Why there was no “evangelical-modernist” controversy

Shayne,

In the words of Dr. Bob Jr. - “Oh….you’re Bruce’s Boy!” I’m looking forward to seeing your dad and the BJU thing we’ll do here soon at the Phx Airport Hilton. Thanks for being a Type B fundamentalist. You give my taxonomy more credibility than it probably deserves. Stay around here bro…..I’ll need you in a few days! :)

Straight Ahead!

jt

Disclaimer:

Nothing I say here should be construed to mean that my dad would agree or disagree ;-)

Thanks gentlemen for your kind words to my dad. He’s the real deal.

Shayne, I appreciate your dad. Appreciate you, too.

I think every church family can have a mixture of A,’s, B’s, and C’s. I could say this about my own family blood-line.

et

Lord Todd of the House of Wood speaketh Truth my brethren……or brethriem!

Yeah Verily …. many conservative congregations will have a mixture of ABC in the ranks and sometimes even within the leadership of a local church. Even evangelical churches that would never claim to have any official connection to fundamentalism will have self-professing fundamentalists in their congregations that will send their kids to BJ, or will use aBeka books for home schooling and/or who will in their minds always be a fundamentalist in one way or the other. The reason many self-prof Type B or C fundamentalists go (or in some cases “settle”) in/or to the evangelical church in town is that the Type A or A+ fundamentalist church is so very bad with its spirit of legalism or pastoral dictatorship/onlytatorship or because of the decisional-regeneration heresy or because of the really bad preaching, or because of what I call an “almost amish fundamentalist baptist sub-culture” that they are willing to put up with the one or two elements of the evangelical church that they might not prefer for the better theology, better preaching and all around better Christ-like atmosphere. Typically these are gentle brothers and sisters who just believe they need to find the most consistent Christ-honoring church in town and so they end up in the evangelical (often Type C) congregation. On the other hand you’ll have self-tagging churches that are proud to call themselves fundamentalists and who will sing only Frank Garlock songs (plus the hymns, many written by really-not-fundamentalist-baptist-folk) who will have families within their ranks of leadership that will be at the Casting Crowns concert on Friday night at the Evangelical Free church in town or who will occasionally enjoy a beer during October Fest! Sure…..I’ve said, “Wow” myself lots of times! So….I understand how we’re all a little confused but in asking the question, “how does that work?” I think we have in part an answer with doctrines such as “individual soul liberty” and to some degree even “priesthood of the believer.” Please don’t read into that my having a beer during October Fest. Far from it - however, if congregations can have unity without unanimity on all the ecclesiastical and social issues within the ABC spectrum, we ought to assume that there can be some kind of a healthy koinonia outside of the local assembly ….. despite said variety!

Well……that’s at least how I see it for now…….

But I am no “writer” - so that probably didn’t make sense to a few people…..I’m sorry ahead of time.

Straight Ahead!

jt

Sadly, all too often, you have kids that had every good teaching opportunity but ended up apostate. I can name a dozen kids of the top of my head who grew up with the best teaching but now are apostates, homosexuals, heretics and every shade in between. Parents: your safety and hope is not an environment of Christian teaching. It’s Jesus Christ the Righteous. Those who think that spiked hair, or music with beats on the wrong syllable are the enemy, have no clue. I went recently to the 10 year reunion of my Bob Jones Academy class. It was a mix of great joy and great pain. It would have been hard to predict which students would have turned out a certain way. It comes down to commitment to Jesus Christ, not the trappings of fundamentalist culture.

[Todd Wood] Shayne, I appreciate your dad. Appreciate you, too.

I think every church family can have a mixture of A,’s, B’s, and C’s. I could say this about my own family blood-line.

et

Todd, my dad is at this moment two miles from the Idaho border in Thayne WY, loving the scenery and snow. If I were a betting man, he would be your neighbor in a few years. ;-)

[Joel Tetreau] The reason many self-prof Type B or C fundamentalists go (or in some cases “settle”) in/or to the evangelical church in town is that the Type A or A+ fundamentalist church is so very bad with its spirit of legalism or pastoral dictatorship/onlytatorship or because of the decisional-regeneration heresy or because of the really bad preaching, or because of what I call an “almost amish fundamentalist baptist sub-culture” that they are willing to put up with the one or two elements of the evangelical church that they might not prefer for the better theology, better preaching and all around better Christ-like atmosphere.

Joel, I agree with you here. Since coming to this point of view, I haven’t had to “settle” as you put it, as I’ve been able to be a part of a fundamental church that doesn’t look like the A++ churches you mention. However, as I have in the past been a part of one of those, and I can now see the damage it’s done to some families I knew well (not to mention how judgmental I saw myself become), I’ve come to the decision that I would also rather settle for an Evangelical church with solid preaching than be a part of a church where they have the right “externals,” but where the preaching is either lacking or even if expository, goes off into bad theology (like KJVO or local-church only). Those types of churches also tend to develop a “remnant” mentality that is also unhealthy. This was certainly true in the church I was in.