Fundamentalism Is Fundamentally Flawed!

"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." [John 1:13]

Introduction

Let me first define what I mean by "fundamentalism" since your definition may be different. It is that brand of protestant Christianity that claims to be Bible believing and yet is sadly off-base on the most essential of all doctrines. Those who are fundamentalists usually have the following attributes which I have no problem with and which the Bible says we are supposed to have, if indeed, we are true blood-bought children of the living God. Those who are fundamentalists usually have an earnest desire for:

• evangelism

• warning others about false gospels

• taking the Bible seriously and literally

• viewing the Bible as the literal word of God

• viewing the creation account of Genesis 1 as a literal event

• speaking out against sin and the repercussions of it

• warning others about hell

Also, they usually recognize the superiority of the King James Bible over the many corrupt or poorly translated (or heavily paraphrased) modern Bible versions and they recognize the Catholic Church as the world's largest cult.

These things are all very important and are all part of the Christian life. Likewise, they are all things a true believer should be concerned about and aware of. Now before I go ahead and let the cat out of the bag, please bear in mind that I was wrong about this most fundamental issue at one time and my only desire is to be faithful to that truth and the God who authored it and faithful to such scriptures as:

"Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." [James 5:20]  

So what is the Fundamental flaw of Fundamentalism? 

The fundamental flaw is this: a serious misunderstanding of the Gospel of God's grace to the point of being another gospel.  It is a false FREE-WILL gospel.  It is "freewillism". It is a denial of the sovereignty of God and His desire to save whom He wills, solely according to His good pleasure.  It is an exalting of man, into a being who DOES something to make himself acceptable to God. "That can't possibly be true!" you declare or "What in the world is that?" you may ask incredulously.

The fundamentalist has a gospel that says that salvation is made effective only after man "accepts" Christ as His Saviour, as if that is what "clinches the deal", as if that is what makes him a Christian and as if Christ needs or wants anyone's acceptance. The free-will gospel declares that only those who "accept" Christ are worthy of salvation. All others are unworthy.  However, from God's perspective, none are worthy. Now a fundamentalist would never EXPRESSLY say they are "more worthy" than others because they "accepted" Christ, but they do indeed say it, be it indirectly, by the gospel they preach - whether they realize it or not.

Making a decision for Christ

You may be thinking: "But don't people have to make a decision for Christ?" Isn't that what sets them apart for others?  Isn't that what crusades and evangelism are all about?  ... That may be what crusades and a lot of "evangelism" efforts are about.  However, a true believer doesn't "decide" to follow Jesus.  He IS a follower of Jesus.   God MAKES HIM a follower, a new creature in Christ.  Those who truly decide to follow Jesus will only do so if He gives first them the will to do so by giving them a new heart and a new spirit. 

Saving faith

Many professing Christians believe that there is at least something that a man must DO or at least POSSESS in order to become saved.   They call it "saving faith", as if an unsaved man is able to possess genuine faith in the true God of the Bible PRIOR TO salvation or as if man is able to apply this attribute of his (this "saving faith" that he supposedly has while yet unregenerated) to what God has to offer (salvation) and the combination of these two ingredients - Christ PLUS man's saving faith - causes salvation to occur.  But since salvation is not merely an offer, but rather a paid for pardon for sin for those for whom Christ died, there is absolutely no need for the sinner to participate in salvation, except to provide the sin, which is all that lost sinners can provide for themselves.

The true Gospel

In contrast to this free-will gospel, the true Gospel - of grace alone by Christ alone - says:

• Unsaved man is dead spiritually: "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" [Ephesians 2:5]

• Unsaved man cannot accept and refuses to accept God: "there is none that seeketh after God" [Romans 3:11], "the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." [Romans 8:7-8] Unsaved man may accept a false God, but he will NEVER accept the God of the Bible.

