Extra Credit Reading: Modernism-Fundamentalism PDF

# Modernism and Fundamentalism ## Chapter Four: Modernism/Fundamentalism - Thus far in our study of major developments in the church's understanding and practice of God's Word we have considered the history of Dispensationalism, and of the Holiness/Keswick and Pentecostal/Charismatic movements. -...

# Modernism and Fundamentalism ## Chapter Four: Modernism/Fundamentalism - Thus far in our study of major developments in the church's understanding and practice of God's Word we have considered the history of Dispensationalism, and of the Holiness/Keswick and Pentecostal/Charismatic movements. - Now we are ready to take up an extended study of another, vitally important area: Modernism/Fundamentalism. ### Introduction - Philip Schaff, the well-known church historian and American seminary professor, penned these words during the last half of the 19th Century: > The citadel [of the Christian faith] is impregnable, and victory is certain, but not to those who ignorantly or superciliously [proudly] underrate the strength of the besieging army. In the sixteenth century the contest was between Roman Catholicism and Evangelical Protestantism; in the nineteenth century the question is Christianity or infidelity. Then both parties believed in the inspiration of the New Testament .; now inspiration is denied, and the apostolicity of all but four or five books is assailed. Then the Word of God, with or without tradition, was the final arbiter of religious controversies; now human reason is the ultimate tribunal.¹ [underlining mine] - These words came from a man who found himself in the midst of the most serious doctrinal controversy since the Reformation. - Because of the foundational issues at stake, it could, from one perspective, also be viewed as the most serious apparent threat to the Christian faith since Christ was hung on a Roman cross by His enemies. - To some degree Schaff recognized the seriousness of the issues at stake in what later came to be known as the Modernist/Fundamentalist controversy. ### The Key Issue: Ultimate Authority - As in the Reformation, the key and central issue was one of ultimate authority. - During the Reformation, the Protestants were battling the false teaching of Rome that Scripture plus tradition, and Scripture only as interpreted by the church (especially the Pope) were the ultimate authorities for the Christian. - These errors of Rome in practice ended up placing tradition and the earthly church leaders in the position of ultimate authority over the Bible. - But at least Rome had never overtly denied that the Bible was indeed the Word of God and at least one ultimate authority. ### Modernism - The new Modernists of the 19th and 20th Centuries were much more open and sweeping in their rejection of the ultimate authority of God's Word (although they were also generally very deceptive and often outright dishonest regarding that rejection until they had gained the upper hand in Christian schools, denominations, and mission societies.) - These Modernists elevated man's own reason, or experience, or both to the place of highest authority in place of the Scriptures. ### The Modernist Controversy - It is important to consider a number of factors that contributed to the emergence and success of Modernism in the professing church of Jesus Christ with special focus upon the United States. #### Societal Factors - The settlement of the West continued, while in the East a flood of immigrants poured in. Many of these immigrants came from religious backgrounds which were quite different from those which had been most predominant in the country during the early years of its settlement. - This diverse flood greatly watered down the past Puritan heritage, and created a more definite religious pluralism in the land. - Diverse religious groups independently existed and carried out their own affairs within a single national setting. - The flood of immigrants, and folks moving in from more conservative, slower changing rural areas, led to a rapid increase in the size of Eastern and Midwestern cities like Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. - People were being torn up from their personal roots of family, community and church; and were being thrust into cities where new ideas were introduced and spread more freely and quickly, where sin was more open, and where change took place more rapidly. The society at large was becoming increasingly secularized. #### Political/Economic Factors - The political ideal of democracy, and the economic ideal of capitalism, both fostered and reflected an extremely individualistic approach to life which carried over into spiritual matters as well. - If one was entitled to freedom to hold his own political views and to exert his own efforts to provide for himself in competition with others, why should not there be allowance for the free expression of, and toleration of, one’s own ideas in the church as well. #### Philosophical/Scientific Factors - Consider a matter of: - **Introduction.** Let me explain my terms before proceeding with a consideration of these factors (since these terms may be defined a number of different ways): - **By philosophy** I mean, "A search for truth through logical reasoning rather than factual observation"4. - **By science** I mean, "Knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained through the scientific method... The scientific method involves the formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses. "5 - **Why have I put philosophy and science together in our consideration of the factors leading to the arising and successes of theological modernism?