Historically, Fundamentalism has been the bastion and fortress of the remnant for many decades now. It was God’s weapon to confront the Liberals and Modernists, Romanism, and even Neo-Evangelicalism. Since the late 1970s, we have observed a growing trend within its ranks that has subtly eroded its Nazarite vow before God. We must ask if Fundamentalism today, like Samson, has fallen asleep on the knees of the worldly Delilah while the barbers of Neo-Christianity are cutting its locks (those God-appointed peculiarities that have been the evidences of God’s presence and anointing). Fundamentalism is now turning its sight to mere visible signs of larger churches, more money, less standards, and flirtatiousness with the world and its enticements. Yes, whether we want to acknowledge it or not, Fundamentalism has changed, and its changes are becoming more drastic. As a result, we are setting our tents in the camp of the Neo-Evangelicals. There is no line of demarcation anymore between our terms, because there is no true distinction between our beliefs and practices.
Fundamentalism of the Past and Present
The historic roots of biblical Fundamentalism are even noted by theological liberals such as Kirsopp Lake:
Fundamentalism is virtually synonymous with orthodox Christianity. It is a mistake, often made by educated persons who happen to have but little knowledge of historical theology, to suppose that Fundamentalism is a new and strange form of thought. It is nothing of the kind: it is the survival of a theology which was once universally held by all Christians. . . . The Fundamentalist may be wrong; I think that he is, but it is we who have departed from the tradition, not he, and I am sorry for the fate of anyone who tries to argue with a Fundamentalist on the basis of authority. The Bible and the corpus theologicum of the Church is on the Fundamentalist side.
It must be clearly acknowledged that the core doctrinal belief of Fundamentalism is the true Christianity of the early Church. Liberalism, Modernism, and the Neo movements within Christianity all have been a part of the departure from the root and fountain of biblical Christianity. This fact they readily acknowledge.
Fundamentalism began in the mid-1800s as a “puritan” movement within the mainstream denominations as a hope to draw back these denominations to the legacy of historic Christianity. This hope failed because the denominations were too far gone in their apostasy. As a result, there was only one thing biblically to do: these puritans separated from the institutional church’s apostasy. It was at this time that Fundamentalism became a separatist movement from the apostasy.
When the Neo-Evangelicals formally left the Fundamentalist movement in 1948, they took the term Evangelical with them and discarded the term Fundamentalist. This separation made even more clearly the separatist stand of true Fundamentalism. Tragically, now Fundamentalists are changing the very fabric of Fundamentalism itself; a new breed believes we need to become more compatible with the Neo Evangelicals. This new breed of young men craves the wealth, prestige, and worldly music and worship that these Neo Evangelicals have long possessed. They are adapting their churches for the neo while pressuring the remnant of true Fundamentalism to either conform or get out.
In Fundamentalism a brand of Calvinism has emerged that is doing away with standards and principles, because they abhor personal separation. We must realize that John Calvin saw the problem of the paradox, and he saw the need of human responsibility. But intellectually, sovereignty was his only recourse and conclusion. He hoped that perhaps the future generations would be able to work it out. Amidst all the intellectual heights of Calvinism, most Calvinists have never been drawn to that greatest of heights, that “cream of theology,” that very heart of all theology: loving God supremely from the heart. Calvinism is an intellectual theology, not one of the heart.
The Gospel of the Scriptures is absolutely perfect and balanced; it is not a theological system. It was in existence before any man came along and systematized it. Faithful men are not simply men who are faithful in duty and discipline; faithful men are ones faithful in heart and life, serving God from the heart. Theirs is the cry of the Shulamite, “Where is He whom my soul loveth?” This is the cream of theology.
While the “unfaithful” now are changing the Word and the message of the Gospel, there must needs be a remnant for the next generation who will remain true to the message without believing the message needs to be changed to make it relevant for that generation. More and more, we are in need of remnant schools—not schools given to the promotion of a theological system—schools that are dedicated to the pure Word of God. We must be on the lookout for “faithful men” of heart, of mind, of life, and of love for God. The Marines are known for their motto Semper Fi, short for Semper Fidelis, “Always Faithful.” This does not mean sometimes faithful, or in certain circumstances faithful, or only if the conditions are favorable—to the contrary, it proclaims “Always Faithful.”
