======================================================================== HISTORY OF FUNDAMENTALISM by Stewart G. Cole ======================================================================== A historical account of the Fundamentalist movement in America, beginning with A.C. Dixon as a microcosm of the era. Cole traces the origins, key figures, and defining controversies of early twentieth-century Fundamentalism. Chapters: 49 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. A. C. Dixon-Microcosm of an Era 2. Articles in The Fundamentals 3. Baptist Fundamentalism Organized 4. Baptists and Early Fundamentalism 5. Conservative Reactions. 6. Contributions of Niagara 7. Controversies over the Fundamentals 8. Defections from the Fundamentalist Fellowship 9. Defining Fundamentalism 10. Facing Defections and Defeats 11. Famous Heresy Trials and the Five Fundamentals 12. Fortifications and Forgeries 13. Fortifications and Forgeries 14. Fundamentalist Fatalities 15. Fundamentalists strove to achieve purity 16. Gresham Machen of Princeton Seminary 17. Issues of Alarm 18. Niagara Bible Conference and Her Fruits 19. Origin of the Fundamentalist Fellowship 20. THE AMERICAN BAPTISTS 21. THE AMERICAN BAPTISTS SEMINARIES 22. THE FIRST RECORDED BAPTIST CHURCH IN HISTORY 23. The 1878 Niagara Creed 24. The 1921 Fundamentalist Fellowship Meeting 25. The 1921 NBC Meeting (Des Moines, Iowa) 26. The 1922 NBC Meeting (Indianapolis, Indiana) 27. The 1923 NBC Meeting (Atlantic City, New Jersey) 28. The 1925 NBC Meeting (Seattle, Washington) 29. The American Bible and Prophetic Conferences 30. The Auburn Affirmation 31. The Auburn Affirmation 32. The Birth of the Baptist Bible Union 33. The Deep Roots of Controversy 34. The Development of American Liberalism 35. The Fall of Princeton Theological Seminary 36. The Five Fundamentals Declared 37. The Fountainheads of Fundamentalism 38. The Liberals' 1922 Preconvention Forum 39. The Matter of Baptist Confessions 40. The Peace Commission 1925-1927 41. The Prayer Meeting Revivals 42. The Reorganization of Princeton 43. The Revivals and Early Believers' Meetings 44. The Scofield Reference Bible 45. There Was Murder in the Students' Hearts 46. Tolerance Creeps In 47. Ulster and the Origin of the Believers' Meetings 48. WHAT IS AN INDEPENDENT FUNDAMENTAL BAPTIST 49. WHO WERE THE FIRST BAPTISTS? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: A. C. DIXON-MICROCOSM OF AN ERA ======================================================================== I. A. C. Dixon-Microcosm of an Era A. Born on a plantation near Shelby, North Carolina, on July 6, 1854, Amzi Clarence Dixon was a microcosm of an era of Fundamentalism. 1.One day during his Asheville pastorate, Dixon led a young car­penter to Christ. a)That youth soon entered the ministry and was instrumental in the conversion of George W. Truett (1867-1944), later to become a famous Southern Baptist preacher and pastor of Dallas’s First Baptist Church. b)"So Truett is my grandson in the gospel," A. C. Dixon used to say. c)following the liberal Henry Ward Beecher’s death, Dixon said: "The kind of unbelief which he did more than any other man to popularize has done much to weaken the power of the pulpit. To charge God with being the Father of all men is a slander upon his holiness. Few illusions can do more harm than that which holds all men to be children of God. It puts men to sleep on the bed of false security. It is the vagary of the broad and sentimental mind, and has no foundation in Scripture or experience." d)In 1906, the accepted the pulpit of the Chicago Avenue Church in Chicago, Illinois. This was the nondenominational con­gregation that Dixon’s hero, Dwight L. Moody, had founded. e)Dixon’s Baltimore church, however, had reportedly expressed its displeasure with his activity in the BBU. His letter of resignation from the BBU, dated February 19, 1925, appeared in a number of Baptist newspapers:After prayerfully considering the whole situation as it now exists, I am convinced that the Baptist Bible Union of America has fulfilled its great mission, and ought, therefore, to be dissolved. It has raised the danger signal and thoroughly aroused the Baptist denomination to the perils of Modernism. It has made it easy for Fundamentalists to bear testimony to the truth within our churches, Associations and Conven­tions. This work from within ought to continue with increased energy, and I believe that it can now be done more effectively without any other organization. . . . I, therefore, resign my position as a member of the Board of Managers and my membership in the Baptist Bible Union of America, believing that God will lead the Fundamentalists to ultimate victory in our beloved denomination. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: ARTICLES IN THE FUNDAMENTALS ======================================================================== I.Articles in The Fundamentals (Roman numerals indicate volume number) A.Authors 1.Anderson, Robert (1541-1918). a.Christ and Criticism (II). b.Sin and judgment to Come (VI) 2.Anonymous, a.Evolutionism in the Pulpit, by An Occupant of the Pew (VIII). b.Tributes to Christ and the Bible by Brainy Men Not Known as Active Christians (II). 3.Beach, Henry H. a.The Decadence of Darwinism (VIII). 4.Bettex, Frederic (1837-1915). a.The Bible and Modern Criticism (IV). 5.Bishop, George S. (1836-1914). a.The Testimony of the Scriptures to Themselves (VI I). 6.Boston, Thomas (1677-1732). a.The Nature of Regeneration (X). 7.Bowen, Charles A. a.A Message from Missions (IX). 8.Burrell, David James (1844-1926). a.The Knowledge of God (VIII). 9.Caven, William (1831-1904). a.The Testimony of Christ to the Old Testament (IV). 10.Crosby, Howard (1826-1891). a.Preach the Word (VII I). 11.Dixon, Amzi C. (1854-1925). a.The Scriptures (V). 12.Erdman, Charles It. (1866-1960). a.The Church and Socialism (XII). b.The Coming of Christ (XI). 13.Erdman, W. J. (1834-1923). a.The Holy Spirit and the Sons of God (X). 14.Foster, John McGaw (1860-1928). a.Rome, the Antagonist of the Nation (XI). 15.Frost, Henry W. (1858-1945). a.What Missionary Motives Should Prevail? (XII). b.Consecration (X). 16.Gaebelein, Arno C. (1861-1945). a.Fulfilled Prophecy a Potent Argument for the Bible (XI). 17.Gray, James M. (1851-1935). a.The Inspiration of the Bible-Definition, Extent and Proof (II I). 18.Hague, Dyson (1857-1935). a.The Doctrinal Value of the First Chapters of Genesis (VIII). b.The History of the Higher Criticism (I). c.At-One-Ment, by Propitiation (XI). 19.Heagle, David (1836-1922). a.The Tabernacle in the Wilderness: Did It Exist? (IV). 20.Johnson, Franklin (1836-1916). a.Fallacies of the Higher Criticism (II). b.The Atonement (VI). 21.Kelly, Howard A. (1858-1943). a.Personal Testimony (I). 22.Kyle, Melvin Grove (1858-1933). a.The Recent Testimony of Archaeology to the Scriptures (II). 23.Lasher, George W. (1831-1920). a.Regeneration, Conversion, Reformation (X). 24.Lyttelton, George, Lord (1709-1773). a.Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul (V). 25.Martin, Daniel Hoffman (1859-1920). a.Why Save the Lord’s Day? (X). 26.Mauro, Philip (1859-1952). a.Life in the Word (V). b.A Personal Testimony (IV). c.Modern Philosophy (II). 27.McNicol, John (1869-1956). a.The Hope of the Church (VI). 28.McNiece, R. G. (1839-1913). a.Mormonism: Its Origin, Characteristics. 29.Medhurst, T. W. a.Is Romanism Christianity? (XI). 30.Moorehead, William G. (1836-1914). a.Millennial Dawn: A Counterfeit of Christianity (VII). b.The Moral Glory of Jesus Christ a Proof of Inspiration (III). 31.Morgan, G. Campbell (1863-1945). a.The Purposes of the Incarnation (I). 32.Moule, Handley C. G. (1841-1920). a.Justification by Faith (II). 33.Mullins, Edgar Y. (1860-1928). a.The Testimony of Christian Experience (III). 34.Munhall, Leander W. (1843-1934). a.Inspiration (VI I). b.The Doctrines That Must Be Emphasized in Successful Evangelism (XII). 35.Nuelsen, John L. (1867-1946). a.The Person and Work of Jesus Christ (VI). 36.Orr, James (1844-1913). a.Science and Christian Faith (IV). b.The Early Narratives of Genesis (VI). c.Holy Scripture and Modern Negations (IX). d.The Virgin Birth of Christ (I). 37.Penn-Lewis, Mrs. Jessie a.Satan and His Kingdom (X). 38.Pentecost, George F. (1842-1920). a.What the Bible Contains for the Believer (X). 39.Pierson, Arthur T. (1837-1911). a.Testimony of the Organic Unity of the Bible to Its Inspiration (VII). b.The Testimony of Foreign Missions to the Superintending Providence of God (VI). c.Divine Efficacy of Prayer (IX). d.The Proof of the Living God, As Found in the Prayer Life of George Muiller, of Bristol (I). e.Our Lord’s Teaching About Money (X). 40.Pitzer, A. W. a.The Wisdom of This World (IX). 41.Pollock, Algernon J. (1864-1957). a.Modern Spiritualism Briefly Tested by Scripture (X). 42.Proctor, William C. a.What Christ Teaches Concerning Future Retribution (IX). 43.Reeve, James Josiah (1866-1946). a.My Personal Experience with the Higher Criticism (III). 44.Robinson, Andrew Craig a.Three Peculiarities of the Pentateuch (VI I). 45.Robinson, George L. (1864-1958). a.One Isaiah (VI I). 46.Ryle, John Charles (1816-1900). a.The True Church (IX). 47.Scofield, Cyrus I. (1843-1921). a.The Grace of God (XI). 48.Speer, Robert E. (1867-1947). a.God in Christ the Only Revelation of the Fatherhood of God (III). b.Foreign Missions or World-Wide Evangelism (XII). 49.Spurgeon, Thomas (1856-1917). a.Salvation by Grace (IX). 50.Stobo, Jr., E. J. a.The Apologetic Value of Paul’s Epistles (X). 51.Stock, John a.The God-Man (VI). 52.Stone, John Timothy (1868-1954). a.Pastoral and Personal Evangelism, or Winning Men to Christ One by One (XII). 53.Studd, Charles T. (1860-1931). a.The Personal Testimony of Charles T. Studd (III). 54.Charles Sydenstricker, H. M. a.The Science of Conversion (VIII). 55.Thomas, W. H. Griffith (1861-1924). a.Old Testament Criticism and New Testament Christianity (VIII). 56.Torrey, Reuben A. (1856-1928). a.The Certainty and Importance of the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ From the Dead (V). b.The Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit (I). c.The Place of Prayer in Evangelism (XI I). 57.Troop, G. Osborne a.Internal Evidence of the Fourth Gospel (X). 58.Trumbull, Charles Gallaudet (1872-1941). a.The Sunday School’s True Evangelism (XII). 59.Warfield, Benjamin B. (1851-1921). a.The Deity of Christ (I). 60.Webb-Peploe, H. W. (1837-1923). a.A Personal Testimony (V). 61.Whitelaw, Thomas (1840-1917). a.Christianity, No Fable (III). b.Is There a God? (VI). c.The Biblical Conception of Sin (XI). 62.Williams, Charles B. (1869-1952). a.Paul’s Testimony to the Doctrine of Sin (VIII). 63.Wilson, Joseph D. (1840-1925). a.The Book of Daniel (VII). 64.Wilson, Maurice Emery (1855-1936). a.Eddyism: Commonly Called Christian Science (IX). 65.Wright, George Frederick (1838-1921). a.The Testimony of the Monuments to the Truth of the Scriptures (II). b.The Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch (IX). The Passing of Evolution (VI I). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: BAPTIST FUNDAMENTALISM ORGANIZED ======================================================================== I. Baptist Fundamentalism Organized A. Facing the uncertain decade of the twenties, Fundamentalists and conservatives were now beginning to organize themselves into a positive, united, Christian front in the face of worldliness, modernism, socialism, cultism, humanism, materialism, and Romanism. 1. In 1919, Fundamentalists began to cooperate across denomina­tional lines to establish the World’s Christian Fundamen­tals Association (WCFA), but many Northern Baptists, while working with the WCFA, felt that they also needed an organized effort within their own denomination to focus on specific problems. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: BAPTISTS AND EARLY FUNDAMENTALISM ======================================================================== I. Baptists and Early Fundamentalism A. As a fellowship of autonomous churches committed to no creed, confession, or system of theology, even premillennial Baptists felt less compelled than did their Presbyterian brethren in the earliest period of Funda­mentalism to defend their views of eschatology beyond their own local churches. 1. Although Baptists remained second to Presbyterians in the leadership of old guard Fundamentalism during the movement’s first period, 1857-1920, they made key contributions and provided outstanding leadership. 2. Gradually, Baptists rose to a majority within the Fun­damentalist movement, but they did so at the expense of many scars and casualties from the controversies with the modernists during the 1920s. 3. Beginning in the 1930s, most Baptist Fundamentalists began much more persis­tently than ever to make premillennialism (often including pretribulationalism) a trademark of their faith. B. Northern Baptist Seminaries 1.Even before the turn of the twentieth century, the five Baptist seminaries in the North were showing signs of liberalism, a)Newton Theological Institution. (1) Newton Theological Institution in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, originated in 1825 as a Baptist seminary. (a)its notable leaders included (i)the great administrator, Irah Chase (1793-1864); (ii) the scholarly conservative, Alvah Hovey (1820~1903)1; (iii)the model pastor, Nathan E. Wood (1849~1937); and (iv)the tolerant professor, Frederick L. Anderson (1862-1938) (b) Both Wood and Anderson identified with early Funda­mentalism, with Wood signing the call to and Anderson addressing the reconvention Fundamentalist conference in Buffalo when they organized the Fundamentalist Fel­lowship in 1920. (i) Anderson was not a militant, however, and he denied the necessity of belief in the virgin birth: (a) "My mind is still open on this subject, which I do not consider of the first importance. I am rather inclined to believe in the Virgin Birth, but it is not essential to Christian faith (cf., Peter and Paul) and should not be made a condition of church membership or ordination." (ii) By the 1930s, when Andover Theological Seminary moved to the Newton campus, the seminary was well within the mainstream of liberalism. (a)Nels F. S. Ferre (1908-1971) taught theology at Andover Newton Theo­logical School from 1937 to 1950 and from 1957 to 1965. Ferre attacked virtually all of the historic fundamentals of the Christian faith. b)Colgate Theological Seminary. (1) Colgate Theological Seminary was established in Hamilton, New York, in 1817, with "thirteen men, thirteen prayers, and thirteen dollars," as the first Baptist seminary in America. (2) In 1890, however, the modernist William Newton Clarke (1841-1912) began teaching at Colgate, where he remained until shortly before his death. (a) One of Clarke’s books, An Outline of Christian Theology (1894), was the first systematic theology of American liberalism. (3)In 1928, Colgate merged into Roch­ester Theological Seminary. c)Rochester Theological Seminary. (1) Rochester Theological Seminary in New York was founded with the University of Rochester in 1850. (2) Among the scholarly Fundamen­talists who enhanced the seminary faculty during the last half of the nineteenth century was Howard Osgood (1831-1911). (a) Osgood addressed the Fundamentalist conference on inspiration in Philadelphia in 1887 and the Seaside Bible Conference at Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1893. (3) It was a professing conservative, Augustus H. Strong (1836-1921), who prepared the way for Rochester Semi­nary’s fall into apostasy. (a) After serving as pastor of several churches, Strong became president of the seminary in 1872, and he remained there until 1912. Perhaps most remember Strong for his Concordance and Systematic Theology. (b) Though he was conservative enough in his early career, he later adopted theistic evolution, a low view of the Bible’s inspiration, and pantheistic ideas. (c) 1t was Strong who brought Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918), the father of the Social Gospel, to Rochester’s faculty in 1902. (i) Rauschenbusch soon released his Christianity and the Social Crisis (1906) and Theology of the Social Gospel (1917). (ii)He became a popular speaker in Northern Baptist gatherings and continued at Rochester Seminary until his death in 1918. d)Crozer Theological Seminary. (1) Baptists established Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pennsylvania, in 1867. (2) Crozer Seminary’s first president, Henry G. Weston (1820-1909), an ardent Fundamentalist,served as a consulting editor of the Scofield Reference Bible. (3) Fundamentalist James M. Stifler (1839-1902), after serving several pastorates, taught as professor of New Testament at Crozer from 1882 until the year of his death. (4) Other conservative Crozer professors included George D. B. Pepper, who defended the Bible’s inerrancy in his Outlines of Systematic Theology (1873), and Howard Osgood, who taught there before going to Rochester Theological Seminary. (5) It was here at Crozer, however, that Henry C. Vedder (1853-1935), the Baptist historian, taught from 1894 to 1926. (a) Vedder vigorously attacked Christ’s substitutionary atonement. He considered "the idea of sacrificial expiation made by the innocent for the guilty" as "especially repugnant to our best ethics." (b) He called the Old Testament sacrificial system "too revolting, too stupidly absurd, to be worthy of serious refutation" and a gross, impudent, insulting slander against God. (6) Alvah Sabin Hobart (1847-1930), who taught at Crozer from 1900 to 1920 expressed similar views. (7)In 1970, Crozer moved onto Rochester’s increasingly ecumenical campus. e)The University of Chicago Divinity School. (1) John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (1839-1937) established the University of Chicago in 1891. (2) Actually a predecessor of the university, the divinity school originated with the old Morgan Park Seminary, which had been chartered by the Baptist Theological Union back in 1865. (3) The University of Chicago Divinity School is one institution that clearly did not "fall" into modernism; (a) it originated that way and continues as one of the most radical seminaries on the continent. (b) By the turn of the twentieth century, the school had created a furor among Fundamentalists. (c) The first president and one of the founders of the University of Chicago was William Rainey Harper (1856-1906), who also served as professor of Hebrew and Old Testament. (d) Shailer Mathews (1863-1941), professor of New Testament and systematic theology, was another famous theologian there. (e) These men were among the leading modernists of their generation, and they were obviously proud of it. (f)Liberals and modernists representing the University of Chicago Divinity School included (i)Shirley Jackson Case (1872-1947), (ii)Edgar J. Goodspeed (1871-1962), (iii)William Warren Sweet (1881-1958), (iv)J. M. Powis Smith (1866-1932), (v)George Burman Foster (1858-1918), (vi)Gerald Birney Smith (1868-1929), (vii)Ernest DeWitt Burton (1856-1925), (viii)Henry N. Wieman (1884-1975), 26 (ix)Martin E. Marty, in the late 1970s, in an apparent attempt to attract more students to its ecumenical base, the school declared itself as simply an "unofficial" institution of the American Baptist Churches in the USA. It continues to main­tain its "historical and friendly" relationship with this denomination ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: CONSERVATIVE REACTIONS. ======================================================================== I. Conservative Reactions. A. Moderate conservatives, under John Marvin Dean’s leadership, established Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, which is located in Lom­bard, Illinois, outside the NBC in 1913 as a reaction to the liberalism at the University of Chicago Divinity School. B. Dean’s Second Baptist Church provided the facilities until 1920. C. In 1919, however, Northern affiliated with the NBC and dropped Fundamentalists W. B. Riley and J. R. Straton from the advisory board. 1.For a number of years the seminary’s faculty consisted of a hetero­geneous group of both liberal-backed and evangelical men. a)Carl Henry, a leading new evangelical, taught here from 1940 to 1947. b)Northern is affiliated today with the "Chicago Cluster of Theological Schools." D. In 1925, moderate conservatives founded Eastern Bap­tist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,as a reaction to the modernism at Crozer Theological Seminary. Liberalism eventually gained control at Eastern, too, however. For example, the liberal Baptist historian, Robert G. Torbet, taught there from 1934 to 1951 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: CONTRIBUTIONS OF NIAGARA ======================================================================== I. Contributions of Niagara A. The conference helped to establish and to strengthen the distinctive interdenominational character of Fun­damentalism. B.The conference spawned new missionary activity and evangelism 1.A. T. Pierson, editor of the Missionary Review of the World 2. J. Hudson Taylor of the China Inland Mission urged their listeners to pledge support to foreign missions. C. Niagara contributed to the rise and spread of a large Bible conference movement. D. Niagara had a significant impact on the rise of the Bible institute and college movement. 1. evolutionary views and new theology engulfing an increasing number of theological seminaries, 2. Niagara spokesmen began promoting another type of institution-the Bible school-and virtually every Fundamentalist school that was organized prior to 1930 found advice, encouragement, or personnel from among those whose lives Niagara had influenced. E. The conference gave early expression to Fundamen­talism’s emphasis on concentrated Bible study. F. The conference precipitated a vast amount of Fun­damentalist literature on prophecy, of which there had been little before the prolific writers of Niagara began producing it. G. The Niagara meetings inspired scores of Christian businessmen to dedicate their lives to Christ and to become generous donors to Fundamentalist churches, schools, missions, and publication enterprises. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: CONTROVERSIES OVER THE FUNDAMENTALS ======================================================================== I.The Turbulent Twenties- Controversies over the Fundamentals, 1922-1927 a.Superficially, events in the Presbyterian church in the decades preceding 1920 might make one suppose that the Fundamentalists were entering the years of fierce controversy with a strong chance of winning the battle. b.It was not to be so, for the church was like “rotten wood,” as B. B. Warfield put it c.Harry Emerson Fosdick i.Much of the controversy of the 1920s revolved around Harry Emerson Fosdick 1. a modernist who had recently become associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church in New York City without transferring his ordination from the Baptist to the Presbyterian ministry. 2.From this pulpit, on Sunday morning May 21, 1922, Fosdick preached one of the most provocative sermons in American church history-”Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” . a.Appeal for theological latitude. b.He personally rejected all nonessentials i.Bible’s inerrancy ii.Christ’s virgin birth iii.Christ’s physical return ii.Immediately, Clarence Edward Macartney (1879- 1957), pastor of Philadelphia’s Arch Street Presbyterian Church, responded with a sermon 1.he titled “Shall Unbelief Win?”. 2. Spearheading a conservative movement in opposition to Fosdick, Macartney led the Philadelphia Presbytery to force the 1922 General Assembly to take immediate action against the New York “pulpit.” 3.(It could not deal directly with Fosdick, for he was not a Presbyterian.) 4.The overture (request for action by the Presbytery) expressed the following: a.The Presbytery of Philadelphia hereby respectfully overtures the General Assembly to direct the Presbytery of New York to take such action as will require the preaching and teaching in the First Presbyterian Church of New York City to conform to the system of doctrine taught in the Confession of Faith. b.The New York Presbytery, however, proved to be a major thorn in the conservatives’ side, not only because of its reluctance to deal with Fosdick’s church, but especially because of its established practice of ordaining graduates of Union Seminary. iii.The 1923 General Assembly, meeting in Indianapolis, elected Charles F. Wishart (1894-1960), the liberal-backed president of Ohio’s Wooster College, as moderator. Defeating William Jennings Bryan on the fourth ballot. 1.Also indicative of Fosdick’s widespread support were the tolerance resolutions, which 425 students and 62 faculty members at Massachusetts’s Mount Holyoke College signed. ‘° iv.The following year, Albert C. Dieffenbach, editor of a Unitarian weekly, The Christian Register, published: “I have the profoundest respect for a man who is consistently a fundamentalist, or for a man who is consistently a Roman Catholic, but I have no respect for the attitude of Dr. Fosdick. . . . When he goes to Cambridge he speaks in terms of liberalism and when he comes to New York he says, ‘I am an evangelical Christian!’ “ v.The General Assembly’s Judicial Commission recommended in 1924 that the New York Presbytery invite Fosdick to become a Presbyterian. Unwilling to subscribe in any way to a confession of faith, Fosdick politely declined and submitted his resignation to his church, effective March 1925 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: DEFECTIONS FROM THE FUNDAMENTALIST FELLOWSHIP ======================================================================== I. Defections from the Fundamentalist Fellowship A. The Fundamentalist Fellowship also suffered from major defections in 1925, when J. C. Massee, M. P. Boynton, and J. Whitcomb Brougher resigned. Massee had served as the Fellowship’s first chairman. B. Responding to these casualties, W. B. Riley retorted, "This is not a battle. It is a war from which there is no discharge." C. J. C. Massee abdicated his leadership in the Funda­mentalist Fellowship to Frank M. Goodchild (1860-1928) of Central Baptist Church in New York City. D. Goodehild, however, still believed that the Fundamentalists could rescue the convention. A striking illustration revealing Goodehild’s amiable spirit is his 1925 review of Fosdick’s new book The Modern Use of the Bible: 1. "It is very difficult for one who knows and loves Dr. Harry Fosdick to review a book by him.... His personality is so engaging... his passionate love for Jesus Christ is so conspicuous that one is apt to think there can be nothing wrong with his teaching." Goodehild then analyzed the book, accurately pointing out its modernism. 