Are You a Fundamentalist?

I just finished a class on the history of fundamentalism. For years, no one has wanted the label 'fundamentalist.’  Up through 1980s, it became a ‘bad’ word, having connotations of back-water hayseed preachers and snake handlers, narrow-mindedness and ignorance.  In the last 30 years, then, the word has fallen out of common use.  No intelligent person would call himself a fundamentalist anymore!   But did you know that fundamentalism was born out of a doctrinal controversy with religious liberals of the 19th century who questioned the inerrancy and infallibility of the Scriptures?

In his book “Battle for the Bible,” published 40 years ago, theologian Harold Lindsell wrote: “A great battle rages today around biblical infallibility. To ignore this battle is perilous. To come to grips with it is necessary… When inerrancy goes, it opens a small hole in the dike, and if that hole is not closed, the levee will collapse and the whole land will be overrun with the waters of unbelief.” Though those words were written almost 40 years ago, they are alarmingly relevant today.

The cultural wars of our generation demand that we defend the authority of the bible. Paul said we should “always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks us to give an account… and to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it” (1 Peter 3:15; Titus 1:9). And those words, written 2,000 years ago, are more relevant today than ever.