Tag Archives: Baptist

The Baptist Fundamentals (1920/1921) and Hermeneutics

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In 1920 Curtis Lee Laws proposed that those who cling to and earnestly contend for “the great fundamentals” of the Christian faith be called “fundamentalists.”1 For twenty-five years, Laws served as the editor of the Watchman Examiner, a Baptist publication. The most commonly cited list of the “fundamentals of the faith,” however, is the Five Point Deliverance (1901) used in the fundamentalist-modernist debates within the Presbyterian denomination.2 Yet in June of 1920, conservatives within the Northern Baptist Convention hosted a “Pre-convention Conference on Fundamentals of Our Baptist Faith” in Buffalo, New York, that resulted in a volume entitled Baptist Fundamentals (Judson Press, 1920).

Choosing Sunday School Curriculum

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Churches today have many choices for their Sunday School curriculum. What considerations should influence a church’s choice of its curriculum resources? Professor Don Anderson of Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary in Ankeny, Iowa, believes that the key consideration is how well a curriculum helps teachers teach the Bible effectively and thoroughly. In the first article he examines three factors relating to curriculum development that bear upon effectiveness and thoroughness in Bible teaching. In the second article he presents an overview of Sunday School publishers.

Keeping Institutions True

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Keeping Fundamental Baptist institutions true to their original purpose and position demands constant vigilance. In view of the transition of the academic leadership at Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary (see announcement on page 4), we present this article by Dr. Robert Delnay, the founding dean of Faith Baptist Theological Seminary. This article expresses Faith’s continuing commitment to its historic Fundamental Baptist position. As fellowships of churches get on toward middle age, certain patterns keep repeating. One pattern is that nothing stays fixed.

Definition and Direction Statement, Part 2

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FBBC&TS Exists as a Baptist institution of Christian Higher Education. As a Baptist institution, we believe in the primacy of Scripture over creeds and the formulations of councils. We consider the New Testament, especially the Epistles, to be foundational for faith and practice. We hold to the two ordinances: communion as a memorial of Christ’s death and believer’s baptism by single immersion as a public testimony to the truth of the gospel. We believe in the New Testament origin of the Church and so we distinguish between the Church and the nation of Israel.

Definition and Direction Statement, Part 1

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Adopted by the Board of Directors—September 15, 2006 Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary exists as a Fundamentalist Baptist institution of Christian higher education to disciple vocational Christian workers and leaders for local churches throughout the world. Faith Exists as a Bible College. In 1893, at the Chicago World’s Fair, William H. Jordan heard Evangelist D. L. Moody speak about the importance of training Christian workers for the ministry. Deeply impressed by Moody’s comments, Jordan developed a burden to establish a school to carry on that vision.

“Fundamentalism” Distorted and the Baptist Distinctives Resounded, Part 2

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In 2003, the University of Chicago Press published Strong Religion: The Rise of Fundamentalisms around the World, a “revised and elaborated version” of the “Fundamentalism Project.” This accessible overview (281 pages) was written by R. Scott Appleby, along with Gabriel A. Almond (Stanford University) and Emmanuel Sivan (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). According to Strong Religion, “Fundamentalism” is a “hypothetical family,” “a reactive, selective, absolutist, comprehensive mode of antisecular religious activism” (14). Thus “the resistance to modern forms of secularization is a defining common feature of religious fundamentalisms” (20).

“Fundamentalism” Distorted and the Baptist Distinctives Resounded, Part 1

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Christian “Fundamentalists” have traditionally defined themselves not only by doctrine, but also by a disposition of “earnestly contending for the faith” through persistent evangelism, ecclesiastical separation, and an aggressive confrontation of apostasy through spoken and written word. Recently, adherents have recognized a definite shift in the use of the label “fundamentalist” in the public media and popular culture (including frequent references made to “Islamic fundamentalists”), although few laypeople can explain the details of the noticeable alteration. This inability can be partially explicated through a curious irony: fundamentalists have generally avoided secularized institutions of higher education, and the shift in terminological definition began in academia without fundamentalists themselves present at the discussion table.

The GARBC A Rich History and Heritage, Part 2

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A continuation of a literature review showing the historic position of the GARBC on primary and secondary ecclesiastical separation, personal separation standards, and an attitude of militancy regarding its historic convictions. Likewise Dr. Robert Ketcham wrote, “We received a letter which deplored what has been called the present ‘trend’ of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. The ‘trend’ which is referred to has to do with what is called the ‘present policy’ of the GARBC in relation to the matter of separation.

Selecting a Seminary

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Are you in the process of selecting a seminary? Do you know someone who is? Do you regularly give advice to potential seminarians as they work their way through the selection process? You probably will not be surprised to learn that I recommend Faith Baptist Theological Seminary (FBTS) to potential seminarians. Very simply, all those who desire to train for ministry within Baptist fundamentalism should consider attending FBTS. I propose three reasons why you and others should consider FBTS. First, FBTS provides advanced academic training and grants degrees that are regionally accredited.

Baptists and the Body of Christ

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All Baptists believe that the local church is central to God’s work in this age. This belief is based upon 1Timothy 3:1–15, where officers of the church are described as bishop (verses 1–7) and deacons (verses 8–13) and their qualifications are given. Paul writes to them, “That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (verse 15). Here the local church is described as “the house of God” and as church of the living God” because it is in and through the local church that God is actively working.