** > For one thing, liberals, undoubtedly wish to modernize Christianity's expression of its faith. The Protestant Reformation was a valiant stroke for liberty, but it occurred before the most characteristic ideas of our modern age had arrived... Protestantism, that is, was formulated in prescientific days. Not one of its historic statements of faith takes into account any of the masterful ideas which constitute the framework of modern thinking - the inductive method, the new astronomy, natural law, evolution. All these have come since Protestantism arrived. Protestantism stiffened into its classic forms under the intellectual influences long antedating our modern world, and the chaos and turmoil in Christian thought today are the consequences. They spring directly from the impossible endeavor of large sections of the church to continue the presentation of the Gospel in forms of thought that are no longer real and cogent to well-instructed minds... [underlining mine] - **Philosophical Influences** - **Empiricism.** Fosdick in the quote above was especially embracing and following the philosophy of empiricism which means that he was willing to reshape and limit the entire Christian faith according to what can be physically observed and experimented upon using the scientific method. The ultimate standard of authority was not "Thus saith the Lord", but rather, "Thus saith Science". This perspective is a central element of what Modernism is all about, and helps demonstrate why I have put philosophy and science together as two closely-related factors in the advance of Modernism. - **Rationalism.** The ancestors of the Modernists were the skeptics and infidels of all the preceding centuries. However, the rationalism of the Enlightenment, mediated to the United States, in part through Britain, from France in the 18th Century, played a major role. Rationalism was a philosophy in which man's mind was viewed as being the ultimate authority even over Scripture. If what God's Word said could not be logically understood by the mind of one following this philosophy, then God's Word was to be rejected. - **Romanticism.** This philosophy arose in the 18th Century and was readily received in Germany. It emphasized man's feelings, as a reaction to the cold emphasis upon man's thinking in rationalism, and led to a "revival of a sense of the supernatural in religion, often vague and obscure..." - Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), who sought to blend elements of both rationalism and romanticism together. - Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834). For this man, the feeling of dependence was the basis of all religion, not a body of doctrines or a system of conduct. He was to have a profound influence upon the Modernist movement due to his warmer, seemingly more spiritual emphases. - **Other significant individuals.** - Georg Hegel (1770-1831). - Ferdinand Baur (1792-1860), - David Strauss (1808-74), - Albrecht Ritschl (1822-89). - **Science** - **No development was more profound in its influence than a hypothesis regarding the origin of living creatures ... that is, the hypothesis of evolution...** - The word "hypothesis" implies that one's explanation has insufficient presently-attainable evidence and is therefore tentative, while the word "theory" implies a greater range of evidence and greater likelihood of truth. - The hypothesis of evolution is an attempt to describe and sketch out an event in history - the origin of the universe - for which we have only one eye-witness account that of the true and living God (Genesis 1 & 2). - Those who embrace the hypothesis of evolution reject that single eye-witness account, which means that the evolutionary hypothesis is left with totally insufficient evidence. - The evolutionary hypothesis is a hypothesis built upon a very slim basis of evidence indeed.. Yet it is tenaciously (or very strongly) held by multitudes to this day despite incredible problems and massive evidence opposed to it - all of which is usually ignored. - The evolutionary hypothesis in my opinion does not even deserve to be seriously included in the realm of science at all today, except as an archaic oddity, because it is really a belief system or philosophy requiring an incredible amount of truly blind faith. - In stark contrast is the Christian faith which has as its object of well-grounded faith a personal, all-powerful, holy, loving, self-revealing and creating God whom we may know. - **Some other significant developments in the field of science included the attempt to apply the scientific method to the study of history ...** The modern (supposed) sciences of psychology and sociology were taking shape. ### Theological/Practical Factors - These factors in the churches themselves which led to Modernism helped open the door to it. - Doctrine should always be practical, and practice should always be rooted in doctrine - **The Higher Critical approach to Scripture.