2. Militants read that review, however, and chafed at Goodehild’s reference to Fosdick’s "passionate love for Jesus Christ." E. With such attitudes prevailing, it was no surprise to a growing number of Fundamentalists when they found their movement struggling for mere existence. F. The year 1925 was a grim one for American Fundamentalism, but the series of events that soon unfolded would land near knockout blows to the Fundamentalist Fellowship, as well as to the Baptist Bible Union. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: DEFINING FUNDAMENTALISM ======================================================================== I. Defining Fundamentalism A. Ideally, a Christian Fundamentalist is one who desires to reach out in love and compassion to people, believes and defends the whole Bible as the absolute, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God, and stands committed to the doctrine and practice of holiness. 1.Fundamentalism is not a philosophy of Christianity, 2.Nor is it essentially an interpretation of the Scriptures. 3. It is not even a mere literal exposition of the Bible. 4.The essence of Fundamentalism goes much deeper than that- B. It is the unqualified acceptance of and obedience to the Scriptures. 1.Moses and the prophets, 2.Christ and the apostles, of Augustine and Calvin, 3.the English Separatists and Puritans, 4.Wesley and White­field, 5.the German Pietists 6.the English Brethren, 7.London’s Spurgeon 8.Princeton’s Warfield C.Theological liberals 1.Fundamentalism is virtually synonymous with orthodox Christianity. 2. Kirsopp Lake "It is a mistake, often made by educated persons who happen to have but little knowledge of historical theology, to suppose that Fundamentalism is a new and strange form of thought. It is nothing of the kind: 3. it is the . . . survival of a theology which was once universally held by all Christians." 4. To the Fundamentalist, however, the most important principle is not perpetuity but authority. 5. Lake recognized this when he concluded, "The Fundamentalist may be wrong; I think that he is. But it is we who have departed from the tradition, not he, and I am sorry for the fate of anyone who tries to argue with a Fundamentalist on the basis of authority. The Bible and the corpus theologicum (body of theological writings) of the Church are on the Fundamentalist side." D.The earliest historians of the Christian Fundamentalism movement tend to depict Fundamentalism as 1.having almost mindless adherence to Scripture 2.Fanatical devotion to outmoded principles and practices. 3.The word itself became a kind of derogatory term to denote a mean spirit, a 4.pharisaical character, 5.argumentative person-ready to fight at the drop of theological diphthong. E.The Fundamentalist was regarded as 1.offensive, 2.ignorant, and 3.hopelessly enamored of the past 4."Fundamentalists split churches." 5.caricatured as devoid of human warmth, 6.callous to the world’s real needs, and 7.habitually uncooperative- 8.always aligning itself against 9.higher education, 10.science, and 11.Cultural interests. F. Historically, Fundamentalists have striven progressively for what they regard as biblical purity. 1.This does not imply a belief in perfectionism 2.Their goal has been a position as consistent as possible with the doctrine of holiness. 3.Holiness has consistently positioned historic Fundamen­talism away from the center of organized religion. a.pre-1930 Fundamentalism was nonconformist, while b.post-1980 Fundamentalism has been separatist 4. Like the English Puritans, most early Ameri­can Fundamentalists attempted to purify or purge the denominations from within. 5. Like the English Separatists, the succeeding generations came out and started afresh. 6. The separatist position itself, however, did not completely solidify as a distinct, militant movement until the 1950s. G. The following chronological outline depicts this pro­gressively centrifuge nature of mainline American Fundamentalism. H.Nonconformist Fundamentalism: a.1857 to 1920. ①.The Revivalist Roots and Progress of the Interdenominational Bible and Prophetic Confer­ences Prior to Fundamentalism’s First Major Orga­nization, the WCFA. b.1920 to 1930. ①. The Fundamentalist vs. Modernist Battle Within the Mainline Denominations. 2.Separatist Fundamentalism: a.1930 to 1950. ①.The Fundamentalist Separation for Mainline Denominations and the Concurrent Rise of Neo- orthodoxy, Neo-liberalism, and New Evangelicalism. b.1950 to 1970. ①. The Fundamentalist Separation for New Evangelicalism. I.1970 to the Present J.The Neo-fundamentalist Defection into Broad Evangelicalism. 1.Two themes a.First, Fundamentalism, as a religious principle has always been interdenominational in character and fellowship. Its major fights have occurred within the particular denominations. b.The second and central theme of this study that, while Fundamentalism has always embraced or defended the cardinal doctrines of traditional Christianity, the movement has been characterized by an emphasis on the doctrine and practice of holiness, ①. a holiness that includes both personal and ecclesiastical aspects. In both the Hebrew and Greek languages, the word holiness, or sanctification, carries the basic idea separation. ②. The positive side of separation is the concern of biblical fellowship. Progressively, Fundamentalism came to emphasize that the Scriptures clearly teaches certain criteria for true Christian fellowship. ③. They do regard the doctrine of biblical fellowship as fundamental. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: FACING DEFECTIONS AND DEFEATS ======================================================================== I.Facing Defections and Defeats A.William Jennings Bryan and the Monkey Trial 1.William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925)-Fundamentalist orator and statesman-stood for many years as the "peerless leader" of the Democratic party. a)He was born in Salem, Illinois. After completing law school, he became a leading attorney in Nebraska. Serving in the United States Congress from 1891 to 1895, Bryan advocated the free coinage of silver at a fixed rate with gold. As a delegate to the Democratic national convention at Chicago in 1896, "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." b)The speech won him the nomination for president, but the Republican candidate, William McKinley, defeated him in both that election and the next. c)In 1908, Bryan was again defeated in a bid for the presidency, this time by William Howard Taft. d)However, Bryan remained the leader of his party until 1912, when President Woodrow Wilson appointed him secretary of state. e)Perhaps the leading pacifist of his day, Bryan disapproved of Wilson’s increasing involve­ment in the war in Europe and resigned in 1915. f)Favoring the prohibition of liquor traffic, Bryan became a popular Chautauqua speaker, never at a loss for a telling phrase to express his thoughts. g)Although greatly admired by most Fundamentalists for his leader­ship, Bryan advocated an optimistic philosophy somewhat inconsistent with Fundamentalists’ insistence on man’s depravity and the widespread belief among them that increasingly dark conditions would lead to Christ’s premillennial return. 2.Arrested for violating a state law forbidding the teaching of evolution, public schoolteacher John T. Scopes (1900-1970) stood trial in Dayton, Tennessee, July 10-21. a)For his defense, the American Civil Liberties Union provided some of the most eminent lawyers of the day, Clarence Darrow and Dudley Field Malone. b)Bryan, now sixty-five years old, served as prosecuting attorney. c)Mil­lions of newspaper readers at home and abroad daily followed the arguments issuing from that small-town courtroom. (The trial was moved outdoors because of the extreme July heat that made the packed courtroom un­bearable.) d)Unwisely allowing himself to be cross-examined by Darrow, Bryan was described by the press as back­wards and ignorant. e)No doubt he was a much better orator than debater, for Bryan simply did not have ready and factual answers to sticky questions about the Bible and science. While the court convicted Scopes and fined him one hundred dollars, Fundamentalists had won a Pyrrhic (costly) victory. f)In 1927, the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the decision on a technicality, though the anti-evolution law itself was not finally repealed until 1967. g)Perhaps Bryan’s own death, which occurred only five days after the trial ended, was an omen of the empty victories and bitter heartaches ahead for Fundamentalism. The bizarre trial would have far greater impact on the popular in­terpretation of Fundamentalism than all sermons and lectures ever would. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: FAMOUS HERESY TRIALS AND THE FIVE FUNDAMENTALS ======================================================================== I.Famous Heresy Trials and the Five Fundamentals a.Questions concerning acceptable degrees of doctrinal latitude continued to plague the Presbyterian Church throughout the nineteenth century. i.Church trials, nevertheless, remained relatively rare because proceedings required concrete evidence. ii.The major valid evidence for any charges of theological liberalism had to come from the published literature of the accused, and, in most cases, the compositions in question could be interpreted in more than one sense. b.Such, for instance, was the defense of David Swing, in 183O, of Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church. i.Francis L. Patton (1843-1932), conservative professor at McCormick Theological Seminary, brought charges against Swing in 1874 for failure to adhere to his ordination vows 1.To him, there were no absolutes, and all things were in a state of flux. 2. Biblical inerrancy was a doctrine only for simple and insecure souls who needed something tangible to worship. 3. Patton, however, tried to prove that Swing was a Unitarian, which was more than he could demonstrate to a largely pro-liberal presbytery, and the defendant won his case. 4.Had Patton pursued the issue of inerrancy, which was the root issue, he could have presented a solid case. c.Most of the church trials that followed dealt with defendants who were theological professors rather than pastors. i.These trials raised the question of the relative authority of the presbytery against that of the General Assembly. ii.with the de-emphasis on the importance of doctrine, the liberals could be forced out of the church in the 1890s for heresy, but iii.by the 1930s the conservatives could be forced out for their efforts to maintain the purity of the church. d.The Briggs Case i.Charles Augustus Briggs (1841-1913), of Union Theological Seminary in New York, antagonized conservatives and consequently became a major target of their criticism. ii.Briggs viciously attacked the American Bible and Prophetic Conference held in New York in 1878. iii.In 1880, he led in the founding of the Presbyterian Review, “ which ran for a decade under the joint editorship of Briggs and, successively, A. A. Hodge, Francis L. Patton, and B. B. Warfield. iv.The articles appearing during these years indicate that a serious internal controversy over biblical inerrancy was developing and that Briggs was coming under suspicion for siding with higher biblical criticism. v.In 1891, Briggs assumed Union’s chair of biblical theology, and on the occasion of his inauguration, Adam’s Chapel was filled to capacity. 1. The address, which Briggs titled The Authority of Holy Scripture, shocked even some of his own sympathizers by its blatant attacks on the Bible. 2. He enumerated six “barriers” that allegedly impeded men in their Bible study: superstition (which he called bibliolatry), verbal inspiration, authenticity of Scripture, inerrancy, miracles, and predictive prophecy. 3. He attacked belief in verbal inspiration, scorned the Bible’s authenticity and inerrancy, laughed at revealed miracles and Old Testament ethics, denied the orthodox view of original sin, and advocated a “progressive sanctification after death.” 4. He claimed that men had found God through the church; and through reason; and that these experiences were just as genuine as that of Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), who found God through the Scriptures. 5. Understandably, conservatives immediately charged the professor with heresy. 6. During the same year, the New York Presbytery, in the interest of “peace,” dismissed all charges against Briggs. 7. the General Assembly, finally decided to hear the case. 8. The Assembly convicted Briggs and suspended him from the Presbyterian ministry 9.Although Briggs soon received re-ordination into the Protestant Episcopal Church, he remained at Union Semi nary and continued to train clergymen for Presbyterian pulpits. e.The Smith Case i.In March 1891, Henry Preserved Smith (1847-1927)’ of Lane Seminary delivered an address to the ministerial association in Cincinnati. ii.He defended the same views that Briggs had expressed in his January inaugural. Smith’s address, later published under the title Biblical Scholarship and Inspiration, denied the verbal inspiration of the Bible. iii.In December 1892, the Presbytery of Cincinnati found Smith guilty of false teaching and suspended him from the ministry. iv.The liberal Lane Seminary trustees would not accept Smith’s resignation until the 1893 General Assembly rebuked them. v.When Smith did resign, all but one of his Lane colleagues resigned with him to show their support. f.The MeGiffert Case i.Formerly a professor at Lane Seminary (1888-1893), his “History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age” appeared, and conservatives immediately took offense at the book’s treatment of the Bible. 1.In his book, McGiffert asserted that John the Baptist probably never even knew about Jesus at all, 2.his “Behold the Lamb of God,” recorded in the Gospel of John, was not historical. 3. McGiffert further claimed that the disciples did not regard Jesus as deity; 4. that Paul did not write the Pastoral Epistles and that whoever penned them “had a very confused idea of the nature of the heresies which he denounces”; 5. that Peter did not write the epistles that bear his name; that the Gospel of John gives an inaccurate picture of Jesus; and 6. that whoever wrote the First Epistle of John was trying to combat some false teachers who had learned their heresies from Paul. 7. The year following the book’s publication, the Pittsburgh Presbytery presented an overture (a call for the Assembly to perform a particular legislative or executive action) to the General Assembly to condemn the work as irreconcilable with the Scriptures and with the church’s standards. 8.The overture charged that McGiffert’s book treated the New Testament irreverently by attacking its verbal inspiration, inerrancy, authenticity, and authority. ii.The General Assembly urged McGiffert to reconsider his opinions and, if he could not conform his views to the standards of the church, to withdraw from the Presbyterian ministry. When McGiffert refused, ten presbyteries overtured the 1899 General Assembly to take clear and decisive action iii.To avoid any appeal and prolonged litigation, McGiffert simply withdrew from the Presbyterian ministry. iv.However, he continued training Presbyterian clergymen at Union Seminary until 1926, writing other liberal books and serving as Union’s president from 1917 to 1926. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: FORTIFICATIONS AND FORGERIES ======================================================================== I. Fortifications and Forgeries A. The most emotional issue during the years of 1923 and 1924 was the matter of inclusivism in NBC missions. 1.When Fundamentalists took the matter to the convention floor, a)they were met with an avalanche of public rebuke and scorn. b)In the heat of the battle, the modernists displayed as much militancy as did the Fundamentalists. c)The single glimmer of hope for Fundamentalists in 1923 was the mustering of their forces into a new organization, the Baptist Bible Union. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: FORTIFICATIONS AND FORGERIES ======================================================================== I.Fortifications and Forgeries A.The Inclusive Policy Adopted 1.Only five months following the Atlantic City conven­tion, the Northern Baptist Foreign Mission Society, on October 29, 1923, formally adopted the "inclusive policy" of amalgamating liberals and conservatives in mission work: "Our denomination, our Society, and our churches have always given to officers, missionaries, and pastors a considerable degree of liberty of theological opinion. .It has not been our Baptist custom to limit too explicitly the form in which these doctrines must be held and expressed. . . . The Board, composed like our churches of men and women of diverse opinions, has heretofore included and should include among its officers and missionaries representatives of various elements among our people." a)M.R. Hartley, a missionary who was home on furlough from Asia, reported to the NBC Foreign Board in 1924 that he no longer believed in Christ’s deity. b)The board voted nine to four to keep him on as a "sound man," which hardly seemed to conservatives like examining candidates "very carefully as to their belief regarding Christ and the Bible," as the convention president had claimed the boards were doing. c)When conservatives questioned this practice of inclusivism, the Foreign Board’s chairman, professor Frederick L. Anderson of Newton Theological Institution, ardently defended the inclusive policy as being "within the limits of the Gospel." d)Anderson undoubtedly believed in the Lord’s deity and even considered himself a Fundamentalist, having addressed the historic gather­ing in Buffalo that organized the Fundamentalist Fel­lowship in 1920. e)Anderson’s brand of Fundamentalism, however, was becoming more and more of a misnomer. f)Such moderate conservatives within the NBC, while con­sidering themselves Fundamentalists, were demonstrat­ing that when all was said and done their doctrinal militancy was simply not as strong as their zeal for spreading the gospel. g)At the annual 1924 NBC meeting in Milwaukee (May 28-June 3), W. B. Riley stood almost alone in an attempt to persuade the convention to adopt a good doctrinal statement, and he failed. h)Then John R. Straton was laughed down from the convention floor when he called for a full investigation of missionaries representing the Foreign Board and offered himself and Riley to serve on an investigating committee. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: FUNDAMENTALIST FATALITIES ======================================================================== I.Fundamentalist Fatalities A.The year 1926 opened with 1. a disaster at Pasa­dena’s New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses: a grand­stand collapsed, killing several and wounding hundreds. 2. On an individual level, it was also the year Jack Dempsey lost his championship boxing title to Gene Tunney. 3. Baptist Fundamentalists saw similar catastrophes and setbacks in the course of their 1926 battles, and it is not surprising that discouragement was setting in. 4. In the wake of the 1925 defections and of the national mood arising from the Scopes Trial and subsequent death of William Jennings Bryan, the Fundamentalist Fellowship did not even hold a preconvention conference in 1926. B. The 1926 NBC Meeting (Washington, DC) 1. The 1926 NBC meeting in the nation’s Capitol elected the soft conservative J. Whitcomb Brougher to the denomination’s presidency. 2. Brougher delivered the con­vention’s keynote address on "Our Common Denomina­tor." With Brougher, J. C. Massee, M. P. Boynton, and Herbert W. Virgin speaking in behalf of peace and evangelism, the convention approved a proposal from Massee to declare a six-month truce in all theological disputes and to begin "a great evangelistic campaign." 3. "Soul-winning and missions" served as an effective smoke screen to divert attention from doctrinal deviation. 4. When W. B. Riley moved to make immersion a pre­requisite to Northern Baptist church membership, the convention defeated his proposal two to one. 5. This was Riley’s last-ditch effort to oust Harry Emerson Fosdick and Park Avenue Baptist Church in New York City from the NBC, for John D. Rockefeller, Jr., had persuaded Fosdick to drop immersion as a requirement for church membership. C. Many Fundamentalists were just now beginning to voice what they had probably felt for a long time: as insiders they had lost virtually every one of the great Baptist battles over the Bible and an exodus seemed inevitable. D. The first event was a tragedy involving Baptist Bible Union leader J. Frank Norris. 1.Norris and the Shots Heard Around the World a)Fundamentalists lashed out in 1926 against the Roman Catholic governor of New York, Al Smith, who had his sights on the presidency. b)The evils of alcohol were also plaguing the nation. Bootlegging had become widespread in many sections. 2. During the spring and summer of that year, Fundamentalist J. Frank Norris (1877-1952), the "Texas Tornado," had been using his First Baptist pulpit in Fort Worth and his paper, The Searchlight, to attack "Rum and Romanism," which were allegedly aligned to elect a Catholic to the White House and to subvert the Constitution. 3. The local object of attack was Fort Worth’s Roman Catholic mayor, H. C. Meacham, whom Norris charged with misdirecting municipal funds into Roman Catholic concerns. "He isn’t fit to be manager of a hog pen," declared Norris. 4. Swiftly responding, Meacham dis­charged from his own local department store six employ­ees who were members of Norris’s church. 5. The pastor then published a blazing expose’ of the whole affair, along with the former employees’ testimonies, in the Friday, July 16 issue of The Searchlight and distributed copies all over Fort Worth, even in front of Meacham’s store. The paper announced Norris’s plans to continue the mes­sage from his pulpit on Sunday. 6. Saturday afternoon, July 17, found Norris busy in his second-floor study preparing for his sermon, when he received a threatening telephone call from Dexter E. Chipps, a wealthy lumber dealer and friend of Meacham. 7. A little while later, Chipps entered the church and came into Norris’s study. The two men exchanged some sharp words, and Chipps reportedly threatened Norris’s life again. 8.Norris was no doubt under some emotional strain. a)There had been threats on his life, and, during an evening service, someone had shot at him from outside the church. b)Chipps, turning to leave Norris’s office, reportedly paused at the door, whirled, and appeared to be reaching into his back pocket. Robert G. Delnay observes that "in Texas such a gesture could have only one meaning, and it would be readily understood. c)Norris, sitting at the desk facing the door, may already have had his hand on the... revolver." The sounds of three or four shots reverberated through the huge downtown church building, and Chipps’s body lay motionless on the floor. d)As one biographer expressed it, "The life of one man was gone, the life of the other was never to be the same." e)Indicted by a grand jury for the murder of an unarmed man, Norris stood trial in Austin, Texas, in January 1927. Refusing his resignation, Norris’s Fort Worth church raised sixteen thousand dollars for his defense, through contributions gathered in a galvanized washtub placed on the platform in the auditorium. f)The Searchlight claimed that "every Roman Catholic church in the city raised money for his prosecution." g)Reporters caricatured Norris as "the pistol-packin’ preacher," "Trigger Norris," and "the shoot’n salvationist." (1) Actually, there is no evidence that Norris ever carried a gun. (2)At the time of the shooting, Norris-believing that his life was in danger-had taken the night watchman’s gun from the drawer of the desk. h)In the course of the trial, Norris introduced a silver-plated weapon, which he claimed Chipps had been carrying at the time of the shooting. i)Norris explained that he had discovered the gun on Chipps after the incident and had hidden it for future evidence, persuaded as he was that if it should fall into the prosecutors’ hands, they would never present it to the court. j)The only witness to the incident was L. H. Nutt, a local bank auditor who was a friend of Norris; he concurred that the pastor’s story was indeed the truth. k)Following the emotional hearing, then a closed, forty-minute deliberation, the jury on the first ballot found J. Frank Norris "not guilty." In the jury’s opinion it had been justifiable homicide. 9. A throng of eight thousand greeted Norris in Fort Worth to welcome the pastor home. He received com­forting telegrams from leaders all over the world, including W. B. Riley and Billy Sunday. Nothing, though, could really erase the permanent scars from a man who had gone through such an ordeal. 10. In spite of the fact that Norris would force retractions from at least five news­papers, most of the preacher’s former friends deserted him. J. Frank Norris would walk a lonely road now. 11. Wisely, he dissociated himself from the struggling Baptist Bible Union, which was on the verge of another world­wide embarrassment the following year. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: FUNDAMENTALISTS STROVE TO ACHIEVE PURITY ======================================================================== I. Until the 1930s, Fundamentalists strove to achieve ecclesiastical purity by attempting to force the modernists out of the mainline denominations. A. To Fundamentalists, such was the biblical model-removing from the churches any who represented that which is contrary to sound doctrine (2 John 1:9-11; Galatians 1:8-9; 1 Timothy 6:20-21). 1. No passage of Scripture explicitly instructs believers to separate from churches. 