{"id":1750,"date":"2010-10-08T21:03:14","date_gmt":"2010-10-09T05:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2010\/10\/08\/fundamentalism-plus\/"},"modified":"2010-10-08T21:03:14","modified_gmt":"2010-10-09T05:03:14","slug":"fundamentalism-plus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2010\/10\/08\/fundamentalism-plus\/","title":{"rendered":"fundamentalism-PLUS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A somewhat disturbing point is emerging about the new kind of fundamentalism we are supposed to be having. I am wondering if this point is a variant of something that has been criticized elsewhere as \u2018Fundamentalism Plus\u2019 (or \u2018IFBX\u2019, as in Independent Fundamentalist Baptist eXtreme).<\/p>\n

The point that is emerging is that the new kind of fundamentalism is oriented around Calvinism to the exclusion of those who would consider themselves fundamentalists but non-Calvinists. It also may explain the overtures being made by fundamentalists towards certain conservative evangelicals.<\/p>\n

Similar charges have been made before, only to be dismissed by the change agents. I admit some of those previous charges have been made quite clumsily (at best). Nevertheless, new evidence is appearing that suggests there might be something to the charges.<\/p>\n

Consider the following:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In a recent interview published on Sharper Iron, Aaron Blumer asked Mike Harding this question about the upcoming Preserving the Truth Conference<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I expect to hear this criticism eventually: would it be accurate to say this is a conference by and for Calvinists? What would you say to those who cite that as a problem with the event?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I am not sure why Aaron would think this an obvious question to ask, but here is Mike\u2019s reply to the question:<\/p>\n

\n

The theological framework for the conference is baptistic, dispensational, and Calvinistic. At the same time all of our speakers are strongly opposed to any form of hyper-Calvinism.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There was no follow-up to this question, so that is all we have to go on. But if this is an accurate distinction of a conference on \u2018preserving the truth, a symposium on biblical separation\u2019, I find this to be a troubling change.<\/p>\n

Now, I have no problem with Calvinists being Calvinists. They have every right to proclaim their views and even to have conferences excluding other views.<\/p>\n

But I wonder what these statements have to do with the meaning of fundamentalism and separatism? When has the various permutations in the spectrum between Calvinism and Arminianism been a defining issue for separatism or fundamentalism? When did any soteriology beyond simple belief in salvation by faith alone become a distinguishing mark of fundamentalism and\/or separatism?<\/p>\n

The IFBX crowd and the Fundamentalism-Plus crowd (as they are described by outsiders) have been criticized for separating too much.<\/p>\n

Are we now to expect separatism to include views on soteriology such as Calvinism? Isn\u2019t that exactly the same kind of approach to separation as the IFBX or Fundamentalism-Plus groups? (Or \u201cEverythingism\u201d, as Bauder calls it?)<\/p>\n

If so, this is yet another disturbing trend. Do we need more division among Fundamentalists? How does this emphasis really further the cause of Christ or display biblical Christian unity?<\/p>\n

\"don_sig2\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A somewhat disturbing point is emerging about the new kind of fundamentalism we are supposed to be having. I am wondering if this point is a variant of something that has been criticized elsewhere as \u2018Fundamentalism Plus\u2019 (or \u2018IFBX\u2019, as in Independent Fundamentalist Baptist eXtreme). The point that is emerging is that the new kind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[37,71,44,131],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2fYWj-se","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}