** The Higher Critical approach to the Scriptures which appeared in Germany and was imported to the United States - in part through Britain advanced as German books were translated and published in English, and as American theological students did graduate work in the great seminaries of Germany where liberalism abounded. - **The Bible was approached not ... but as a book written by men which may be critically and scientifically analyzed... ** Super-natural events like the miracles of Jesus generally were not acceptable. The Bible was studied as being merely the product of men who over time were developing in their religious ideas ideas which were now primitive due to our more advanced stage of development., and in the process they in reality were obliterating the authority of what they kept as well.. - **The trend during this period to more man-centered, Arminian theology, which was not as well-rooted in Scripture ...** There was a prevailing optimism regarding man and his abilities at this time (instead of a view of total depravity and total inability.) - **The rise of unbiblical denominational structures which had been erected... ** Liberals were able to seize the upper hand through such denominational structures even though often the vast majority of the every-day church members were still to a large degree Conservatives regarding the doctrine of the authority of Scripture. - **The strong emphasis upon unity and cooperation for evangelism and missions ...** ### The Modernist/Fundamentalist Controversy - The Modernist/Fundamentalist controversy was sparked by the growing emphasis upon unity and cooperation for evangelism and missions, and for promoting holiness - something which led to a de-emphasis of doctrine and which left the door open for liberals with their ecumenical push for the reuniting of the Christian world by disregarding doctrine. - For instance, The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America was founded in 1909, which much later would merge with others to form the present-day ecumenical National Council of Churches. - The holiness movement with its "experience" of a second work of grace, and other sources, there tended to be an emphasis upon one's personal, subjective spiritual experience which again often led to a dangerous de-emphasis upon doctrine. - The rise of interdenominational missionary societies (The China Inland Mission for example) and the YMCA and YWCA - all of which tended to de-emphasize the central and corporate role of the local church, and contributed to a pessimism regarding the future which at times left God's people wrongly passive in the face of soul-damning error. ### Spiritual Factors - A Methodist pastor of the 19th Century wrote the following: > An orthodox creed must perish when the spiritual life dies out of a denomination, and heresies will swarm into the vacuum left by the Holy Ghost. - This is exactly what happened to the mainline Methodist denomination, and other denominations as well. ### Factors Contributing to Modernism - If churches and professing Christians had been in a healthy state spiritually, Modernism would never have gotten a start. - **The seeming warmth and spirituality of a Schleiermacher would have quickly been exposed as heresy.** - **The Higher Critical approach to Scripture would not have spread like wildfire ...** an increasingly anti-law (antinomian) spirit with its accompanying lack of the fear of God. - **The unbelieving winds of liberalism would not have so swept away nearly entire churches and denominations ...** simply because they were children of members even though they knew not the Lord. - **The rationalistic rejection of truth would not have duped the ordinary church members ...** if it had not been that the pulpits of the land were often pitifully weak in their failure to sound forth the whole counsel of God with solid, carefully exegetical, soul-searching preaching. - **Evangelicals would not have been so successfully infiltrated and overthrown by liberals ...** if there had not been among them, especially earlier on: - A prevailing complacency and self-confidence, with a lack of watchfulness and prayer. - Too much of pragmatism in evangelism which emphasized informally preaching God’s love and not hell. - A moralistic majoring on often unbiblical standards for outward behavior. ### Why people embraced Modernism - It was because the contents of their Bibles regularly confronted their sin. - They were not ready to repent, so they took out the scissors instead. - They encountered unpleasant and humbling truths, and instead of believing and submitting humbly to what God said, they got out their scissors. ### Applications - We are greatly helped in understanding the factors which have led to the recent steep slide of the United States and many other once "Protestant countries" morally and spiritually. - Two external factors have been more disastrous in ripping apart the moral fabric of these nations than the widespread embrace of both the evolutionary hypothesis and of the modernistic rejection of the authority of God's Word - both of which date back to the 19th Century, and are only now more openly bringing forth their fruits as common grace declines rapidly. - We had better guard carefully against the influences which led to the arising of the Modernistic heresy or we will end up embracing its errors ourselves. - We had better guard against: - Living unstable lifestyles with no godly roots. - An emphasis upon individuality and personal freedom. - The philosophies of the world and the pseudo-science of the day