2.The Bible instructs churches to separate all unscriptural elements from their own fellowship in order to preserve ecclesiastical purity. a.Because conser­vatives failed to act swiftly to accomplish the removal of liberals, even from places of leadership, the movement eventually had no New Testament model to follow b.In other words, there is no list of clear, biblical passages to which minority members in predominantly liberal churches may appeal for guidance. c.The problem was that most Fundamentalist leaders up to 1930 were primarily attempting to preach the modernists out of denominational leadership positions. 3.There were two problems with this approach. a.First Fundamentalists needed to do far more than preach b.Secondly, their hands were tied within the denominational political structures. 4.There was a strong trend toward centralization of denominations around the turn of the century that paralleled the rise of big business in America a.Unfortunately for the church, it was the men who exhibited the most loyalty to the denomination, rather than to the Scriptures or the doctrinal purity of the Church that were promoted to high position. b.Furthermore, ecclesiastical machinery always moves slowly-far too slowly to accomplish swift purges. c.Ideally, local churches should have purged out modernism on their own level, and the denominations themselves should have ousted those churches that preached modernism. B. By the late 1940s and early 1950s, many Fundamentalists began to realize that under the broad umbrella of evangelicalism a distinctly "new evangelical" movement was emerging-an evangelicalism that appeared committed to regaining respectability in the eyes of the world even if that meant carrying on dialogue with liberals and joining with them in ecumenical campaigns. 1. 1950s Billy Graham had clearly emerged as the evangelist of this new movement. 2. Abandoned in an increasingly conspicuous, peripheral position, Fundamentalism had now begun to practice holiness yet another way- 3.by separating from churches and institutions where new evangelicals had ascended to key p]aces of leadership and control. a.By going this route, Fundamentalism had clearly changed in its prac­tice of holiness. b.While Fundamentalism prior to 1930 had separated primarily from worldliness, and the Fundamentalism of the 1930s and 1940s had separated primarily from modernism, c.Mid twentieth-century Fundamentalism had come to the conviction that, in the face of a new enemy within the camp, they must also separate from disobedient evangelicals. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: GRESHAM MACHEN OF PRINCETON SEMINARY ======================================================================== I.J. Gresham Machen of Princeton Seminary had published “Christianity and Liberalism” a.perhaps the best critique of old- line liberalism ever written. b.Its thesis is that, though liberals and moderates may plead for tolerance, there is no room in a Christian denomination for liberalism. i.In the sphere of religion. . . the present time is a time of conflict; the great redemptive religion which has always been known as Christianity is battling against a totally diverse type of religious belief, which is only the more destructive because it makes use of traditional Christian terminology. This modern non-redemptive religion is called “modernism” or “liberalism.”. . . Admitting that scientific objections may arise against the particularities of the Christian religion . ii.the liberal theologian seeks to rescue certain of the general principles of religion, of which these particularities are thought to be mere temporary symbols, and these general principles he regards as constituting “the essence of Christianity.”. . . As a matter of fact. . . what the liberal theologian has retained after abandoning to the enemy one Christian doctrine after another is not Christianity at all, but a religion so entirely different as to belong in a distinct category. c.Take note liberalism’s depreciation of doctrine and the historical facts that are the foundation of Christianity. d.In light of the later development of the doctrine of separation, it is interesting to note one of Machen’s concluding statements: i.“It may be that the present evangelical churches will face the facts, and regain their integrity while yet there is time. If that solution is to be adopted there is no time to lose, since the forces opposed to the gospel are now almost in control. It is possible that the existing churches may be given over altogether to naturalism, that men may then see that the fundamental needs of the soul are to be satisfied not inside but outside of the existing churches, and that thus new Christian groups may be formed. “ ii.Interestingly, the more radical modernistic factions in America tended to agree with Machen’s assessment of liberalism. 1. Walter Lippmann, a secular social critic, called Machen’s work “an admirable book” 2.the liberal Christian Century magazine carried a candid admission that Fundamentalism and modernism were two distinct religions: a.“Two worlds have crashed.. . . There is a clash here as profound and as grim as that between Christianity and Confucianism. . . . b.The God of the fundamentalist is one God; the God of the modernist is another. . . . c.The inherent incompatibility of the two worlds has passed the stage of mutual tolerance.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: ISSUES OF ALARM ======================================================================== I. Issues of Alarm A. From the very establishment of the Northern Baptist Convention (NBC) on May 16-17, 1907, in Wash­ington, D.C., there were Liberals in its highest places of leadership. 1. At the turn of the twentieth century there was not a single NBC seminary untainted by liberalism. 2. Nevertheless, because there were hundreds of Bible-believing preachers in the denomination, most conservative pastors and laymen failed to recognize the extent to which modernism had permeated their seminaries and agencies. B. There were a few exceptions, especially in Michigan. 1. During the second decade of the century, fourteen Fun­damentalist churches withdrew from the Grand Rapids Northern Baptist Association and were subsequently expelled from the state convention. 2.The Fundamentalists established the Michigan Orthodox Baptist Association (MOBA), which often participated as a voice of dissent at the annual NBC gatherings. a)Eventually the MOBA merged into the Baptist Bible Union (Esther 1923), (1)which became the matrix of the separatist General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. (2) The most well known early leader of the MOBA was Oliver W. Van Osdel (1846-1935) of the Wealthy Street Baptist Church in Grand Rapids. C. Only a dramatic series of events finally prompted other Fundamentalists to withdraw from the NBC, a series of battles that raged within the convention from 1919 to 1927. 1. During these years, four general areas of concern surfaced for Northern Baptist Fundamentalists: (a) increasing denominational control and subsequent loss of local church autonomy; (b) theological modernism in the schools and agencies; (c)inclusivism on the mission fields; and (d)the absence of a denominational confession of faith. 2.As early as 1911, the convention established the Min­isters and Missionaries Benefit Board (the "M and M" Annuity Fund), which became an effective means of controlling the clergy. a)That was the same year in which the denomination granted voting privileges to its salaried executives, whose votes during the 1920s would persis­tently swing the balance of power on the convention floor to the liberals. 3.Four specific issues alarmed Fun­damentalists that year: a)the General Board of Promotion; b)the New World Movement; c)Harry Emerson Fosdick; and d)The Baptist magazine. D. The General Board of Promotion. 1.First, the convention created a General Board of Promotion,which most Fundamentalists regarded as a bureaucracy that would threaten local-church autonomy. a)One of its major respon­sibilities was the preparation of an annual, cooperative, unified budget, which soon became a tangible index of which pastors were loyal and therefore valid candidates for positions on the various boards. b)In 1924, this General Board of Promotion became the "Board of Missionary Cooperation," a name more palatable to most Baptists, but its functions remained the same. c)By 1934, this growing centralization became even more pronounced, as a newly created Council on Finance and Promotion replaced the Board of Missionary Cooperation. d)At that time, the convention established a General Council, which would rule as a powerful executive committee of only a handful of people. (1) From that point, any resolution involving finances would automatically and without debate pass on to the General Council. (2) Collection agents would separate the people in the pews from the ministries they supported. 2. The alarms of the Fundamentalists in 1919 had been well founded. E.The New World Movement 1.A second issue of concern for Fundamentalists in 1919 was the NBC’s New World Movement, a)the Baptist wing of the Interchurch World Movement-a socially oriented, ecumenical, world relief fund for countries suffering in the aftermath of World War I. b)The movement’s goal for American donors was $336,000,000, of which the Baptists were expected to raise $100,000,000 over the next five years. c)Fundamentalists felt that the movement represented the Social Gospel, and many who contributed did so sparingly and grudgingly. After about two years, the convention was compelled to abandon the project. F. Harry Emerson Fosdick. 1. A third alarming issue for Fundamentalists in 1919 was modernist Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), who brought the annual convention sermon in Denver. 2. At that time, Fosdick was still preaching at First Presbyterian Church in New York City. In 1925, he went to Park Avenue Baptist Church, where John D. Rockefeller, Jr., had his membership. 3. A favorite story about Fosdick and Rockefeller depicts the two men having a quiet lunch together. Interrupting a long silence, Fosdick wonders aloud if people will mind if "John D." finances his church. "Mind?" quips Rockefeller. "If they can stand Fosdick’s theology, surely they can stand John D.’s money!" 4. In 1930, Rockefeller built a special place for Fosdick: Riverside Church, the beautiful Gothic structure overlooking the Hudson River from Morningside Heights in Upper Manhattan. It was a ten million dollar project. Riverside has never failed to live up to its reputation of being one of the most notoriously liberal churches in the world. G. The Baptist. 1. The fourth controversial item that sur­faced in 1919 was the NBC’s creation of a magazine, The Baptist, to counteract the conservative, independently owned Watchman-Examiner, edited by Curtis Lee Laws. 2. The first issue of The Baptist appeared January 21, 1920 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: NIAGARA BIBLE CONFERENCE AND HER FRUITS ======================================================================== I. Niagara Bible Conference and Her Fruits A. At the Holy Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church in New York City-the first of five American Bible and Prophetic Conferences held between 1878 and 1914 B. William Brookman gave a Bible Reading on "the Testimony of the Word as to the separation of God’s people unto Himself C.George C. Needham followed on the same theme as found in the New Testament. He said that the Lord Jesus both taught and practiced separation and that every believer is "called unto a life of separation, 1.unto the Lord: 2. from sin; 3. from self; 4. from evil companionship; 5.from the world; [and] 6.from the yoke and slavery of worldly possessions D.In 1881, the conference met (August 19-28) at Old Orchard, on the coast of Maine. 1.Speakers were a.A. T. Pierson (1827-1911) b.William G. Moorehead (1836-1914). c.James H. Brookes, the president of the conferences 2.Each year since 1875 the attendance had increased, to over 500 attending each year. 3.. In 1882, they gathered at another choice spot, Mackinac Island, Michigan, with speakers a.Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), the Britisher who founded the China Inland Mission, b.R. Nicholson (1822-1901), the Reformed Episcopalian 4.Other speakers up to 1899 a.Nathaniel West, b.William G. Moorehead, c.William J. Erdman, d.James M. Stifler, e.Henry W. Frost, f.Robert Cameron g.Arno C. Gaebelein (1861-1945), 5. With the death of D. L. Moody in 1899, even his Northfield Conferences (Esther 1880) experienced a decline. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: ORIGIN OF THE FUNDAMENTALIST FELLOWSHIP ======================================================================== I. Origin of the Fundamentalist Fellowship A. At a preconvention meeting in Buffalo, New York, in 1920, Fundamentalists and conservatives launched a group they called the National Federation of Fundamen­talists of the Northern Baptists. B. Its purpose was to rescue the NBC from its drift into modernism. I. Baptist Fundamentalism Organized A. Facing the uncertain decade of the twenties, Fundamentalists and conservatives were now beginning to organize themselves 1. In 1919, Fundamentalists began to cooperate across denomina­tional lines to establish the World’s Christian Fundamen­tals Association (WCFA), 2. many Northern Baptists, while working with the WCFA, felt that they also needed an organized effort within their own denomination to focus on specific problems. II. Origin of the Fundamentalist Fellowship A. At a preconvention meeting in Buffalo, New York, in 1920, Fundamentalists and conservatives launched a group they called the National Federation of Fundamen­talists of the Northern Baptists. 1. Its purpose was to rescue the NBC from its drift into modernism. 2.It soon became the Fundamentalist Fellowship, 3.still later the Conser­vative Baptist Fellowship, and 4.finally the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship. a)It continues today as a separatist testimony, far stronger than at any time in its long history. b)The organization has always been a loose fellowship of individuals, for many years not even keeping a directory of its supporters. B. In May 1920, 156 conservatives issued a call for their supporters to attend a preconvention meeting on June 21-22 in the Delaware Avenue Baptist Church in Buffalo, New York. Their purpose was "to restate, reaffirm, and re-emphasize the fundamentals of our New Testament faith" and "to stop our drift toward... rationalism and materialism." C. the sessions were moved to the Civic Auditorium, where an estimated three thousand attended. D. Fun­damentalists must evaluate their roots in the light of history. 1. As yet there was no major American precedent for what is now regarded as the practice of biblical separation. 2. For a time, the denominations seemed salv­able. 3. many Fundamentalists, for too many years, nursed the false hope of rescuing their denominations. 4. They lacked the militancy that today’s Fundamentalist believes the Scriptures require for true obedience. 5. Those 1920 preconvention messages contain some valuable lessons from church history. E. Jasper Cortenus (J. C.) Massee (1871-1965), pastor of the Baptist Temple in Brooklyn and president of the preconvention conference, delivered the opening address. 1.Referring to the crisis in the seminaries, Massee employed some vivid imagery: a)"If we would save them, we must cease now to let Philistine teachers plow with our edu­cational heifer, lest our denominational Samson, stripped of the goodly garments of his faith and virtue, fall under the witchery of a scholastic Delilah, and be permanently shorn of his strength, blinded as to his spiritual eyes, and bound to the unspeakable service of godless and mocking masters." b)" Massee ironically refused to "acknowledge the necessity of furnishing specific cases . . . though we are quite able to do that." Furthermore, said Massee, "We would not write nor consent to the writing of a formal creed." c)Calling for loyalty to the convention, Massee concluded with this appeal: "We will not go [into the convention] with swords sharpened to conflict, but with spirits prayerfully called to unity." 2.Professor Frederick L. Anderson (1862-1938) of Newton Theological Institution gave an address on "Historic Baptist Principles," a)in which he asserted, "I oppose any creedal statement whatever in the Northern Baptist Convention." b)W.Cummings (1864-1931) who quoted Fosdick favor­ably, 3.William Bell (W. B.) Riley (1861-1947), a)in his message on "Modernism in Baptist Schools," named men and schools (including Chicago, Rochester, and Crozer) as examples of unbelief. b)Riley also carefully explained that the purpose of the conference was not to compel anyone to consent to particular views of eschatology, but rather to highlight historic fundamentals. 4.Perhaps the most stirring message came from the only non-Northern Baptist, J. W. Porter, the Southern Baptist editor of the Kentucky state convention’s paper, The Western Recorder. It is only regrettable that none of the primitive recording devices of the day captured the tone of this warning: a)Contending for the faith is not a matter of choice, but of positive command. It is impossible to obey Christ and please God without contending for the faith.... Surely we can afford to contend for him who contended with death and hell for us. . . . It will not suffice to say, "My faith is all right, though there is a little error in it." With equal propriety, we might say of a glass of water, that "It is good drinking-water, though it has a little poison in it." A pie is not acceptable to the average man, or woman, though it contain only one fly. One fly is quite enough to make saint, or sinner, say "good-bye" to an otherwise excellent pie. The churches are on the Mountain of Temptation. Only recently they have been offered the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them, if they would substitute social service for a blood-bought redemption. b)Porter went on to describe the nature of the enemy’s attack: "The rattlesnake before he strikes, gives his deadly rattle; the viper, before he vomits his venom in the veins of his victim, gives his hiss; the tiger, before he rends his prey, gives his growl; and the wild eagle, before he seizes his victim, gives his scream of warning; but this ecclesiastical Goliath, in the guise of a friend, without warning, sought the destruction of doctrines and denom­inations." c)Porter concluded with a discussion of labels: "Those who are set for the defense of the gospel are quite commonly termed ’narrow’ . I must plead ’guilty’ to the impeachment. Truth is, and evermore must be, narrow." Porter was pastor of the First Baptist Church at Lexington, Kentucky. F. The preconvention conference was indeed a hetero­geneous group of conservatives: many weak, some strong, and a few (perhaps unwittingly) on the threshold of embracing liberal ideas. 1. They had met with a common purpose against the common enemy of rank modernism. Such a diverse group, however, could never succeed in purging their denomination of apostasy. 2.Curtis Lee Laws (1868-1946), in a July 1,1920, editorial in his Watchman-Examiner, described that preconvention group asFun­damentalists, -thus coining a term. a)For the time being, these nonconformist Fundamentalists were pursuing denominational purity with the hope of forcing the modernists out of the NBC. b)Laws defined these Funda­mentalists as those ready "to do battle royal for the fundamentals": We here and now move that a new word be adopted to describe the men among us who insist that the landmarks shall not be removed. "Conservatives" is too closely allied with reac­tionary forces in all walks of life. "Premillennialists" is too closely allied with a single doctrine and not sufficiently inclusive. "Landmarkers" has a historical disadvantage and connotes a particular group of radical conservatives. We suggest that those who still cling to the great fundamentals and who mean to do battle royal for the fundamentals shall be called "Fundamentalists." G. Jasper C. Massee, the chairman of the preconvention conference and first president of the Fundamentalist Fellowship, invited the moderately liberal Augustus H. Strong to write the foreword to the thirteen published messages. 1. Annoyed by newspaper accounts depicting the meeting as militant, Strong declined; but the incident illustrates Massee’s broad spirit. 2. Massee was hardly ready "to do battle royal for the fundamentals." 3. Unfortunately, he represented the attitude of most NBC conservatives. 4. Laws himself was silent on the doctrine of inerrancy and disagreed with the Fundamentalists’ assertion that a modernist could not be a true Christian. III. The 1920 NBC Meeting (Buffalo, New York) A. At the NBC’s 1920 meeting in Buffalo (June 23-29), the Fundamentalists and less-militant conservatives together probably constituted a majority, but the more politically astute liberals consistently outmaneuvered them on the convention floor. 1. Funda­mentalist Robert T. Ketcham later recalled that such actions became characteristic of Massee: "The very first battle we joined we would have won hands down if Massee hadn’t thrown the switch under us, and that became Massee’s pattern." 2. Massee did move that the convention appoint a special committee to investigate the schools to determine their loyalty to Christ and the Bible. 3. The conven­tion did indeed appoint a Committee of Nine, but it included both tolerant conservatives like Frank M. Goodchild and middle-of-the-road men such as Austen K. de Blois. 4. Fundamentalists could expect nothing from such an investigation. B. The liberals scored other victories in 1920 by leading the convention to join the Federal (now National) Council of Churches of Christ (FCCC), by publicly defending its inclusive policy, and by approving a known liberal missionary. 1. The missionary was Cecil G. Fielder, whom the Foreign Mission Board, after much conservative pressure, had brought home from India for questioning. 2. In personal correspondence from the mission field, Fielder had denied Christ’s vicarious atonement. "Atonement must go," declared Fielder, "It remains for us to make our own atonement by living the best life we can. It was not necessary for Jesus to die." 3. In response, the board had simply requested Fielder to spend a year at Andover Newton Theological Institution. In 1920, after his year at seminary, Fielder appeared once again before the board for reexamination, and it declared him "absolved of all theological guilt" because he had "considerably changed his views. 4. Fielder expressed his surprise that the board considered him orthodox: "I should be amazed if anyone who really knows anything about me considered that the summary published by the Board indicated any radical change of view on my part.... I used the accepted theological terminology." 5. Fundamentalists felt that Mr. Fielder had been more honest than the Foreign Board. C. National radio broadcasting would make its debut on November 2, 1920, when station KDKA in East Pitts­burgh, Pennsylvania, aired the presidential election results. 1. ( Harding won by a landslide.) Aided by the new medium of radio, Fundamentalists would wait still another decade before giving up their attempts to purge their denomination from within and to begin their Exodus 2:1-25. Not only Fundamentalists but modernists also took to the air waves with their message to America. 3.Modernist Harry Emerson Fosdick became very popular with his National Vespers on NBC. a)Millions would listen to Fosdick’s kind, affable, and intelligent voice and wonder what it was that the Fundamentalists were screaming about. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: THE AMERICAN BAPTISTS ======================================================================== THE AMERICAN BAPTISTS I.FOREIGN MISSIONS--ASIA A.American Baptists were called to foreign mission work in 1814 on this wise. 1.In 1812 Rev. Adoniram Judson and his wife, Ann Hasseltine Judson, with Rev. Luther Rice, were appointed by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to establish missions in Asia. Messrs. a)Judson and Rice sailed in different vessels to India, and on their voyage, without consultation with each other, they re-examined the New Testament teaching on baptism. b)The result was that they both adopted the views of the Baptists c)once they made this change known to the world, they were cut off from their former denominational support. 2.Mr. Rice returned to the United States to awaken in the Baptist Churches a zeal for the establishment of missions in India a)thirty-six delegates from eleven States and the District of Columbia, who met in Philadelphia, May 18th, 1814 b)a society was formed, called The Baptist General Convention for Foreign Missions c)the Convention enlarged its work by appropriating a portion of its funds (1)to domestic missionary purposes, (2)and also by determining ’to institute a classical and theological seminary’ to train young men for the ministry, (3)these measures diverted the Convention considerably from its’ missionary purpose. 3.Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Judson were driven by the intolerance of the government from Bengal and preceded to Rangoon, to commence missionary work in Burma, where they arrived July 13th, 1813 a)without an English-speaking helper, a grammar, a dictionary or a printed book, They began the study of the language b)twenty-one years later, Mr. Judson was able to lay the whole Bible, faithfully translated, before the Burman people. c)Their first congregation numbered fifteen d)The first convert, Moung Nau, was baptized six years later on June 27th, 1819; two others were immersed in November of that year. 4.As the laws of Burma made it a capital crime for a native to change his religion, Judson and Coleman thought it prudent to visit the Emperor at the capital, that they might, if possible, secure toleration for the converts who had become Christians. a)They went up on this errand to Amarapura in December, carrying to the Emperor an elegant Bible in six volumes, enveloped, according to Burman taste, in a beautiful wrapper. b)A tract, also, was prepared and presented, containing a brief summary of Christianity. c)The Emperor read but two sentences of the tract and threw it from him in displeasure; he also declined to accept the Bible. d)During the war a native preacher remained in Rangoon; e)after the war, however, the Church numbered twenty members, nearly all baptized by him. f)The terms of peace annexed a large portion of Burman territory to British India, and from that time the mission fell under British protection. B. TAVOY was the third of the Burman missions: its establishment being due to a suggestion of the first native Burman preacher, who proposed to make a missionary journey there in 1827. Here that great work amongst the Karens commenced; here the first Karen preacher was baptized, and near Tavoy Mr. Mason performed his first official act as a missionary in baptizing thirty-four Karens. C. HENTHADA was opened as a mission station after the war of 1852. 