Is Christian Fundamentalism Really All That Bad?

From the little I've read on Christian Fundamentalism, it began as a movement in the late 1800s as a reaction to liberalism, a reaction to the denial of the authority of God's Word.

You can check out this article on it from wikepedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_fundamentalism

When I first came to the Lord around 13 yrs ago I was introduced to the teachings of Spurgeon, MacArthur, and others who many would consider to be Christian fundamentalists.

I remember back then taking lessons on the "Fundamentals of the Faith" and learning what is "Essential Christian Doctrine". It was about learning of the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, His vicarious death on the cross for sinners, etc. All that laid a foundation for me as to what doctrines I would believe for the coming years as a Christian.

Over the years as I've been sharing the gospel with non-believers I have noticed that they will use the term "Christian Fundie" as a put-down toward those of us who believe the Bible to be God's inerrant and infallible Word. But I have also seen in recent years that many Christians use it to put down other Christians, and in all honesty that has been somewhat disturbing for me to see.

Granted, the most negative type of "Christian Fundamentalism" I've heard of and seen is the Fred Phelps type. But don't we see good and bad among all denominations or groups? Why throw out the baby with the bath water?

And I can understand why believers would be against simple "head knowledge" as opposed to "experiential knowledge". But doesn't God's Word also emphasize renewing our "minds" daily through God's Word right along with "walking in the Spirit"?

For the most part for me, Christian Fundamentalism has been about sticking firmly with child-like faith to God's Word and sound doctrine and not straying away into liberalism, new agism, or any other destructive beliefs. Let's face it, we live in a time when God's Word is being attacked on all fronts both from without and from within.

Would it really be that bad if Christians began to take a stand for God's Word and actually proclaim it from the roof tops? If believers would rise up and declare to a lost and dying world, "Thus says the Word of God!"? If we would stand up and preach boldly against all the wickedness of our day and warn every man to flee from the wrath to come, as scripture clearly warns? If we would also boldly declare the good news of the cross of Christ and His resurrection from the dead and the forgiveness of sins and salvation available only through Him?

Please tell me what I am not seeing that is so bad about "Christian Fundamentalism".

Are you asking that question to be answered or are u declaring why you are fundamentalist?

Please tell me what I am not seeing that is so bad about "Christian Fundamentalism".

Christian Fundamentalism in itslef is not a bad thing, it is when man steps in that it gets messy. People do not like to be confronted with the Word. When people are confronted with the Word and the truth of the Word, it can usually turn into a Ad hominem attack back from the hearer of the Word. Conviction is a great thing.

I try to live by this. We are called to preach the Word and Christ crucified. For the most part, we are not called to make sure that the people understand the message, only that they get the message. The Holy Spirit is the one that will have to work the message out inside of them.

Some are called to sow, while others are called to harvest. The Lord has made me a sower of the Word, this I know.

John 4:34-38, "Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”

Christian fundamentals can bring forth as you said a type of head knowledge, but nothing in the heart to confer or confirm its power in u.

The letter in itself kills, but it is God's spirit that makes us come alive.

The Lord will teach you that fundamentals are not following Him persay, its doctrine. Stick to this, deny yourself, take up ur cross and follow Jesus and then fundamentalism will be given its proper place.

Love you

ManofGod0000 wrote "Are you asking that question to be answered or are u declaring why you are fundamentalist?"

Just asking why so much opposition to clinging to God's Word? I just don't get it coming from Christians.

I'm just saying if Christian Fundamentalism means believing and declaring God's truth then count me in as one of them "fundies".

Jesus said plainly, "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”(Mark 8:38)

Amen, Oracio. Many do not want to stand with the Word of God. If you do, you are criticized. Jesus said that we are to worship Him in spirit and in truth. It takes both the Word and the Spirit; the letter and conviction. THe reason many do not stand for the Word, is that they are ashamed of Him and/or do not really believe what God says. If you believe, you will stand and live for Him.

hi, the emphasis is on the love me...cause when you love you honor and obey.a fundy is someone i picture as one with missing teeth,no tact, no wisdom, no love and a big ego.someone who knows the word of God ,more than the God of the word..obnoxeous and offensive.quite a few here.ususlly young, ever sowing never reaping.i have met and been hurt by quite a few in 48 yrs.of being with the Lord.jimp when i say here i mean where i live and minister in baton rouge.you figure it out.

hi, it is part of the humor.i think you got it.

