02 January 2015

Does identifying as a Bible Church or Fellowship mean you are Fundamentalists?

The term fundamentalist has unfortunately been abused and largely hijacked. While we share the concerns of the early Fundamentalists in combating Modernism and Theological Liberalism, sadly the term has come to be associated with legalistic rigidity and often reactionary Conservative politics.

Unlike most Fundamentalists, we are neither Baptists nor necessarily politically conservative. In fact we're largely apolitical, strangers and pilgrims critical of all world systems.

We have labeled ourselves as a Bible fellowship because the Scriptures are the standard, and contrary to many Confessionalists and Traditionalists we believe Biblicism is viable and defensible and that the Scriptures are to permeate all of our thinking, even in how we structure our thoughts. With the conclusion of the Apostolic period (about the year 100) the Bible alone serves as God's enduring Word. While the Church bears witness to the Truth, the Bible alone is our source of authority. We must avoid the temptation to build theological systems rooted in worldly philosophy and instead allow Scripture itself to set the boundaries of our knowledge.

We do not divorce ourselves from history and/or historical theology. We interact with it. We are not innovationists or cultists, but at the same time we also reject much of historic Roman Catholic and even some commonly accepted aspects of Protestant theology. Again, the Scriptures are the authority and not tradition. Nor do we shape theology in reaction to cultural shifts in the larger mainstream Church. The Bible alone is sufficient for all doctrine and its application to the Christian life in every age.