The End-time Remnant
Coming forth from the sacred pages of Scripture are four concepts of an end time. Two are from a historical perspective and two are evident for the future.
Eschatology (the doctrine or the teachings of the eschatos or last things) is a term that has become prominent in our day. Depending on the eschatological belief of an individual, these last times could include over one thousand years (thus including the events leading to the Tribulation, the Tribulation itself, and the Millennium). Although the theological term Eschatology is specifically dealing with the matters and events that will culminate the time of the end of the ages, there are two other periods in biblical history where there were an end of things and a change of things. Each end time had similar characteristics.
All four end-time concepts in Scripture culminate in apostasy. At the same time they all four have a remnant marked by God for the end of that age. This must be carefully seen in our understanding of the End-time remnant, for we look for principles and patterns to lead us in our own generation.
Four End Times in Scripture
1. The Flood:
The first end-time concept came in Genesis 6 in the days of Noah. In fact, the Lord in the Olivet Discourse draws from Noah’s days as the sign of yet another end time. In Genesis 6, God declared “yet 120 years.” That was Noah’s end time and it lasted for 120 years. God has not been that specific with us; but He was with Noah. That man knew his eschatology before the end of his age. He also knew exactly how long that end time would be—120 years. But what led up to his end time?
Salvation and spirituality are given only to individuals not the masses; every man will stand alone before God. The first five chapters of Genesis are dedicated to individuals. Two lines of humanity are evident by their godly and ungodly ways; these two lines are initially seen in the individuals Cain and Seth. In the course of time men began to multiply on the face of the earth. The longevity of man’s lifespan could easily have produced a world population in the tens of billions.
We do read of a moral waywardness that came with the increase of people. Something happened! Whereas God initially had placed a hatred (Genesis 3:15) between these two seeds, that hatred was gone. To the contrary, the godly began to be drawn toward the ungodly. In Genesis 5 the godly line was growing in godliness: Enoch, the seventh from Adam, walked with God; he gave us insight as to how it was. He pleased God; he walked with God; and he was translated. Yet according to Jude 14, 15, ungodliness was growing during the time of Enoch, and he was observing this ungodliness vastly increasing in his generation. Was this wickedness simply with the ungodly line, or was it taking place in the godly line too?
By the time of Noah the godly line no longer desired the spiritual; there was a craving for the fleshly. Their appetite for the flesh led them to take wives of “all that they chose.” (When the godly begin to look upon the ungodly, that is when the flesh and the Spirit try to dialectically come together. Over a period of time, when the seeds become well mixed, a generation of change will come.) By Noah’s day all the fleshly sins had run their gamut; the final frontier, the apostasy of morality, had pervaded the earth. Flesh had become the dominating factor of humanity (6:3, 12, 13, 17). The truth about the family, about marriage, about godliness, about the true God, about the body and the purpose of the body all became absolutely corrupt. A pleading God gave 120 years of His Spirit’s convicting, reproving, and striving with man. Nevertheless, once apostasy takes over an individual, a people, a nation, a world, there is no antidote for it—except judgment! Therefore, God judged “all flesh.”
However, there was a remnant under the godly leader Noah. He was that holy seed, that very small remnant, who maintained one wife in the days of the apostasy of marriage through polygamy. He walked with God; he was perfect in his generation; he was a just man. He was a preacher of righteousness. And God remembered him! He was of that remnant kept by God, who prepared an ark to the saving of his house, in his end time. There was no revival to that world, but there was revival among that remnant.
2. The Inter-testament Silent Years:
A second biblical end time occurs at the end of the Old Testament. Out of the seventy-year Babylonian Captivity, approximately fifty thousand Jews returned to Jerusalem under the leadership of Zerubbabel. We are told that the Spirit of God raised up these to make this return while most of the Jews stayed in Babylon content with their established homes and businesses. After fifteen years following the completion of the Temple’s foundation, this remnant in Jerusalem succumbed to fear and apathy. God soon raised up Haggai and Zechariah to preach them into revival and the completion of the House of God.
After another hundred years, Ezra came to establish the Word of God among the remnant in Jerusalem now in its second and third generations. He had to address the mixture of their seed with the ungodly; as a result revival came and they willingly repented and separated. Then when Nehemiah came to the remnant, the walls and gates still needed to be built; he with a heavenly tenacity led them to complete the task.
