Are you a Christian fundamentalist?

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Flail

Are you a Christian fundamentalist?

Post #1

Post by Flail »

According to common definition, 'Christian fundamentalism' is defined by and stands upon the following principles.
Question for debate:
Which of these Christian fundamentalist principles do you accept and which do you reject and why?

1.That the Bible is inerrant. (If you claim the Bible contains errors, upon what basis do you separate the true from the untrue?)

2.That the Bible is the only source of truth about God and salvation. (If you claim other sources, please identify and explain.)

3. The virgin birth of Jesus.

4.The resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

5. Substitutionary salvation for believers.

6. Jesus ultimate return to earth.

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Post #2

Post by McCulloch »

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Moved to "Questions About a Belief" forum. This appears not to be a debate topic but an inquiry into others' beliefs.
Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.
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Post #3

Post by fewwillfindit »

If I answer, are you going to debate each point as to its validity and require extra-biblical proof, or are you simply inquiring out of curiosity?
Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

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Re: Are you a Christian fundamentalist?

Post #4

Post by EduChris »

Flail wrote:1.That the Bible is inerrant. (If you claim the Bible contains errors, upon what basis do you separate the true from the untrue?)
I believe that the Bible is inerrant in all that God intends to teach. As such, only God can know whether or not the Bible is inerrant. So this question strikes me as a matter of faith, and faith is based on a number of things (e.g., intuition, desire, personal experience, history, reason, logic, etc) rather than on mere logic or reason alone.

Flail wrote:2.That the Bible is the only source of truth about God and salvation. (If you claim other sources, please identify and explain.)
The Bible is not the only source. The Church has always recognized as sources of truth about God and salvation:

1) reason
2) revelation [general and specific]
3) experience [personal experience and the experiences of others]
4) tradition [authoritative interpretation]

Flail wrote:3. The virgin birth of Jesus.
I accept this based on the fact that people believed that Jesus spoke and acted as if he were God, and people believed that Jesus was killed, dead for some time, and then became alive again. I accept this claim on the basis of what I believe to be credible testimony AND its coherence with other aspects of my worldview.

Flail wrote:4.The resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Yes, I accept this as well. See above.

Flail wrote:5. Substitutionary salvation for believers.
I suppose there is a sense in which I can affirm this particular model of atonement, but I would qualify that the Church has had a number of other models of the atonement as well, and the Church has never made an exclusive commitment to one model over and above all of the other models of the atonement. For me personally, I like the "human solidarity and identification" or "moral authority" model best.

Flail wrote:6. Jesus ultimate return to earth.
I believe this on the basis of revelation, tradition, and faith (which includes an aspect of reason in the sense that God's ultimate victory over evil coheres with my overall worldview).

So I guess I would be a fundamentalist in some ways, even though many of the more "stereotypical" fundamentalists would not be satisfied with my answers.

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Re: Are you a Christian fundamentalist?

Post #5

Post by sleepyhead »

Flail wrote:
1.That the Bible is inerrant. (If you claim the Bible contains errors, upon what basis do you separate the true from the untrue?)

I view the 1st 5 books of the OT to be inerant.

2.That the Bible is the only source of truth about God and salvation. (If you claim other sources, please identify and explain.)

All other sources must conform to the o1st 5 books of the OT.


3. The virgin birth of Jesus.

I never thought much about this but I guess I believe it.

4.The resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Yes I believe that.


5. Substitutionary salvation for believers.

No. My understanding of what Jesus accomplisahed is different from the mainstream Christian understanding.

6. Jesus ultimate return to earth.

I don't know why he would need to return. He did what he needed to do already. The Jews believe the messiah will do certain things which Jesus didn't do but that's an agenda between him and the Jewish people.
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Post #6

Post by bjs »

I agree with EduChris that #2 (the Bible is the only source of truth about God and salvation) is not one part of fundamentalism. I do believe the other statements are true (though I would reword number five, but that is probably just an issue of style).

Speaking strictly for myself, I came to the belief that there is some kind of God through examination of the evidence. I reach theism by continued deduction. I came to Christ by thoughtful faith.
Understand that you might believe. Believe that you might understand. –Augustine of Hippo

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Re: Are you a Christian fundamentalist?

Post #7

Post by JehovahsWitness »

Flail wrote:According to common definition, 'Christian fundamentalism' is defined by and stands upon the following principles.
Question for debate:
Which of these Christian fundamentalist principles do you accept and which do you reject and why?