If Fundamentalism is relaying on every word of God and not just pick and choose the word that you like then it is really a Good thing. The problem with posters here who hate fundamentalists is they picture them as people who hit them with Scripture. This is not true. There are people who use scripture to hit people and driving away from Jesus. But a true believer in scripture will tell the truth of God, will bring conviction of Sin to listeners but will not end up leaving them as orphans. He will guide them to Jesus. There will be a balance between the loving nature of Father and his judgment upon his people. If this balance is lost, if one threatens people with judgment of God or only encourages them of their sinful life by showing the love of God without leading them to repentance then the problem starts.

I believe in every word of God, I do not support any theology. I believe God's word is true, I have never run away from any scripture because it is against my theology. I have never found any scripture contradicting another. I have never classified scriptures as saying this is for unsaved people and this cannot be true with saved person etc.

I'm not saying that it's right or wrong, I am simply pointing out that ALL the word theology means is "what you believe about God".

Thanks for pointing it out. I never thought believing in whole Bible is also a Theology. By theology I meant the famous sides that most believers take that prevent them from accepting all scriptures equally. I will always welcome any theology as long as it is not against the word of God.
For example one can form a Theology saying Bible says there is no God and prove it based on scripture.

Psalm 14:1-The fool says in his heart,
“There is no God.”

If you take the first sentence out and then believe only in rest and can form a theology out of it.

I really appreciate all the replies here.

I'm thinking maybe I should word it differently. How about:

"Is Firmly Believing and Boldly Declaring Essential Truths from God's Word Really All That Bad?"

I think many "Christians" have been programmed to accept a sort of "Feministic Christianity", one that has no back bone or courage to stand up boldly for Jesus and His Words.

What we need is men and women of God who, as Wesley said, "fear nothing but sin and love nothing but God".

"Lord, raise up such an army of soldiers in these last days, who will cry aloud in the public arena and spare not, as you commanded Isaiah."(Isa.58:1)

"We are called to preach the Word and Christ crucified. For the most part, we are not called to make sure that the people understand the message, only that they get the message. The Holy Spirit is the one that will have to work the message out inside of them."

I've got to say that I don't know where you got that. The last sentence, yes, but not the rest. Jesus told us to go into all the world making disciples of all men. He didn't say go preach at them.

That, I think, is the biggest problem people have with so-called fundamentalists. That paragraph defines what I think when I think of a fundamental. It's a "You're going to hear this and you're going to like it! I don't care if you don't like it. I told you and now it's your problem" mentality. It is our job to try to get people to understand. That's why it takes all kinds of people to preach the gospel. Some people have a certain way of learning, which God gave them. To reach those you have to speak their language. I'm not talking about watering the gospel message down. I'm talking about bringing a very old book and making it relevant to people today.

I agree with whoever said that fundamentalism is the cousin of the pharisee's. While often times "fundie" is simply meant to be an insult, being a fundamental is most often associated with being rigid and rules driven.

We all have to be careful in what we call one another and the labels we give them. Some people are naturally drawn to a more rigid life. Some aren't. And guess what, God made people with the personality to like the things they like, be it fundamentalism or more of an emergent type church (without the universalism and what not). The problem lies in making a doctrine out of our preferences.

We need to unwind a little and look at what someone is really saying before we label them fundie, emergent, or whatever. Could be that they're saying the exact same things you are but just using different language.

hoohoou wrote: "Jesus told us to go into all the world making disciples of all men. He didn't say go preach at them."

Right, Jesus did not say go and preach "AT" them, He said go and preach "TO" them in Mark 16:15. All throughout the New Testament as well as the Old we see a clear call for the servants of God to "PREACH" His Word to those that are in rebellion against Him.

Thank you brother for your honest words.

God bless,
Lisa

parise reidhead ,was a self proclamed fundi ,,

the most listen to serom on this site ,,is a fundamentel sermon ,,ten shekels and a shirt

self defined words is what we have today as jesus is god said

“If Jesus preached the same message ministers preached today, He would have never been crucified.” - Leonard Ravenhill

That, I think, is the biggest problem people have with so-called fundamentalists. That paragraph defines what I think when I think of a fundamental. It's a "You're going to hear this and you're going to like it! I don't care if you don't like it. I told you and now it's your problem" mentality. It is our job to try to get people to understand. That's why it takes all kinds of people to preach the gospel. Some people have a certain way of learning, which God gave them. To reach those you have to speak their language. I'm not talking about watering the gospel message down. I'm talking about bringing a very old book and making it relevant to people today.

