Today, an uninformed and agenda biased media applies the term "Fundamentalist" to any religious movement it seeks to discredit. The media describes as "Fundamentalist," terrorist Islamic groups, the Waco Branch Davidian cult, and fallen Charismatics Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart. None of these are Fundamentalists. Let me explain why.
During the last half of the nineteenth century several forces worked to bring decline to evangelical Christianity in America. These forces were humanistic philosophy, literary criticism of the Bible, the advent and acceptance of the evolutionary hypothesis, the social gospel, the postmillennial view of Christ's return, and an increasingly secularized society. Together, these elements resulted in theological liberalism. Theological liberalism rejects the full inspiration and infallibility of the Bible and results in the denial of major teachings of scripture, such as the Trinity, the depravity of mankind, the deity of Christ, His substitutionary death and bodily resurrection, Heaven, Hell, and others. This liberal theology first crept, and then flowed into Christian institutions, denominations, and churches.
The message and character of Christianity was rapidly degenerating from a life changing message through forgiveness of sin to one of ridding society of its evils. Today those same forces cause liberal theology to accept society's evils as normal and right. Bible believers struggled against these forces that were perverting Christianity. In the early twentieth century, godly preachers found it necessary to confront the evils of liberal theology. These preachers used Bible conferences, conventions, books, and periodicals to expose and confront liberalism. In July 1920, Curtis Lee Law wrote in his Watchman Examiner, "We suggest that these who still cling to the great fundamentals and who mean to do battle royal for the fundamentals shall be called 'Fundamentalists'."
At first, Fundamentalists tried to retake control of their denominations. By the mid 1920s, convention politics had thwarted Fundamentalists time after time. Many saw their denominations as hopelessly lost to liberalism. When this became evident, many churches and individuals left their denominations. Fundamentalism then became obedient to God's command to, "come out from among them, and be ye separate." The essence of Fundamentalism is simply the acceptance of and obedience to the Scriptures, without any reservations. Because the Fundamentalist seeks to please God, he separates from worldly practice, ungodly doctrine, and the disobedient believer.
Fundamentalism has some underlying principles. Fundamentalists believe doctrine is important, and that certain doctrines are essential to Christianity. Fundamentalists are committed to the normal, literal interpretation of the Bible, and submitting all disciplines of education to the test of Biblical truth. Fundamentalism believes that liberal Christianity is not Christianity at all, and is unwilling to cooperate with religious liberalism. Fundamentalists believe in a personal commitment to Biblical holiness and godly living.
Though the term is from this century, Fundamentalism is not something new or radical. Instead, it is merely the continuation of the "old time religion." Fundamentalists emphasize strict, local church evangelism, Christian education, the power of preaching, and separation from compromise of Biblical teaching. Even a theological liberal, Kirsopp Lake, wrote of Fundamentalism being "the survival of a theology which was once universally held by all Christians." Liberal Christianity is a departure from the "faith once delivered to the saints." Fundamentalism is an embracing of and obedience to that faith. This cannot describe most of whom the media today characterizes as "Fundamentalist."