As we have observed in the previous articles, the public presentation of Fundamentalism now is blending into Neo-Evangelicalism. Over the course of several decades Fundamentalism has slowly embraced Neo-Evangelicalism through the use of its methodology of evangelism, its approach to education, its writings, its music, and its ministers.
An example of this hybridization has been the ever-growing ministry of SermonAudio.com. It began some years ago as a Fundamentalist ministry. How often, however, when we speak to individuals, their understanding of Fundamentalism is different from our understanding of the term. The term Fundamentalist also includes Separatist; this includes in its history ecclesiastical separation. SermonAudio’s ministry after a period of time began to include non-Historic Fundamentalists. The sermons of John MacArthur, R. C. Sproul, Doug Phillips, and others began appearing in the provided list of sermons.
There were also advertisers who had purchased space on SermonAudio.com who were Neo-Evangelicals. Even now the 2011 Family Economics Conference is part of the listing (Preparing Families to Thrive During Social and Economic Decline), which is clearly Neo-Evangelical:
What will it take to salvage a little bit of freedom for our families, and for our children? Politics isn’t enough. Free market economics isn’t enough. Now is the time to rebuild our entire socio-economic system. We need a full-orbed biblical social reformation. We’re excited to announce a powerful, vision-casting conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, in March of 2011.
Speakers for this event include: Kevin Swanson, Stephen Beck, Erik Weir, Doug Philips, R. C. Sproul Jr., Scott Brown, and others. Among a growing list of advertisers is World Magazine, which is a thoroughgoing Neo-Evangelical magazine.
It must be acknowledged that SermonAudio with its eclectic collection of preachers and dialectic repertoire of over 400,000 sermons has immensely aided in the final destruction of Historic Fundamentalism. It has become the foremost depository of sermons of all brands and breeds. Although the guidelines to be a part of this depository are fundamental, this does not exclude the Neo-Evangelicals who on paper claim to be fundamental in their doctrine. The problem with these Neo-Evangelicals is in their practice of Christianity: their association and fellowship with apostasy. Oral Roberts preached the fundamentals of the faith but with an existential twist. A delusion is not the absence of truth; it is the addition of error to truth. Because Fundamentalists around the world draw from the SermonAudio depository, young Fundamentalists are being introduced to many Neo-Evangelical preachers under the assumption of a Fundamentalist ministry.
As the term Fundamentalist is publicly blending in more and more with the term Neo-Evangelicalist, the true Fundamentalist is faced with a dilemma. Those of the 1940s simply left the canopy of Fundamentalism and birthed their own movement called Neo-Evangelicalism; this will not be the case now. We are seeing the term Fundamentalist publicly forced into blending with the Neo-Evangelical arena. Instead of leaving the Fundamentalist identification, we are witnessing the slow shifting of what the term now means. The problem and burden at hand is not that the term is identified with the radicalism and terrorism of our time (as was complained about back at the turn of the twenty-first century), but in our immediate context it is becoming identified with Neo-Evangelicalism. Although the label Fundamental is on the church signs across America, most churches have become Neo-Evangelical within. Fundamentalism is now identified as Neo-Evangelicalism. There is no public distinction between the terms in regard to the churches anymore.
It is not that we are against the term Fundamentalism, for it has been a bloodstained banner of Calvary against the apostasy for the End-time true believer. The connotation of this word today in the Evangelical world is not the same as its denotation. So many in Fundamentalism now sympathize and fellowship Neo-Evangelicalism that the term has lost its strength and power in the earth. It is this watered-down contemporary connotation of Fundamentalism that is washing ashore in other countries; ministers abroad no longer distinguish between Fundamentalism and Neo-Evangelicalism. They too are blending the two concepts together without even being aware of it. The younger preachers were never taught in their seminaries the heretical evil of Neo-Evangelicalism; it is estimated now that well over half of the graduates from Fundamental schools have become Neo-Evangelical. It is evident in their approach to evangelism, their music, their preaching, their libraries, and their non-separatist living. Remember, it is often not so much what is said, but what is not said in the sermons that mark the spirit of Neo-Evangelicalism.