which worship the creature rather than the Creator, and which bow at the shrine of evolution. - Man-centered religion which emphasizes unity and personal subjective experience to the neglect of buying the truth and selling it not. - Unbiblical religious structures which eventually tend to either wrongly control and dominate local churches, or ignore them altogether. - A spiritually low state in which we are unwilling to deal seriously with a darling sin. ### Fundamentalism - Fundamentalists may be viewed more broadly as those professing to be Christians who hold to the ultimate authority of Scripture as the inspired Word of God. - A large percentage of the professing church of Christ in the United States was at least outwardly fundamentalistic in 1865 at the end of the Civil War, including in one sense Apostate Rome and some of the cults. - The actual term, Fundamentalist, was not used until 1920. Fundamentalists stand in support of the "Fundamentalist" doctrines of the Christian faith - especially the inerrancy of all of Scripture - in strong opposition to Modernism. - They became clearly identifiable and gained a distinct identity through the controversies of the 1920s and beyond. They are dispensational in their eschatology (view of future things). They also tend to be influenced by Keswick, higher life perspectives on sanctification and the Christian life. ### Early Conflicts with Modernism - **The Higher Critical approach to Scripture** is at the heart of what Modernism was all about. - But other theological/practical factors made the churches in the United States all the more vulnerable to it. - **The trend during this period to more man-centered, Arminian theology,** which was not as well-rooted in Scripture because such theological views contain much error. - **The unbiblical denominational structures which had been erected,** and which in some cases enabled liberals to eventually gain control of schools, missionary societies, and ultimately the denominational hierarchy through often dishonest political maneuvering. - **The emphasis upon unity and cooperation for evangelism and missions ...** something which led to a de-emphasis of doctrine. ### The Northern Baptist Convention - **Key Events:** - The Northern Baptist Convention (NBC) was organized in 1907 as a loosely federated body of churches and benevolent organizations dedicated to 'better and more coherent action as a purely advisory body'. - The Modernist controversy came to a head in the NBC. - Conservatives had generally been tolerant of liberals in their midst. - The leading Baptist theologian, Strong, was alarmed. - The Baptist historian, Vedder, prophesied that if this [de-emphasis of the authority of the Word of God] continued it would cause disintegration among Baptist Churches. - A large group of Baptist churches in southern Illinois left the Illinois Baptist Convention and joined the more conservative Southern Baptist Association in protest of the liberalism prevalent at the University of Chicago. - In 1909, a new one – the Grand River Valley Baptist Association – formed after a number of orthodox men led fourteen churches in withdrawing from the Grand Rapids Baptist Association. - In 1920, the strongly conservative group was voted out of the Michigan Baptist Convention. - The churches in the conservative group were then forced into a separatist position. - The group changed their name to the Michigan Orthodox Baptist Association and later contributed to the founding of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARB). - Curtis Lee Laws, editor of a prominent Baptist paper, The Watchman Examiner, coined the word 'fundamentalist' to describe those who were ready 'to do battle royal for the Fundamentals'. - The 1920 NBC Convention meeting was dramatic and turbulent. - The more serious Fundamentalists like Robert Ketcham were unwilling to fully seize the initiative in defeating the Liberals as far as the more serious Fundamentalists - The liberals responded by accusing the Fundamentalists of "railroading and cheap politics". - They struck back. - **The 1920 Convention** - The Fundamentalist group was being established. - Robert Ketcham was involved in the 1920 convention as a Fundamentalist. - When Ketcham's congregation urged him to print up materials that he had written, those materials opposed the current, imposed financial participation of NBC churches in the New World Movement. - Ketcham led the church he pastored in refusing to pay the $17,000 assessed. - This pamphlet opposing the movement was widely circulated, with 200,000 copies distributed by the end of 1920. - After the convention, Ketcham returned to Butler, Pennsylvania. He was deeply distressed that the fundamentalists in his denomination had not been able to effectuate a swift and sure victory over the liberal forces. - In this challenging time, he was also facing a difficult personal situation, as his wife, Clara, was near death. - **A Challenge to Ketcham's integrity** - Seven preachers from the Pittsburgh Baptist Association, along with one woman, visited Ketcham with a request. - They wanted Ketcham to withdraw his pamphlet and retract its contents. - They also wanted to urge the Butler pastor to put his church into the denominational program and assume responsibility for the $17,000. - Ketcham asked the spokesman, Marstellar, "Isn't it true?" - Marstellar replied that the pamphlet was