Fear of the Future
by admin on Dec.26, 2009, under Commentary
By Will Moredock
Fundamentalism began as reaction to modernism
Much has been written this year in observance of the birth of Charles Darwin in 1809 and the publication of his monumental work, On the Origin of Species, in 1859. Another important date – one which has gone largely unnoticed, yet which is also important in its perverse way to the ideas of our modern world – is 1909, the year in which a couple of oil tycoons met and hired theologian A.C. Dixon to produce a series of books called The Fundamentals.
Conceived as a reaction to Darwin and the other voices of modernism, The Fundamentals were a collection of 90 essays by prominent American and British clerics, compiled into 12 volumes and published between 1910 and 1915. They became the intellectual basis of modern fundamentalism.
For the past three decades the political and cultural movement collectively known as the Christian right has been powered in large part by the ideas of fundamentalism. Adherents of these principles generally will tell you that they are following ancient doctrine; in truth, much of their ideology – including the Rapture and Second Coming – is actually quite recent.
“(Fundamentalism) is the intellectual underpinning of a lot of modern social and political ideas,†according to Elijah Siegler, assistant professor of religion at the College of Charleston. “George W. Bush was the high-water mark of fundamentalism in American society.â€
The fundamentalist movement has had a long and twisting path since it was launched a century ago.
Lyman and Milton Stewart were oil magnates and founders of the Union Oil Co., who took it upon themselves to finance seminaries, missionary work and the publication of Bible tracts and Christian books. Lyman Stewart’s most ambitious project was the publication of The Fundamentals, which encapsulated a lot of free-floating ideas that had been inhabiting the fringe American theology for generations.
Fundamentalism was riding high in the decade after publication of its manifesto. It fueled the Red Scare of the 1920s, made war on Catholics and immigrants, imposed Prohibition on the nation. But Prohibition was a disaster, and the Scopes “Monkey Trial†was a deep embarrassment to the movement. Fundamentalism withdrew from the mainstream, becoming politically and culturally marginal until it reemerged a half-century later as the Christian right.
A chief characteristic of fundamentalism is its obsession with the End Times and Second Coming. Those cryptic passages from Revelation, which mainstream Christians have scratched their heads over and generally placed on the shelf with mysticism and witchcraft, became the centerpiece of fundamentalist ideology. For the fundamentalist, the end of the world is imminent and nothing else matters.
One consequence of this peculiar world view, Siegler said, is that most fundamentalists disregard environmental warnings and eschew almost all forms of social and political reform. The important thing for the fundamentalist is to get right with god and prepare to be whooshed up in the Rapture. The world and the people in it are not worth saving.
You can understand how this theology would have a deep appeal to political and economic conservatives. In fact, Siegler suggests that the nexus of big business and religion at the launch of the fundamentalist movement is no accident. It has been repeated a number of times in the past century, including in the rise of the Christian right and the emergence of a secretive sect of wealthy and powerful Christian politicians who operate out of a house on C Street in Washington, D.C. In his book, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, Jeff Sharlet describes how this group worked against FDR’s New Deal in the 1930s and supported rightwing dictatorships around the world during the Cold War.
In American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, Chris Hedges describes how the Republican Party joined forces with Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and other fundamentalist leaders in the 1970s in a bold grab to put traditional Republicans in control of Washington, and put fundamentalist Christians in control of American culture.
Their scheme almost worked. George W. Bush served two terms as president (whether he was elected is still debated) and GOP leaders spoke just a few years ago of a permanent Republican majority in the Congress. A number of factors contributed to the fact that Democrats now hold the White House and the Congress – not least of which was the fact the the fundamentalists overplayed their hand after the 2004 election and scared a lot of moderates away.
Fundamentalism is in eclipse as a political force today, but it is still alive and well. And like a cancer, it can always return. It is an authoritarian ideology, an intrinsic and intractable enemy of peace and freedom. All freedom-loving people should know its signs and be wary of its dangers.