The Term Remnant
There is a prominent truth that rises in Scripture both in the Old Testament and the New Testament concerning the “remnant.” Perhaps a brief study of the concept from the perspective of the Lord would be of benefit at this point of our study of the Postmortem of Historic Fundamentalism.
It was during a crucial time in Judah’s history that Rabshakeh, an evil counselor, was sent by the King of Assyria to intimidate the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the only city free from Assyria’s conquest of both northern and southern Palestine. Rabshakeh declared to the Judean leaders that the Assyrians would overthrow the city of Jerusalem and scatter the inhabitants to other conquered lands. When Hezekiah king of Judah received the disturbing news, he sent word to Isaiah the prophet saying, “This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth” (II Kings 19:3).
This was a day of trouble, rebuke, and of blasphemy in the light of Rabshakeh’s words against God and His remnant remaining in Canaan. The proverbial phrase, “the children are come to the birth,” indicated a time of extreme difficulty. Judah was in sore trouble and was expecting deliverance. It seemed now as if she would not have strength to go through the crisis, perishing through weakness: “It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh” (v. 4). Hezekiah pled with Isaiah to lift up his prayer for “the remnant that are left” (or the remnant found). This remnant is generally understood as Judah, which still survived after Israel had been carried away captive.
Coming out of this burden we are told of the remnant and the need to pray for it. Although the concept of remnant was used earlier in the Bible, it was the prophet Isaiah who developed this concept in detail. He stands mid-ground in history between Moses and the coming of Messiah. In the very first chapter of his writing, Isaiah saw the remnant as “very small”; if it had not been for this small remnant, Jerusalem would have become as Sodom and Gomorrah in God’s judgment. In the early part of Isaiah’s prophecy, the remnant is the small group of Israelites who survived the invasion of the Assyrian army under Tiglath Pelessar III. This remnant is promised salvation in that they will one day be brought back to the Promised Land by the Lord. Isaiah again uses the term remnant during Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem. The word remnant has a special significance in the prophecies of Isaiah, denoting “a holy seed,” or a spiritual kernel of the nation which should survive impending judgment. It is this seed that would become the people of God, being blessed of God and made a blessing.
The concept of the remnant is also presented by several other prophets, including Micah, Jeremiah and Zephaniah. The post-exilic writings of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah consistently refer to the Jews who have returned from the Babylonian captivity as the remnant. Though it may seem to be a fairly rare subject, the idea of remnant is found 540 times in the Bible. Most of the time, the remnant concept is disguised by the way the words are translated into English. In the Old Testament, remnant is related to six Hebrew root words, each of which has the underlying meaning of “what is left,” “what remains,” “survivors,” “escapees,” or “the rest.” The one Greek root used in the New Testament and in the Septuagint has the same meaning.
The concept of a remnant stood for that part of the nation who was faithful amidst the majority’s rejection of the ways of God. The very fact of the existence of a remnant is said to be due to God Himself. In Isaiah 1:9 we are told that the Lord left unto Jerusalem a very small remnant and in Zephaniah 3:12, 13:
I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.”
The remnant, then, is the true people of God, amidst the professing people of God. This concept will also be found in the New Testament, “the remnant according to the election of grace,” as Paul dealt with the remnant at the end time for Israel (Romans 11:5).
The Bible mentions the remnant in at least seven different contexts: (1) survivors of any catastrophe (as Lot survived Sodom); (2) a group of non-Israelite survivors (as “the remnant of Edom,” Amos 9:12); (3) Israelite survivors of the Assyrian invasion in 721–718 b.c.; (4) Jewish survivors of the Babylonian invasion in 585 b.c; (5) the remnant of Jews who returned to Judah from Babylon; (6) the remainder of national Israelites and the remnant of Jews turning to God at the end of the Great Tribulation; and, (7) the remnant which will be the true Elect, God’s saints in the End Time of the Last Days of the Church.