1. Mr. Thomas was the first missionary to the Karens of this mission, and Mr. Crawley to the Burmans. At first many of the natives, attracted by curiosity, thronged as visitors to the missionaries, who, after the Gospel was introduced, became zealous converts; for at the end of the first year the Karen department reported 8 churches and 150 members. 2. At the end of ten years, the mission reported 751 Burman converts and five preachers. D. ARRACAN, on the western coast of Burma, became a mission station in 1835, and, at different times, thirteen missionaries and their wives labored there with much success. E.PROME has ever been a scene of missionary interest, on account of the visit paid to that city by Dr. Judson in 1830, although for twenty-four years after that visit no missionary returned there 1.All upper Burma is now included in the territory cultivated by the American Baptists. F. ASSAM was opened as a mission in 1836 by Messrs. Nathan Brown and O. T. Cutter, who had been previously stationed in Burma. G. The GAROS were first visited in 1857, and that movement opened one of the brightest chapters in the history of the mission to Assam. A torn tract, swept out of a building which had been cleaned and prepared for a new tenant, was picked up by a Sepoy guard and read. It led to his conversion; he became an efficient preacher to his tribe, and in 1867, a Church was formed amongst them, numbering 40 members. 1. Dean joined the mission in 1834; and devoted himself to the Chinese department; left Siam in 1842, and returned to Bangkok in 1864. 2. In August, 1835, he preached his first sermon to 34 natives, and in 1841, formed a class of Chinese preachers, which he continued till he left for Hong Kong. H. THE TELUGUS. This Indian mission has been amongst the most successful and renowned in modern times. The Telugu nation numbers about 18,000,000, residing mainly in India, west of the Bay of Bengal, and between Calcutta on the north and Madras on the south. 1. The mission was commenced in 1836, by Messrs. Day and Van Husen. 2. For the first twenty years the work was discouraging and many proposed to abandon it, but a few pleaded for its continuance and prevailed. 3. The first permanent station of the mission was Nellore. Rev. Mr. Jewett joined the mission in April, 1849, and preached his first sermon in Telugu in December, eight months after his arrival. 4. Mr. MeLanrin came to the help of the missionaries in 1870, when 1,000 villages had heard the Gospel 5. Many asked for baptism, but he refused to baptize any while the famine lasted lest they should profess Christianity from wrong motives. 6. In the mission, at the same date, there were 287 stations, 40 missionaries, male and female, 160 native preachers, 46 churches, 292 schools, and 4,270 pupils. II.FOREIGN MISSIONS--China A.CHINA. 1. The Missionary Union has two missions in the empire of China, the Southern and the Eastern. Mr. Shuck and Mr. Roberts founded the Southern mission, being followed by Dr. William Dean, who readied Hong Kong in 1842. 2. Thirty-three services were held every week in Chinese, and in 1844 nineteen were baptized. 3. In 1848 Mr. Johnson joined the mission, and in that year 20,000 tracts were distributed; also, Dr. Dean’s ’ notes on the Gospel of Matthew and the Book of Genesis.’ B. Inmoro, or the Eastern China mission, has its principal station at Ningpo. 1.It has been occupied from 1843, when Dr. Maegowan opened a hospital. a)In eight months of the next year 2,139 cases were treated. b)A chapel was opened in 1846, and a congregation of from eighty to one hundred attended, some also being baptized. c)In 1853, Mr. Goddard, who had joined the mission at Ningpo, completed an independent version of the New Testament, pronounced by competent judges the best Chinese version that has been made. d)The first Baptist Chinese Association was formed there, numbering six Churches, with twenty-three delegates III.FOREIGN MISSIONS -JAPAN. A. This mission was commenced by the appointment of Dr. Nathan Brown, once missionary to Assam, in May, 1872. 1. He arrived on his field in February, 1873. 2. A Church of eight members was formed at Yokohama in 1873. 3. . The first baptism in Tokio was in October, 1875. 4.At Yokohama a daily Bible class was established and a Sabbath-school; a native preacher labored, and by 1876 the Church numbered twenty-two members IV.Foreign Missions - Africa A. AFRICA. The mission to the continent of Africa was commenced almost simultaneously with that in Burma, and several devoted missionaries sacrificed their lives in that inhospitable climate. 1. The mission, begun in MOUROVIA, LIBERIA, was continued with indifferent success and under many discouragements, until 1856. 2. The labors of Lott Carey (a Black minister), Skinner and others, were amongst Africans restored to their own country from America, and the Bassa tribe in the vicinity. Mr. Clarke, one of the missionaries, prepared a dictionary of the Bassa language, and nine Bassa young men were converted. 3. One native came to the United States, was baptized here, learned the printer’s trade, and was about to return to his own people when he died. 4. So many of the missionaries died after a brief period on the field that the mission was suspended in 1856 5. in 1868, the work was renewed, and Robert Hill (A Black Minister) was appointed a missionary; he never reached his field. 6.In 1869-70, 153 were baptized, and the mission reported 218 converts 7.in 1871 two Churches were organized and a place of worship dedicated. 8.Two years afterwards, 19 Bassas cast off idolatry and embraced Christ B.THE CONGO MISSION, in Central Africa, 1. was first sustained by Mr. and Mrs. Guinness, of London, and much money was expended, largely out of their own possessions, in buildings and the maintenance of a steam-boat to ply on the river Congo and its branches, with other provisions for prosecuting mission work. 2. They proposed to turn over to the American Baptists all the mission property in the Congo country, including land, buildings, the steam-boat and the missionary force, on condition that the work be carried forward on the principles of the Missionary Union. 3. In 1885 this proffer was accepted, and the work undertaken. 4. On grounds of expediency, some of the stations were transferred to another society laboring near them, and arrangements were made to bring the work into line with the general methods of work pursued by the Union. 5. In 1886 five stations were reported, thirteen male missionaries, two black ministers, and two single women. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: THE AMERICAN BAPTISTS SEMINARIES ======================================================================== THE AMERICAN BAPTISTS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES Perhaps sufficient has been said already about the early efforts of the Baptists to provide facilities for general and theological education, but there is a disposition to linger and contemplate the great contrast presented between the firmly laid foundations and the present state of the structure. As early as 1813 a charter was obtained for the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, and in 1818 a school was opened at Waterville, under the charge of Jeremiah Chaplin, D.D., who for several years had been giving theological instruction to a few young men who had removed with him to Waterville from his pastorate at Danvers, Mass. In 1820 this school was incorporated as a college, with both a collegiate and a theological department, but when Newton Institution was opened, instruction in divinity was discontinued and the institution grew into what is now Colby University. The spread of Baptist principles in this country is nowhere more strongly seen than by our present educational statistics. The State of New York is a fair example. In 1817 there were only three educated Baptist ministers in that State, west of the Hudson. Thirteen men met at the house of Deacon Jonathan Olmstead, in Hamilton, September 24th, 1817, and contributed $13 to the cause of theological education in founding what has now become Madison University, and the first class which graduated from the infant institution numbered but six members. Today, 1886, the property and endowments of the Baptist institutions of learning in New York are estimated at $2,133,000. The Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution was opened on May 1st, 1820. Its first Professor was Rev. Daniel Hascall, and in the following fall, Elder Nathanael Kendrick, of Eaton, was employed to visit the school and lecture on moral philosophy and theology three times a week. The first regular class in Divinity was organized under In’s instruction, in June, 1822. Two members of this class were Jonathan Wade and Eugenio Kincaid, both of whom went on missions to Burma. Gradually, the length of the course of study was extended and its variety enlarged, until in 1839 the restriction to candidates for the ministry was widened, granting the privileges of the institution to ’students of good moral character not having the ministry in view.’ This enlargement, however, was accompanied by the provisions that: ’No change should be made in the course of instruction to favor such students, that they should in no case exceed the number of those preparing for the ministry, and that in no other way should the privileges of the latter be abridged by reason of this arrangement.’ The institution was supported by contributions from the Churches and by the help of the Education Society. By degrees which it is not necessary to trace here, it became the Madison University of today, having had a rare succession of Professors and graduates. Dr. Kendrick, who had been its head till 1836, was at that time formally elected its President, in which capacity he continued until 1848. Stephen W. Taylor, LL.D., became its second President in 1851, but died in 1856. Dr. Taylor was a layman of very high character. He graduated at Hamilton College, Clinton Co., N. Y., and had devoted his life to teaching. For two years he acted as principal of the academy connected with the University, but left in 1836, after which he founded the Lewisburg University, in Pennsylvania, and returned as President of Madison. Rev. George W. Eaton, D.D., LL.D., was the third President of this renowned institution. He was a graduate of Union College and had devoted his life to teaching, his first professorship being that of Ancient Languages, at Georgetown, Ky. He became Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, at Hamilton, in 1833, was elected to the chair of Ecclesiastical and Civil History, in 1837; in 1850 he became Professor of Systematic Theology and President of Madison University, in 1856 Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, and in 1861 he was chosen President of Hamilton Seminary and Professor of Homiletics. He died August 3d, 1872, at the age of 68 years, having been connected with the Institution in one capacity or another for forty years, in prosperity and adversity, until its interests and history became a part of himself and the chief end of his existence. Dr. Eaton would have been a man of mark in any sphere of life. In body, intellect and soul, he possessed a uniform greatness, which, without exaggeration, entitle him to the appellation of a threefold giant. He knew nothing of cowardice, moral or otherwise, but met every issue which arose in the affairs of the denomination and the times, on the high and broad plane of Christian manliness. His first and last question on all subjects was, ’Is this right?’ When that question was determined in his own mind his position was taken, whether he stood alone or with the multitude. His memory was what he would have called ’prodigious,’ his eloquence massive, his hospitality warm, and his convictions of duty as deep as his nature. Withal, his sympathy with the weak, the wronged and the suffering, was extraordinary. He was as artless as a child, and his unsuspecting nature was often imposed upon, while he gave his strong arm to help every one. He was too impulsive for a thorough disciplinarian and too pure for any one to despise. EBENEZER DODGE, D.D., LL.D., the fourth President of Madison University, is a native of Massachusetts, born at Salem, April 21, 1819. He is an alumnus of Brown University and studied theology at Newton. He served as pastor of the Baptist Church in New London, N. H., for seven years, with marked power, but was called from his pastorate to the chair of Christian Theology in 1853. In 1868 he was elected President of Madison University and in 1871 President of Hamilton Theological Seminary. He is a ripe scholar and a profound theologian. Under his administration the career of the University has been one unbroken progress; for it has enjoyed the greatest prosperity in its history in all its departments, so that it never occupied the commanding position which it does at this time. Dr. Dodge has contributed to the standards of Theology in his work on the ’Evidences of Christianity;’ and his ’Theological Lectures,’ now confined to the use of his students, exhibit the hand of a master in deep thought and ripe scholarship. He has many valuable manuscripts ready for the press, which, it is believed, will stand side by side with his present publications, and, as they are the results of his life-long experience, may even excel them in their advanced value. The Newton Theological Institution has a most interesting history. At a large meeting of ministers and laymen held in Boston, May 25th, 1825, it was resolved that a Baptist Theological Institution in the vicinity of Boston was a necessity, and the Massachusetts Baptist Educational Society was requested to take steps in that direction. Its executive committee fixed upon Newton Center for a location, and selected Rev. Irah Chase to begin instruction. The foundations of the school were laid with great difficulty and in much faith and prayer. Students increased faster than the necessary provisions for their reception, and heavy debts were incurred. It was many years before its permanent endowment was secured with corresponding success. All connected with the undertaking made great sacrifices, and Dr. Chase gave twenty years of his valuable life to the enterprise with an unselfishness that has laid the Baptists of New England under a debt which they will never be able to discharge. The course of instruction was to cover three years, and to be specially adapted to college graduates familiar with the Latin and the Greek. Dr. Chase commenced his work in the autumn of 1825, and in the next year Prof. Henry J. Ripley was added. Prof. James D. Knowles came to their aid in 1834, Rev. Barnas Sears in 1836, and in 1838, upon the death of Prof. Knowles, Prof. Hackett left his chair in Brown University to take his place in the corps of tutors. Not far from 800 students have gone forth from its hallowed bosom to fill places of high trust, and under its present faculty it is doing, if possible, better work than ever and promises a splendid future. ALVAH HOVEY, D.D., LL.D., its President, is a native of Greene, Chenango Co., N. Y., and was born March 5th, 1820. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1844, and spent three years at Newton as a theological student. After preaching for a year, in 1849 he first became a tutor in Hebrew, at Newton; and then in succession, Professor of Church History, Theology, and Christian Ethics, and President; so, that, for thirty-seven years he has consecrated all his energies to the training of young ministers in this renowned seminary. This long experience, governed by a sacred regard for divine truth and by a remarkably sound judgment in expounding its principles, has made his tuition far-reaching, and given to our Churches a fullness of doctrine and devotion which has been strong and abiding. Dr. Hovey is distinguished for his clear perception of Gospel doctrines, to which he cleaves simply because they are divinely true. First of all he is just, which renders his aims high and unselfish, besides making his counsels sensible and sound. His pen has been ever busy; he is the author of about a dozen volumes, amongst which are his ’Person and Work of Christ,’ the ’Miracles,’ his ’Higher Christian Life,’ and his ’Memoirs of Dr. Backus,’ all valuable productions. This veteran educator is beloved and trusted by the Churches everywhere, as far as he is known, and his present vigor promises to bless them for many years to come. The third Theological Seminary founded by the American Baptists was that at Rochester, N. Y. About 1847 many friends of Madison University thought its usefulness would be greatly increased, by its removal from the village of Hamilton to a more populous center. After considerable controversy, and some litigation, the question of its removal was abandoned. The University of Rochester was founded in 1850, and in the following November a Theological Seminary was organized, distinct, however, in its property and government. From the first, its list of instructors has comprised the names of very eminent scholars. Its first two professors were Thomas J. Conant, D.D., and John S. Maginnis, D.D.; Ezekiel G. Robinson, D.D., LL.D., became its President in 1868, after most valuable service as professor from 1853. In 1872 he was elected President of Brown University, when Rev. Augustus H. Strong, D.D., was chosen to fill his position both as President and Professor of Biblical Theology at Rochester. This school has been liberally endowed and has given to the Churches a succession of pastors of the highest stamp for excellency in every respect. Its German Department was early enriched by the library of Neander, and its buildings have been provided by the munificence of J. B. Trevor, Esq., of New York, and John D. Rockefeller, Esq., of Cleveland. Hon. R. S. Burrows, of Albion; John M. Brnce, J. A. Bostwick and William Rockefeller, Esqs., of New York, have given large sums to replenish its library, and a host of other friends have carried its interests to a high state of prosperity by their Christian benefactions. DR. STRONG, its President, was born at Rochester, August 3d, 1836, and graduated from Yale College in 1857. While a student at Yale he was brought to Christ, and united with the First Baptist Church in Rochester; but after his graduation he first entered the Theological Seminary in that city, and then completed his studies in the German universities. On his return from Europe, in 1861, he was ordained pastor of the Baptist Church at Haverhill, Mass., which he left in 1865 to become pastor of the First Church, Cleveland, OH., from whence he went to take his present place, after seven years of successful pastoral toil. Although Dr. Strong is the youngest of our theological presidents, the classes which come from under his hand evince his care in training and his wisdom in impressing them with that robust impress of Biblical theology which betokens their reverence for the heavenly vision. Endowed himself with insight into spiritual things, with keen faith and high sanctity, they catch his spirit, and their ministry evidences their love for that Lord whose they are and whom they serve. He is the author of numerous notable articles on theological subjects, but his most elaborate and weighty book is his ’Systematic Theology’ recently published. It is a work of great research, indicating the strength and solidity, as well as the logical and analytical power, of the author’s mind. Having already spoken of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, it is not necessary to treat of its interests here, further than to speak of its President, who is in all respects the peer of his presidential brethren. JAMES P. BOYCE, D.D., .LL.D., was born in Charleston, S. C. January 11th, 1827. In 1847 he graduated from Brown University, and, having been converted while in college, he was baptized in 1848 by the Rev. Dr. Richard Fuller. From 1848 to 1851 he studied theology at Princeton, N. J. He threw all his energies into his theological studies, and when he was examined for ordination to the ministry, Dr. Curtis, moderator of the examining council, asked him whether he intended to give his life to the preaching of the Gospel. He replied: ’Provided I don’t become a professor of theology.’ In 1851 he became pastor of the Church at Columbia, S. C., but took the chair of theology in Furman University in 1855. He accepted a professorship in the Theological Seminary at Greenville, S. C., however, in 1858. The seminary being located but temporarily there, in 1873 it was resolved to remove it to Louisville, its friends in Kentucky having offered $300,000 for its permanent establishment there, provided that $200,000 could be added from other sources. When financial embarrassment threatened the ruin of this great scheme, Dr. Boyce, who at that time was wealthy, borrowed large sums of money on his own responsibility, and threw his surprising financial talents into the enterprise. For about seven years it seemed as if the godly project must fail, and gloom, almost despair, settled upon the hopes of its friends. But Dr. Boyce by his patience and business skill re-inspired the energies of his brethren, and more than any other person led the movement to complete success. He is a refined and dignified gentleman, whose modest polish of manner, generous culture and varied accomplishments clothe him with a delightful influence in all spheres in which he moves, so that he is pre-eminently fitted to mold his pupils in the proprieties demanded by their calling. Clearly, it must be the fault of the pupil if he goes forth to his work without that refinement of manner, together with that mental and heart culture, which are demanded in the acceptable minister of our Lord Jesus. The Baptist Union Theological Seminary at Morgan Park, Illinois, was organized in 1867. Up to about the year 1860 the West had been wholly dependent upon the East for theological education; but in 1859 a convention of delegates representing the West and Northwest gathered in Chicago to consult respecting the establishment of a new seminary in that part of our country. The difference of opinion as to location was so striking that general agreement was not then reached. At length a preliminary organization was effected, in 1860, under the lead of W. W. Everts, D.D.. J. B. Oleott, and J. A. Smith, and in 1863 a corporation was formed and officers chosen; Hon. R. S. Thomas being President, Luther Stone, Secretary, and Edward Goodman, Treasurer. In 1865 the Legislature of Illinois granted it a charter. A temporary arrangement was made with Dr. Nathanael Culver to commence theological tuition, but a regular faculty was selected in 1866, and in the autumn of that year the work of instruction began in earnest. Since that time reliable endowments have been received, the faculty has been very effective, the seminary has been removed to Morgan Park, and is in a high state of prosperity. It has already graduated about 500 students. Its beautiful property at Morgan Park, and an endowment of $200,000, with a library of 25,000 volumes, promise much, with its able body of tutors, for the culture of the rising ministry in the West. GEORGE W. NORTHRUP, D.D., LL.D., its President, was born in Jefferson County, K. Y., October 15th, 1826, and when but sixteen years of age became a member of the Baptist Church at Antwerp. His early educational advantages were slight, but from childhood he possessed that quenchless thirst for knowledge and culture that refuses to submit to any obstructions which assume to be insurmountable. He plodded on in the study of Latin, Greek and mathematics with such private aids only as he could command, until he was able to enter Williams College. In 1854 he graduated from that institution with the highest honors, and in 1857 finished a theological course at the Rochester Seminary. There, also, he served with distinguished ability as Professor of Church History for ten years. He accepted the chair of theology and the presidency in the seminary, which he has done so much to establish, in 1867, and in contending with the difficulties incident to the founding of a new institution he has displayed the qualities of a forceful leader and organizer. His wise methods and strength of will have braved all storms, and commanded that signal success which has given the West as strong and well-conducted a theological seminary as any in the East, in view of its youth. As a metaphysician, pulpit orator and theologian, Dr. Northrup is an honor to his denomination. The youngest of the six theological schools is the Crozer Theological Seminary, located at Chester, in Pennsylvania, and organized in 1868. The late John P. Crozer, Esq., was deeply interested in ministerial education, and had largely aided therein through the Lewisburg University. After his death his family took up the work where he left it, to give it an enlarged and more permanent form. Led by his eldest son, Mr. Samuel A. Crozer, his other sons and daughters established this seminary as a devout monument to his name, and all generations will therefor call them blessed. The buildings and grounds are spacious, valued at $150,000; the endowment amounts to about $350,000, and the library and apparatus are ample for present use, although the library building is planned to contain about 50,000 volumes. William Bucknell, son-in-law to Mr. John P. Crozer, made a donation of about $30,000 for the purchase of books, and a further sum of $10,000 was presented from another source for the same purpose. Its average number of pupils is about fifty per year, its faculty is one of the best in the denomination, and it has sent about 300 men into the Christian ministry; many of whom are now filling places of great influence and responsibility. HENRY G. WESTON, D.D., has been president of this institution from its foundation, and has contributed greatly to its up-building. He is a native of Lynn, Mass., and was born September 11th, 1820. He graduated at Brown University and Newton Theological Institution, and after sustaining himself for three years as a missionary in Illinois, became pastor of the Baptist Church in Peoria in 1846, where he was prospered for thirteen years. In 1859 he removed to New York city, to take charge of the Oliver Street Baptist Church, in which congregation he remained, first in Oliver Street, and then in Madison Avenue when it removed, until the year 1868, when he took the presidency of Crozer Seminary. His double aim was to give a complete theological training to the alumni of our colleges, who could study the Scriptures in the Greek and pursue the Hebrew; and also to take men who were somewhat advanced in life, but could not command a classical course; to aid them in the knowledge of the Scriptures and in theological studies, that they might be measurably qualified, at least, for their pastoral work. A peculiar order of ability was needed in the president who than well lay the foundations of such a school, not only must he be a true scholar, and a clear, sound and experienced theologian, broad in his views, simple in his habits, kind in his disposition, and devout in his piety; but quite as much he needed unflinching courage in his convictions. In a word, all the ripe qualities of manly experience were needed, with the forbearance and tenderness of a woman. Even then, the tact of a general was required, who knew the wants of the place and had the genius to meet them. Many men were scanned as to this fitness, but, with singular unanimity, Dr. Weston was hailed as the one man for the post. A ripe scholar and a pulpit master, it was believed that he could equally develop the immature and perfect the accomplished. The result has so far exceeded sanguine expectation, that all true Baptist hearts thank him for his work and praise his Master for the gift of the workman. For nearly a score of years he has been filling the pulpits of our land with men who are blessing it everywhere. The Baptist denomination, having possessed such a succession of men in the presidency of its seminaries, should be grateful indeed, for not one of them, from the establishment of the first school, has ever brought a stain upon its fair fame. And not only in view of the past, but in the necessities of the present, it is to be congratulated; happy are the Baptists of the United States in the possession of six such presidents of their theological schools. American Baptists have lately paid much attention to female education, and have twenty-seven institutions devoted to this object. A Ladies’ Institute was founded at Granville, Oh., in 1832, which was followed by the Judson Female Institute, at Marion, Ala., in 1839; by Baylor Female College, at Independence, Tex., in 1845; and by the Female Seminary at Georgetown, Ky., in 1846. Mary Sharp College was established, on a somewhat larger scale, at Winchester, Term., in 1851. But the largest and most thoroughly endowed Baptist institution for females is Vassar College, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. It was founded by Matthew Vassar, in 1865, at a cost of $700,000. He excluded sectarian teaching, but put it under Baptist control, forbidding that its training should ever be ’intrusted to the skeptical, the irreligious or the immoral.’ Its endowment Isaiah $430,000, and it exerts a great influence on the higher education of women. Its presidents have been John H. Raymond, LL.D.; S. L. Caldwell, D.D.; J. R. Kendrick, D.D.; and its present head, James M. Taylor, D.D., son of the late Dr. E. E. I. Taylor. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: THE FIRST RECORDED BAPTIST CHURCH IN HISTORY ======================================================================== I. WHEN AND WHERE WAS THE FIRST RECORDED BAPTIST CHURCH IN HISTORY A. Benedict in his history of the Baptists states that the Gospel was preached in Britain within sixty years of the Lord’s return to heaven. 1. These churches appear to have been baptistic and remained sound until Austin, the Catholic monk brought Catholicism to the Isles in 597 AD. 2.He states that there were Baptists in England 1400 AD. a)He mentions a man named William Sawtre, who was identified as a Lollard and Baptist, was the first person burned at the stake after Henry IV’s 1400 AD decree to burn heretics. b)Benedict states that the English Roman Catholics in 1535, put to death twenty two Baptists for heresies. c)In 1539 thirty one more who had fled to Holland were apprehended and martyred there. d)He states that five hundred others who were identified as AnaBaptists were also killed in England during this period. 3.The line of English churches that can be traced, who called themselves Baptists, began in 1610 in Holland. a)This is not to say there were no Baptists in Britain earlier, but that this began a line of churches whose history can be traced. b)It began with a man named John Smyth who was a bishop in the Church of England. (1) In 1606, after nine months of soul searching and study of the New Testament he was convinced that the doctrines and practices of the Church of England were not Biblical, and thus he resigned his position as priest and left the church. (2) Because of persecution by the Anglican church of all who disagreed with it and who refused to submit to its authority, John Smyth had to flee England. (3) In Amsterdam, he along with Thomas Helwys and thirty six others formed the first Baptist church of Englishmen known to have stood for baptism of believers only. (4) Smyth believed that the only real apostolic succession is a succession of Biblical New Testament truth, and not of outward ordinances and visible organization such as the Church of England or the Roman Church. (5) He believed the only way to recover was to form a new church based on the Bible. (6) He then baptized himself (which is not biblical) and then the others of his congregation. (7) In only a few years however, the church had lost all but ten members to the Mennonites and other groups in Holland. Smyth died in 1612, and the church ended in Holland shortly thereafter with Helwy, Thomas and John Murton returning to England as persecution there had lessened. (i) History records that the members of this Baptist church went back to England or remained in Holland and joined Mennonites. (ii) It did not produce a succession of other churches, but those who founded it went on to establish other Baptist churches in England. 4. These first Baptist churches formed in England were Armenian in theology, which taught that all men could be saved. 5. The Calvinistic or Particular Baptists were a different group and believed in limited atonement in which only the elect could be saved. 6. Particular Baptist had their beginnings around 1616, when some "dissenters" left the Church of England and were lead by the Rev. Henry Jacob. 7. By 1644, these congregations grew to seven churches. B. About this time the Puritans were also becoming strong in England. The Puritans were dissenters from the Church of England. 1. They wanted to bring reform to the Church of England. Although they were a great deal more piteous than the Church of England they still practiced most of its beliefs including infant baptism. 2. Anyone who differed from the practices of the State church were subject to great persecution. Puritans and Baptists alike, in order to escape persecution, migrated to the New World. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: THE 1878 NIAGARA CREED ======================================================================== The 1878 Niagara Creed So many in the latter times have departed from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; so many have turned away their ears from the truth, and turned unto fables; so many are busily engaged in scattering broadcast the seeds of fatal error, directly affecting the honor of our Lord and the destiny of the soul, we are constrained by fidelity to Him to make the following declaration of our doctrinal belief, and to present it as the bond of union with those who wish to be connected with the Niagara Bible Conference. I We believe "that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God," by which we understand the whole of the book called the Bible; nor do we take the statement in the sense in which it is sometimes foolishly said that works of human genius are inspired, but in the sense that the Holy Ghost gave the very words of the sacred writings to holy men of old; and that His Divine inspiration is not in different degrees, but extends equally and fully to ~l parts of these writings, historical, poetical, doctrinal and prophetical, and to the smallest word, and inflection of a word, provided such word is found in the original manuscripts: 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:21; 1 Corinthians 2:13; Mark 12:26, 86; 18:11; Acts 1:16; Acts 2:4. II We believe that the Godhead eternally exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that these three are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes and perfections, and worthy of precisely the same homage, confi­dence, and obedience: Mark 12:29; John 1:1-4; Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 5:8; Acts 5:4; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Hebrews 1:1-8; Revelation 1:4-6. III We believe that man, originally created in the image and after the likeness of God, fell from his high and holy estate by eating the forbidden fruit, and as the consequence of his disobedience the threatened penalty of death was then and there inflicted, so that his moral nature was not only grievously in­jured by the fall, but he totally lost all spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and sins, and subject to the power of the devil: Genesis 1:26; Genesis 2:17; John 5:40John 6:53; John 6:53; Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 Timothy 5:6; 1 John 8:8. IV We believe that this spiritual death, or total corruption of human nature, has been transmitted to the entire race of man, the man Christ Jesus alone excepted; and hence that every child of Adam is born into the world with a nature which not only possesses no spark of Divine life, but is essentially and un­changeably bad, being in enmity against God, and incapable by any educational process whatever of subjection to His law: Genesis 6:5; Psalms 14:1-3; Psalms 51:5; Jeremiah 17:9; John 8:6; Romans 5:12-19; Romans 8:6-7. V We believe that, owing to this universal depravity and death in sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again; and that no degree of reformation however great, no attainment in morality however high, no culture however attractive, no humanitarian and philanthropic schemes and societies however useful, no baptism or other ordinance however administered, can help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven; but a new nature imparted from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Ghost through the Word, is absolutely essential to sal­vation: Isaiah 64:6; John 3:5; John 3:18; Galatians 6:15; Php 3:4-9; Titus 3:5; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23. VI We believe that our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin, and made a curse, for us, dying in our room and stead; and that no repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good resolutions, no sincere efforts, no submission to the rules and regulations of any church, or of all the churches that have existed since the days of the Apostles, can add in the very least to the value of that precious blood, or to the merit of that finished work, wrought for us by Him who united in His person true and proper divinity with perfect and sinless humanity: Leviticus 17:11; Matthew 26:28; Romans 5:6-9; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18-19. VII We believe that Christ, in the fullness of the blessings He has secured by His obedience unto death, is received by faith alone, and that the moment we trust in Him as our Saviour we pass out of death into everlasting life, being justified from all things, accepted before the Father according to the measure of His acceptance, loved as He is loved, and having His place and portion, as linked to Him, and one with Him forever: John 5:24; John 17:23; Acts 18:39; Romans 5:1; Ephesians 2:4-6; Ephesians 2:13; 1 John 4:17; 1 John 5:11-12. VIII We believe that it is the privilege, not only of some, but of all who are born again by the Spirit through faith in Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, to be assured of their salvation from the very day they take Him to be their Saviour; and that this assurance is not founded upon any fancied discovery of their own worthiness, but wholly upon the testimony of God in His written Word, exciting within His children filial love, gratitude, and obedience: Luke 10:20; Luke 12:32; John 6:47; Romans 8:83-39; 2 Corinthians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 5:6-8; 2 Timothy 1:12; 1 John 5:13. IX We believe that all the Scriptures from first to last center about our Lord Jesus Christ, in His person and work, in His first and second coming; and hence that no chapter even of the Old Testament is properly read or understood until it leads to Him; and moreover that all the Scriptures from first to last, including every chapter even of the Old Testament, were designed for our practical instruction: Luke 24:27; Luke 24:44; John 5:39; Acts 17:2-3; Acts 18:28; Acts 26:22; Acts 26:28; Acts 28:28; Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11. X We believe that the Church is composed of all who are united by the Holy Spirit to the risen and ascended Son of God, that by the same Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, and thus being members one of another, we are responsible to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, rising above all sectarian prejudices and denom­inational bigotry, and loving one another with a pure heart fervently: Matthew 16:16-18; Acts 2:32-47; ’Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 1:20-23; Ephesians 4:3-10; Colossians 3:14-15. XI We believe that the Holy Spirit, not as an influence, but as a Divine Person, the source and power of all acceptable worship and service, is our abiding Comforter and Helper, that He never takes His departure from the Church, nor from the feeblest of the saints, but is ever present to testify of Christ, seeking to occupy us with Him, and not with ourselves nor with our experiences: John 7:38-39; John 14:16-17; John 15:26; John 16:13-14; Acts 1:8; Romans 8:9; Php 3:3. XII We believe that we are called with a holy calling to walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, and so to live in the Spirit that we should not fulfill the lusts of the flesh; but the flesh being still in us to the end of our earthly pilgrimage needs to be kept constantly in subjection to Christ, or it will surely manifest its presence to the dishonor of His name: Romans 8:12 18; 18:14; Galatians 5:16-25; Ephesians 4:22-24; C&. 3:1-10; 1 Peter 1:14-16; 1 John 8:5-9. XIII We believe that the souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation do at death immediately pass into His presence, and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the body at His coming, when soul and body reunited shall be associated with Him forever in the glory; but the souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery until the final judgment of the great white throne at the close of the millennium, when soul and body reunited shall be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power: Luke 16:19-26; Luke 23:48; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Php 1:23; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Jude 1:6-7; Revelation 20:11-15. XIV We believe that the world will not be converted during the present dispensation, but is fast ripening for judgment, while there will be a fearful apostasy in the professing Christian body; and hence that the Lord Jesus will come in person to introduce the millennial age, when Israel shall be restored to their own land, and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord; and that this personal and Premillennial advent is the blessed hope set before us in the Gospel for which we should be constantly looking: Luke 12:85-40; 17:26-80; 18:8 18:8 _18:8; Acts 15:14-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:8-8; 2 Timothy 8:1-5; Titus 2:11-15. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: THE 1921 FUNDAMENTALIST FELLOWSHIP MEETING ======================================================================== I. The 1921 Fundamentalist Fellowship Meeting A. There were seven speakers for the preconvention 1921 Fundamentalist Fellowship meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, including two Southern Baptists (Sampey and Scar­borough) and one Canadian Baptist (Shields). 1.1921 Fundamentalist Fellowship Speakers a)Jacob Heinriehs (1860-1947) (1)vice-president of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (2)"The Authenticity and Authority of the New Testament" b)Walter Benwell Hinson (1860-1926) (1)East Side Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon (2)"Return of the Lord" c)Jasper Cortenus Massee (1871-1965) (1)president of the Fellowship (2)opening address d)D. F. Rittenhouse (1882-1943) (1)First Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio (2)"The Proof of the Resurrection" e)John R. Sampey (1863-1946) (1)professor in Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (2)"Jesus and the Old Testament" f)Lee R. Scarborough (1870-1945) (1)president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (2)"The Supreme Passion of the Gospel" g)Thomas Todhunter Shields (1873-1955) (1)Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto (2)"The Cross and the Critics" 2. These were seven powerful, doctrinal sermons, and Massee published them the following year under the title Baptist Doctrines, with a foreword by Curtis Lee Laws. B.Although Baptists privately kept alive the contro­versial issues regarding eschatology, 1.they attempted to downplay the subject at the early Fellowship meetings. 2. During the 1930s and 1940s, however, the question of the rapture would erupt into heated debates. C. In 1921, the only message on prophecy was by W. B. Hinson, who preached a classic on "The Return of the Lord." D. Hinson avoided controversy, saying that "whether we call ourselves Premillennialist, or Postmillennialist, or Promillennialist, our hearts, loyal ever to the great King, will beat high with rapture and loving desire at the mention of the Lord’s return. . . . Therefore whatever our distinguishing views regarding the future may be, I can allow no man to place his fellow outside the circle of sympathetic devotion to the Lord Jesus; or to be regarded unfriendly in this hour when the coming back of Him we love is the central thought of our meditation.". While the message would not satisfy today’s most out­spoken pretribulationists, it was indeed characterized by moderation and, on a technical exegetical basis, it would stand the test of careful scrutiny. E. Massee, in his opening address, proposed an end to Northern Baptist support of the New World Movement; he now called for the adoption of a doctrinal statement "to which all teachers in all Baptist educational institu­tions shall be required to give annual assent in writing." F. During the business sessions, a major topic of discussion was the matter of creeds. 1. Neither the NBC nor the SBC had ever adopted any kind of formal confession, and the liberals had determined to keep it that way. 2.Fundamentalist Fellowship, preparing its strategy for the 1921 NBC meeting, voted almost unani­mously to present a confession of faith to the convention for adoption. a)This brief, seven-article statement of faith, known for a time as the Des Moines Confession, was written by Curtis Lee Laws, in consultation with J. C. Massee, Floyd Adams, and Frank Goodchild. b)Often referred to as the Goodchild Confession, this was the original statement of faith of the Fundamentalist Fellow­ship. (1) the confession said nothing concerning the Bible’s inerrancy, only that "the Bible is God’s word, that it was written by men divinely inspired, and that it has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct." (2) Regarding prophecy, the statement only affirmed Christ’s "personal visible return to the world." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: THE 1921 NBC MEETING (DES MOINES, IOWA) ======================================================================== I. The 1921 NBC Meeting (Des Moines, Iowa) A. conservative Frank M. Goodchild reported in behalf of the Committee of Nine that had been investigating the schools. 1. While acknowledging that some teachers had departed from the Christian faith, Goodchild insisted, to the chagrin of Fundamentalists, that docu­mentation would involve too much of the convention’s time, and that, in any case, these schools were "doing a work of which the denomination may well be proud." 2. The convention then left the matter to the boards of trustees and administrative officers. B. As for the matter of liberalism on the mission fields, Mrs. Helen Barrett Montgomery (1861-1934), president of the NBC, assured the assembly that the denomination was carefully examining all missionaries "as to their belief regarding Christ and the Bible." C. The biggest surprise in Des Moines was that the , not willing to rock the boat, Fundamentalists never presented their confession of faith to the convention. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: THE 1922 NBC MEETING (INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA) ======================================================================== I. The 1922 NBC Meeting (Indianapolis, Indiana) A. "Agreed to Differ, but Resolved to Love" was the convention’s 1922 theme when it met on June 14-20 in Indianapolis. 1. The liberal strategy was working! 2. This year the convention voted to continue The Baptist magazine, whose June 10 issue had just carried Harry Emerson Fosdick’s sermon "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" B. Fundamentalist William Bell Riley of Minneapolis’s First Baptist Church dropped his own "meteorite" on the convention when he moved that the NBC pledge itself to the New Hampshire Confession of Faith (1833). 1.Controversy filled the air of the famous Cadle Tabernacle. a)The liberals, however, defeated the confessional attempt by using a clever parliamentary device, the substitute motion. b)It was Cornelius Woelfkin who introduced a substitute resolution "that the New Testament is the all-sufficient ground of our faith and practice, and we need no other statement." Woelfkin so cleverly defended his proposal that many naive conservatives, such as J. C. Massee, believed that a vote for Riley’s motion would be a vote against the New Testament itself. c)After a heated, three-hour debate, Woelfkin’s proposal won 1264 to 637. With deep feelings of defeat and discouragement, Fun­damentalists returned to their homes to plan a new strategy for themselves. d)The more militant-minded were beginning to express an interest in the formation of a new organization, more powerful and effective than the Fundamentalist Fellowship had been during its two years of existence. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: THE 1923 NBC MEETING (ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY) ======================================================================== I. The 1923 NBC Meeting (Atlantic City, New Jersey) A. The keynote speaker for the NBC gathering in Atlantic City (May 23-29, 1923) was W. H.P. Faunce (1859-1930), modernist president of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Newspapers across the nation described Straton standing on a chair at the front of the hall protesting before the three thousand present that the convention should not allow Faunce to speak. B. With loud jeering and hissing, the angry crowd drowned out the Fundamentalist’s voice, and when Faunce came to the platform to deliver his message on "Thy Kingdom Come," the cheers and applause lasted for several minutes. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: THE 1925 NBC MEETING (SEATTLE, WASHINGTON) ======================================================================== I. The 1925 NBC Meeting (Seattle, Washington) A. Two burning issues were at stake when Northern Baptists convened June 30-July 5, for their 1925 conven­tion in Seattle: 1.open membership in Baptist churches and 2.liberalism on the mission fields. 3. It was the notorious Park Avenue Baptist Church, with its liberal pastors, Cornelius Woelfkin and Harry Emerson Fosdick, that had aggravated the open membership issue. These modernistic Baptists, along with scores like them, refused to require immersion for membership. When Fundamentalists at the Seattle convention attempted to insert a clause into the by-laws defining a Baptist church, the Laws Committee ruled it out on the ground that the Free Will Baptists who had merged with the NBC in 1911 had long practiced open membership. 1. Fundamentalists suffered still another defeat in Seattle when the convention voted down the famous "Hinson Resolution," which, if adopted, would have killed the inclusive policy in Northern Baptist missions. II. W. B. Hinson-Spurgeon of the Pacific A. Born in England in 1860, Walter Benwell Hinson moved to Canada in 1883, where he served several churches. B. He went on to the pastorate of San Diego’s First Baptist Church, where he ministered for a decade. In 1910, Hinson moved to Oregon and succeeded J. Whitcomb Brougher to the pulpit of Portland’s First Baptist Church, which was known as the "White Temple.". C. Just across the river was the East Side Baptist Church, which Hinson served from 1917 until death claimed him in 1926. East Side was then renamed Hinson Memorial Baptist Church. 1. It was here in Oregon that Hinson gained a world­wide reputation as a great preacher and pastor. Millions of copies of his printed sermons went all over the nation and to foreign lands. Many hailed him as the "Spurgeon of the Pacific." 2. A popular speaker at nearby Linfield College, Hinson brought twelve baccalaureate addresses there. D. In a last-ditch effort to purge all liberalism from the Northern Baptist Foreign Mission Board and its mission­aries, Hinson offered to the 1925 convention in Seattle his historic resolution. 1.The assembly responded with cheers and a standing ovation, but 2.the next day, with a 742 to 574 vote, the same audience killed the Hinson Resolution. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 29: THE AMERICAN BIBLE AND PROPHETIC CONFERENCES ======================================================================== . The American Bible and Prophetic Conferences: 1878-1914 A.The year 1878 a.found Americans confident that through democracy, self-rule, and sheer self-determination b.Strengthened by a heavy barrage of post-millennial ideas from the nation’s pulpits (that improving world conditions will bring about the millennium," which would be consummated with Christ’s return), a powerful spirit of optimism prevailed in the land: c.twelve years of reconstruction were ending: d.the last Federal troops had withdrawn from the South; e.President Rutherford B. Hayes was now doing some housecleaning in Washington to eliminate the corruption his adminis­tration had inherited from Grant; f.western settlers were beginning to cultivate their farms again after a devas­tating grasshopper pestilence; g.industry was emerging from the depression that followed the panic of 1876 h.Newly formed labor unions were promising a bright future for workers. i.Mechanical inventions were making news in 1878: i.George B. Selden was rapidly developing his "horse-less carriage," which would run by a gasoline-fueled, internal-combustion engine. ii.Thomas A. Edison that same year received a patent for his new invention-the phono­graph; and iii.Alexander Graham Bell had recently received a patent for a device that would transmit the human voice over a wire. j.In the religious and philosophical realm, i.Darwinism and rationalism were confronting America’s preachers and theologians. ii.The Roman Catholic prelates at the Vatican Council of 1870, under Pope Pius IX, had declared papal infallibility. iii.Mrs. Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy (1821-1910) was just launching her Science and Health magazine (1875), and iv.Charles T. Russell (1852-1916) and his followers 1.(they adopted the name "Jehovah’s Witnesses" in 1931) 2.were declaring to the world that the sec­ond advent had occurred in 1874, 3.that the Millennial Dawn had begun, and 4.that the end of all things was slated for 1914. B.Holy Trinity Church, New York City (1878) a.It was in such an atmosphere, 122 Bible preachers and teachers issued a call for a three-day Bible conference, October 30-November 1, 1878, at New York City’s Holy Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, where i.Stephen Higginson Tyng, Jr. (1839-1898) served as rector. ii.This became the first of five Ameri­can Bible and Prophetic Conferences held between 1878 and 1914. 1. At 10 A.M. on October 30, 1878, Stephen H. Tyng, Jr., called to order what the New York Tribune described as "a novel religious conference." 2. In spite of driving rain on the opening morning, men and women (ticket holders first) crowded into the large church at Madison Avenue and Forty-second Street to find available seats near the speaker’s stand. 3. Many brought their lunches and re­mained in the church during the noon intermission. By the afternoon session, an "eager and intelligent audience" had filled the building "to listen to a series of carefully prepared papers" on Christ’s Premillennial return "and connected truths" and to participate in discussions. 4.The speakers read their papers, and, although some readings exceeded ninety minutes in length, the Tribune reporter observed that the audience remained attentive. "Low-voiced responses of ’Amen’ were heard from many listeners." iii.The committee that organized the conference included 1.James H. Brookes, 2.A. J. Gordon, 3.William G. Moorehead, 4.William R. Nicholson, 5.Henry M. Parsons, 6.Rufus W. Clark, 7.Maurice Baldwin, and 8.Stephen H. Tyng, Jeremiah 9:1-26.Most of the brethren who conducted the pre-Niagara Bible Confer­ences participated in this one as well. iv.The 122 who signed the call 1.included 47 Presbyterians, 2.Baptists, 3.16 Episcopalians (including a couple of Canadian Anglicans), 4.9 Congregationalists, 5.6 Methodists, 6.5 evan­gelical Adventists, a.were not Millerites -7th Day Adventists - but rather represented b.a handful of mavericks within that movement c.George C. Needham, who took an active role in these Bible and Prophetic Conferences, had already explained in his introduction to James H. Brooke’s Present Truth (the 1876 Bible Readings at Swampscott) that the few "Evangelical Adventists" of that day were a "humble, pious body of Christians." Needham said that these good men did not deny the existence of a personal devil and a personal Holy Spirit, and that they did not advocate such Millerite theories as soul sleep and anni­hilation. 7.4 Dutch Reformed, 8.1 Lutheran, 9.1Catholic Apostolic (Irvingite), 10.1 Independent, and 11.7 Unidentified. C. American Bible and Prophetic Conference (1878) a.These Fundamentalists stood in firm agreement on the doctrine of Christ’s imminent, premillennial advent to establish a literal kingdom of one thousand years; b.They did not agree on the details of that view, not even on the pretribulational rapture. c.In fact, A. J. Gordon, in his message on the first resurrection, argued simply that there would be two resurrections, separated by one thousand years. d.Fundamentalists like Gordon could still hold to the imminency of Christ’s return, because they spiritualized the tribulation period into a long era of time with a nebulous beginning. e.Over the years, pretribulationalists became the majority. f.the conference passed six specific resolutions expressing the convictions of "brethren from so many different branches of the one Redeemed Church of our Lord." D. RESOLUTIONS AT THE FIRST AMERICAN BIBLE AND PROPHETIC CONFERENCE I. We affirm our belief in the supreme and absolute authority of the written Word of God on all questions of doctrine and duty. II. The prophetic words of the Old Testament Scrip­tures, concerning the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, were literally fulfilled in His birth, life, death, resurrec­tion and ascension; and so the prophetic words of both the Old and the New Testaments concerning His second coming will be literally fulfilled in His visible bodily return to this earth in like manner as He went up into Heaven; and this glorious Epiphany of the great God, our Saviour Jesus Christ, is the blessed hope of the believer and of the Church during this entire dispensation. II. This second coming of the Lord Jesus is everywhere in the Scriptures represented as imminent, and may occur at any moment; yet the precise day and hour thereof is unknown to man, and known only to God. IV. The Scriptures nowhere teach that the whole world will be converted to God, and that there will be a reign of universal righteousness and peace before the return of our blessed Lord, but that only at and by His coming in power and glory will the prophecies concerning the progress of evil and the development of Antichrist, the times of the Gentiles, and the ingathering of Israel, the resurrection of the dead in Christ, and the transfiguration of His living saints, receive their fulfillment, and the period of millennial blessedness in its inauguration. V. The duty of the Church during the absence of the Bridegroom is to watch and pray, to work and wait, to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, and thus hasten the coming of the day of God; and to His last promise, "Surely I come quickly," to respond, in joyous hope, "Even so; come Lord Jesus." VI. Resolved, That the doctrine of our Lord’s pre­millennial advent, instead of paralyzing evangelistic and missionary effort, is one of the mightiest incentives to earnestness in preaching the Gospel to every creature, until He comes. E.Farwell Hall, Chicago (1886) a.Two and a half weeks after Americans had welcomed a new lady to their shores, the Statue of Liberty, the second American Bible and Prophetic Conference convened in Chicago’s Farwell Hall, November 16 to 21, 1886, with twenty-seven speakers. b.Seven others had signed the call. Of the thirty-four, nineteen were active in the pre-Niagara Bible Conferences and twenty had participated in the 1878 New York Conference. c.Under Dwight L. Moody’s influ­ence, the noonday prayer meetings were still being conducted regularly in Farwell Hall; d.Within days, Fleming H. Revell also published these Prophetic Studies. e.Of the thirty-four speakers i.Eleven were Presbyterians, ii.six were Baptists, iii.six were Methodists, iv.three Congregationalists, v.two Dutch Reformed, vi.one evangelical Lutheran, vii.one Swedish Covenanter, viii.one Reformed Episcopal, ix.one Canadian An­glican, x.one evangelical Adventist, and xi.one unidentified F.Before adjourning, that second American Bible and Prophetic Conference a.Reaffirmed the six resolutions of 1878 (p.165). b.A most significant characteristic of these conferences is that, while these Fundamentalists agreed on a basic Premillennial view, they left much room for various interpretations of details within that system; c.they did not hurl attacks at the many Fundamentalists and conservatives who had not moved away from amillennialism or even postmillennialism-men like Charles Hodge of Princeton Theological Seminary d.The real targets of Premillennialism attacks were liberal, not con­servative, postmillennialists. G. Bible Conference Movement Spreads and Deepens a.The third American Bible and Prophetic Conference convened December 3-6, 1895, in Allegheny, Pennsyl­vania. b.The first two days’ sessions met in the Fourth Presbyterian Church, where Joseph Kyle was pastor, and c.the remaining sessions met in the First Presbyterian Church, where D. S. Kennedy was the minister. d.Most of the ten speakers were by now well known in Fundamentalist circles: William G. Moorehead (1836-1914) Presbyterian E. P. Goodwin(1831-1901)Congregational Henry M. Parsons(1828-1913)Presbyterian J. A. Owens Arthur T. Pierson(1837-1911)Baptist (spoke twice) William J. Erdman(1834-1923)Presbyterian Ernst F. Stroeter(1846-1922)Wesleyan James M. Stifler (1839-1902) Baptist (spoke twice) William R. Nicholson (1822-1901) Reformed Episcopalian James M. Gray(1851-1935)Protestant Episcopalian H. The Northfield Conference, which began in 1880 in Massachusetts; a.the Seaside Bible Conference held each year in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, from 1888 through 1892 and in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1893; b.the Bible Inspiration Conference held in Philadelphia in 1887; c.the Bible Conference on the Holy Spirit held in Baltimore in 1890; and d.the Winona Lake Bible Conference, founded in 1895.14 e.death was now claiming some of the first generation- i.A. J. Gordon in 1895, ii.James H. Brookes in 1897, iii.Samuel H. Kellogg in 1899, iv.William R. Nicholson in 1901, and v.George C. Needham in 1902. I.The fourth American Bible and Prophetic Conference assembled December 10-15, 1901, in Boston’s Clarendon Street Baptist Church, where A. J. Gordon had served for many years until his death. a.The published addresses15 reflect more of an "international" flavor: i.Robert Anderson and others from England, ii.some from Canada and Scot­land, iii.some Southern Baptists (E. Y. Mullins and Len Broughton), and iv.James M. Gray, William G. Moorehead, William J. Erdman, Robert Cameron, L. W. Munhall, v.A. C. Dixon and A. T. Pierson vi.Pierson was the natural head of the gathering, since he resided in Boston and was Gordon’s intimate friend in the ministry 1.Pierson (1837-1911), 16 author of some twenty-four books17 and 2.editor of Missionary Review of the World, a Fundamentalist paper of good quality in its day, 3. had served as pastor of several great churches, including Spurgeon’s Tabernacle in London. 4. He became the second president of the school that A. J. Gordon had founded in 1889, the Boston Missionary Training School (now Gordon College). 5.Adoniram Judson Gordon (1836~1895) a.began his ministry at Clarendon Street Baptist in 1869, b.Gordon’s ministry provides a splendid example of how patience, loyalty to Christ, a high sense of calling, and a Spirit-filled life can be used to transform a dead, worldly church into one close to the New Testament ideal. 6.A. T. Pierson often gave the following as the guiding principles of the life and ministry of A. J. Gordon: a.(1) loyalty to his Saviour; b.(2) the imminent, personal return of Christ; c.(3) the high call of the preacher; d.(4) the purity of true worship as the exaltation of God alone in the sanctuary; e.(5) the supreme authority of an infallible Bible; f.(6) the total conformity of the church to a biblical pattern; and g.(7) the invisible presence and power of the Holy Spirit. 7. It is no surprise that in 1901 the fourth American Bible and Prophetic Conference gathered in tribute at old Clarendon Street Baptist. J.The fifth and final American Bible and Prophetic Conference met at the Moody Church in Chicago, Feb­ruary 24-27, 1914, in response to a call issued by a dozen Fundamentalist leaders of various denominations. a.The call stated clearly the purposes in view: i.The Conference will not offer an opportunity for modern prophets to ventilate their speculations, ii.to fix dates, or iii.to mark out a detailed program of the future; 1.but. . . to give prom­inence to neglected truths; . . . a.to warn against present-day apostasy; b.to awaken slumbering Christians; c.to present the most majestic of all motives for world-wide evange­lism; d.to call attention to the doctrine of ’last things’ as a bulwark against the skepticism of modern theology; and e.to bring into closer fellowship all those who ’love His appearing.’ 2." Interest in the conference soared. a.Sessions were held from nine in the morning until ten at night, b.and the crowd often overflowed Moody Church, c.the seating capacity of which was around two thousand. d.Institute lecture rooms accommodated the overflow. e.Dur­ing the four-day conference, the audience heard eighteen messages and three symposiums. i.Speakers included 1.James M. Gray, 2.Robert McWatty Russell, 3.C. I. Scofield, 4.W. B. Riley, 5.L. W. Munhall, 6.A. C. Gaebelein, 7.Ford C. Ottman, 8.Grant Stroh, 9.George E. Guille, 10.F. A. Steven, and 11.F. E. Howitt. ii.The symposium participants included such familiar names as 1.W. L. Pettingill, 2.Charles G. Trumbull, 3.Oliver W. Van Osdel, and 4.Charles A. Blanchard. 3.The next year (1915) a.would witness the sinking of the British liner Lusitania on May 7 by a German submarine b.America was becoming increasingly embroiled in the Great War, and c.a month later Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned his post in disagreement with President Woodrow Wilson’s diminishing dedication to neutrality. d.Funda­mentalism as a movement soon supported the war effort patriotically. e.Most significant of all is the fact that the signs of the times were leading increasing numbers of people to the Bible-and to Bible conferences-in search of answers. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 30: THE AUBURN AFFIRMATION ======================================================================== I.The Auburn Affirmation a.On December 26, 1923, a committee of 149 Presbyterian clergymen, with headquarters in Auburn, New York, issued “An Affirmation” that the General Assembly was wrong to require that all ministerial candidates hold to the five fundamentals of 1910, 1916, and 1923. i.The Affirmation boldly asserted that neither the Bible nor the historic creeds taught inerrancy; that such tenets as Christ’s virgin birth, vicarious atonement, bodily resurrection, and miracles were theories; and ii.that the General Assembly had unconstitutionally declared belief in these doctrines as essential for licensing, ordination, or good standing in the church. iii.The Affirmationists contended that the General Assembly had no right to bind presbyteries to any “essential and necessary” doctrines unless the presbyteries themselves so voted. iv.The Affirmationists were not intending to present themselves as theological revolutionaries or radicals but as the moderate party. 1. While they relegated all five fundamentals to the realm of theory, 2. they took great care to stress that inerrancy was the only point they them- selves were explicitly repudiating. 3.Denying that they were theological liberals, 4.the Affirmationists described them- selves as evangelical Christians, the true peacemakers 5. To the Fundamentalists, the Affirmationists were liberals who denied the trustworthiness of the Bible and hence the absolute certainty of the cardinal doctrines of the faith. ‘ ======================================================================== CHAPTER 31: THE AUBURN AFFIRMATION ======================================================================== I.The Auburn Affirmation was published on January 9, 1924, and by May of the same year 1283 Presbyterian clergymen had signed it. a.The whole episode confirmed to Fundamentalists what they already knew- i.that once the church surrenders the doctrine of inerrancy, it is only a matter of time before it casts other fundamentals into the heap of nonessentials. ii.Most conservatives felt that they could still take these matters to the next General Assembly. 1. Billed by the media as one of the most potentially explosive meetings in the history of the church, the 1924 General Assembly, meeting in Grand Rapids, elected conservative Clarence E. Macartney as moderator. 2.Macartney won by only eighteen over Charles R. Erdman, the liberals’ candidate. a.William Jennings Bryan made the nominating speech for Macartney, who in turn appointed Bryan as vice-moderator 3.When the issue of the Auburn Affirmation came up, the Committee on Bills and Overtures allowed it to be tabled. a.Ironically, a conservative, Mark Allison Matthews (1867-1940), who pastored the largest Presbyterian church in the world (First Presbyterian in Seattle, Washington), was reportedly the one who urged the committee to table this matter. b.Fundamentalists soon discovered that it was just this kind of amiable conservative who would allow the denomination to fall to the liberals. c.When Fundamentalists eventually separated from the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., Matthews refused to join them, and he died still supporting the denomination. 21 4.The Judicial Committee ruled that the General Assembly has no power to use a doctrinal test with officeholders because the church had never specifically defined its doctrinal essentials. a.This amounted to an official refutation of the great Portland Deliverance of 1892 and of the famous five-point declaration of 1910, 1916, and 1923. b.The liberal Affirmationists had won the war. b.One can imagine the frustration that staunch conservatives like J. Gresham Machen felt as they watched the denomination go down. i.To these Fundamentalists, such vital, historic, Christian doctrines as inerrancy, the virgin birth, the atonement, Christ’s resurrection, and biblical miracles were not matters of interpretation, nor theories for philosophical speculation. ii.They were matters of belief versus unbelief. iii.Speaking to the Moody Founder’s Week Conference in 1924, Machen expressed these deepest concerns of his heart: 1. “Paganism has made many efforts to disrupt the Christian faith, but never a more insistent or insidious effort than it is making today. There are three possible attitudes which you may take in the present conflict. In the first place, you may stand for Christ. That is the best. In the second place, you may stand for anti-Christian Modernism. That is next best. In the third place, you may be neutral. That is perhaps worst of all. The worst sin today is to say that you agree with the Christian faith and believe in the Bible, but then make common cause with those who deny the basic facts of Christianity. Never was it more obviously true that he that is not with Christ is against Him. “ ======================================================================== CHAPTER 32: THE BIRTH OF THE BAPTIST BIBLE UNION ======================================================================== I. The Birth of the Baptist Bible Union A. For a year Fundamentalists had been endeavoring to create an effective organization of their forces. 1. Finally, in a huge tent rented from a lay Fundamentalist Bible teacher, Walter L. Wilson, MD., an estimated thirty-five hundred to five thousand people assembled in Kansas City, Missouri, May 10-15, 1923, to complete the organization of the Baptist Bible Union (BBU). 2.the new BBU elected Thomas Todhunter Shields (1873-1955), pastor of the Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto, Ontario, as its president. a)He would soon be traveling as much as forty thousand miles a year for the BBU, often arriving in Toronto by Pullman on Sunday morning just in time to go directly to his pulpit for the services. b)To the offices of vice president, North and South, the BBU elected William Bell Riley (1861-1947) of First Baptist in Minneapolis and J. Frank Norris (1877-1952) of First Baptist in Fort Worth, Texas. c)The BBU originated with the conviction that the Fundamentalist Fellowship was directly cooperating with some of the very evils against which it protested. d)The Fellowship did not experience a revival until it finally separated from the denomination. 3. At the BBU’s inception, great interest centered on the question of whether belief in premillennialism should be a test of membership. They finally altered their confession of faith so as to remove all ambiguity on this point, adopting the following resolution: Inasmuch as it has been widely stated that fellowship in the Baptist Bible Union is restricted to premillenarians; there­fore be it Resolved, that we here declare that the Baptist Bible Union welcomes to its membership all Baptists who sign its confession of faith, whatever variation of interpretation they may hold on the millennial question, consistent with belief in the personal, bodily second coming of Christ, according to the Scriptures B. The resemblance between the Union and the Fellowship was that each refused to practice a strictly separatist position. C. The similarity between the two groups is that each ultimately became the matrix of a separatist or­ganization, the Fellowship finally becoming the present-day Fundamental Baptist Fellowship and the Union finally giving birth to the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. D. However, in three important ways, the Baptist Bible Union contrasted sharply with the Fundamentalist Fellowship. 1. First, while the Fellowship included only Northern Baptists (with occasional guest speakers from other groups), the Union included Northern, Southern, and Canadian Baptists. 2. Secondly, the Union had an official, recorded membership; the Fellowship did not. (Most of the Union membership consisted of individuals, not churches.) 3. Thirdly, the Union was far more militant than the Fellowship. The Union’s confession of faith, for instance, rings a clarion note of conviction that the original Scripture manuscripts were "free from error." E.members of the BBU executive committee 1.the big three-Shields, Riley, and Norris-other included 2.Oliver W. Van Osdel (1846-1935) of the Wealthy Street Baptist Church in Grand Rapids; 3. Amzi C. Dixon (1854-1925), pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London and editor of the early volumes of The Fundamentals; 4. Robert E. Neighbor (1872-1945) of the First Baptist Church in Elyria, Ohio; 5. and William L. Pettingill (1866-1950), dean of the Philadelphia School of the Bible and a consulting editor of the Scofield Reference Bible. F. The leader of the BBU’s governing body was John Roach Straton (1875-1929). 1. The Baptist Bible Union grew to some thirty thousand members by 1925 and peaked about 1926 with some fifty thousand. 2. In an era of great pulpit oratory, the BBU provided some distinguished preaching. 3. It found a pub­lishing outlet in the Union Gospel Press in Cleveland, Ohio, which also published Sunday school literature for many early fundamental churches. 4. The fall of the BBU came fairly rapidly as a result of two distressing incidents that will be recounted later (the shooting of D. E. Chipps by Norris in 1926 and the Des Moines University fiasco under Shields), but for a few years it showed impressive strength, and it laid the foundation for a more durable Baptist Fundamentalism. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 33: THE DEEP ROOTS OF CONTROVERSY ======================================================================== I. The Deep Roots of Controversy A. The First Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island, and the First (now United) Baptist Church in Newport, Rhode Island, share the distinction of being the oldest Baptist churches in America 1. Both originated about 1638. Roger Williams, first pastor of the Providence church, and Dr. John Clarke, first pastor of the Newport church, played vital roles in the colony’s earliest history. 2. The middle colonies, rather than New England, became the center of Baptist activity, especially the Philadelphia area, due to the Quaker policy of religious toleration. 3. In 1707, five local churches established the Philadelphia Baptist Association, which in 1742 adopted the Phila­delphia Confession of Faith. B. Baptists formed their first national organization in Philadelphia in 1814. 1. It was called the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions, but more com­monly known simply as the Triennial Convention because it met once every three years. 2. These Baptists organized the American Baptist Publication Society in 1824 and the American Baptist Home Mission Society in 1832. 3.The mid-nineteenth-century separation of Baptists in the South from those in the North a)the issue of slavery served as the catalyst to complete the separation. b)Baptists in the South felt that they were receiving unequal treatment in the expenditure of funds and in the approval of missionary candidates. (1) On May 8, 1845, these southern brethren met in First Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia, and established the Southern Baptist Convention. (2)In 1859, the convention established its first seminary-Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. c)Notable distinctions became apparent, how­ever, between the Baptists in the North and their brethren to the South. (1) While the Southern gravitated toward denom­inational centralization, (2) the Baptists in the North tended to conceive of their "denomination" as a loose structure within which the local churches could operate. (3) Two different home mission societies and an education society functioned independently of each other, often duplicating one another’s efforts. (4) In 1907 the Baptists in the North reorganized themselves into the Northern Baptist Convention (NBC). (a)From its very inception the NBC was an inclusive organization, (b)with both liberals and conser­vatives serving in places of leadership. (c) the Southern Baptist Convention waited until 1925 to adopt a statement of faith, t (d) he NBC never did adopt one, and this issue became a major battleground between modernists and conservatives. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 34: THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN LIBERALISM ======================================================================== The Development of American Liberalism A.The great foe of Fundamentalism has always been modern theological liberalism 1.the one position all liberals oppose is orthodox Christianity. 2.Liberalism’s antithesis has always uniformly been the idea of the verbal inspiration and absolute authority of Scripture 3.liberalism comes in innumerable varieties 4.an outline of the growth of liberalism and its most common characteristics is important for an understanding of Fundamentalism B.Backgrounds in the Enlightenment 1.The period that followed the Reformation of the six­teenth century was one of consolidation and doctrinal formulation 2.it was also a time of religious wars, both intellectual and military 3.in the succeeding period the pendulum swung back from reli­gious intolerance to religious freedom and indifference a.Rene’ Descartes (1596-1650) ①.French champion of the deductive method ②. insisted that the first step in the search for truth is to rid oneself of all preconceived notions ③. Descartes concluded that since he doubted, he must exist-hence his famous maxim, "I think; therefore, I am." ④. With no apparent intention of attacking Christian­ity, Descartes established a religious philosophy whose guiding principle was that each person is a law unto himself ⑤.Such an outlook, however, superseded belief in the absolute authority of the Scriptures. b.The late seven­teenth century and the eighteenth century have become known as the Age of Reason ①.(because it was dominated by rationalism) or the Enlightenment (because of its condescending attitude to previous ages so dominated by "ignorance") ②.The English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) i.in his Reasonableness of Christianity (1695) ii.attempted to defend Christianity, but in so doing he advocated a mild type of rationalism iii.This paved the way for a more extreme form, which took the name of Deism and taught that Christian doctrine should be reduced to certain universal principles of natural religion that could be ascertained by the use of reason and without the benefit of special revelation iv.The Deists launched a strong attack on biblical miracles and those doctrines that offended human reason. v.The roots of higher criticism also lie in the Enlight­enment 1st.Richard Simon (1638-1712) denied the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch 2nd.Jean Astruc (1684-1788), maintaining that the various documents from which Genesis was compiled could be separated by ob­serving the divine names that were used, laid the foun­dation stones for the documentary hypothesis 3rd.Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (1752-1827) continued Astruc’s work on the Old Testament 4th.Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768) laid the foundation of radical New Testament criticism 01.Reimarus tried to approach the New Testament under the assumption that miracles are impossible vi.The latter part of the eighteenth century 1st.Marked by radical philosophical and theological sys­tems 01.Radical Deism and atheism enjoyed popularity in France during the French Revolution 02. The Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) and the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) ¨ while in one sense undercutting Deism by their attack on reason, in another sense prepared the way for modern liberalism ¨ Instead of transferring the seat of authority back to the Bible, Kant placed it in man as a inner sense of moral obligation, the "categorical imperative. C.The Beginnings of Native American Liberalism 1.Several varieties of liberalism developed in America a.1761, Jonathan Mayhew (1720-1766) ①.the liberal Armenian pastor of Boston’s West Church ②.published a sermon calledStriving to Enter In at the Strait Gate ③.Mayhew taught that the unregenerate could strive after holiness ④.Religious pluralism fostered the idea among laymen that heretics and pagans were not such bad people after all, no matter what the preacher said about their eternal destiny b.New England Congregationalism gave birth to Uni­tarianism in the late 1700s ①. The seeds of English Unitarianism had found fertile ground in the growing Arminianism of eastern Massachusetts ②. By 1805 Unitar­ians controlled Harvard College and, within the next few decades, most of the older churches as well ③. closely allied to the New England upper, Unitarianism failed to make much headway elsewhere in America ④.Transcendentalism, the child of Unitarianism, broke more decisively with historic Christianity and achieved greater popularity through the writings and lectures of such scintillating literary figures as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau D.Influences of the New England Theology 1.Those Congregationalists who resisted the Unitarian Theology a.New England Theologydeveloped from the thought of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) and passed through a variety of stages before it died in the late 1880s b.Founded on a speculative idealism, the New England Theology kept the appearances of orthodoxy while under­mining its foundations c.Many advocates of the New England Theology were evangelistic preachers who par­ticipated in the Second Great Awakening d.Though they did not doubt the Bible nor question its authority, these men, in the name of defending Calvinism and promoting revivalism, shifted away from some of the old Puritan emphases ①.Two main doctrinal features characterized the New England Theology i.First, the Governmental Theory of the Atonement (first developed by the seventeenth-century Dutch jurist, Hugo Grotius) subtly overshadowed Jona­than Edwards’s emphasis on the substitutionary aspect of Christ’s work and on its propitiation of God’s wrath ii.The Grotian view depicted God as the "Moral and Benev­olent Governor" of the universe whose primary purpose in the atonement was to maintain respect for His own laws iii.Advanced and popularized by Jonathan Edwards, Jr. (1754-1801) and Joseph Bellamy (1719-1790), each of whom had sat at the feet of the elder Edwards 1st. the Governmental Theory virtually omitted any emphasis on the demands of God’s holiness 2nd. Secondly, advocates of the New England Theology strongly asserted that God’s primary purpose in permitting sin to enter the world was the ultimate happiness and benefit of man 3rd. According to this utilitarian doctrine, the entrance of sin was the necessary means to the greatest good 4th. As proof, Hopkins cited the case of Joseph’s brothers selling him into bondage-"God did it for good." God could not have permitted sin for His own ultimate glory, for the Benevolent Ruler could not be virtuous while interested in His own attributes 5th.The more radical wing of the New England Theology, the followers of Nathaniel W. Taylor (1786-1858) of Yale Divinity School at New Haven, Connecticut 01.Insisted that all sin is voluntary, not inherited 02. According to this New Haven doctrine, which is very similar to the ancient heresy called Pelagianism, man is sinful because he sins; man does not sin because he is sinful 03.Its proponents, such as N. W. Taylor and Charles G. Finney (1792-1875), denied the doctrine of the imputation of Adam’s sin and guilt to his posterity E.The Case of Oberlin College 1.Charles Finney was most famous as an innovative revivalist a.who introduced "new measures" or pragmatic methods ①.such as the "anxious bench" ②.and the protracted meeting, to induce individuals to respond to the gospel b.In 1835, he became professor of theology at Oberlin College (Esther 1832) in Ohio, where he remained for the rest of his life ①.He served as the college president from 1851 to 1865 ②. Finney, along with Asa Mahan, Oberlin’s first president, established and popularized the institution as a seedbed of New England Theology ③.Out of the welter of contra­dictory ideas at Oberlin, two distinct theological trends found significant support i.Pragmatism and Perfection­ism 1st.The pragmatic tendency was revealed in Finney’s attitude toward revivals: 01. "Revival is not a miracle, or dependent on a miracle in any sense. 02. It is a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means." 2nd. He justified the means that he used based on the results he achieved 3rd.If his "new measures" persuaded men to make professions of faith, then they must be legitimate ii.Oberlin Perfectionism5 1st.Taught that man is capable of attaining entire sanctification in this life 2nd. Charles Hodge, a critic of the view, maintained that the root of this system was the assertion that "every man, in virtue of being a free agent, has plenary ability to fulfill all his obliga­tions." 3rd.Finney assumed that God cannot justly require a man to do anything he is unable to do, and thus the law is brought down to the level of a man’s ability 4th.if every man can be entirely sanctified, then society itself is also perfectible 01. Mahan and Finney trained scores of professional evangelists who were noted for their zeal for social reform 02. This ideal of changing society was most popularly expressed in the work of Charles M. Sheldon (1857-1946) 03.a graduate of Andover Seminary and pastor of the Central Congregational Church in Topeka, Kansas ¨His novel, In His Steps (1896) ¨Which he read chapter by chapter to his congregation ¨presented a method for reforming society through following the ex­ample of Jesus 04.Pragmatism and Pelagian Perfectionism blended naturally into what became the Social Gospel The accompanying chart illustrates the connections New Haven Theology [ The Oberlin Theology d ; Pragmatism, which placed an ex­treme emphasis on activities, methods, and principles of achieving individual contentment and social reform d What works is true and right d Oberlin Perfectionism, which de­fined all sin as willful (or known) d This Pelagian tendency ignored or denied the inward corruption of the human heart; hence, social reform is attainable d Humanism and the New Theology with its Social Gospel emphasis F.Andover Theological Seminary and the Developing New Theology G. In 1807, Congregationalists, under Rev. Jedidiah Morse’s (1761-1826) leadership, established Andover Theological Seminary8 in Andover, Massachusetts, as a reaction to the Unitarian takeover of Harvard College. 1.Andover’s original charter explained her purpose: a."to increase the number of learned and able defenders of the Gospel of Christ, as well as of orthodox pious and zealous ministers of the New Testament." b.The school provided great impetus to the Second Great Awakening and to the nineteenth-century foreign missions movement c.While Andover Seminary represented a conservative opposition to Unitarianism, most of her professors, almost from the beginning, expressed various degrees of agree­ment with the Hopkinsian variety of New England Theology d.Leonard Woods (1774-1854) ①.who held the chair of theology from 1808 to 1848; Moses Stuart (1780-1852), who held the professorship of sacred literature from 1810 to 1848 ②.Ebenezer Porter, professor of sacred rhetoric from 1812 to 1832 ③.Edwards A. Park (1808-1900), who was professor of sacred rhetoric from 1836 to 1847, and professor of Christian (systematic) theology from 1847 to 1881 i.It was here at Andover in 1844 that Park instituted the famous theological journal, Bibliotheca ii.Both Stuart and Park avoided the doctrine of inerrancy in their writings, iii.many conservatives felt that Park’s theology was too man-centered iv.His famous article, "The Theology of the Intellect and That of the Feelings," led to an open controversy with Charles Hodge of Princeton Seminary ======================================================================== CHAPTER 35: THE FALL OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY ======================================================================== I. The Fall of Princeton Theological Seminary A. The old adage, “As the seminaries go, so goes the denomination,” fails to apply directly to the situation at Princeton. B. It is true that, historically, the seminaries embrace liberal ideas first and then lead the denominational mainstream into modernism. In the case of the Presbyterian Church in the USA, however, New School seminaries progressively drew the denomination into liberalism; then the denomination itself pulled Princeton Seminary down with it. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 36: THE FIVE FUNDAMENTALS DECLARED ======================================================================== I.The Five Fundamentals Declared a.the General Assembly of 1910 adopted a five-point doctrinal and stated that the following doctrines were “essential and necessary” to the Presbyterian system: i.the inerrancy of the original manuscripts of Scripture; ii.Christ’s virgin birth; iii.His vicarious atonement; iv.His bodily resurrection; and v.the reality of miracles as recorded in the Scriptures. b.Historically, these are the famous five points of Presbyterian Fundamentalism. c.the 1910 Assembly added that other biblical truths were “equally” important. d.During the years after 1910 the five-point declaration was repeatedly attacked and disputed by liberals. Increasingly, the denomination was relegating these doctrines to the realm of theory. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 37: THE FOUNTAINHEADS OF FUNDAMENTALISM ======================================================================== I. The Fountainheads of Fundamentalism A. Right-wing evangelicalism is a form of evangelical Christianity that differs from Fundamentalism primarily in practice rather than in theology. 1. It is essentially the same as the broad, non militant, evangelical movement that emerged in the 1950s. 2. Since the 1970s, Fundamentalism has been rejected by an evangelical movement that has continued to use the label "Fundamentalist." 3. Separatist, militant Fundamentalism, however, continues to thrive. B. During the movements first two periods, Fundamentalism’s enemies openly attacked the Bible, or at least its historical interpretation in the Protestant churches. 1. They were cultists, Romanists, and modernists; 2. They were blatant and they did not mince words and phrases. 3. They were easily recognized. C. Then in the 1930s, classic liberalism was largely superseded by neo-liberalism; it appeared not only conservative but respectable. The new evangelicals accepted this new breed on equal terms as Christian brethren and thus abandoned their own heritage. D.By the 1950s, the new evangelical movement had completely gained control of 1.churches, 2.Bible colleges 3.seminaries, 4.parachurch organizations, and 5.denominations E.Fundamentalists, in order to preserve their movement’s very identity and convictions, 1.had to begin all over in their pursuit of biblical purity 2.While Fundamentalism had always preached holiness (separation), this doctrine now became conspicuous, a.not as a badge on the breast but as a raised sword b.a militancy that now distinguished the movement from all others c.some new evangelicals, under liberal influences would forsake the doctrine of biblical inerrancy, d.All new evangelicals had, by the very nature of their movement forsaken the doctrine of biblical holiness and the practice of ecclesiastical purity - the trademarks of Fundamentalism. F. While one must stress its transdenominational unity, the strength of Fundamentalism lies in its diversity. 1. A complex move­ment larger than any single denomination or organization. 2. Funda­mentalism has never been and never could be limited to the affirmations of any particular denomination. 3. The Fundamentals of Fellowship transcend denominational distinctives, and they do so without weakening or com­promising such distinctives. 4. While Fundamentalists have differed among themselves on certain interpretations of Scripture, they unite in fellowship for the common purpose of the defense of the faith and the spread of the gospel, accepting the Bible alone, without question, as the divinely and verbally inspired, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 38: THE LIBERALS' 1922 PRECONVENTION FORUM ======================================================================== I. The Liberals’ 1922 Preconvention Forum A.While the Fundamentalist Fellowship held their 1922 preconvention conference in Indianapolis, some two hundred liberals gathered in that city’s Lincoln Hotel for a special "forum" to organize a steering committee and to advance their strategy against the Fundamentalists. Cornelius Woelfkin, liberal pastor of the Park Avenue Baptist Church in New York City, presided. To Funda­mentalists, Woelfkin was another example of a religious apostate ======================================================================== CHAPTER 39: THE MATTER OF BAPTIST CONFESSIONS ======================================================================== I. The Matter of Baptist Confessions A. With their congregational polity and their emphasis on local church autonomy, Baptists have always had a natural aversion to any denominational enforcement of creeds or confessions. 1. In times of theological defection, however, the matter has been a sensitive area of debate. 2. The Fundamentalist Fellowship placed great emphasis on preaching, and 3. Their eloquent expositions of the great doctrines of the faith prompted a renewed discussion of the matter of creeds and confessions. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 40: THE PEACE COMMISSION 1925-1927 ======================================================================== I.The Peace Commission 1925-1927 a.Militant Presbyterian conservatives were especially saddened in 1925 with the outcome of the famous Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee, and the subsequent death of William Jennings Bryan. i.The General Assembly, meeting that year in Columbus, Ohio, elected Charles R. Erdman as its leader. 1.Premillennialist Bible conference speaker, 2.contributor to The Fundamentals, and 3.Princeton professor 4.Erdman was not one to let his conservative position stand in the way of peace and tolerance. ii.Posing as a peace advocate, Charles R. Erdman moved that the Assembly create a special peace commission to “study” the denomination’s. 1.His resolution proposed “that a Commission of Fifteen members be appointed a.to study the present spiritual condition of our Church and b.the causes making for unrest, and c.to report to the next General Assembly, d.to the end that the purity, peace, unity and progress of the Church may be assured.” 2. The Assembly unanimously adopted the proposal. 3.The new Commission of Fifteen included both liberals and conservatives however, who advocated peace above purity. a.Although such members as Mark A. Matthews and Robert E. Speer were theological conservatives, they tolerated apostasy. b.They would prove more dangerous to the conservative cause than the heresy itself because they could not be counted on to stand firm in the heat of battle and they would influence others to take a soft position. 4.Even Clarence E. Macartney, former militant conservative, now identified with this same philosophy. iii.In 1927, the Peace Commission of Fifteen delivered its landmark recommendation to the General Assembly. 1. since the church had never defined its doctrinal “essentials,” then the final answer in matters of belief is “the Word of God as the Holy Spirit speaks through it.” 2. Distinguishing between the “Word of God” and “the Scripture,” the commission concluded that Christ “is Himself the Word Of God. 3.Therefore Scripture can have errors while the Word of God has none. iv.From that point in 1927 the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. had only Princeton Seminary, and the liberal party already had plans to capture this West Point of Orthodoxy. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 41: THE PRAYER MEETING REVIVALS ======================================================================== I. The Prayer Meeting Revivals A. Needham soon came under Charles H. Spurgeon’s influence and attended his college in London. B. In 1868, Needham came to America with a letter of introduction from Spurgeon. 1. Landing in Boston, he preached the following noon at the YMCA, whose doors D. L. Moody, the national vice-president, had opened for the noonday businessmen’s meetings that arose in the Prayer Meeting Revivals of 1857. 2. Later Needham sat under Moody’s special training in Chicago and filled the Moody Church pulpit from 1879 to 1881. 3. When he arrived in America in 1868, George Need-ham’s joined with James Inglis (1813-1872) to establish Bible meetings in America, and these two men became "the real co-founders of the Niagara Bible Conference." 4.James Inglis (1813-1872), a Baptist, edited Waymarks in the Wilderness. In his New York City office in 1868, brethren of various denominational affiliations met for the first of a series of private Believers Meetings for Bible Study. Which included such Christians as: a.James H. Brookes (1830-1897), who was just launching his magazine, The Truth b.William J. Erdman (1834-1923) c.Fleming H. Revell (1849-1931) d.P. P Bliss (1838-1951) e.Major Daniel W. Whittle (1840-1901) 5. Successive Believers’ Meetings that would eventually become the Niagara Bible Conference ======================================================================== CHAPTER 42: THE REORGANIZATION OF PRINCETON ======================================================================== I. The Reorganization of Princeton A. Originally, Princeton Seminary’s Board of Directors controlled the educational program (subject to the General Assembly’s approval), while the Board of Trustees con­trolled finances and held the real estate in trust. The majority of the Board of Directors agreed with the militant conservatives, while a majority on the Board of Trustees agreed with the Stevenson faction. B. In 1926, the General Assembly appointed a committee to "investigate" the seminary’s internal problems. 1. The following year, they reported that the main problem was in the government under two boards. 2. They recommended amendments to the seminary’s charter that would elim­inate the two boards and create a single Board of Control. 3. The committee’s report was adopted in 1929 with the establishment of a new thirty-three-member controlling Board of Trustees-one-third from the old Board of Trustees, one-third from the old Board of Directors, and one-third from the church at large. 4. The latter third shifted the balance of power to the liberals. This new arrangement also increased the powers of the president and brought two signers of the Auburn Affirmation onto the new board. 5. Princeton’s fate was sealed. 6. Four conservative faculty members, Machen, R. D. Wilson, Cornelius Van Til, and 0. T. Allis, withdrew to form Westminster Seminary, and Princeton went the way of the denomination. 7. By 1936 the liberal John A. MacKay (1889-1983) succeeded the tolerant J. Ross Stevenson to the presidency. 8. Only three years later, the neo-orthodox Emil Brunner (1889-1966) became guest professor of the all-important chair of systematic theology. 9. That same year (1939) Princeton installed another Bar­thian, Elmer G. Homrighausen (1900-1982), in the chair of Christian education. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 43: THE REVIVALS AND EARLY BELIEVERS' MEETINGS ======================================================================== I.The Prayer Meeting Revivals and Early Believers’ Meetings The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of small groups of "Believers’ Meetings for Bible Study." These meetings, which devel­oped into America’s parent Bible conference at Niagara, and played a major role in the birth of American Fun­damentalism, descended directly from two sources: the Prayer Meeting Revivals that swept America’s cities and villages from 1857 to 1859 and the great revival in Ireland from 1859 to 1861. A. The Prayer Meeting Revivals: The roots of Fundamentalism lie in America’s third Great Awakening-the Prayer Meeting Revivals 1. The first Great Awakening, under Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, had lasted from the 1720s to the 1760s. 2.The Second Great Awakening had lasted from the 1780s to the early 1840s under the lead­ership of Timothy Dwight, Asahel Nettleton, and John Leland, among others. a.This was a time of unprecedented prosperity for America: b.gold was discovered in the West; c.the banking business was booming; d.Industrial plants sprang up like mushrooms. e.The establishment of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (1850) f.The slavery issue had already erupted into open violence, and g.The country was on the brink of civil war. h.Most importantly, spiritual lethargy permeated churches and schools, and i.Unitarianism was running rampant. B. In the midst of that social, economic, and spiritual confusion, in 1857, Jeremiah C. Lanphier, a lay visitation worker at the Fulton Street Dutch Reformed Church in New York City, announced that on Wednesday, September 23, the chapel behind the church would be open for a noonday prayer meeting for any who would come. 1. at half past the hour, one man arrived. When the meeting closed at 1:00 P.M., six people were present. 2. Twenty people came the following Wednesday and 3. forty the next, at which time they agreed to begin meeting on a daily basis. 4. within a few months, not only was the old Dutch church unable to accommodate the crowds, but 5. Concerned believers were conducting some twenty simultaneous noonday prayer meetings in New York City alone. 6. Shopkeepers were hanging out their signs at noonday, "Closed-Be Back After the Prayer Meeting." 