• Unsaved man is only saved by an act of God ALONE without man first accepting God and without God looking down the corridors of time to see who would accept Him: "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." [Ezekiel 36:26-27]

It is a one-sided salvation program, initiated and completed by God - the Author and FINISHER of a believer's faith - the Potter who makes vessels of wrath and vessels of honor (Romans 9).  Man can be saved against his will and in fact he is saved against his will in every case, just like Lazarus in John 11.  Lazarus did not first "accept" Christ's desire to resurrect him in order for that resurrection to take effect. Perhaps to better see what I mean, imagine that if instead of Jesus shouting "Lazarus come forth", He had said "Lazarus, please please come forth, but only if you accept my desire to see you alive again". As ludicrous as that may sound, this is what the fundamentalist's free-will gospel boils down to. Who really is in charge? The rebel - the spiritually dead man - or God? The creature or the Creator? The subject or the King? 

Salvation is an act of God alone, determined by God from before the foundation of the world:

"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love" [Ephesians 1:4]

Salvation is an act of God alone, who saves a spiritually blind and deaf sinner by convicting and converting the heart of a sinner through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the preaching of the Word of God and through nothing on the part of the sinner, not by the raising of the sinner's hand in church, not by the sinner walking up to an altar, not by the sinner saying a sinner's prayer, not by the sinner "accepting" Christ. Does it mean that people who have done these things are not saved? No, it does not mean that. In fact, it is quite possible that it was precisely BECAUSE these people had ALREADY been recently convicted and converted by God (and didn't know they were saved yet), that they did these things. They had already received a "new heart" that was willing to do these things. ONLY A NEW HEART CAN HONESTLY DO THESE THINGS, unless unsaved people are not in the condition that God describes them to be!!!

Why is this "free-will" Gospel so prevalent today? 

There are of course several reasons for this man-centered gospel being so popular these days. Some of them include:

• Lazy Christians don't want to check up on their Bible teachers and pastors. Doing a serious study of five doctrinal issues* is simply too much to ask of today's contemporary video-oriented Christian who is used to being spoon-fed doctrine in a "Simon-says" church format.

• Pastors and Bible teachers aren't being "Bereans" themselves. Some of them prefer to chant John 3:16, 1Timothy 2:6, and 2 Peter 3:9 as a "mantra" against Calvinism rather than do the studying required to interpret these verses correctly. 

• Christians don't realize that words have multiple meanings and are being fooled by their teachers into believing they can get away with simplistic interpretations of the bible by only reading a little bit of the bible without doing the in-depth studying required to get a verse to "harmonize" with verses that appear to make the opposite statement.

• Bible teachers are ignoring unpopular bible verses like the ones that say God hates the sinner, not just the sin (see Psalms 5:5-6 and Psalms 11:5).

• People do not want a salvation plan that leaves them totally at the mercy of God. Rather, people want a gospel that puts them in the "driver's seat" allowing them to save themselves on their deathbeds after living a life of sin.

• The people that have this false gospel may just not be saved.

Regarding the doctrines of grace, regarding TULIP, regarding limited atonement, regarding total depravity, Calvin had it right folks. And so did Spurgeon, and many many others who knew the Bible and who knew the true "fundamentals" of salvation... far better than just about any Fundamentalist of our day. Unfortunately, the church of today is too busy doing everything but studying the Bible to figure that out.  Also, many people seem to have trouble thinking "outside the box"... outside their denomination, outside their local church or outside their favorite radio or TV preacher.   If you approach spiritual issues as a Berean (see Acts 17:11) questioning everything and investigating everything that you are taught, you will find that God rewards those who diligently seek him.   That reward is to know the truth and to not be swayed by every wind of doctrine, especially regarding God's plan of salvation.

Dear friend in Christ, if you are indeed saved by grace alone, by the work of Christ alone, and don't agree with this article, then you had better take a closer look at what the Bible has to say about many scriptures you may not have considered. You can start by clicking on the link below. You can be sure that God will reward you for diligently seeking Him and His truth.

In Christ's service by grace alone through the work of Christ alone,

Ray Kane

PS: I did not choose Him. He chose me.  I did not accept Him. He accepted me by first making me acceptable.  I did not have saving faith until He gave it to me. 

"Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee" [Psalms 65:4]

* Those five doctrinal issues are the "Doctrines Of Grace" as summarized by the "TULIP" acrostic: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints, often referred to as Calvinism but which were actually in the Bible long before Calvin summarized or categorized them.