harmful to the denominational program. - Ketcham then asked, "Is that the issue? Well, to me the issue is, is it true? Is what I said in that pamphlet true?" - Marstellar admitted that he had not even read the pamphlet. - Ketcham returned to his study with his pamphlet. - Then he handed the pamphlet to Marstellar and asked him to read it aloud. - One of the committee men became so incensed at Ketcham's intransigence that he jumped from his chair, dashed across the room and grabbed Bob by the coat collar. - The man shook Ketcham so hard that his teeth might have been knocked out. - He shouted, "You get down on your knees and ask God to forgive you. Get back on this thing." - It seemed incredible to the fundamentalist preacher that this liberal was telling him to ask for forgiveness for being faithful to the principles of Scripture. - Ketcham responded, "There's no use talking about it anymore, I'm not going to do it." - The spokesman, Marstellar, then said, "Then, I'm here to tell you, that you either put your church into this movement and pay this assessment and withdraw that pamphlet, or I will personally see to it that you never get another Baptist church as long as you live." - Silence engulfed the room until Ketcham broke the silence. - Marstellar asked Ketcham to buy a church through the nose of his local church for $17,000. Ketcham said, "I can get a soapbox for a dime." - Marstellar and the committee left, and Ketcham was left to deal with the difficult situation he was facing. - He was growing older and losing his vision, his wife was dying, and he wondered whether he would be able to continue his work in the ministry. - **The 1921 Convention** - Conservatives sought to put a stop to liberalism. - They sought to restrain liberalism. - There was movement to remove Professor Egbert C. Smyth from the faculty for a time. - But the issue was settled in favor of the progressives. - Conservatives were defunct. - **The 1922 Convention** - The liberal Baptist preacher, Harry Emerson Fosdick, preached a sermon on May 21, 1922, entitled, "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" It was widely circulated in print. - Macartney led the drive for a dramatic conservative victory in the Presbyterian denomination. - The Presbytery of Philadelphia petitioned the General Assembly to condemn the teachings expressed in Fosdick's sermon and to instruct the Presbytery of New York to see that further preaching from the First Church conformed to orthodox Presbyterian standards. - In the first full-fledged test of strength, the two sides proved to be closely matched. - The Assembly condemned the New York Presbytery's laxness regarding Fosdick, and instructed the Presbytery to report its corrective actions to the 1924 meeting. - **Christianity and Liberalism** - J. Gresham Machen's book, Christianity and Liberalism, was published in 1923. - Machen argued that liberalism was simply un-Christian. - The new religious aspirations that liberals [']rescued['] from the jaws of modern science were not Christian at all. - His major objection to liberalism was that it was simply un-Christian. - The human religious aspirations that liberals [']rescued['] from the jaws of modern science were not Christian at all. - The liberals attacked Machen's book. They were trying to create and sustain the impression that liberalism was a strong and well-supported tradition. - **The Auburn Affirmation** - The liberals appealed to the strong American tradition of tolerance. - **The 1924 Convention** - The fundamentalists were able to narrowly elect their candidate for moderator, Clarence Macartney. - They were able to force Fosdick to resign from his New York pulpit. - But due to the growing desire for toleration among the conservatives in the large middle group, the Fundamentalists were unable "to challenge the signers of the Auburn Affirmation, and other attempts to impose general doctrinal tests failed". - **The 1925 Convention** - The liberals' attempt to remove Machen from his position was unsuccessful. - The liberals defended their position. - A liberal press and liberal writers were widely successful in painting all Fundamentalists as being rural, back-country hicks who are anti-intellectual. - The Fundamentalist cause was greatly weakened nationally. - A year later the Baptist Bible Union formed its own missionary agency. - The churches in the Baptist Bible Union then left the Convention and formed independent local and state associations. - **The General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC)** - In 1932, the old Baptist Bible Union was dissolved and the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC) was formed. - The GARBC took a strong position of separation (often called secondary separation) - They refused to allow into the Association even conservatives if they still maintained ties with liberals. - **The Northern Presbyterian denomination** - The Northern Presbyterians also faced a major conflict between the liberals and conservatives, which culminated in the 1920s. - It is important to note that the same factors that contributed to problems in the Northern Baptist Convention were also present in the Northern Presbyterian Church. - Northern Presbyterians were much more flexible in their adherence to the Presbyterian standards than the Southern Presbyterians. - The Old School Presbyterians were strongest in the south, but many