[Luke 18:9-14 ESV] “9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
What is a fundamentalist, anyway?
When I say “fundamentalist”, what comes to mind? My guess is a joyless, stiff-backed, buttoned-up church goer that hates the sound of children’s laughter and will write you up for having a a dress that shows too much ankle. In other words, what comes to most people’s mind when they think of fundamentalism is an overbearing spirit of fear, frustration, and pride. These things are obviously opposed to the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, and peace), so people understandably react against the word. But what is fundamentalism, really? Where did the word originally come from? And what makes a person a fundamentalist?
In the early 1900’s the church was embarrassed about her position on some scientific issues, such as evolution. Men no longer seemed to respect the church. the Bible seemed ridiculous. So, in order to save the church and make it more respectable, theologians rose up and advocated for a kind of Christianity that was more based on experience than dogma. They said that whether or not the Bible is true has very little consequence to a persons daily life. They would say: God is true, and He uses the Bible to speak to you. All that matters is that you have had a real experience with God. Theologians, like Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, sought to rescue the church from needing to prove that the Bible is an accurate historical document. They did this by rooting the validity of the faith in a man’s experience, rather than rooting the validity of the faith in the truth of the historic claims of the Bible: that Jesus lived; was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead for the forgiveness of sins. This message of the cross was replaced by a message of meeting God experientially, regardless of what you actually believed about Jesus.
This movement grew more radical over time and eventually became known as liberalism, and, having departed from the scriptures, eventually departed from Christianity altogether. But liberalism was still a dominant force in the church. In response to this, a group of Presbyterians published a series of short books called “the Fundamentals”. These books essentially argued for the truth of the scriptures – the reality of the atonement, the reality of miracles, all of the things that believers for the last 1800 years had not even thought to question – and the men that believed these things were called fundamentalists. In this sense alone, we really are fundamentalists at Vintage: we believe the fundamentals of the faith.
So how did fundamentalism come to have such a bad name?
Well, it seems to me that one of the chief weapons of our enemy is to take a good thing, win your trust with it, and then turn it into a bad thing. What seems to have happened over the course of history is that some of the fundamentalists really did fall into a spirit of pride and legalism. It appears that they became so fixated with “fighting the libs” that they neglected some of the most important matters to the spiritual health of their souls. Things like humility, love, joy, and giving thanks always. It is good to contend for the faith like Jude, and to reject false teaching as we are commanded to by our Lord, but it is certainly not good to become so fixated on these things that they begin to define our ministry.
Martin Lloyd-Jones traveled to America in the 1930’s and while there he came into contact with a man named T.T. Shields. T.T. Shields was an able preacher; even earning for himself the nickname “The Canadian Spurgeon”! He preached the gospel and defended the truth and God blessed his ministry. But something shifted in the ministry of Shields around the 1920’s, and he started to almost exclusively preach against the liberals and fight doctrinal battles. He claimed that when he entered into these “dog fights” that the sale of his magazines went through the roof! People were hungry for that kind of muscular Christianity. He didn’t necessarily like fighting, but someone had to do it, right? MLJ, no liberal himself, noticed that Shields’ ministry was growing more gaudy, but not more fruitful. So he confronted him about the issue and pled with Shields to return to preaching positively and to building up the saints rather than only defending the faith. Shields responded that he thought of himself as a surgeon – he didn’t want to have to cut people open, but the situation is desperate, the false teachings are dangerous, and we simply must operate – however painful the operation. Martin Lloyd-Jones responded (being a doctor, himself) that surgeons tend to always think that it’s time for surgery. That there is such a thing as getting “knife happy” in your practice and feeling as if every case is a cause for cutting someone open, and that patients should always get a second opinion from physicians before going under the knife. Shields responded that Paul confronted Peter in Galatians, and MLJ reminded Shields that Paul won Peter. He did not attack Peter in order to drive up sales, but out of his love for this man and the gospel, he confronted him and he was successful in actually winning his brother back to the faith. Shields was humbled. He recognized the truth of what Lloyd-Jones was saying – that he had grown imbalanced and was failing to serve his own church positively by only fighting battles outside of the church. Unfortunately, Shields had friends that convinced him to disregard Lloyd Jones and he died with a greatly diminished church and infighting amongst friends that he once dearly loved.
What happened to Mr. Shields, and what can happen to any man that is concerned to fight for the truth, is that the liberals started to live “rent free” in his head. He became obsessed with them. He no longer had the heart of Jude that truly longed to rejoice with his hearers over the things of the gospel, but unfortunately found it necessary instead to defend the faith. It appears that Shields got to a point where he delighted more in defending the faith, than in the faith itself. Defending Christ was more gratifying than worshipping Christ; preaching against the liberals was more important than begging God to save their souls; rejoicing in the downfall of enemies became a greater joy than building the church. When this happens it is always deadly, and, ironically, an actual case for Spiritual surgery and sharp words. For this spirit is one that, if left unchecked, grows into a hardened heart that lacks the joy, humility, and peace that keeps the air fresh in a church. If you live by the sword, you will also die by the sword. If you get so used to fighting your enemies that it is all you do, you will soon find yourself fighting your friends.