7. The police and fire departments opened their buildings for prayer services; 8. The Music Hall did likewise. C. Numerous churches, such as John Street Methodist, were overflowing with praying businessmen. 1. Stories of conversions appeared on the front pages of daily newspapers, such as the New York Tribune, as the revival spread rapidly to cities like Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, and Atlanta 2. It has been estimated that during that twenty-four-month revival perhaps as many as one million came to Christ. 3. The revival not only braced the nation to withstand the crisis of the Civil War, it also prepared scores of Christian laymen to become spiritual leaders. 4. Most sig­nificantly, it left a permanent impression in the hearts of many young men, such as Dwight L. Moody, who would go on to become the earliest leaders of American Fun­damentalism. 5. It became the seedbed of the movement. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 44: THE SCOFIELD REFERENCE BIBLE ======================================================================== I.The Scofield Reference Bible A.The Sea Cliff Bible Conference, 1901 1. C. I. Schofield met with A. C. Gaebelein and discussed the publishing of a new type of bible that contained notes and references for the reader. 2. Two wealthy laymen served as financial sponsors: John T. Pirie and Alwyn Ball, Jr. B. Plans were finalized at the Sea Cliff Bible Conference, 1902 C.Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843-1921) 1.Pastor of First Congregational Church in Dallas, TX from 1882-1895. 2.Converted at the of 36 3.Completed the Ref. Bible in 1908 4.Oxford University Press released the Bible on January 12, 1909 and sold 2 million by 1912. D.The Scofield Reference Bible 1.Followed the Premillennial, Pretribulational, scheme 2.Divided history into 7 dispensations 3.Points out eight different covenants that condition man’s relationship with God. 4. Emphasizing the Church as the Universal Body of Christ. 5. Divine based on God’s foreknowledge. 6. Put forth the 7 churches as representing the Church Age. 7. Designated Laodicea as the church of apostasy, i.e. the liberals E. The Fundamentals, by Lyman Stewart and A. C. Dixon- 1909 1.Stewart outlined the project to Dixon 2.After prayer, Dixon organized the Testimony Publishing Company 3.Contained 12 volumes of about 125 pages each 4.printed from 1910-1915 5.Cost about $300,000 6.Authors were from America, Canada, and Britain 7.other editors were Louis Meyer, a converted Jew, and R. A. Torry 8.It was later combined into a 4 volume set of 90 articles from 64 writers. 9. The focus of set was the defense of the orthodox view of the Scripture. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 45: THERE WAS MURDER IN THE STUDENTS' HEARTS ======================================================================== I. There Was Murder in the Students’ Hearts A. Born in England and destined to be hailed as the "Spurgeon of Canada," Thomas Todhunter Shields (1873~1955)1 ministered to a solid, thriving church, Jarvis Street Baptist of Toronto, Canada. He came to the Jarvis Street pulpit in 1910 after serving several other churches since 1894. B. When Shields began to detect modernism in both his own convention and in the Northern Baptist Convention (NBC), he inaugurated a periodical, The Gospel Witness in 1922. 1. During the 1920s and 1930s The Gospel Witness became one of the major organs of Fundamentalism constantly reporting modernism in the NBC and in McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, at that time the school of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec. 2. Finally, in 1926, Shields established his own Toronto Baptist Seminary at Jarvis Street Church. During the same year, he led in the organization of the Regular Baptist Missionary and Educational Society of Canada. 3.Consequently, the next year, the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec ousted Jarvis Street Baptist from its membership. a)Five days later, on October 19, 1927, at a mass meeting at Jarvis Street, the Canadian Fundamen­talists organized their own convention-the Union of Regular Baptist Churches of Ontario and Quebec, "reg­ular" because they were orthodox and fundamental. b)The group selected Shields as its first president. C. The Des Moines University Debacle 1. It was also in 1927 that Shields, president of the Baptist Bible Union, brought Des Moines University under the BBU’s control. 2. For years the school had been a liberal NBC institution, but the convention was about to abandon it because of staggering financial problems resulting in part from decreased support by Fundamentalists. 3. The university trustees offered the school to the BBU if it would assume the debt. In spite of much difference of opinion among BBU leaders, Shields enthusiastically negotiated with the trustees and consummated the purchase. 4. A major problem was that Shields attempted to change the scenario "from liberal school to Fundamentalist school" without changing the players. The financial situation prevented a quick and complete house cleaning. A few of the old faculty members had resigned, and some fifteen new appointments were made prior to the 1927 fall semester, but the total faculty numbered thirty-six. 5.The first year there were 377 students representing seventeen denominations and cults, including a)not only Baptists, b)but Christian Science, c)Quaker, Episcopal, d)Roman Catholic, e)Church of the Latter Day Saints, f)Pentecostal, and g)3 Jewish groups 6. The Board of Trustees, of which Shields was president, named Harry C. Wayman president of the university for the 1928-1929 school year 7.In an effort to transform Des Moines into a Fundamentalist university, Shields began to preach hard in chapel and to bring in strong guest speakers, such as a)William L. Pettingill, b)William B. Riley, c)Robert T. Ketcham, d)Oliver W. Van Osdel, e)James M. Gray, and f)J. Gresham Machen. 8. Internal relationships grew worse, however, until Shields and Rebman decided that Wayman and some of his deans must go. 9. Meanwhile, the anti-Shields faction set out to convince the student body that Shields and Rebman were the real troublemakers. 10. Shields and Rebman, both Canadians, had created an anti-Canadian sentiment on the campus by ridiculing American celebrations such as Washington’s birthday. Shields reportedly preferred that the students in chapel sing "God Save the King" rather than "The Star-Spangled Banner," and, when they did sing the latter, Rebman and several Canadian students allegedly refused to stand. On at least one occasion, Shields supposedly called for the local fire department to remove the American flag from the flagpole, which American students had greased to prevent such removal. 11. When the Board of Trustees met on Friday and Saturday, May 10-11, 1929, a student riot broke out. Calling for Shields, the mob hurled stones, rotten eggs, and gas bombs into the building where the board was meeting. 12.Local police refused to intervene, to make any arrests, or reportedly even to grant protection to the victims 13.Shields escaped the mob and returned to Canada. 14. The university completed the semester, but never reopened. 15. In 1948, Shields joined Fundamentalist Carl Mclntire’s International Council of Christian Churches. 16.When Shields died on April 4,1955, Carl Mclntire preached his funeral sermon. A Brief Survey Of Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches ======================================================================== CHAPTER 46: TOLERANCE CREEPS IN ======================================================================== I. Tolerance Creeps In A. Francis L. Patton (1843-1932) was Princeton’s last militant president. After teaching at McCormick Theological Seminary (1872-1881) in Chicago, where he brought David Swing to trial, Patton became a professor in both Princeton Seminary and Princeton College, primarily teaching philosophy and ethics. B. Gresham Machen (1881-1937) of Princeton seminary on points of doctrine. 1. " That assertion I hold to be not altogether correct. There is between Dr. Erdman and myself a very serious doctrinal difference indeed. It concerns the question not of this doctrine or that, but of the importance which is to be attributed to doctrine as such. . . . Dr. Erdman does not indeed reject the doctrinal system of our church, but he is perfectly willing on many occasions to keep it in the background. I, on the other hand, can never consent to keep it in the background.” 2. J Gresham Machen (1881-1937)~ was the spokesman for the militant conservatives. (1) He poured all his energies into leading the fight against liberalism, whether teaching in the classroom, preaching in churches, writing books and articles, or engaging in ecclesiastical politics. (2) Though his leadership extended to the conservatives of other denom­inations, his strongest commitment was to preserve the conservative Reformed position at Princeton. Unfortu­nately, the old Princeton Theology’s days were numbered. (3) The opposition to Machen was led by Erdman and Stevenson (i) In 1908, they had supported their denomination’s union with the Federal (now National) Council of Churches. (ii) They had attended the ecumenical Edinburgh Missionary Confer­ence in 1910. (iii) In 1920, they had championed a proposed Plan of Organic Union, an ecumenical endeavor defeated by the presbyteries the following year. Erdman and Stevenson were leading members of their denomination’s Committee on Church Cooperation and Union (Stevenson was vice-chairman), which reflected a rapidly growing spirit of compromise and doctrinal indifference. C. In the fall of 1924, a delegation of Princeton students attended a conference of the Middle Atlantic Association of Theological Seminaries (MAATS) at Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, New Jersey. 1. Returning to Prince­ton, these men reported to the student association that some MAATS representatives were modernists who de­nied such vital doctrines as Christ’s virgin birth and deity. 2. The Princeton student association then decided to sever its relationship with MAATS and to establish a new organization true to biblical Christianity. 3.Consequently, in April 1925, twelve representatives from six theological seminaries met in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and formed the League of Evangelical Students. a)The League’s con­stitution affirmed the historic fundamentals of the Chris­tian faith-infallibility of Scripture, trinity, virgin birth, bodily resurrection, substitutionary atonement, and sec­ond coming. b)President Stevenson and his like-minded colleagues opposed the whole endeavor, Stevenson com­plaining that the seminary would now "swing off to the extreme right wing so as to become an interdenomina­tional Seminary for Bible-School-premillennial-secession fundamentalism."In vain, conservatives called for Stevenson’s removal from the office of president. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 47: ULSTER AND THE ORIGIN OF THE BELIEVERS' MEETINGS ======================================================================== I. Ulster and the Origin of the Believers’ Meetings A. In his history of the Ulster revival of 1859, Ian R. K. Paisley describes the awakening as an outgrowth of the Prayer Meeting Revivals in America: 1.The news of the great awakening in America in 1858 caused the General Assembly meeting in Londonderry in 1858 appointed two of their ministers, Dr. William Gibson and Rev. William McClure to visit North America. a.Upon their return the two deputies had many public op­portunities of bearing testimony to what they had witnessed of the remarkable outpouring of the Spirit across the Atlan­tic. b.Their united testimony no doubt contributed to the spiri­tual background of the revival. B. Starting on this foundation, the revival began when a certain English lady, Mrs. Colville, told the story ol how she obtained peace of heart to a young Irishman named James McQuilkin. 1. McQuilkin was responsible for organizing the first prayer meeting in Kells, near Bal­lymena. 2. Then came the great meeting in the First Pres­byterian Church in Ahoghill on March 14, 1859, which was moved out of doors because of the large crowd in attendance. 3. Here a layman addressed some three thousand people, and ’4hundreds fell on their knees in the muddy street."4 4. There it reached the heart of a young man destined to play significant role in the origin of American Fundamental ism. : George C. Needham (1840-1902) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 48: WHAT IS AN INDEPENDENT FUNDAMENTAL BAPTIST ======================================================================== I. WHAT IS AN INDEPENDENT FUNDAMENTAL BAPTIST CHURCH? A. The name Independent Fundamental Baptist Church is used traditionally by churches which pattern themselves strictly after the example of the early church as found in the New Testament. 1. Today the name Baptist is used by many churches who are not truly following the teachings of the New Testament. 2. Thus the words "Independent" and "Fundamental" have been added by many Baptist churches to further identify themselves as truly Bible believing churches and to show a distinction between themselves and Baptist churches who were not following God’s word. 3. Many "Baptist" churches have drifted away from many of the teachings of the Scriptures. 4.Some have denied the fundamental teachings of the Bible, such as a)the deity of Christ, b)the virgin birth and c)salvation by the Grace of God, through faith. 5.Other Baptist Churches have compromised the Word of God a)by their teaching, b)practices and c)church polity trying to confront to popular religious tends d)they do not believe or practice what true Baptists have historically believed and what the Word of God says. 6. The true Independent Fundamental Baptists have no association or fellowship with these churches because they teach or practice things contrary to the New Testament. II. The name Fundamental Independent Baptist is of recent origin and came into being as a result of many modern day Baptist churches compromising the Word of God and teaching and practicing false doctrines and Liberialism. A. In order to distinguish between the doctrinally unsound Baptist churches and those that believed the Bible many Baptist churches changed their name. 1.The word "Independent" a)means that the church is not a member of any (1)council, (2)convention (3)nor is a part of any hierarchy outside the local congregation. (4) An Independent Baptist Church would not be apart of a national organization that would exercise authority over the local church. (5) the church patterns itself after the New Testament example and stands alone under the authority of the Bible. (a) The New Testament teaches that Christ is the head of the church,(Ephesians 5:23) (b) The local pastor is the shepherd (Hebrews 13:17, Acts 20:28, Ephesians 4:11) or leader of the congregation. (c)The Independent Baptist church has a congregational form of government (i)each member having the right of the vote and (ii) all the affairs of the churches are conducted by the local congregation following the guidelines of the New Testament. (6) Independent Fundamental Baptist churches have fellowship one with the other and often cooperate in such things as evangelism. (7) They only fellowship or cooperate in joint meetings with churches of like belief. (8) They will not participate, on a church basis, in any outside function with churches which do not also strictly base their faith and practice on the New Testament. (9)They will not participate in joint meetings, or evangelistic endeavors, with Protestants, Catholics, or other doctrinally unsound church groups who do not hold to the fundamental teachings of the New Testament (10)Separation (Second Degree) (a) Fundamental Independent Baptist church will remain separate from these churches as well as other Baptists groups who participate with the unscriptural churches. Ephesians 5:11, which says, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." (b)The Independent Baptist believes that to join with churches who teach and practice false doctrine is condone and even show approval of Biblical error and that all doctrinal error is sin. b)The officers of the local church are pastors and deacons. (1 Timothy 3:1-16) (1)The pastor of the church is called by majority vote of the congregation. (2) Men meeting the Biblical qualification of deacons (1 Timothy 3:8-13) are appointed from the local congregation and approved by the majority vote. (3) Many Baptist churches have Trustees, but their position was established in order to have legal "signatories" to sign legal documents of the church. (4) Neither Deacons or Trustees are a governing body nor a "board," but titles of special appointed servants who service and are subject the will of the pastor and congregation. 2.The word "Fundamental" means that the Baptist church uses the New Testament strictly as its authority for faith (doctrine) and practice. a)In recent years the news media has called doctrinally unsound church such as the Charismatics and Pentecostals "fundamentalists." b)Even some TV evangelists have referred to themselves as being "fundamentalist." But they should not be confused with Fundamental Baptists. c)True Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches uphold the purest teachings of the early church as revealed in the New Testament. III.WHAT BAPTISTS ARE NOT A.Baptist are not Protestants! 1. The name Protestant was given to those churches which came out of Roman Catholicism during the Reformation which began in the 1500’s. 2. It originally applied through the 1700’s to Lutherans, and Anglicans. Later Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Methodist were added to the lists of Protestants denominations. 3. Historically, Baptists were never a part of the Roman Catholic Church or the Protestant Reformation and therefore can not be correctly called "protestors" or Protestants. 4. There is not one recorded incident of a Baptist church beginning founded out of Roman Catholicism. 5. Protestants for centuries saw the Baptists as their "enemies" and murdered them by the thousands in the name of Protestantism.. 6. There have always existed, from the time of Christ, New Testament churches which were not a part of the Roman Church. 7. The Roman Church can only trace its history back to 313 AD when the Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity a legal religion 8. Although, many Protestants returned in part to a belief in the Bible as their authority for their faith and practice, not one of them EVER completely left all the doctrinal errors and false teachings of the apostate Roman Catholic church. 9.Protestants have never accepted the principle of separation of church and state. a)In Europe, Protestant churches are "state" churches and supported to some degree by government imposed taxes. (1)In Germany, the state church is Lutheran and (2)in England, the Anglican church, (3)France, the Roman Catholic Church, etc. b)The idea that the bread and wine (grape juice) in the Lord’s Supper actually becoming the physical body of Christ when taken is a Roman Catholic teaching that Protestants only modified slightly. (1) Still today, many Protestants see the Lord’s Supper as a sacrament, having to some degree saving properties or imparting some spiritual benefit. (2)True New Testament Christians have always rejected this doctrine. c)Protestants still practice infant baptism which absolutely is not taught in the Word of God. d)Many Protestant denominations still hold to the writings of their church fathers as a source of church doctrine and have never accepted the Bible as their sole source of teachings for their faith and practice. e)They all hold on to a system of hierarchy in church government and do not accept the autonomy the local church. (1) Autonomy means each local church governs itself free from outside authority and control. All decisions are made by the church or its elected representatives ======================================================================== CHAPTER 49: WHO WERE THE FIRST BAPTISTS? ======================================================================== I. WHO WERE THE FIRST BAPTISTS? A. In determining who were the first Baptists, you must first identify who you are referring to. 1. You could mean those persons or churches which held to the Baptists beliefs although they may not have called themselves Baptists. 2. Or second, you could be referring to those who held to Baptist beliefs and were called by the name Baptist. B. It is difficult to trace Baptist churches down through history. 1.Some Baptist historians refer to groups as early Baptists who did not in fact hold to pure Baptist beliefs as held today. a)They try to establish that "according to history, Baptist have an unbroken line of churches since Christ". (Quote from Dr. J.M. Carroll’s booklet "The Trail of Blood") b)These historians, in an attempt to show an unbroken line of Baptists in history, have embraced groups which were clearly not doctrinal sound. 2.In the simplest of terms a true Baptist assembly is one which follows the New Testament as his sole authority for his faith and practice. a)Whether these groups of believers called themselves Baptists or not, if they were doctrinally pure following the New Testament for their faith and practice they were New Testament churches and thus they can be called Baptistic. b)The point is there were true New Testament churches called by various names, before assemblies used the name Baptist. c)Some Baptists such as the Landmark Baptist conclude they trace their history back to John the Baptist who was the first Baptist. (1) However, John the Baptist was an Old Testament saint and the last Old Testament prophet (Matthew 3:3). He did not belong to, nor was part of the any "ekklesia." (2) Yes he baptized, but His baptism was the baptism of repentance (Matthew 3:2) for Jews who were preparing for coming Messiah and Kingdom God had promised them. (3) John was beheaded by Herod (Matthew 14:1-36) before the Lord Jesus announced the coming establishment of the "ekklesia." (Matthew 16:18). John was God’s true prophet and the forrunner of the Messiah Jesus Christ, but he was not a part of the dispensation of the institution of the local church. (4) In examining many so-called early "Baptist" churches you find many doctrinal errors and false teaching. (a) No church that practiced false doctrine as many of these groups did can in truth be called a Baptist church. (b) It is not possible to "trace" an unbroken line of Baptist churches from Christ until today. (c) However, let me strongly say there has always existed an unbroken line of churches who have not erred from the faith, and been true to the Bible, God’s Word. (d) To say there is a unbroken line or succession of Baptist churches from the time of Christ until today cannot be shown from history. (e) To call these people Baptists or Baptistic, in the sense that the believed the Bible and followed it as their sole authority for faith and practice, in the way same true Baptist churches do today, is acceptable, although it serves no purpose. (5)The importance of these churches was not in their name, but in what they believed and practiced. d)For an example there is Patrick of Ireland. (1) Patrick was born in Scotland in 360 AD and sold into slavery at age sixteen and carried to Ireland. Later, he escaped and became a Christian missionary. (2) Although the Roman Catholic Church claims him as one of their "saints," there is no evidence he even knew the Catholic church existed. (3) In his writings he appears totally ignorant of the practices of the Roman Church and never refers to church councils, creeds, traditions or even to the existence of a pope. (4) There was no hierarchy in the churches he founded, which were patterned after the simple New Testament example. (5) These churches were very missions minded and formed schools to train preachers and missionaries. (6) History is clear that in the beginning and also into the 9th Century there were churches in Britain that rejected pedo-baptism, popery and other false doctrines of the Catholics. (a) These churches remained sound in doctrine and practicing the faith of the New Testament. (b) These churches are good examples of Bible believing churches that existed independent of the Roman Catholic Church, and were for some time not corrupted by its influences. (c) They were in fact churches founded on the same New Testament principles that modern day Baptists traditionally founded their churches. 3.Some have pointed to the Anabaptists as the examples of early Baptist churches. a)This again can not be proven from history. b)The Anabaptists were mostly a God fearing group of people. They loved the Lord and many of them gave their lives and fortunes for the sake of Christ. c)However, history does not record even one Anabaptist group or church becoming or founding a Baptist church. d)Most of the Anabaptists successors became the Mennonites, Amish and Quakers. e)Not one Baptist church can show in its history a direct succession from the Anabaptists. f)Many Anabaptists churches were strong New Testament churches believing and following the Word of God. g)Other Anabaptists groups were in gross error and corrupted. As with any true New Testament church, its validity as a true church approved of God, does not nor or ever did rest on it name or upon a succession of churches, but on its adherence to the principles of God’s Word. 4.Some Baptist churches believe in a succession of Baptist churches who passed down the authority to baptize and give the Lord’s Supper. a)This is contrary to the very foundation of what is a true New Testament church. b)A true New Testament church bases its faith, practice and authority solely in the Word of God. c)To hold to the "secessionist" position takes the authority away from the New Testament and places it in the hands of man. d)Secessionism is the gross error of Catholicism. God said He would preserve His church and that task was not left in the hands of fallible men or groups. 5. What possible value is there in appealing to a supposed unbroken line of Baptist churches as a church’s authority. 6. There is every value in appealing only to present adherence to the New Testament as one’s sole authority for faith and practice. ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/history-of-fundamentalism/ ========================================================================