Presbyterians were also members of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Princeton. - **Key Events:** - In 1881, Archibald Alexander Hodge and the young B. B. Warfield published their famous defense of the inerrancy of Scripture. This clear statement of inerrancy was to have a profound impact in the church of Christ. - **The Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Princeton** - The conservative Presbyterians initially triumphed when an earlier crisis over Modernism peaked in the 1890's. - An attempted revision of the Westminster Confession of Faith by liberals was defeated. - Three liberal seminary professors, Charles A. Briggs, Henry Preserved Smith, and Arthur Cushman McGiffert, were forced to depart the Presbyterian church. - "Union Theological Seminary in New York severed its ties with the denomination in 1892 in response to the General Assembly's actions against Professor Briggs. - The biblical doctrine of inerrancy was at the heart of the issues at stake, and it was repeatedly affirmed to be true by the General Assembly. - However, there was not unity among Presbyterians. - Key votes by the General Assembly on doctrinal issues revealed a significant number of dissenters, and the New York Presbytery repeatedly resisted efforts to remove heretics from its ranks, thereby forcing the General Assembly to go over its head.. - The conservatives kept busy because the Presbyterian denomination was steadily moving in a liberal direction. - ***The Five Points of Fundamentalism*** - "In 1910, the General Assembly adopted a conservative, five-point declaration of essential doctrines which eventually, with some modification, became know as the Five Points of Fundamentalism." - The inerrancy of Scripture. - The Virgin Birth of Christ. - His substitutionary atonement. - His bodily resurrection. - The authenticity of miracles. (The pre-millennial return of Christ was substituted for the fifth point in some cases.) - The conservative Presbyterians would also go down to defeat in the 1920's. - They joined ranks in the name of unity with the less doctrinally-concerned New School Presbyterians. - They failed to identify and remove all Modernists from among themselves. - Northern Presbyterian churches still called pastors from liberal schools like Union Theological Seminary. - They apparently used a defective apologetic approach which emphasized defending the faith through evidences combined with a too optimistic view of the common sense of men (including unconverted men). - There was apparently the perspective that external evidences for the Christian faith were so obvious that they would carry the "common" sense of men if they were but exposed to them. - There was also evidently a failure to recognize that everyone has their presuppositions from which they start, and that naturally sinful men have wicked presuppositions. - The common tendency among paedo-baptists - "covenant" children who were baptized as infants and later became liberal seminary professors. - The faulty apologetic used by the Princeton Seminary professors appears to have set them up to fall before liberal Presbyterians, who declared that their "common sense" led them to different conclusions regarding the Bible and its inerrancy. - The 1922 Convention - The conservative Presbyterians began to form alliances with those teaching Dispensationalism and Keswick views, even though they largely disagreed with these views. - The aim was to create a Fundamentalist coalition to deal with the larger threat of the Modernist attacks upon the Word of God. - **The Fundamentals** - These volumes sought to present a broad defense of the faith in a mild, restrained way. - A definite stand was taken for inerrancy, but this position was weakened somewhat by an apologetic approach which by and large stressed evidences for the Christian faith, while generally seeming to deny the reality of presuppositions. - This approach left the door open for liberals. - The immediate effects of these volumes were disappointing, but the appearance marked in a concrete way the arising of the Fundamentalist movement. - A further indication was the formation of the World's Christian Fundamentals Association in 1919 - a group which we have seen thus far could be quite disheartening as we have observed apostasy evidently carrying the day in a sweeping way in the major denominations of the U.S. during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. It is crucial that we also take note of: - The importance of revival in a time of great apostasy. - The significance of the events in Roulette, Pennsylvania, where 33 members became nearly 200, in a town with 460 registered male voters. - The story of Robert Ketcham, the young pastor in a small, desolate town, who was instrumental in founding the General Association of Regular Baptist churches (GARB). - **Applications** - We need to cry to the Lord to give us the wisdom and discernment to not allow the seeds of error and apostasy to sprout and flourish in our own midst even while we are publicly proclaiming our stand against them. - We need to labor and cry to the Lord to raise up following generations who will buy the truth and sell it not. - We need to believingly keep our eyes fixed upon the triumphant Head of the Church. - **The 1923 Convention** - The more serious Fundamentalists were now frustrated with the too passive and conciliatory