Fundamentalism

Most historians believe the birth of Fundamentalism could be set at 1876. It was in 1876 that an interdenominational Bible Conference met at Swampscott, Massachusetts to discuss the rising tide of modernism. This was only the beginning of a series of Bible Conferences that ran throughout the late 1800's.  At the Niagara Bible Conference of 1878 a Confession of Faith listed fourteen articles:

1. The verbal, plenary inspiration of the Scriptures in the original manuscripts.

2. The trinity.

3. The creation of man, the fall into sin, and total depravity.

4. The universal transmission of spiritual death from Adam.

5. The necessity of the new birth.

6. Redemption by the blood of Christ.

7. Salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ.

8. The assurance of salvation.

9. The centrality of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures.

10. The true church made up of genuine believers.

11. The personality of the Holy Spirit.

12. The believer’s call to a holy life.

13. The souls of believers go immediately to be with Christ at death.

14. The premillennial second coming of Christ.

A series of writings, called "The Fundamentals" were published between 1910 and 1915 under the funding of a wealthy oil baron Lyman Stewart(1840-1923). His brother Milton assisted as well but Lyman was the driving force behind the Fundamentals. Lyman attended the 1894 Niagara Bible Conference where he first conceived the idea of publishing materials to defend the fundamentals of the faith. This idea became a reality when the first volume of the fundamentals was published in 1910.

The term "Fundamentalist" was coined by Curtis Lee Laws ,editor of the Baptist periodical "Watchman Examiner", in a 1920 editorial, where he wrote that a "Fundamentalist" is one who is willing "to do battle royal for the fundamentals" against theological liberalism.

Today when we as Independent Fundamental Baptists hear the term "interdenominational" the hairs on the back of our neck stand up. We immediately associate it with "ecumenicalism". But they are not the same, the interdenominational nature of the early fundamentalist movement teaches us an important lesson. It is possible to stand shoulder to shoulder with other men who hold to a high view of scripture and the fundamentals of the faith while still affirming our doctrinal distinctives in other areas.

The modern ecumenical movement today, in contrast, calls on us to stand together even with those who do not hold to fundamentals of the faith and would even deny some of the fundamentals of faith. Ecumenicalism also calls on us to drop our doctrinal differences in the interest of an unbiblical unity.

In contrast to the modern ecumenical movement, the interdenominational fundamentalist movement simply called on evangelicals to affirm and defend the fundamentals of the faith while still holding to their denominational distinctives.

It is important to note that included in this interdenominational movement were not only Baptists, but Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Lutherans, Reformed Episcopalians and Dutch Reformed.

The unfortunate reality is though, many of the churches who once stood together as fundamentalists, including some Baptists, began to compromise years later.