This post contains contents from monergism.com and Theopedia.
In general, most modern fundamentalists take the Bible at face-value within their own socio-political context, and they usually subscribe to a form of premillennialism. However, since the term fundamentalist is often a vilification when used by outsiders, some fundamentalists now call themselves evangelicals.
Fundamentalists are often those who are reclusive and estranged from the religious establishment, which they sometimes perceive as needing an overhaul or even replacement. The first time that any group of Christians proclaimed themselves to be fundamentalists was in a meeting that took place in the early 1900s in the United States. At the time there was not the clear association of fundamentalists with militant or religious fanatics (an association people might often ascribe to them today). The gathering was merely a response, in the Church, to the huge infusion of modernism and the liberalizing trends of German biblical criticism. This tendency of modernism and unbelief in the Church gave rise to a group resistance, among religious conservatives of various stripes, to the loss of influence traditional revivalism experienced in America during the early years of the twentieth century. At this time, the "Fundamentalists" were Calvinists united together with Dispensationalists and other conservative Christians to do battle with this dramatic theologically liberal turn from historic Christian orthodoxy. They distributed a series of pamphlets, free of charge, among pastors and seminarians (published between 1910 and 1915) entitled "The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth".
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)
Christian Fundamentalism refers to the movement that arose mainly within American and British Protestantism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, led by conservative evangelical Christians in reaction to modernism and liberalism in the mainline denominations. This movement included not only denominational evangelicals (such as the Princeton theologians B. B. Warfield and J. Gresham Machen), but a growing breed of premillennial and dispensational independants such as D. L. Moody, R. A. Torrey, and the independant Biblecollege and Bible church movement.
Taking its name from The Fundamentals (1910-1915), a twelve-volume set of essays designed to combat Liberal theology, the movement grew by leaps and bounds after World War I. The term "Fundamentalist" was perhaps first used by Curtis Lee Laws, a British journalist for the Watchman-Examiner, in 1920 to designate those who were willing to do "battle royal for the Fundamentals." [1]
Fundamentalism versus broader Evangelicalism
The nature of the Fundamentalist movement, while originally a united effort within conservative evangelicalism, evolved during the early-to-mid 1900s to become more separatist in nature and more characteristically dispensational in its theology. Premillennialism, dispensationalism, and separatism began to overwhelmingly characterize the most popular leaders, which also had an effect on the way that "evangelicals" as a whole were perceived by outside observers. This eventually led to purposeful distinctions between fundamentalism and what was seen as the broader evangelicalism.
For example, it should be noted that The "Princeton Theologians", particularly Machen, eventually distanced himself from the fundamentalist movement because of its emphasis on separating from culture instead of engaging it. In a letter to the board of trustees of Bryan Memorial University refusing their offer to make him president Machen wrote:
I never call myself a "Fundamentalist." There is indeed, no inherent objection to the term; and if the disjunction is between "Fundamentalism" and "Modernism," then I am willing to call myself a Fundamentalist of the most pronounced type. But after all, what I prefer to call myself is not a "Fundamentalist" but a "Calvinist"—that is, an adherent of the Reformed Faith. As such I regard myself as standing in the great central current of the Church's life—the current which flows down from the Word of God through Augustine and Calvin, and which has found noteworthy expression in America in the great tradition represented by Charles Hodge and Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield and the other representatives of the "Princeton School."
Reformed theology is generally considered synonymous with Calvinism and most often, in the U.S. and the UK, is specifically associated with the theology of the historic church confessions such as the Westminster Confession of Faith or the Three Forms of Unity
What does it mean to be Reformed?
A summary of Reformed theology, or what it means to be Reformed, may be seen in the following:
- It means to affirm the great "Solas" of the Reformation. (See the Five Solas)
- It means to affirm and promote a profoundly high view of the sovereignty of God.
- It means to affirm the doctrines of grace. . . to see God as the author of salvation from beginning to end. (See Calvinism)
- It means to be creedal. . . to affirm the great creeds of the historic, orthodox church. (See e.g. the Nicene Creed)
- It means to be confessional. . . to affirm one or more of the great confessions of the historic orthodox church. (see e.g. the Westminster Confession)
- It means to be covenantal. . . to affirm the great covenants of Scripture and see those covenants as the means by which God interacts with and accomplishes His purposes in His creation, with mankind. (see Covenant Theology)
- It means to take seriously the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20. . . to affirm the primacy of mission and understand that mission.
- It means to have a distinctly Christian worldview that permeates all of life.
- ↑ What does it mean to be Reformed? at federaltheology.org
Notes
Source of doctrine
Reformed doctrine is expressed in various creeds. A few creeds are shared by many denominations. Different denominations use different creeds, usually based on historical reasons. Some of the common creeds are (with year of writing):
Scots Confession (1560),
- Heidelberg Catechism (1563),
- Belgic Confession (1566),
- Canons of Dort (1619),
Westminster Standards
The Three forms of unity are common among Reformed churches with origins in the European continent (especially those in the Netherlands). The Westminster Standards have a similarly common use among Reformed churches (known as the Presbyterian churches) with origins in the British Isles. More recent confessions and creeds are shared by fewer denominations.
