Monday, July 21, 2008

• Fundamentalism and Modern Rationalism

  Currently Watching Gattaca [Blu-ray] By Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Gore Vidal, Xander Berkeley, Jayne Brook see related

  Reading through Matthew’s Gospel with my Sunday School class made me realize the prevalence of healings in Jesus’ ministry. As I believe these things were a model for the post-apostolic church, I called together a mini-trial-exploratory healing service at my Southern Baptist Church yesterday. I know – who would have thought such a thing could be done in a Baptist church!

   

  All the same, there was a group of us who wanted to see if this gift was for today. In spite of what we’ve all been taught our entire Christian existence, there was something in us that questioned the traditional Southern Baptist, Fundamentalist Cessationism. While Southern Baptists are not Fundamentalists, there is a very real sense in which we have been influenced by the Fundamentalists in this area.

   

  Historically speaking, American Fundamentalism sprung forth during the 1920’s (though, admittedly, they would claim their movement goes back – some argue – even to John the Baptist). During this time European biblical criticism began to take root in American universities and seminaries. Biblical criticism’s fundamental questioning of the reliability of the Bible’s testimony regarding history and science produced a grassroots reaction we now call Fundamentalism.

   

  In their reactions, Fundamentalists strictly held to a number of beliefs which they considered fundamental to Christianity. This included, but was not limited to Biblical Inerrancy (often in the form of the KJV), a Literalist hermeneutic (without disregarding genre and metaphor, but to the denial of mythology), and Premillenial Eschatology (Rapture, Anti-Christ, Literal 2^nd Coming, etc).

   

  Now, what’s interesting is that even though this group opposed Modernity and it’s Rationalistic assumptions, they could not avoid its lure.

   

  One of the key places this becomes evident is in their treatment of the Sign Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Undoubtedly, Fundamentalists affirm that the Holy Spirit is still active in the church today, and the Holy Spirit even gives gifts to the church. However, these gifts are limited in scope and do not include Tongues, Prophecy, and certain Healing gifts.

   

  On what bases do they reject that the Spirit operates by means of these gifts? Well, they use Scriptures like I Cor. 14 and a few others scattered throughout the Bible. But when one examines these passages, it remains clear that none of these scriptures explicitly teach a Cessationist position.[1] Rather, one has to do eisegesis to come to these conclusions.

   

  Fundamentalists also appeal to history to demonstrate that these gifts have ceased. They say that it is clear that prophecies and tongues stopped once the Bible was completed. Now, no doubt there is a sense in which after the apostolic revivals, many of these things subsided a bit. But it is a completely different thing to deny that they never occurred again. One cannot read any of the patristic writings or stories of the martyrs without realizing that there is a very real sense in which the early, post-apostolic church believed that these kinds of gifts were very real and very prevalent within their experiences.

   

  What I’m trying to say, then, is that Fundamentalism neither has clear, unquestioned, reason for accepting a Cessationist reading of the Bible, nor do they have any kind of a leg to stand on in church history. While there are times of more or less outpourings of spiritual gifts in church history (often associated with revivals), it is a unique position in church history to believe that these things have ceased altogether. Fundamentally, I’m arguing that no one reading their Bible or Patristics would conclude that these gifts ceased unless they were predisposed to such a belief either through Modern Rationalism or a Hermeneutic which denied them. No one – for it is hardly a coincidence that Cessationism arose out of a culture which denies the Supernatural altogether!

   

  While Fundamentalism claims to go back to the Fundamentals of the faith, they have, in my opinion, taken the 12 pieces of silver modernity has offered. While claiming to have the apostolic faith, they have traded the gifts of the Spirit for a novel interpretation which falls in line with a rationalistic model of the world which is skeptical of anything Supernatural.  

   

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  [1] The most I Cor. 14 proves is not the cessation of these gifts after the apostolic period, but rather that 1. they are only useful for a distinct period of time (until Christ returns), and 2. the Corinthians were misusing the gifts for their own glorification rather than the edification of the entire church.

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