A Brief History of the Remnant
The Book of Genesis presents the concept of true remnants before the Lord. For some 1700 years the world population before the Flood grew rapidly as the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve spread over the earth and lived out their lifetimes; many of them lived almost a millennium. The Gospel was proclaimed but increasingly ignored as the years unfolded. At the end of the Antediluvian Age, Noah and his family suffered 120 years of scorn and ridicule while constructing the Ark. That age came to an end with a very small believing (eschatological) remnant of merely eight persons. Possibly billions of persons, an entire ancient civilization, were utterly destroyed in the great Flood, while only eight believers remained in the world after the Flood. A hundred years of preaching by Noah had not resulted in any converts.
Similarly, Abraham interceded for the city of Sodom, where his nephew Lot and family had taken up residence. God said he would spare the city if there were but ten righteous citizens in that city of some thousands of inhabitants. In the end only Lot was truly saved. The righteous remnant in this case appears to have been only one individual. Lot’s two unmarried daughters fled with him; Lot’s wife was encrusted by salt; and Lot’s other children perished in Sodom.
In the days of Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah complained that all had departed from loyalty to Jehovah except himself (I Kings 19:14). To this the Lord replied, “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him” (v. 18). In Elijah’s day a remnant did exist somewhere—unknown and unseen.
Jeremiah was pessimistic about the historical remnant which he said would become insignificant and possibly totally destroyed. Those Jews who fled to Egypt in his day were not to be the carriers of the divine promise. Nevertheless, it was Jeremiah who eloquently speaks of the final regathering of the Jews and the New Covenant.
Ezekiel pled with God to add mercy in the midst of punishment. He understood that a historical remnant would survive and be scattered among the nations. Ezekiel also knew that God would bring a future generation back into the land under the New Covenant involving “a new heart” and “a new spirit.”
Daniel in Babylon emphasized the importance of the remnant in his prophetic writings, and they were to be found in various times of prophetic history.
Seventy years later a godly remnant (about 50,000) of Jews would return to Jerusalem to rebuild—first the temple, and later the walls and the city. This took place under the leadership of outstanding godly individuals: Zerubbabel, Joshua the high priest, Haggai, Zechariah, Nehemiah, Ezra. Most of the Jews stayed behind, comfortably living in Babylon after the time of the return. Only a small fraction returned. This returning group is considered “only a remnant.”
The Old Testament closes with the Book of Malachi addressing God’s final redemption of Israel. Malachi’s admonition resulted in a remnant’s responding and God’s writing their names in a book of remembrance. When it comes to the Last Days and the regathering of Israel, it is clear that there will be a remnant to represent Israel that will accept Jesus as the Messiah.
Throughout Christ’s ministry only a remnant truly trusted in Him. At the time of His ascension only 120 were found in the Upper Room. Christ often said, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” In the final Book of the Revelation the Greek adjective (“the rest” or “the remnant”) is used eight times. Each of the letters to the seven Churches in Revelation 2 and 3 contains a special message to the remnant of each of those churches, the true ones who had the ears to hear. They are called overcomers, and each group is given a special challenge appropriate to their situation and circumstances.
As we have observed in a previous article, Church history reveals that individually great local churches tend to last no more than two or three generations; by its fourth generation, God calls out a new remnant to begin again. Although some denominations seem to have had a season of spiritual strength, all too soon they became mediocre at best. All of the original seven churches quickly faded into obscurity in spite of their strong foundations.
Though I am not a Dispensationalist, I do believe the course of the church age from the first century till now has enjoyed a season of time in which each of these churches in turn has been the congregation of predominant influence in that age—beginning with Ephesus and closing with Laodicea.
Even a brief study of the Bible will show that the number of true believers in any age among either religious Jews of the Old Testament or professing Christians of the New Testament was only a very small fraction. We read of many coming to Christ at the beginning of the Book of Acts and the Word of God increasing among them (Acts 6:7; 16:5). However, in the latter part of Acts we do not read of such overwhelming numbers, though it is evident that the Gospel was spread through much tribulation. More and more there was a falling away rather than a coming unto.
