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It documents what has happened to the vast majority of the old fundamentalist Bible churches and institutions by the onslaught of “judge not, separate not, let’s keep it positive” evangelicalism. The same philosophy is currently leavening a large number of fundamental Baptist churches worldwide. We do not consider ourselves “fundamentalists” in that we reject a number of things that were emphasized by Fundamentalism at large (e.g., inter-denominationalism, overlooking Protestant errors such as infant baptism and universal church for the sake of unity). But we recognize that Fundamentalism held to many important biblical truths and did a lot of good, in our perspective. .
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The third president, James Oliver Buswell (1926-1940), was “a force that kept Wheaton from embracing the liberal theology popular at that time.” It was advertised as “a safe college for young people” where modernism was “conclusively disproven” and faculty taught only “conservative social and economic views.” He strengthened the school’s moral code and required each student to sign a formal agreement “to abide by the school’s ‘standards of life.’” Student life was monitored and the moral code was enforced. Buswell’s book The Christian Life promoted abstinence from alcoholic beverages.
It was under the leadership of V. Raymond Edman (1940-1965) that Wheaton capitulated to the New Evangelical philosophy and program and embraced the heresy of Darwinian evolution. He had a Ph.D. from liberal Clark University and was corrupted by this evil communication (1 Co. 15:33). He said, “In science the standard of truth is nature itself, and in the realm of faith the Bible is our authority” (cited by Russell Mixter, chairman of the department of biology at Wheaton, Christian Life, Oct. 1961). Mixter said, “The evidence of the prehistoric existence of man can be trusted as authentic and must be faced, not denied” (The Story of Creation, a compilation of articles by Wheaton professors, published by Christian Life).
In April 1968, Wheaton held an ecumenical memorial service in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., the modernistic, adulterous civil rights leader who was assassinated that month.
In June 24, 1969, the Wheaton Argus published an article entitled “You Can Reject Hell and Retain Orthodoxy,” which stated that “Hell, even if it does exist, is non-essential.”
Along about then, the Wheaton Record “showed a picture of a young man and a young woman embracing and kissing each other” and exhorted the students, “Everybody’s making love.
Don’t miss out on all the fun. It doesn’t matter where you do it. It doesn’t matter when you do it. It doesn’t matter how you talk about doing it. Just do it.”
Consider the following testimony from 2022 of what the new evangelicalism has done to once fundamentalist schools:
“I am a Westmont College grad from the early 70s, and, with my husband, a Multnomah University alum as well. I grew up in a church closely associated with Multnomah when its slogan was: ‘If you want Bible, you want Multnomah.’ But no longer. We live near the school and have seen the apostasy firsthand. It breaks our hearts. Westmont was beginning to crack while I was there. Most of the older faculty were still OK but the administration was caving in to vocal students who were very rebellious, especially toward the Christian stance of the school.
“We sent a daughter to Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, in 2000, back when I still believed printed doctrinal statements. She went from respecting the Word of God and loving her parents to becoming a radical socialist activist who excises out of her life anyone who doesn’t support her current values, including us. I don’t know of any of her friends from there who haven’t followed the same path, either becoming indifferent to, or antagonistic toward, biblical Christianity. She goes to a social justice episcopal church. My niece, a pastor’s daughter, went to Texas Christian University, graduating around 2006. She became a Unitarian a few years ago. The daughter of my husband’s boss is an enthusiastic Biola grad.* She is also a shaven head goth who spoke at her grandfather’s funeral, calling up his spirit and having a lovely visit with him over a glass of wine! We pray for their salvation. I believe the reason our other children still walk with the Lord is because they eschewed college (and debt) for other kinds of career training. The Lord is blessing them” (“Christian Colleges Destroyed Children’s Faith,” Lighthouse Trails Research, June 27, 2022).
(* Biola, originally the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, began in 1908 as a staunch fundamentalist school. Today, Biola has a same-sex attraction club on campus.)
This is a frightful picture, indeed, but we aren’t discouraged. The blending is the spirit of the end times. It is a fulfillment of prophecy, but we don’t have to follow the spirit of the age. If we are saved; we can be soldiers of Christ and march to a different drummer.
Regardless of what is happening among any group of churches, we can have solid New Testament churches in the midst of apostasy. God’s people can have victory in the midst of apostasy. We have everything the first century believers had except the apostles and their sign gifts, and we don’t need those. They laid the foundation for us in Scripture, and we have the preserved Scripture. We have Christ’s presence and high priesthood. We have the Spirit of God.
I don’t know what others will do, but with whatever remaining days God gives me, I intend by His grace to stand stronger in the Word of God, not weaker, to be more outspoken than ever, because the dangers are greater than ever, and to let the chips fall where they may! On the authority of God’s promises, I am sure that I won’t regret it.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
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