See Will Moredock’s blog at www.charlestoncitypaper.com/blogs/thegoodfight.
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Darwiniana » Fear of the future
December 26th, 2009 on 1:39 pm[...] Fundamentalism began as reaction to modernism Much has been written this year in observance of the birth of Charles Darwin in 1809 and the publication of his monumental work, On the Origin of Species, in 1859. Another important date – one which has gone largely unnoticed, yet which is also important in its perverse way to the ideas of our modern world – is 1909, the year in which a couple of oil tycoons met and hired theologian A.C. Dixon to produce a series of books called The Fundamentals. [...]
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December 27th, 2009 on 1:41 am
Absolutely spot on. I wish Will Moredock’s article was required reading by today’s high school students. Of course, it would be banned in all the schools where any Southern Baptists live!
People do not realize that Rick Warren is basically a Fundamentalist, even though he does not stress the “End Times”. I suppose he could be a radical Fundamentalist in that he is very much the Christofascist: absolutely EVERYONE MUST BE CONVERTED using (Warren’s motto) “whatever it takes.”
It is also interesting to note that many Fundamentalist ministers and preachers have had some seminary training which includes textual criticism of the Bible, sociology, and even some Hebrew-Aramaic-Greek. These people are actually taught by professors who tell them not to take the Bible literally – ever. They encounter all the discrepancies and errors. Yet they still come to the pulpit preaching “inerrancy” “creationism” “end times theology”. Why?
Pre-eminent Biblical textual cirtic Bart Ehrman (“Misquoting Jesus”) wrote a very frustrating answer: “Your guess is as good as mine.”
My guess is that it is a matter of “control”: it is much easier to control a congregation with finite terms like “God said this, it’s here in the Bible!” And let’s face it, a pastor who has no spiritual control over his congregation is pretty useless.
Thanks again, Will Moredock!!
December 27th, 2009 on 5:31 am
re: “The important thing for the fundamentalist is to get right with god and prepare to be whooshed up in the Rapture. The world and the people in it are not worth saving.”
That is an odd perspective regarding Christianity. You are correct that the Bible teaches that Jesus will return to gather believers one day. But to say that “the world and the people in it are not worth saving” goes against everything Jesus taught and did. As you may recall, he give his life for sinners. How does that coincide with what you have written?
December 27th, 2009 on 11:20 am
Nice bit of historical revisionism. Falwell and Robertson fundamentalists? HAH! Bush a fundamentalist? Oh, man, what are you on?
You need to do a bit more reading.
December 29th, 2009 on 5:07 am
To Don Johnson:
I think the author of the article has given the impression that Fundamentalism is the same as when it was founded/started. He probably meant to show how Fundamentalism has “evolved” (gasp!). Nowadays it is the norm to group all evangelicals under the single title of “Fundamentalists”. His key premise, however, is not compromised: Fundamentalists believe more in End-Times philosophy than most people. And, yes, they believe they are superior because others have refused to be converted or “born again.” Watch a video on some of the “Rapture” conventions (or simple get togethers): these people are all nauseatingly smug in the knowledge that they are going to leave a lot of people behind. It’s the kind of smugness that implies vengeance from some very insecure people.
From false hope springs false humility.
January 4th, 2010 on 2:08 am
(Spotted the following item on the web. Enjoy! – Robert)
FAMOUS RAPTURE WATCHERS – Addendum
by Dave MacPherson
(The statements in my “Famous Rapture Watchers” web article appeared in my 1983 book “The Great Rapture Hoax” and quoted only past leaders. The following names include other leaders who were quoted in that original printing.)
Oswald J. Smith: “…I am absolutely convinced that there will be no rapture before the Tribulation, but that the Church will undoubtedly be called upon to face the Antichrist…” (Tribulation or Rapture – Which?, p. 2).
Paul B. Smith: “You are perfectly free to quote me as believing rather emphatically in the post-tribulation teaching of the Bible” (letter dated June 9, 1976).