Then you have a problem with the Bible itself. What is the 5-fold ministry? Ephesians.

We all have different callings. Some are called to preach At people, as you see in the OT and NT. Example, Jesus preaching AT the pharasee after healing the lame man (John 5 I believe). Others are to be teachers, etc...

Let's stay on target.

hi, for more than 30 years span i preached and ministered in the french quarter in n.o..we had guys that came in with their turn or burn signs and such and we would watch them and see no results.one day a group of us arthur blessed, leo humphreys , james robison and few other folks scanned the area and picked up quite a few converts to Christ. arthur walked into a strip bar and brought a girl out in hewr costume and a robe that we led to the LOrd ,called her parents, arranged for transportation home.she ended up getting a job at her mothers church znd became the secretary for the church.i have seen hundreds reached with the Love of Jesus but very few reached with the sin centered message. they realize when you tell them that all have sin that they are sinners. if you were to minister in a r.c. church would you point out all the errors in their doctrine or would you preach Jesus? what do you do if you preach Jesus ,you are not a fundy.

By the way, shrill people with bullhorns and "turn or burn" signs are irritating to me. But I wont judge them over it. I dont think it's the most effective way to present the gospel... but they are doing way more than 98% of "Christians" who are sitting in front of their TV's.

Well said Krispy

Jesus said, "If any man would be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me."

But this sort of religion was never to man's taste, so God gave us fundamentalism instead. Now all you have to do is believe the Bible, and you are a disciple! And God immediately accommodates you by transforming Himself into a gigantic version of Yourself. You can be just as full of yourself as you have always been, because now your will is God's Will, and your opinion becomes God's Word.

If you are a pathologically angry person, you may now vent your anger for the glory of God. Jesus said, "Love your enemies." He did not say you have to love Christians who disagree with your doctrine, which leaves you free to be as spiteful, prideful and abusive as you want to be, as long as the target of your abuse is a religious person.

Jesus is Lord of Heaven and earth, and is no more apt to human control than the wind, the rain or the earthquake; but the Bible is an object that you can control and use as a sculpting tool to fashion God in your own image, and a rod of authority with which to dominate others. None of this self-denial and submission stuff! You can even name yourself "The Bible Answer Man", go on the radio and convert dogma into cash.

Clearly fundamentalism is far more user-friendly than Christianity.

Starbucks, in order to expand their market to coffee buyers who don't like big successful brand corporations, has been recently experimenting with "de-branding" some of their coffee shops. The idea is to make the coffee shops look like independent small businesses that are not part of the second largest fast food franchise in the world. The ploy almost works until people find out...and then it just looks insincere.

Recently, a controversial video in which a young man raps as to "Why he hates religion, but loves Jesus," has gained popularity on the internet. As is the case with Starbucks, his attempt at de-branding has provoked mixed reactions.

I think the problem isn't the problem we think it is! ;)It isn't religion, or the church, or fundamentalism, or doctrine. It isn't that some take the bible too seriously or literally, or that some preach too hard or too culturally.

The real issue is simple hypocrisy. The things we rail against have become associated with hypocrisy, and that is why we want to throw these things out.

But we need to be careful, because eventually we will just end up throwing out everything we say we believe. As James demonstrates, let's not curse religion, but remember what true religion is. Even the "Jesus Only" crowd can't survive being branded as hypocrites.

As for me, I don't think de-branding will ultimately work. It won't work because we can't simply tell people what we are not like or what we don't believe, or who we don't associate with. Without something to replace these deletions, people won't have any new perception to replace the old. We can tell people we don't follow religion, or the bible, or man's teachings...but as soon as we tell them we follow Jesus, they'll know we do indeed adhere to religion, the bible, and even some man's teaching. We aren't going to fool very many people saying that all of our beliefs have come directly and exclusively to us from heaven...so why do we try to de-brand?

We try because were embarrassed at all of the things being done by people claiming to be Christians in public. But Christians didn't have very good reputations in the first century either. In some historical documents, the earliest Christians were accused of things like drinking blood, and even sexually perverse activities.

Yet, even with all of this baggage, I don't bother to tell people I'm not a fundamentalist, or that I follow Jesus rather then the bible...why don't I bother?

