There can be no biblical separation that gravitates merely towards the negative or the positive side of a principle, which seeks to be militant only without being magnificent for the Lord.
Unfortunately, one of the most popular definitions of Fundamentalism lacks a balanced, complete biblical presentation. "Historic Fundamentalism is the literal exposition of all the affirmations and attitudes of the Bible and the militant exposure of all non-biblical affirmations and attitudes." This expression could be enlarged by adding the following:
Historic Fundamentalism is the literal exposition of all the affirmations and attitudes of the Bible and the militant exposure of all non-biblical affirmations and attitudes, as well as the magnificent exaltation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ through a scriptural separation from sin and error unto purity and truth.
A biblical separatist is a born-again, Bible-believing pilgrim seeking scriptural harmony in his daily life between truth and practice, while in his public and private testimony he is militant against apostasy but magnificent for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Two Greek words, both from the lips of John the Baptist, give examples of scriptural separation during the apostasy of Jews in the rejection of Christ.
John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me (John 1:15).
He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias (John 1:23).
There are two different Greek words for "cried"—kekragen and boontos. Kekragen is rooted in the word for the sound and identity of the crow. Boontos is rooted in the word for the sound and identity of the sheep. This reminds us of John the Baptist's own timely preaching as he cried like a crow and bleated like a sheep. In the prophecy of Isaiah where the coming of John the Baptist was foretold, we can see these two cries.
The first was the cry of the crow.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain (Isaiah 40:3-4).
But the prophet was told to cry again, and this second cry was that of a sheep.
The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever (Isaiah 40:6-8).
There is double "comfort" (cf. 40:1) in these two words. In the former, there is a warning that man must deal with sin; in the latter, there is the bleating of the sheep in his weakness. The crow marks the dogmatic divisions which are necessary when we take a clear, militant stand against the Lord's enemies. The sheep marks the delightful gatherings which are also necessary when we make a pure, magnificent stand for God's Son. If we can pray as much as we preach, and if we can practice what we preach, this will add to these blessings. Preaching must always center on the gospel, not only morality. Morality is not the motive for separation. Christ alone is the motive, and whenever a sinner is saved by the grace of God, the new birth inherently brings with it the need of biblical separation from sin and error. Morality deals only with parts and pieces—abortion, pornography, homosexuality, etc. The gospel deals with all sin and exalts Christ; morality merely sets forth man. Pseudo-Fundamentalism, under the guise of morality, is really seeking a synthesis between the lip-service of a kind of Fundamentalism and the humanism of an age. We cannot fight the Lord's enemies well if we are bitter; but we cannot fight the apostates at all if we are weak and unseparated. Jerry Falwell is an example of one claimed to be a fundamentalist (pseudo) but has now proven he is neo-evangelical.