During the years of Nehemiah’s return to the Persian king, the people fell back to the courting of the ungodly. When Nehemiah returned he severely dealt with them; sadly, there was no evidence of revival. Malachi the prophet gives us the last portrait of the third and fourth generation of that remnant: they had become a people who strongly gainsaid the Lord. This is the last sight of God’s people before the darkness of biblical history takes over. Religious apostasy had now taken over; and, no revival came. When God brought the charges against His people, their words were stout, bold, loud, and defiant. Reverence and reticence were both greatly lacking. The people cried before God, “Not guilty!”
Even among this unholy group an even smaller remnant was found:
Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another; and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not (Malachi 3:16–18).
This was the remnant at the end of the Old Testament history before going into the dark, silent period of God’s silence to His people for some four hundred years.
3. Daniel’s “Last Week”:
Before addressing the third end time, let us consider the fourth, the culmination of Daniel’s “last week.” This “last week” is the time the Jews will come to their greatest apostasy and delusion:
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy (Daniel 9:24).
The apostasy of the Jewish nation will not be complete until the full seventy weeks (or 490 years) are finished. The last seven years have not yet been completed, so their apostasy has not yet culminated. Sixty-nine weeks spanned the silent years between the Old and New Testaments and concluded with the crucifixion of Messiah. Whereas sixty-nine weeks led to the first coming of Christ, the last week (or seven years) leads to the second coming of Christ for the Jew (Revelation 19). These weeks culminate with the Antichrist making a covenant with the Jewish nation. It will be the worst hour in their history. Having crucified their Messiah, they will accept Antichrist as their Messiah. It will be the end of sins, Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).
Nevertheless, there will be a remnant that will turn to God in the last three and one-half years of Daniel’s “last week.” That remnant will be living in the end time of the weeks culminating the apostasy of the Jewish nation.
4. The Last Days:
We are now living in the third end time. Christ declared that the End Time of the Last Days will be as the days of Noah. How will these Last Days come about?
Although the Reformation was a great influence in theology as well as in many external areas of life, perhaps the greatest spiritual move of God commenced in the 1700s. This was a “heart” move of God among His remnant. The visible church was in great debauchery, given to the external life with little or no consciousness of God in the heart. This move of God addressed the other side of the paradox established with the doctrines of the Reformation (from both the first and second generations). The Reformation’s teachings emphasized Christ and His salvation; these truths were needed to be established before addressing the details of Christian living. The details of response to God came during the time of the Great Awakenings in America and the Great Evangelical Revival in England. As so many areas of life were moving into the “classical” period (e.g. music, architecture, literature), God began to move in a classic Christianity that would bring men to a greater and deeper view of holiness and purity of heart.
The Reformation brought us back to the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith, but the Revival period brought us into the finer details of a walk with God and insights to personal and intimate communion with the Lord. Men from various theological backgrounds were preaching and writing about “Christian Perfection.” Their simple definition was “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Yes, it was the call to know and live the greatest commandment, for they believed the redemptive power of Christ could make this a reality within the Christian heart. Simultaneously, this was also the time of the opening of missionary ventures to India, China, Japan, and nearly all of the Orient. This move of God continued into the early part of the 1800s.
By the time of the mid-1800s, Satan moved greatly against this spiritual move of God by simultaneously birthing Unitarianism and Liberalism and Modernism, products of the Protestant community. It was the greatest attack on the Bible, even worse than Rome. It was also during this time that the cults were founded along with the rise of Evolution and progressive education.
In this time God raised up the Fundamentalists within their changing denominations, men who strongly preached the need of getting back to the legacy of Truth and the clear doctrines of Scripture. They began as puritans within their declining denominations, but time proved the imperative need of separating from such denominations in order to keep their own lives and message from being polluted and corrupted.
It was during this time period of the collapse of Protestantism and the birth of Fundamentalism that God gave another gift to the remnant, to the saints to prepare them for the great manifestation of God through His Son—great clarity concerning His Second Coming. We will observe this revelation of God’s Word to the Fundamentalists in our next article.
Oh, how far we have strayed from the spiritual path of living for Christ in these days when Fundamentalism is looking more to evangelism rather than preparing the saints for the secret coming of Christ. May God the Holy Spirit awaken us not just to the signs of the Jews, Palestine, and the nations, but also to the falling away of the Church realizing that only a remnant will be ready for the coming of Christ to the clouds.