What are the biggest dangers or threats to fundamentalism?

[sister christian]

What are the biggest dangers or threats to Fundamentalism?

 

[Dale-c]

I am not sure what you are meaning here, but if I understand you right.....
I would say that the pull towards legalism is the greatest threat.

 

[Plain Old Bill]

The 1611 KJV translationj was commissioned to update it over the older Geneva Bible with it's archaic language so the common people could use it. In those days the strife by the then fundamentalist were the Geneva was God's preserved Word in the english language crowd.
I think everybody should own at lreast 1 copy of a 1611 KJV Bible and at leat spend enough time in it to know what the translators had to say in the preface and enough time to understand that the notes added by the tranlators were important to them. Had publishers of modernKJ Bibles left in the side notes and added a dictionary which shows how many of the 800 words used in 1611 were used then, much cunfusion and strife could be avoided now.

Other things effecting the IFB and other fundamentalist groups are secondary separation, short hair on women as well as slacks. We should speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent. Both men and women should dress modestly as not to call attention to ourselves. We need to be known for how we love one another and not for the division amongst us.

 

[swaimj]

I agree with Dale-c. Legalism has always been the achilles heel of fundamentalism. Because fundamentalists distinguish themselves by their practice of separation, the peculiarities of a specific standard of separation can come to define sprituality for the fundamentalist, rather than living a life of conscious love for others and true holiness.

 

[webdog]

This is the third thread the author of the OP has started in regards to fundamentalism. Is this not spamming?

 

[bapmom]

She stated a couple days ago that she'd be asking these questions - obviously no one has said anything to her about whether or not they ought to all be contained in one or two threads or spread out into individual threads. I'm not sure which way I'd go, except that for a good time before this the Fundamental forum wasn't really doing anything.

What I see as one of the largest threats to the Fundamental movement is the infighting. We've become so concerned with what every other preacher is doing "on his rug" that we aren't doing what we ought to do within our own sphere of influence.

We've also seen a great influx of the world's philosophies on how to build and grow a church - many have started using the world's model rather than the Bible model.

The problem I think we're running up against in these particular threads is that everyone thinks of something slightly different when they use the term "fundamental". I think about the group of churches that call themselves "IFB" or independent fundamental Baptist churches, whether in an associated group or not. But I know not all of you think that way.

 

[Steven2006]

This is the third thread the author of the OP has started in regards to fundamentalism. Is this not spamming?

No, she originally posted her intentions and requested helpful answers from those that considered themselves fundamentalist. Unfortunately I think her research will be contaminated because my guess most people have missed her original intent.

Greetings! I am doing a study on fundamentalism for one of my classes in Bible school. I would like to pose a series of questions over the next couple of weeks to get an overall picture of various beliefs and practices that are often associated with fundamentalism. I will be posing my questions here and ask that only those who consdier themselves practicing fundamentalists respond to the questions. Questions will be accompanied with an anonymous poll. You may answer only the poll response, but a narrative explaining your answer will be very helpful. Thank you so much.

 

[webdog]

No, she originally posted her intentions and requested helpful answers from those that considered themselves fundamentalist. Unfortunately I think her research will be contaminated because my guess most people have missed her original intent.

Thanks for the clarification. The weirdness of this board the past couple days has me skeptical of everyone :laugh:

 

[Dale-c]

Thanks for the clarification. The weirdness of this board the past couple days has me skeptical of everyone :laugh:

Totally understandable Web, but I think what she is doing is great.
This is bringing up some much needed evaluation on what it means to be a fundamentalist.

 

[North Carolina Tentmaker]

To me the greatest threat to fundamentalism is isolationism. This is evident in many fundamentalist issues of our time. Separation, we separate not only from unbelievers but from other Christians who are not “fundamental” enough. We push the KVJ Bible and look down our noses at anyone who admits another version is easier for them to understand. We pull our kids out of schools, even Christian schools that are not separated enough. It is not enough that we have high standards of dress and conduct, but we exclude and push away those who do not share our standards. It is not enough that we don’t smoke or drink, we must separate from those who do. The end result of these things is that we have taken our light and hid it under a basket. The world cannot hear the gospel from us because we have separated ourselves from them.

I was with a missionary once who asked me what I would think of a preacher who smelled of cigarette smoke. His point was that if we go to where sinners are, if we go where the lost are and try to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them, well then occasionally we are going to end up smelling like they do. If we separate from everyone we will die alone, unheard, unnoticed, and unused.