[The following material is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 12, Issue 6, 1995. David W. Cloud, Editor. All rights are reserved by the author. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian. Send to Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E 1V0.]

Passive Fundamentalism

By Allen Dickerson

I was saved in October 1949, and a few short years after I was saved I became aware of a movement called New Evangelicalism. The dominant figure in this movement, which was a departure from Biblical Fundamentalism, was Dr. Harold Ockenga. This new religious philosophy took up a position of neutrality between Biblical Fundamentalism and Theological Liberalism. Though I had been saved just a short time it was not hard to see that New Evangelicalism was riddled with errors.

It infiltrated Youth for Christ, Campus Crusade, and its organized body became known as the National Association of Evangelicals. It infiltrated mission boards, denominations, schools of higher learning, and it impacted tremendously upon the Protestant world and it is still alive and well today.

Then about 1955 and shortly thereafter, a movement known as Ecumenical Evangelism surfaced and the dominate figure then was, and still is, Dr. Billy Graham. I shall never forget that first meeting in Madison Square Garden held by Graham under the sponsorship of the liberal New York City Council of Churches. As I sat there and heard Cliff Barrows lead that huge choir singing "Amazing Grace," it sounded great, and then I was bewildered as Dr. Phillip Potter, well-known black liberal preacher who was one of the presidents of the liberal World Council of Churches, came and led in prayer. Sitting on the platform was Rev. Ralph Sockman, liberal Methodist [pacifist and leader in the apostate Federal Council of Churches], Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, liberal of the Marble Collegiate Church, and Rev. John Sutherland Bonnel, liberal Presbyterian. I said in my heart this cannot be right. For 40 years this movement has turned mass evangelism into a mass of theological confusion.

Then in the 1970s another movement surfaced and the dominant personality was, and still is, Dr. Jerry Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church and chancellor of Liberty University of Lynchburg, Virginia. This brand of Fundamentalism dubbed by the media as "Falwellian Fundamentalism," likes to hold to the name "Fundamentalist," while at the same time comfortably working with Charismatics, Southern Baptists, and just about every other religious stripe you can imagine. Biblical Fundamentalists named it "Pseudo-Fundamentalism," meaning "false-fundamentalism."

Now another philosophy has arisen. It was voiced recently by an independent, fundamental Baptist mission leader. The statement was made, "I am a fundamentalist but I am tired of fighting." Which really is to say, "I want to be a passive Fundamentalist. My question is, Has the devil gotten tired of fighting the Church and hindering the work of God? Has Satan and the Church signed a peace treaty? Has the conflict between righteousness and evil been settled? Can we retreat from the field of battle and lay aside our armor?

I am told in Ephesians 6:11, "Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." A close look at the parts of armor described makes one realize that God is not dressing us for a "pajama party." God has conscripted us to stand for His cause and has not given me any mustering out date this side of death or the Rapture.

I was mustered out of the United States Navy on the 19th day of July in 1946, but there is no mustering out date for this spiritual warfare that God has called us to.

Are the New Testament words that warn of conflict and spiritual warfare obsolete and not applicable for our day? Has Satan ceased his hostility toward the Church?

Listen to Paul, "This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare" (1 Tim. 1:18). "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called" (1 Tim. 6:12). "Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier" (2 Tim. 2:3). "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:7). "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds" (2 Cor. 10:4).

Who is the man who wrote this fighting language? The same man who said, "Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears" (Acts 20:31). This same man said, "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:2,3). This man Paul was a courageous soldier and at the same time a compassionate soul winner.

Are Paul's words just for his day? I think not. I read in 1 Peter 5:8, "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." Yes, the battle still goes on.

What prompted Isaac Watts to pen those beloved words, "Am I a soldier of the Cross, a follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cause, or blush to speak His name? Must I be carried to the skies, on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize, and sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend of grace, to help me on to God? Surely, I must fight, if I would reign; increase my courage, Lord. I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, supported by Thy Word."

A "Passive Fundamentalist" is a contradiction to the Word of God.

(Allen Dickerson, "Passive Fundamentalism," Maranatha Baptist Watchman, P.O. Box 246, Elkton, MD 21922)