So fundamentalism is, at its best, a willingness to defend the basic truths of the gospel. But when this defense becomes central to your identity, when you start to put “fundamentalist!” proudly on your church sign and defending the gospel becomes more central to your life than rejoicing in the God that gave you the gospel; you are, at that point, in danger of fulfilling all the stereotypes of stuffy, joyless churches. Because the power source for all your joy – assurance of salvation, rejoicing in the finished work of the cross, and adoring God – has been replaced with the power source of excitement in scandal.
So, how can we avoid this danger?
1. We should recognize that it really is a danger. Better men than me, or you, have given into the seductive call to look with contempt on our enemies and to think of ourselves primarily as defenders of the faith, rather than sinners that have been saved by grace.
2. Rejoice in the Lord! Again I say, Rejoice! Are you enjoying the love of God? Is it startling that I would ask that question? The man that knows that his sins are forgiven and has tasted of heaven – has tasted and seen that God is good – is protected from all kinds of evils, but from this one especially. the man that has tasted of eternal life in Christ and knows that his sins are forgiven so that he rejoices from the heart is a man that will not quickly get out of balance in his thinking, but will meditate often on the glories of Christ, free grace, eternal life, and the kindness of God towards sinners. The man that is rejoicing in God and certain of his salvation will also be protected from bitterness towards his friends and enemies. He might still disagree with drinking coffee in the sanctuary, but it will not be because he is trying to do the right thing only, but because he longs for the coffee drinker to worship God with reverence and awe! He longs for the coffee drinker’s good. Not simply to win a fight, or to be seen as a defender of the faith, but for that man to have such a profound faith In the presence of God that drinking coffee seems unthinkable while worshipping! He wants that man to know the joy of God in the same way that he has come to know it.
3. Confess our sins regularly. Notice that the Pharisee is consumed (even in his prayers!) with his enemies’ sin. He is always thinking about how they fall short, and how dangerous that group is, but he is not concerned at all with his own sin! Oh, he gives thanks to God for his virtues, but there is no confession; nothing to indicate that this man feels himself to be a sinner. Compare that to the tax collector: the only thing that is on his mind is his own wretchedness before God. Humility is not overly concerned with other people’s sin. As Thomas Chalmers says, humility has “too much work to do at home” – It sees the plank in its own eye, and everyone else’s sin looks like a speck. Confession of sin is a God-appointed means of humbling us before Him, and where there is not the good, anti-fungal of confession of sins and worship at the assurance of our pardon, a bad case of athlete’s foot is likely to break out as we go and fight battles of the Lord.
Where are we at as a church?
One thing that we should keep in mind is that there is a certain kind of person that believes every church to the right of them are fundamentalists. They are so scared of someone with doctrinal differences that are to the right of their doctrinal leanings; so terrified of legalism that if they see ladies wearing dresses to church, they shriek with fear and start to point fingers and call names. We must be careful not to care too much about what they think. But, on the other hand, we should be careful that an overbearing and graceless spirit does not actually come to characterize our church. We should not think that just because we are in a healthy place today, that we will necessarily be in a healthy place tomorrow. constant vigilance is the price that a free people pay for freedom, and it is the price that free Christians pay for freedom in their souls as well.
One of the signs of an unhealthy fundamentalist and legalistic spirit is that issues that ought to be free to the conscience of each believer become matters of law. And what ought to be said as advice is said as a command. When this starts to happen all of the clean air gets sucked out of the room. There is no room to breathe in the church. It becomes claustrophobic and you feel as if your every move is analyzed. The believer can protect themselves from this by having a heart that simply does not care more than they should about the opinions of other church members. If you care too much about what everybody thinks, then even if there is very little judgment happening, you will feel claustrophobic and judged at every turn. You will create a self-fulfilling prophecy from your own insecurity. We must work to cultivate a mind that is set on the Spirit, and that is not interested in gaining the approval of man, for we are servants of Christ. When this happens, a Christian could walk into the most fundamentalist baptist church around for 100 miles in a tank top and not blush at the whispers and the side-eyes, because it matters very little to them what these people think – they know in whom they have believed.
And as a church we can help our weaker brothers and sisters that often feel judged by being clear when we are simply giving advice, and the reasoning behind it vs. what we believe is a command from scripture. Paul sets a clear example of how to go about doing this in 1 Cor 7:25. A good example of this might be in how a family decides to educate their children: fathers are commanded to raise their children in the Lord (Ephesians 6). In other words, they are commanded to give their kids a Christian education, but they are not explicitly commanded how to do that. There are a variety of opinions on how to best accomplish this, and so when giving advice in this area, it should be clear that there is freedom to disagree.
I think that we are doing well in this, but it’s always good to keep an eye on our hearts and remember that we are prone to this kind of thing! We must continue to rejoice in the Lord and confess sin regularly.