S. I. McMillen: “…Christians will suffer in the Great Tribulation” (Discern These Times, p. 55).
Norman F. Douty: “…all of the evidence of history runs one way – in favor of Post-tribulationism” (Has Christ’s Return Two Stages?, p. 113).
Leonard Ravenhill: “There is a cowardly Christianity which…still comforts its fainting heart with the hope that there will be a rapture – perhaps today – to catch us away from coming tribulation” (Sodom Had No Bible, p. 94).
William Hendriksen: “…the one and only second coming of Christ to judgment” (Israel in Prophecy, p. 29).
Loraine Boettner: “Hence we conclude that nowhere in Scripture does it teach a secret or pre-tribulation Rapture” (The Millennium, p. 168).
J. Sidlow Baxter: “…believers of the last days (there is only one small part of the total Church on earth at any given moment) will be on earth during the so-called ‘Great Tribulation’ ” (Explore the Book, Vol. 6, p. 345).
Merrill C. Tenney: “There is no convincing reason why the seer’s being ‘in the Spirit’ and being called into heaven [Revelation 4:1-2] typifies the rapture of the church…” (Interpreting Revelation, p. 141).
James R. Graham: “…there is not a line of the N.T. that declares a pre-tribulation rapture, so its advocates are compelled to read it into certain indeterminate texts…” (Watchman, What of the Night?, p. 79).
Ralph Earle: “The teaching of a pre-tribulation rapture seems first to have been emphasized widely about 100 years ago by John Darby of the Plymouth Brethren” (Behold, I Come, p. 74).
Clarence B. Bass: “…I most strongly believe dispensationalism to be a departure from the historic faith…” (Backgrounds to Dispensationalism, p. 155).
William C. Thomas: “The return of Jesus Christ, described by parousia, revelation, and epiphany, is one single, glorious, triumphant event for which we all wait with great eagerness!” (The Blessed Hope in the Thessalonian Epistles of Paul, p. 42).
Harold J. Ockenga: “No exegetical justification exists for the arbitrary separation of the ‘coming of Christ’ and the ‘day of the Lord.’ It is one ‘day of the Lord Jesus Christ’ ” (Christian Life, February, 1955).
Duane Edward Spencer: “Paul makes it very clear that the Church will pass through the Great Tribulation” (“Rapture-Tribulation” cassette).
J. C. Maris: “Nowhere the Bible teaches that the Church of Jesus Christ is heading for world dominion. On the contrary – there will be no place for her, save in ‘the wilderness,’ where God will take care of her (Rev. 12:13-17)” (I.C.C.C. leaflet “The Danger of the Ecumenical Movement,” p. 2).
F. F. Bruce: “To meet the Lord [I Thessalonians 4:17]…on the final stage of…[Christ's] journey…to the earth…” (New Bible Commentary: Revised, p. 1159).
G. Christian Weiss: “Some people say that this ['gospel of the kingdom' in Matthew 24:14] is not the gospel of grace but is a special aspect of the gospel to be preached some time in the future. But there is nothing in the context to indicate this” (“Back to the Bible” broadcast, February 9, 1976).
Pat Brooks: “Soon we, in the Body of Christ, will be confronted by millions of people disillusioned by such false teaching [Pre-Tribism]” (Hear, O Israel, p. 186).
Herman Hoeksema: “…the time of Antichrist, when days so terrible are still to arrive for the church…” (Behold, He Cometh!, p. 131).
Ray Summers: “Because they [Philadelphia] have been faithful, he promises his sustaining grace in the tribulation…” (Worthy Is the Lamb, p. 123).
George E. Ladd: “[Pretribulationism] may be guilty of the positive danger of leaving the Church unprepared for tribulation when Antichrist appears…” (The Blessed Hope, p. 164).
Peter Beyerhaus: “The Christian Church on earth [will face] the final, almost superhuman test of being confronted with the apocalyptical temptation by Antichrist” (Christianity Today, April 13, 1973).