Because I know that I believe in something that is so outrageously far out of line with modern scientific materialism, the governing mythos of our culture...that there is no de-branding strategy in the world that is going to make me culturally relevant. I can say I"m not a fundamentalist, but once I say I believe not just some spiritual ideas, but in a historical event...that the Son of God became a historical man, actually historically died for my sins, and historically rose from the dead...

...well the gig is up. I'm a card carrying fundie. Hey I didn't say I like it, but that's the deal. If you are a bible believing Christian in our age of evidentualism, people are simply going to think you are irrational and uneducated. They may even think you are insincere.

MC

Woohoo! I got Dogma'd!

Be blessed :)

dear krispy, my nickname in the quarter was wages... as in the wages of sin is death. i used the roman road and still do... during the day i would go in the office lounge and witness to the judges and attorneys etc. at the bar. lloyd was the mgr and bar tender and broke legs for the mafia pt time... lloyd asked me one day to meet him at tonys for coffee the next morning... i did not sleep well that nite... when we met , paid his tithe to me and repented ..he went on to auit his job and move back to miss. this is just one of many... i have watched the young guy on t v use that plan and never saw him get anywhere with it . hell and fear have torment, knowlege of sin has distaste..Jesus and love has power.jimp

Why do so many young men spend time blogging about theological nuances while the world dies without the Gospel? Why? - Paul Washer

jimp, when we sow the seed of the gospel you will not always get immediate conversions. Christ and the Apostles and disciples saw both harvesting and rejection. If you are getting no rejection from the message you are preaching to the lost, it's not the biblical gospel. Many get easy "decisions" and false conversions. Not saying the testimony you shared is that.

Having worked with Ray Comfort at Living Waters for about 6 years, I can tell you of countless testimonies of people that have been awakened and soundly saved through "The Way of the Master" evangelism. You can see some of those testimonies on some of the videos.

But we are not ashamed of all the times that people reject the message we preach, because we know from Scripture it's the same message that Jesus preached and got Him crucified.

Jesus told His unsaved brothers, "The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil."(John 7:7)

I would really encourage you to check out this latest video from Living Waters: www.180movie.com
Blessings,
Oracio

by krispykrittr:

You are wrong.

LOLOL I couldn't resist brother!

God bless,
Lisa

primadogma:
If you are a pathologically angry person, you may now vent your anger for the glory of God. Jesus said, "Love your enemies." He did not say you have to love Christians who disagree with your doctrine, which leaves you free to be as spiteful, prideful and abusive as you want to be, as long as the target of your abuse is a religious person.

God bless,
Lisa

"The Gospel is ours to proclaim, not ours to edit." ~ James White

dear oracio, i have nothing to do with who gets saved or if any get saved and neither does ray. it is the moving of the spirit that saves for you must be born from above... i just tell the good news of Jesus and His redeeming love to sinners hanging over an eternity in hell.

jimp, I only said all that because you seemed to imply that Ray never sees any positive results in any of the witnessing interviews. And you seemed to imply that the message he preaches is not as good as yours because he preaches on sin, judgement and hell while you preach only on love.

When it comes to the message, bottom line shouldn't be about focusing on "results", but on whether or not we are preaching the same message we see in the Bible. Stick to that and you won't go wrong :)

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=6863

if any one is interested in listing to a self proclaimed fundi about what he him self confesses about his own religone ,,,,,,,,,click on the link

i would love to hear some coments on this sermon

sermon index has many of paisly sermons but i could not find this one

he sounds like a believer to me

im just curious what does sermon index and the moderators think about rc sproul ,,,would i be out of line if i posted a link of one of his sermons ,,for the sake of bringing a closer unity bewteen us brothers ,,regarding the sovernty of god and free will

i could not find any of his sermons on sermon index

i felt burdend to post a link a couple of weeks ago

i have a fleeting burden to help unite arminans and calvinists in a closer bond for the sake of christs blood he shed for us ,all equaly ,

i think rc sproul also preaches at a fundmentle church ,,called free presbyterians ,,,,

i herd a great sermon from him called the presious blood of christ

yea is so verry refreshing to listen to and watch krispy ,and his preaching has efected many people like me you and people like paul washer ,,

iv noticed tho he still puts out many free sermons

and others for a donation of any amount

iv never paid for any teachings my self

he surly posseses the gift of the word of wisdom

God wants us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

2Pe 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

The Bible says "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge".

It is not the knowledge of the Bible, Theology, Epistemology or Soteriology that the Holy Spirit is speaking of. It is the "knowledge of the Holy", of God that we are to attain. And this is only attained through relationship with Him through His Son, and by the Holy Spirit.

