Bob Alkire said:
John, You are correct. As I get older I don't remember as well as I should, but I recall at Oliver B. Greene"s , John R. Rice's and others' meetings there were folks there who crossed all the lines within the church. Within the doors of their churches they preached and taught their doctrine but outside they tryed to get the Gospel out to the lost, they would major on the fundamentals of the faith.
With that said, they did draw the line with liberals and some did with charismatics.
John R. Rice and others used to preach in city-wide campaigns where everyone fundamental who believed in reaching the world for Christ would cooperate. He would even let the Pentecostals (this was before the Charismatic movement) join in, telling them, "I won't preach on baptism if you won't try to get folk to speak in tongues. Let's just win them to Christ.
Having said that, I believe the Baptist distinctives and non-denominationalism lend themselves to Fundamentalism. Baptists are already standing on the Bible as the "sole rule of faith and practice," so they are more likely to fight against liberalism than denominations such as the Methodists, etc., where you have to fight denominational control.
By the 1960's, there had been a major split between folks on the 1957 Graham NY crusade. Plus, the independent Baptist movement was growing and thriving, so John R. Rice spent his time from then on in building up our movement.
I also recall being at Tn. Temple in Chattanooga one time and at there chapel service they had a Presbyterians minister, and I heard later, it happen often. I'm sure the Presbyterians minister wasn't trying to change Dr. Lee's doctrine or the school's.
When I was at Temple (1972-1976), I remember hearing Richard Wurmbrandt preach. He wasn't Baptist, of course, and I believe he even wore a robe to preach in!
I believe we have lost our Christian culture in this country because of to much in fighting between Christians in front of the lost world. I have said before, most of the times when I witness to a lost person, they don't know what being saved or being lost means, they aren't sure Jesus was a real person and they know the Bible is not correct by what they have learned in school and many add by how Christians act and fight among themselves.
Here I'll have to differ somewhat. I believe we have lost our Christian culture in this country because of the failure of many churches to take a stand against evil. We allowed it to creep up on us, not realizing we were in a war. New Evangelicalism taught that our standards didn't matter and that we should infiltrate the liberals instead of separating from them.
Then when at last we woke up, we thought we could defeat such wickedness as abortion by demonstrations and sign carrying, not realizing it was a spiritual war. America desparately needs revival, not more social action.
I do know one thing more. I know that more Calvinism is not going to fix America. Theology does not equal revival. We need repentance and prayer in large doses. And I'm disappointed that ReformedBaptist has not had the courtesy to come back to the thread he started and answer my question five days ago about what he meant by reform in an IFB church.