Everywhere the Gospel goes, apostasy will be right on its heels. There can be no apostasy without the Gospel, for it is the rejection of the Gospel that produces apostasy. How often movements and denominations were born in the womb of revival sweeping a community; churches were built and people were brought into the Kingdom of God. The power of prayer was prevalent. Although there seems to be a surge of God’s presence and power at the beginnings of His great movings, how often there follows eventually a falling away of the heart. Time has proved in the second, third and fourth generations, the fervency for God of the founding years is no longer evident. With the passage of time, the believing minority tends to become a smaller and smaller fraction.
Conclusion
We truly believe that God has a remnant left in the earth, yet it would seem it is getting smaller and smaller. The Lord declared in Luke 18:8, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” This faith is the whole embodiment of Truth, the Faith. The question is rendered as if the answer is obvious: No, He will not find it. If “as it was in the days of Noe” (Luke 17:26) there was a very small remnant, even so it will be at the coming of Christ for His saints. Perhaps it is this remnant for which we should be looking. I do believe there is a remnant even among the professing Fundamentalists who have not bowed their knee to Neo-Evangelicalism, who continue to preach against the Apostasy, who long for the coming of Christ, who believe in a life of communion with Christ, and who are separatists in this world.
There is a wholesale capitulation to Neo-Evangelicalism taking place in Fundamentalism today. There are some in Fundamentalism who have dedicated their ministries to the call of revival and the infilling of the Spirit. This sounds good on the surface, for we need both from a biblical perspective. But such ministries are not taking the needed stand against the apostasy. Again, it is not so much what is preached, but what is not preached. Such preaching on revival may be a religious “cop-out” in order not to deal with the apostasy. No two revivals in history were the same; we do not look to the past for a present duplication. The awakening among the remnant (Matthew 25) will be one amidst the falling away of the institutional Church and an awakening like no other of past history, for our times are different from the past. The apostasy has now permeated the institutional Church, which is now including the Fundamentalist movement. Such ministries present contemporary websites that draw their students through comedy and non-spiritual enticements. They promote their young men in full-page advertisements amidst casual, non-Fundamentalist Separatist contexts. Fundamentalism is truly pressing forward toward a neutral stand that will be freely accepted by the Evangelical world.
The Bible speaks of three mixtures to be found in the End Time. (1) Daniel’s interpretation of the Image: “His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay” (Daniel 2:33). “Forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay” (Daniel 2:41–43). The mixture of iron and clay immediately calls attention to the powers of Rome that will be mixed with the clay of man in the Antichrist kingdom. It also naturally symbolizes the fickleness, uncertainty, and lack of stability in all earthly government, and particularly its latter form, because of the weakness and lack of genuine wisdom of the men directing it.
(2) Jesus’ interpretation of the Laodicean age: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:14–16). We see this mixture of cold and hot producing a lukewarmness. There will be a spirit of lifeless formality pervading the Laodicean church. It has a form of religion and godliness, but void of the saving and purifying power of the Gospel.
(3) Jesus’ interpretation of the End of this Age:
The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. . . . Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn (Matthew 13:24–30; see also vv. 36–43).
This parable reveals the mixed condition of the visible church or kingdom of heaven during this age. There will be false pretenders among the true saints until Christ comes: they are of the Devil and not of God.
There is the mixture in global governments, there is the mixture within the Church (and this is true in Fundamentalism), and there is the mixture globally of two different churches: one of Christ as head and the other of the Devil as the head. Fundamentalism has entered into a very lukewarm state spiritually. Yes, the churches are growing; yes, the ministers are more polished and “educated”; yes, the conferences and schools are attended by a broader spectrum of Christianity. But all of this simply means that Fundamentalism has changed, and those leading this movement now are Neo-Evangelical in heart and thought. Now there is only a remnant left in Fundamentalism still identified with its historic legacy.
May the Lord guide the remnant through these perilous times of the crossover of Fundamentalism into Neo-Evangelicalism. The Remnant must be as men of the tribe of Issachar that came to David during his flight from Saul: they were men which “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (I Chronicles 12:32).