All throughout the Scriptures we are encouraged to grow in the knowledge of Him.

Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

So, when the Scriptures say "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge."
Rom 10:2

It is the knowledge of God and His ways (higher than our ways) that is being spoken of. It is not the knowledge of the Scriptures. The Pharisees knew the Scriptures "cold", but they did not KNOW God.

So, it is not really a correct statement to say, "if you are just preaching the Word, you can't go wrong". Because if you are not led by the Spirit in what you are doing then yes, you could be in error. If you are not walking in relationship with the living knowledge of Him but just your knowledge of the Bible, Church History, Theology, etc, etc, then how do you know if you are pleasing the Lord?

All throughout the Scriptures we are admonished to know Him.

Jer 9:24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.

Life eternal is knowing Him.
Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

1Jn 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

This is what the man in Matt 7:21 was missing. The knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ wrought in relationship. Only then can you know and do His will for you personally.

To know Him is to know His will for you. You cannot say "to know the Bible is to know His will for you." You must enter into relationship with Him to know His will for you otherwise you will go off on your own and doing according to your own "your own understanding of the Bible".

Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Pilgrim

Hos 6:3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

Heb 8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

Recently I visited a home of a Mormon family, and happened to browse through their denominational magazine. One article was about the rightness of Mormonism. As I read, I got thinking: This is preaching to the choir. It will work marvelously to reinforce Mormons’ self-beliefs. But it does not convince me! It merely reinforces my belief that they are deluded.

It’s no different with any label we assume and then attempt to defend. Our defense serves well as a self-reinforcing echo-chamber for the like-minded. For outsiders, it likely reinforces their suspicions that we are deluded. They will always have “evidence” up their sleeve. After all, there are always either bad examples or bad images of any label – even the word “Christian”.

Trying to defend the virtue of any label is a bit like trying to hit a moving target. It’s always changing. Here on this site I would claim a fundamentalist (or evangelical) position, but I wouldn’t use such words with many of my associates. It is counterproductive to suggest an unwelcome shade of meaning that may be lurking in their minds.

"The Gospel is ours to proclaim, not ours to edit." ~ James White

"Is Firmly Believing and Boldly Declaring Essential Truths from God's Word Really All That Bad?"

No and Yes. People have been burned at the stake by those who boldly declare essential truths – as they saw it. There is a thread here, “The Cult of Biblicism” which explains how people argue over their interpretation of truth, while they assume they are in fact, defending truth.

It’s never wrong to claim that scripture is the pure Truth, but it is better not to equate ourselves with scripture as if our interpretation is necessarily synonymous with it - lest we prove it true about our self-deception.

Diane

This may be so, but let’s admit, everyone proclaims their edition - that is, their interpretation and understanding of truth.

So then by this understanding, there is no truth unless it is what you believe. That is very convenient, yet, unbiblical way of holding to a doctrine. If we hold to this type of thinking, whole areas of unorderly teachings come about, just because you cannot "prove" that the Bible is correct.

No Roadsign. We need men of the faith to stand up and proclaim the truth of the Gospel, in which the Lord gave to us in the scriptures and through the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

"Do not look for apostates to appear bad on the outside or speak dramatic words of heresy at the outset of their teaching. Rather than denying truth outright, apostates will twist it to fit their own agenda". - A.W. Tozer

"We have the truth and we need not be afraid to say so."
- J C. Ryle

"The Bible is either absolute, or it's obsolete." - Leonard Ravenhill

'Right, Jesus did not say go and preach "AT" them, He said go and preach "TO" them in Mark 16:15. All throughout the New Testament as well as the Old we see a clear call for the servants of God to "PREACH" His Word to those that are in rebellion against Him.'

Yes, you are right.

I was referring to what are typically seen as fundamentalist tactics in preaching the gospel. I simply related what my first thoughts are regarding fundamentalism.

I stated later thought that we have to be careful what we label each other. Those of us who truly love the Lord and are called and are going may be doing it differently than the next. We need to get past labels and try to understand what they are really trying to accomplish.

"Well, actually He did (thru Paul). You are wrong."

No I'm not. It's funny because I'm studying Romans right now. Big difference in preach AT (as some have wanted to point out) and preaching TO. Preaching TO someone implies that you have their attention and are trying to help. Preaching AT implies that you are unburdening yourself with the responsibility of discipleship. "I told them so let God sort them out!"