approach of the more moderate Conservatives, and formed the Baptist Bible Union in 1923. - The more moderate Conservatives like Massee tended to react against the more intense Fundamentalists and the growing threat of division within the NBC, and emphasized more and more working in a conciliatory way within the convention. - **The 1924 & 1925 Conventions** - The Fundamentalists sought to address Modernism in missions, but Massee as convention preacher called "for a moratorium on debate in order to get to the main business of soul winning." - The Conservatives were unwilling to divide the Convention if they could not remove the Liberals, because the missionary efforts of the Convention would be hindered - even while the heart of missions the biblical Gospel - was being rejected by the Liberals. - In 1925, the Fundamentalists still went down to defeat. - The Scopes Monkey Trial which took place in Dayton, Tennessee, during the summer of 1925. - A school teacher there was on trial for teaching evolution contrary to a state law banning such teaching in the public schools. - A former presidential candidate and Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, sought to support the prosecution in favor of the state law (and biblical creation). - The ACLU brought in a brilliant, agnostic lawyer - Clarence Darrow - for the defense. - Bryan believed that an open debate of the facts would result in a victory for the biblical position (i.e., an evidentialist approach to apologetics). - Darrow succeeded in making a fool out of Bryan on the witness stand, and a liberal press and liberal writers were widely successful in painting all Fundamentalists as being rural, back-country hicks who are anti-intellectual. - The Fundamentalist cause was greatly weakened nationally. - **The GARBC** - The Baptist Bible Union was dissolved and the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC) was formed. - The GARBC took a strong position of separation. - They refused to allow into the Association even conservatives if they still maintained ties with liberals. - **The Northern Presbyterian Denomination** - The Northern Presbyterians also faced a major conflict between the liberals and conservatives, which culminated in the 1920s. - It is important to note that the same factors that contributed to problems in the Northern Baptist Convention were also present in the Northern Presbyterian Church. - Northern Presbyterians were much more flexible in their adherence to the Presbyterian standards than the Southern Presbyterians. - The Old School Presbyterians were strongest in the south, but many Presbyterians were also members of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Princeton. - **Key Events:** - In 1881, Archibald Alexander Hodge and the young B. B. Warfield published their famous defense of the inerrancy of Scripture. - This clear statement of inerrancy was to have a profound impact in the church of Christ. - The conservative Presbyterians initially triumphed when an earlier crisis over Modernism peaked in the 1890's. - An attempted revision of the Westminster Confession of Faith by liberals was defeated. - Three liberal seminary professors, Charles A. Briggs, Henry Preserved Smith, and Arthur Cushman McGiffert, were forced to depart the Presbyterian church. - "Union Theological Seminary in New York severed its ties with the denomination in 1892 in response to the General Assembly's actions against Professor Briggs. - The biblical doctrine of inerrancy was at the heart of the issues at stake, and it was repeatedly affirmed to be true by the General Assembly. - However, there was not unity among Presbyterians. - Key votes by the General Assembly on doctrinal issues revealed a significant number of dissenters, and the New York Presbytery repeatedly resisted efforts to remove heretics from its ranks, thereby forcing the General Assembly to go over its head. - The conservatives kept busy because the Presbyterian denomination was steadily moving in a liberal direction. - ***The Five Points of Fundamentalism*** - "In 1910, the General Assembly adopted a conservative, five-point declaration of essential doctrines which eventually, with some modification, became know as the Five Points of Fundamentalism." - The inerrancy of Scripture. - The Virgin Birth of Christ. - His substitutionary atonement. - His bodily resurrection. - The authenticity of miracles. (The pre-millennial return of Christ was substituted for the fifth point in some cases.) - The conservative Presbyterians would also go down to defeat in the 1920's. - They joined ranks in the name of unity with the less doctrinally-concerned New School Presbyterians. - They failed to identify and remove all Modernists from among themselves. - Northern Presbyterian churches still called pastors from liberal schools like Union Theological Seminary. - They apparently used a defective apologetic approach which emphasized defending the faith through evidences combined with a too optimistic view of the common sense of men (including unconverted men). - There was apparently the perspective that external evidences for the Christian faith were so obvious that they would carry the "common" sense of men if they were but exposed to them. - There was also evidently a failure to recognize that everyone has their presuppositions from which they start, and that naturally sinful men have wicked presuppositions. -