Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," Spring Edition 1996
Reinventing Fundamentalism--In The Wesleyan Mode
The trauma and uncertainty of World War II
led many Wesleyan Holiness groups in America to accept a system of lay theology
that would later prove destructive to the ideological foundations of the Wesleyan-Arminian
system. We are talking here about dispensational premillennial teachings,
which were mistakenly equated with biblical fundamentalism during the modernist/
fundamentalist controversies of the 1920's era.
The recent fact of our historical irony, friends, was that
relationship wherein conservative Wesleyan-Arminians joined hands with
hyper-Calvinistic Antinomians in a common defense against the inroads of
neo-orthodoxy during the early years of the past twentieth century. In the bitter debate over liberalism, proponents of the
emerging new school of dispensational theology positioned themselves as
champions of orthodoxy and painted themselves as defenders of the biblical fundamentalist cause.
As
ideology, however, the distinctives of the dispensational premillennial theory
were but the logical extension of applying the necessitating implications of the
dogmas of hard-shell hyper-Calvinism--limited atonement, unconditional election,
irresistible grace--to Christian truth, they had nothing to do with the "fundamentalism" of the
Bible, or the theology of historic Methodism.
The Wesleyan Holiness movement, having failed to develop its
own understanding of what constitutes fundamentalism, did not realized, at the time, that
dispensationalism itself partook exactly of that same brand of naked antinomian
ideology as was being promoted by the neo-orthodox. The upshot in all of
this was that the same old heresy,
Antinomianism, then became the predictable outcome of accepting either extreme
of unWesleyan theology.
In this same vein, dispensational premillennialism, far from
representing the fundamentalism that it claimed, was rather the same liberalism,
in heart, as was neo-orthodoxy. How? Through its rootage in the same
subjectivist (humanistic) anti-rational attitude and approach to the Word of
God.
Dispensationalism solves the problem of' Christ's second
coming delay by a curious juggling of the meaning of Holy Scripture. By
splitting the rapture off for "immediacy" (i.e., any-momentness), while at the
same time leaving the second coming proper to materialize within the confines of
historical Scriptural prophecy, Darbyism ingenuously offers the same type of
solution to the dilemma of Christ's delay as neo-orthodoxy
proposes--namely the fictionalizing of it.
How so? By effectual destroying the historical integrity of
Bible prophecy via the divorce of reason from faith-held, subjective
interpretation. Example: the split-off any-moment-secret rapture theory is
accepted purely on subjective grounds, it cannot be proven from a sound,
rational exegesis of Holy Scripture! And this subjectivizing,
faith-without-reason approach toward Holy Scripture, friends, is the chief
hallmark of modern liberal theology!
We alleged that dispensational premillennialism, as an
ideological system, rests on a thing so simple, yet so utterly profound, as a
fundamental misinterpretation of the central meaning of the Bible--the plan of
redemption. From
whence,--on what rational or logical grounds?--did it become so fashionable for
those who misinterpret the Bible to claim that they are fundamentalists?
Biblical fundamentalism must mean schooling that reflects an accurate
interpretation of Holy Scripture--if it does not mean at least that much, the
term is empty jargon!
Friends, the treacherous dealers of modern liberal theology have dealt
treacherously, and we are very lean. Liberal Calvinistic theories of both
Darbyism, neo-orthodoxy, and now emerging radical preterism, have destroyed (are
destroying) the historic faith of the Christian church.
The sad consequence is that, like the Master Himself, the modern Wesleyan
Holiness movement has been wounded most sorely in the house of its friends.
Fifty years ago many in our movement thought that the new dispensational
premillennial system of interpretational distinctives was biblical
fundamentalism. That they indeed did so is a provable, historical reality that
cannot be successfully denied. What that buying, full-tilt, into Darbyism really
did for us, evident now, friends, was to deliver us, bound and gagged, straight
into the camp of the system of theological relativity and situation ethics
that we once so heatedly detested--neo-orthodoxy.
We thought that our dispensational "gospel truth" was
fundamentalism, friends, but in truth and in reality it was "antinomianism
revived," an ideological system that destroyed the foundations of both our
spirituality and our morality and turned us loose, philosophically-speaking,
into the fairweather pastures of religious neo-orthodoxy.
Neo-orthodoxy is not Christianity, friends, it is religious
humanism. Here we sit in religious humanism, then, fifty years after we went
down a pathway of what we thought at the time was biblical fundamentalism. What
utter irony!
More that irony, friends, is the fact that we were
deceived. Now we, as a Wesleyan Holiness movement, are largely
backslidden--purely and simply backslidden apostates from the historic Christian
faith.
It's time now to
come in from liberalism's deception, it barrenness, its darkness, and its cold! There is
enlightenment, a
warming fire, freedom, and a feast--at home--in true biblical fundamentalism--in
our Father's house!
You that have wandered far afield in speculative theology, come home! Come home! I
urge you in the Name of Jesus to give treacherous liberalism up--in all its
forms--, intellectually retool, and come home!
A great mistake was
made. That was in the past. Repentance means to turn. Turn from the wrong and
embrace the right. Truth is the only issue worth fighting for! Embrace the
truth! Buy it, and sell it not!
With the turn of the new twenty-first century a new day is dawning! A new day for
revitalizing Christian
fundamentalism--in the Wesleyan mode!
The Calvinistic/Arminian debate is not obsolete in the modern
world, nor will it ever be, if Jesus tarries, in any ages of the world to come.
The debate adheres around the central issue of the truth, not just man's truth,
but the truth of divine revelation. It cannot be dismissed without defining
consequences, both in our attitude, and in our actions, toward that religion
known as Christianity.
Modern liberals uniformly say that divine truth--particularly
the truth about the second coming of Jesus Christ-- cannot be rationally known.
They are flat out wrong. Such an attitude of agnosticism, as this is, is plainly
sub, if not, anti-Christian.
Wesleyan fundamentalism insists, by contrast, that divinely
revealed truth (including the truth about the second coming of Jesus Christ) can
be rationally known. It can be rationally known, that is, if we are willing to
be honest and open-minded enough to simply "study and learn."
What gets in the way of that--of being honest and
open-minded, of studying and learning--, too often, is our own carnality--our
own moral defect called inbred sin.
Our personal carnality, friends, is our greatest hang-up in
religion, and is our basic, hindrance-to-progressiveness problem.
But God has a cure for that, too,-- a cure known as the
message and reality of heart cleansing. The availability of that cure now leaves
us all without excuse.
So why are we that are supposed to be cleansed in heart so
anti-rational as to accept the Calvinist antinomian Darbyites hair-brained
salvation history/end-time Bible prophecy theory--notions that we cannot
honestly prove from Scripture--notions that we cling to only on the basis of
utter reason-evading, reason-denying subjectivity?
Utter subjectivity--anti-rationalism--is liberalism, friends,
for God adapted His revelation to the rational mind.
The fact is that only those who are made free from sin, by
grace through faith, can take full advantage of God's revelation. The rest will
stumble on in darkness--a darkness bolstered by their endless distortions of the
Holy Scripture.
Think about it. And please begin to understand that there is a
cause. In the darkness of our current apostasy, there is a cause. The Church can
be brought back to fundamentalism once again. God wills it so.
Related Article Links
True And False Biblical Fundamentalism
The Catch-Twenty Trap Of Modern Liberal Theology
How Dispensationalism Led The Holiness Movement Into Liberal Theology
Sanctified Reason: The Friend Of Christian Faith
On Commitment To Existentialism Versus Commitment To Christ
The Role Of Truth In The Experience Of Entire Sanctification