Again, I was only stating my impressions of fundamentalism. Could be that the way I phrased my comment made it appear that I was against fundamentalism. That would depend on how one would define it. I also said we have to be careful with labels. There are a lot of us doing the same thing in far different ways.

Dear Miccah, yes let's stay on target. That's an unfair thing to say to someone whom you do not know.

But you are right, Jesus did preach at the Pharisee's. He preached at the religious. He preached to the lost.

I said we needed to be careful labeling, none of these negative responders seems to have read that part. Even with what you quoted from me i said, "That, I think, is the biggest problem people have with so-called fundamentalists. That paragraph defines what I think when I think of a fundamental." I was only trying to play the devil's advocate. I thought I made it clear what I was doing. Forgive me if I did not.

Quote: "Preaching TO someone implies that you have their attention and are trying to help. Preaching AT implies that you are unburdening yourself with the responsibility of discipleship. "I told them so let God sort them out!"

In Ezek.3:4-11 it doesn't seem like Ezekiel was to expect to have the listening ear of all those he preached to and warned of impending judgment.

"4. Then He said to me: “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. 5. For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, 6. not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. 7. But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. 8. Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. 9. Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”
10. Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. 11. And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.”

Quote: "So, it is not really a correct statement to say, "if you are just preaching the Word, you can't go wrong". Because if you are not led by the Spirit in what you are doing then yes, you could be in error. If you are not walking in relationship with the living knowledge of Him but just your knowledge of the Bible, Church History, Theology, etc, etc, then how do you know if you are pleasing the Lord?"

Quote: "No and Yes. People have been burned at the stake by those who boldly declare essential truths – as they saw it. There is a thread here, “The Cult of Biblicism” which explains how people argue over their interpretation of truth, while they assume they are in fact, defending truth."

Those are a few good examples of how things can get easily misinterpreted on these forums, thus the need for grace.

Regarding the first quote, I had in mind preaching the Word in the context of truly knowing the Lord.

Regarding the second quote, I had in mind "Essential" truths which all true Christians believe. Truths such as the divinity and deity of Christ, forgiveness of sins found only through Him and His vicarious death, His resurrection from the dead, His virgin birth, The Bible's authority as God's Word, man's fallenness in sin and rebellion against God, the need for repentance and faith in Christ, the reality of heaven and hell, Judgment Day.

If we don't think we can firmly believe and boldly declare those truths to this lost generation, what can I say?

hi, i am going to give you a ravenhill quote that noone ever has writen here. " take what i say and go to the bible and make sure it lines up for i am just as ignorant as the rest of the preachers out there."jimp

OK, how about Ezekiel 34:4, "Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost, but with force and with severity you have dominated them."

We can throw Scripture at each other all day.

Still, my main point isn't even considered. I don't even understand why anyone would be so attached to preaching at people. In my first post I was referring to street preachers just shouting their message of hell and damnation. The verse you used was talking about the house of Israel which would be the Church. It's not talking about preaching at the lost.

I'm not saying there's no place for street preaching before anyone jumps on that. I've explained my point enough I guess.

Agreed Oracio, in the context you specified.

Pilgrim

I agree, we don't need to be splitting hairs.

That's an unfair thing to say to someone whom you do not know.

Hey hoohoou,

Slow down my friend... I was doing the same as you, hence the reason I pointed out that Jesus did preach AT people.

Forgive me if I came off abrasive.

Krispy and Miccah, you are both misunderstanding me. I was referring mainly to how fundamentalists are viewed. I was not stating facts.

Krispy, I said, "Street preachers who..." I don't know how else to explain it. I was clear I didn't mean all of them. I was also clear that we all have our strengths. If you're just going to ignore my overall point I'll just let it go. But, yes, I've seen people actually do this. I've had them preach at me before, both while away from God and seeking him.

Micah, what was I doing? Playing the devil's advocate? If that's what you were doing please forgive me,I misunderstood. I still don't understand how you were doing what I was doing though.

Krispy, I'm really glad we ended on this note. You said that it doesn't mean we should go around being obnoxious. As I'm on the other end of the spectrum I'll say this. We shouldn't try to water it down just to make it palatable. There are some hard truths. We must be balanced which is why God calls from all walks of life. He made us the way we are on purpose. He designed us. He didn't just spin us into motion. And because of that the Body of Christ really can be all things to all people. We just have to keep looking to God and God alone.