Leon Morris: “The early Christians…looked for the Christ to come as Judge” (Apocalyptic, p. 84).
Dale Moody: “There is not a passage in the New Testament to support Scofield. The call to John to ‘come up hither’ has reference to mystical ecstasy, not to a pretribulation rapture” (Spirit of the Living God, p. 203).
John R. W. Stott: “He would not spare them from the suffering [Revelation 3:10]; but He would uphold them in it” (What Christ Thinks of the Church, p. 104).
G. R. Beasley-Murray: “…the woman, i.e., the Church…flees for refuge into the wilderness [Revelation 12:14]…” (The New Bible Commentary, p. 1184).
Bernard L. Ramm: “…as the Church moves to meet her Lord at the parousia world history is also moving to meet its Judge at the same parousia” (Leo Eddleman’s Last Things, p. 41).
J. Barton Payne: “…the twentieth century has indeed witnessed a progressively rising revolt against pre-tribulationism” (The Imminent Appearing of Christ, p. 38).
Robert H. Gundry: “Divine wrath does not blanket the entire seventieth week…but concentrates at the close” (The Church and the Tribulation, p. 63).
C. S. Lovett: “Frankly I favor a post-trib rapture…I no longer teach Christians that they will NOT have to go through the tribulation” (PC, January, 1974).
Walter R. Martin: “Walter Martin finally said…’Yes, I’m a post-trib’ ” (Lovett’s PC, December, 1976).
Jay Adams: “Today’s trend is…from pre- to posttribulationism” (The Time Is at Hand, p. 2).
Jim McKeever: “Nowhere do the Scriptures say that the Rapture will precede the Tribulation” (Christians Will Go Through the Tribulation, p. 55).
Arthur Katz: “I think it fair to tell you that I do not subscribe to the happy and convenient theology which says that God’s people are going to be raptured and lifted up when a time of tribulation and trial comes” (Reality, p. 8).
Billy Graham: “Perhaps the Holy Spirit is getting His Church ready for a trial and tribulation such as the world has never known” (Sam Shoemaker’s Under New Management, p. 72).
W. J. Grier: “The Scofield Bible makes a rather desperate effort…it tries to get in the ‘rapture’ of the saints before the appearing of Antichrist” (The Momentous Event, p. 58).
Pat Robertson: “Jesus Christ is going to come back to earth again to deliver Israel and at the same time to rapture His Church; it’s going to be one moment, but it’s going to be a glorious time” (“700 Club” telecast, May 14, 1975).
Ben Kinchlow: “Any wrath [during the Tribulation] that comes upon us – any difficulty – will not be induced by God, but it’ll be like the people are saying, ‘The cause of our problems are those Christians in our midst; we need to get rid of them’ ” (“700 Club” telecast, August 28, 1979).
Daniel P. Fuller: “It is thus concluded that Dispensationalism fails to pass the test of an adequate system of Biblical Interpretation” (The Hermeneutics of Dispensationalism, p. 369).
Corrie ten Boom: “The Bible prophesies that the time will come when we cannot buy or sell, unless we bear the sign of the Antichrist…” (Tramp for the Lord, p. 187).
Francis Nigel Lee (eleven earned doctorates!): “Dave MacPherson, in his various books, has made a major contribution toward vindicating Historic Christian Eschatology. The 1830 innovations of the disturbed Margaret Macdonald documented by MacPherson – in part or in whole – immediately spread to Edward Irving and his followers, then to J. N. Darby and Plymouth Brethrenism, and were later popularized by the dispensationalistic Scofield Reference Bible, by Classic Pentecostalism, and by latter-day pretribulationists like J. F. Walvoord and Hal Lindsey.”
[In light of II Tim. 3:14 which says that we can’t know too much about Bible teachers (Dave MacVersion), I invite you to read my article “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty” which can be found on the “Powered by Christ Ministries” site.
July 9th, 2010 on 10:15 pm
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