The following excerpt from a sermon preached more than 35 years ago by the late Chester Tulga is still true today. The message, entitled "The Fundamentalism of Yesterday, the Evangelicalism of Today, and the Fundamentalism of Tomorrow,' was preached in 1957 at the Silver Anniversary Conference of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. The following is the last part of that sermon:
1.The fundamentalism of tomorrow must submit to the authority of the
Word of God.
It is not enough to defend its inspiration; we must submit to its
authority. The authority of the Word of God must not be undermined by
loose interpretation; it must not be perverted by unscrupulous
interpretation; it must not be nullified by appealing to a mythical Holy
Spirit who sets aside the authority of the Word of God. The fundamentalism
of tomorrow must accept the full inspiration of the Word of God and submit
to its authority both in faith and practice; both in faith and order; both
in faith and principles; both in doctrine and policies. Anything short of
this will not be truly fundamental.
2.The fundamentalism of tomorrow must preach the full gospel,
not the irreducible minimum of the gospel, as some evangelicals put it;
not the limited, streamlined gospel of some evangelists; not the lowest
common denominator message of evangelical compromisers, but the gospel
which honors the whole counsel of God; the gospel which refuses to
accommodate itself to false gospels; the gospel which judges apostasy by
refusing to associate itself with it; the gospel which refuses all affinity
with heresy; the gospel that claims the blessing of the Holy Spirit by
honoring the Word of God and refusing to join the deniers of the Son of
God. We say it bluntly -a gospel that is careless of its fellowships, a
gospel that is careless of the ends it serves, a gospel which is willing to
compromise its own integrity, is a false gospel, however orthodox the words
may be. The Gospel must be judged by its nature, by its integrity, by the
ends it serves, rather than by the words it uses. The fundamentalism of
tomorrow must return to the full Gospel, and proclaim the whole counsel of
God, shunning the current abbreviations.
3.The fundamentalism of tomorrow must return to the New Testament
conception of the local church.
There is abroad in the land a perversion of the doctrine of the true
church, whereby mugwumps, whatnots, nondescript religious riffraff, loose
jointed antinomians, mushy sentimentalists And flashing comets can claim
membership in the true church, while refusing to face up to their
responsibility to be a part of a local New Testament church. Belonging to
the true church, they say, justifies holding membership in false local
churches. Claiming membership in the true church, they disregard the
teachings of the Word of God on the local church. The
whole doctrine of the true church needs reexamination in the light of the
Word of God. The fundamentalism of tomorrow must return to the Word of
God, gather itself in true New Testament local churches, and repudiate that
doctrine of the true church which has become a refuge for all manner of
strange birds. The fundamentalism of tomorrow must be a fundamentalism of
both scriptural faith and scriptural order.
4.The fundamentalism of tomorrow must return to that uncompromising
loyalty to Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, which is the heart of true orthodoxy. It will not
compromise with those who, denying His virgin birth, cloud His birth and
set aside His Deity. It will not compromise with those who deny His Deity,
thus bringing into question His integrity and authority. It will not
compromise with those who deny His aimlessness, thus destroying His
Saviorhood It will not compromise with those who deny or pervert the
atonement, for this is indeed the heart of the Gospel. It will not
compromise with those who deny His bodily resurrection, for if Christ be
not risen from the dead, we are still in our sins and there is no Gospel.
It will not compromise with those who deny His personal return, for this is
the only hope for our world drunken with sin. The fundamentalism of
tomorrow must repudiate that cheap loyalty to Jesus of our day that loyalty
which has no indignation against those who accuse Him and repudiate Him.
The fundamentalism of tomorrow must repudiate that cheap loyalty to Jesus
which says "Hosanna to the King" and then warms its hands in fellowship at
the fires of His enemies. The fundamentalism of tomorrow must be loyal to
Christ and refuse fellowship with His foes.
5.The fundamentalism of tomorrow must return again to that expectancy
of the early church which looks constantly and eagerly for the Lord's
return.
We must repudiate that cheap premillennialism which has lost its
expectancy. We must repudiate that cheap premillennialism which, in the
name of denominational loyalty, supports the enemies of the very Lord they
profess to be looking for. We must repudiate that cheap premillennialism
which concerns itself more with prophetic details than with prophetic
living. We must repudiate that cheap premillennialism which looks for the
Lord tomorrow and refuses to behave itself today. We must return to that
blessed hope that purifies. We must return to the blessed hope that makes
us watchful. We must return to tat blessed hope which makes us careful
that the Lord does not return and find us doing things that dishonor Him,
the premillennial fundamentalism of tomorrow must be a fundamentalism which
behaves itself today.