God. He has not hidden Himself in remote and transcendent obscurity, but has revealed Himself to and through His creation. The wonderful creation which His wisdom and power brought into existence argues His intention of using it as a stage upon which to display His glories and excellencies for the admiration, praise, and adoration of His rational creatures. He not only manifests His power and Godhead by natural revelation through His creation - "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead" (Rom 1.20) - but He also communicates Himself and His will for man by special revelation. So we discover God speaking to Adam, to Abraham, and to the patriarchs. He did this explicitly to Moses on Mount Sinai in giving the Law: "And God spake all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex 20.1-17).
Here God is speaking, communicating with man, and communicating the great revelation of His own eternal perfections and the moral requirements that perfection demands from man. As the communicating God He is therefore the "living God" (Ps 84.2; Mt 16.16), and His life is that of spiritual being for, as Christ explained, "God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (Jn 4.24). God, as Spirit, therefore is present throughout the whole of His creation observing the affairs of His creatures, and none can hide from His all-seeing eye: "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord" (Jer 23.23-24). Paul the Apostle taught that God is "not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17.27-28). This is the God with whom we have to do; a God who knows us through and through. He is the God of reality, the God who is there, the God who is accessible, the God in whom we must believe if we are ever to be saved. "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb 11.6).
His holiness
God is infinitely pure and holy. "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory" (Is 6.3). His holiness makes Him absolutely distinct from, and exalted far above, all His creatures. In this Isaiah passage where the prophet has his vision of the throne of God, and confesses his own sinfulness as a man "of unclean lips" in the light of his exposure to the burning holiness of God, he sees one of the seraphim fly to him with a fiery coal taken from the altar to touch his lips and purge his sin. "Fire" in this passage is the emblem of God's holiness, and expresses the consuming nature and intensity of the divine purity. It is a holiness that excludes all sin and moral evil and makes it impossible for man in his sin (as portrayed by the prophet's predicament) to stand in the awesome presence of unappeased holiness. In the New Testament God's holiness is taught in such passages as 1 John 1.5: "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all". A consideration of God's holiness will lead us to a three-fold conclusion:
1. There is a fearful distance between this holy God and sinful man. "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear" (Is 59.2).
2. Man may only approach God through the merits of another, and Jesus Christ has made such access possible by His blood sacrifice (Heb 10.19). Thus, in the truth of God's holiness lies the reason and necessity for Christ's sacrifice. What God's holiness demanded, His love provided, so we read, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (Jn 3.16).
3. We should approach God with deep reverence and awe, remembering His burning holiness and exalted majesty. "Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire" (Heb 12.28-29). Thus a correct view of God's holiness leads to a proper view of sinful self (Is 6.5-7; Lk 5.8).
No man can be saved who does not accept this teaching concerning God, His reality, and His holiness. It is the first fundamental truth of the gospel.
To be continued.
