Baptist Fundamentalism Centennial

Baptist Fundamentalists began mobilizing one hundred years ago, with pre-Convention fellowships.

The call that went forth for the first one, in 1920:

"We view with increasing alarm the havoc which rationalism is working in our churches as evidenced by the drift upon the part of many of our ministers from the fundamentals of our holy faith. The teaching in many of our educational institutions is proving disastrous to the faith of the young men and women who are to be the leaders of the future. A wide-spread and growing worldliness has crept into the churches, a worldliness which has robbed us of power and brought upon us open shame. We believe that there rests upon us as Baptists an immediate and urgent duty to restate, reaffirm, and re-emphasize the fundamentals of our New Testament faith."

"we issue this call for a conference on 'The Fundamentals of Our Baptist Faith,' to be held in the Delaware Avenue Church, Buffalo, from 7 p. m., Monday, June 21, to 9.30 p. m., Tuesday, June 22. These dates immediately precede the meeting of the Northern Baptist Convention."

 

Among those who issued the call in April 1920 were::

John Compton Ball
Emery Bancroft
J. Whitcomb Brougher
Russell Conwell
John M. Dean
A.C. Dixon
Frank Goodchild
W.B. Hinson
Clarence Larkin
Curtis Lee Laws
J.C, Massee
Cortland Myers
William Pettingill
W.B. Riley
John Roach Straton

 

Another there at the first Fundamental Baptist Fellowship, and the 1920 Northern Baptist Convention that followed, was Pastor May Eleanor Frey.

From her eyewitness account published in the July 10, 1920 Evangel :

"At a meeting attended by thousands last night, Cortland Myers, of the Tremont Temple, Boston, said this: 'We serve notice on you fellows from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast, that we are not going to stand this thing any longer. You have got to get rid of your Inter-Church and World-Wide programme; your Board of Promotion and some of your preachers and missionaries who are giving out anything but God's truth and you must call in that Baptist paper, or we will draw out. We believe that Jesus Christ is coming and He may come tonight'."

"He got that far when the wildest demonstration that I ever witnessed in my life took place. Shouts of 'Praise God, Amen.' The great audience arose to their feet: some threw their hats in the air; they clapped and shouted."

"We have had a wonderful convention. It was glorious the way God moved. The big denomination is now divided into two factions, called by outsiders, 'The Conservatives' and the 'Liberals'.' The real truth is, the so-called Conservatives are the men and women who stand for the Blessed Word of God and who are looking for the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ."

"For hours and hours we held our place in the convention contending in the power of the Spirit 'for the faith once delivered unto the saints'."

"one minister got up, and with anger and hate in his voice said, 'I do not believe in the fall of man, I do not believe in the Divinity of Christ, I do not believe in this blood religion; Jesus Christ never died to save anyone. I do not believe in the literal resurrection'."

"You could hardly believe how shamefully some of these ministers acted. But to the glory of Jesus, let me say, the men and women who were contending for the faith manifested the sweet Spirit of Jesus."

"many a victory was won. We voted out the Inter-Church Movement. We buried the 'Baptist', the liberal paper supposed to set forth Baptist principles; carried the vote to clean up the theological schools; let down all the bars to women, giving them a fair chance to preach the Gospel if they were called. But, the big Board of Promotion that started the World-Wide Movement, we could not dispose of, and the Lord seemed to lead in our stopping at that point and call for a division of the house. Glory to God, it was just wonderful. Hundreds of Godly pastors who stand for the Word and are looking for the Coming of Jesus have taken a clear-cut stand, Amen!

"Dr. Riley, A. C. Dixon, Massee and others spent one whole night on their knees praying over this."

"Hallelujah! I'm 'one of them'." — Pastor May Eleanor Frey