True Fundamentalism. I know fundamentalism gets a bad rap at times and quite frankly most of the time it is deserved, but there was a time when true fundamentalism was a great idea. True fundamentalism was about exactly that -- the fundamentals of the Christian faith. In short what is fundamental (basic) to Christianity and Christian belief. Now i am speaking of Protestant belief here so keep that in mind. The fact was that in the beginning fundamentalism was about making the list short and basic what doctrines Christians hold to.
The first one True Fundamentalism upholds about the Scripture. There are two factors: 1) Inspiration by God and 2) Authority.
In the question of inspiration, the original fundamentalist felt that is was not so important to get bogged down with discussion about how the Bible was inspired only to say that is was inspired by God. Verbal, Plenary , etc. were not their concern -- the issue was simply who did it. The Bible to them was not ultimately the product of man and that is what need to be ultimately said. It was written by men but was God inspired.
The question of authority was simple -- it is the authority over everything we believe and do.
I like this -- it keeps things to the basics and allows room for discussion about the role of mankind in the inspiration. It also means that I can accept as a brother in Christ someone who has different views on how god inspired the Scripture as long as we all understand that that it is God's Word and has authority over us in what we do and believe.
This makes things a lot easier.
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