1.That the Bible is inerrant. (If you claim the Bible contains errors, upon what basis do you separate the true from the untrue?)

2.That the Bible is the only source of truth about God and salvation. (If you claim other sources, please identify and explain.)

3. The virgin birth of Jesus.

4.The resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

5. Substitutionary salvation for believers.

6. Jesus ultimate return to earth.
Well as one of Jehovah's Witnesses I'm not sure how I'd be "classified"

1.That the Bible is inerrant. (If you claim the Bible contains errors, upon what basis do you separate the true from the untrue?) The bible does have some scribal errors in it - nothing that corrupts its central meaning and none that are from the original so I'm not sure if that means I *score* on that one. [cross references usually clear things up and for one or two things I wouldn't classify them as errors just we don't know exactly what the original writer was referring to...] I would definitly say the bible is "the word of God" and God means of communicating spiritual truths - but as for "inerrant" that would depend on if that means "started off with errors" or not.


2.That the Bible is the only source of truth about God and salvation. (If you claim other sources, please identify and explain.) No, it is the only source of truth about God's name, purpose and plan but we can learn a lot about God by examining his physical creation. There's a scripture that says "the heavens [planets stars/universe] declare the glory of God" meaning the physical universe bears testimony to the power, wisdom, beauty and love of its creator.

3. The virgin birth of Jesus.
4.The resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Yes, definitely 2/2 for on those poitns.

5. Substitutionary salvation for believers. Must adimit had to google because I wasn't sure what that meant, apparently "Substitutionary atonement is the reconciliation of sinful humanity with God through the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ..." - Wikipedia Now, I'm too lazy to read any more than the google first sentence so barring the possibility that there is something weird and unbiblical in the full definition (like "... and that the Pope is his chosen representative as symbolic spokesman for the holy trinity godhead"...) hidden later in the *official* definition of this term... yes for #5

6. Jesus ultimate return to earth Number six *depends* because the bible doesn't teach Jesus will return as a human or take back his human life - so if by "return" that is what is being said... NO. BUT... if by "return" this is refering to his taking control of the planet and destroying the wicked to ultimately rule over all earthly territories from a heavenly location, then YES.

Okay, so counting up my points

#1 maybe
#2 no
#3 yes
#4 yes
#5 yes (pending weirdness in the full definition)
#6 depends

So if I get say half point for the ambiguous answers (not my fault ambiguous question) and reserve the right to withdraw my "yes" for five but count it for now... I'm at 4.5/6

Now I don't know if being a "fundamentalist" is like being "a little bit pregnant" you have to either be 100% or ... you're not. If it is I've missed out by 1.5

I feel like such a failure.

:no:

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Re: Are you a Christian fundamentalist?

Post #8

Post by WinePusher »

Flail wrote:2.That the Bible is the only source of truth about God and salvation. (If you claim other sources, please identify and explain.)
EduChris wrote:The Bible is not the only source. The Church has always recognized as sources of truth about God and salvation:

1) reason
2) revelation [general and specific]
3) experience [personal experience and the experiences of others]
4) tradition [authoritative interpretation]
Yes, I absolutely 100% agree. I love the Anglican Motto of Scripture, Tradition, Reasona nd Experience.

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Post #9

Post by RDCH »

As an atheist, I can not agree with any of the statements, which means this question wasn't aimed at me, but...
I'm sorry to go "side topic" if that violates the rules of this forum,
as is certainly not intended, but I really want to know something about this:

The author asked if
the Bible is the only source of truth about God and salvation.
(Maybe he meant written source)


Now Educhris, you replied with:
The Bible is not the only source. The Church has always recognized as sources of truth about God and salvation:

1) reason
2) revelation [general and specific]
3) experience [personal experience and the experiences of others]
4) tradition [authoritative interpretation]
Isn't there a difference between the objective truth and the subjective opinion of 'The Church'?
And are there any writings about the 4 sources you mentioned, that are considered as generally true?

NB: I do not intend to persuade you to change your view, it's a question purely to inform me.

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Re: Are you a Christian fundamentalist?

Post #10

Post by JKHolman »

[Replying to post 1 by Flail]

I resurrect this post not for the subject, but for the intelligence, respect and civility with which this is handled. Especially that from RDCH.

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