Independent Fundamentalist Family
Churches in this family flowed from the work of John Nelson Darby
(1800-1882). He was an Anglican priest who came to reject the idea of a state
church and sought an approach to faith that would be non-denominational. The
movement he began in England in the 1820s attempted a more complete revival of
early Christianity than either the Puritan or Wesleyan movements, which had
come earlier. This new movement sought to literally recreate the Apostolic
church through intense focus on the Bible.
Darby’s key theological concept was “dispensationalism.” From his work came
modern fundamentalism. Dispensationalism sees the Bible as a history of God's
dealing with humanity in terms of various periods (dispensations) of history.
There are different characteristics of the various periods and subdivisions,
with different themes and issues apparent at different times. Based on this
theory, the true church was seen as a faithful subgroup. Anyone who would
foster a particular denomination was seen as acting contrary to the action of
the Holy Spirit.
Darby established assemblies of like-minded believers. They accepted no
authority except the "charismatic" leadership of Darby.
The "assembly" became the characteristic structure. Each person
was seen as both layman and minister, and each assembly was independent. No
name for a group was acceptable, although biblical designations such as
"Church of God" or "Brethren" might be used.
A major new format for services was developed called “Bible reading.” This
sermon-like presentation usually involved the tracing of a key word or idea,
such as "creation" or "church," through a series of
otherwise disconnected passages, with the speaker briefly commenting on each passage.
Creeds were rejected but the concept of “unity of mind” was important.
Informally there developed strict ideas about faith and the structure of the
church. A consistent issue was the determination of when freedom of thought
rose to the point of attacking the unity of mind.
Darby accepted the orthodox Protestantism of the Reformation on the central
issues of belief in God, the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the person and
work of the Holy Spirit, the Bible as the Word of God, and the necessity of repentance,
forgiveness, and salvation.
The Brethren shared a concern of many in the 1800s about the approaching end
of time. They promoted speculative interpretation of Bible statements about
eschatology, and their conclusions took the form of prophecy.
Darby taught in a doctrine called premillenialism that there are three
groups. There are Jews, the Church of God or Christians, and Gentiles. First
Christ will come invisibly to gather his people, both living and dead, and take
them with him. This is called the “secret rapture” of the saints. Then Christ
will work among the Jews, converting them and sending them as missionaries to
the rest of the world for seven years. During this time Satan will run loose
bringing turmoil to the world. This period is called the tribulation. After
this period, Christ and his army will come to do battle with Satan and his
allies. After the victory of Christ there will be a period of one thousand
years when peace will reign. Those who come to Christ during the tribulation
will live on earth while the saints reign with God in Heaven.
At the end of the millennium will occur the judgment of the Great White
Throne. Satan, bound for the millennium, is loosed for a last bit of activity before
his destruction. Finally, the wicked dead (non-Christians) are resurrected and
judged, and the saints are given their eternal reward.
This was a relatively new eschatological schema, but as it grew in
popularity along with the corollary dispensational view of history, it set the
issues of debate for other Bible students and conservative Christians. The
rapture itself was the main point of attack by Darby's opponents. It involved
an "invisible return," or secret rapture, by Christ seven years
before the visible second coming.
PLYMOUTH BRETHREN
The Plymouth Brethren is the group originally founded by John Nelson Darby
and his associates.
A group meeting at Plymouth, England, became the most prominent assembly in
the movement and, as the group refused to be considered a denomination, it
became known as the Brethren from Plymouth. Within the growing movement, a
separation began to appear in the 1840s.
The basic division concerns the doctrine of separation. The Exclusive
Brethren believe in receiving no one at the Lord's table who is not a true
Christian in the fullest sense, including being a member of a fully separated
assembly (an assembly of Brethren who associate only with Brethren and not with
persons from other churches). The Open Brethren, on the other hand, accept all
believers as true Christians (Brethren), even if other members of their church
might hold allegedly false doctrine. The Exclusive Brethren have established
several "circles of fellowship," that is, groups of mutually approved
assemblies in which the decision of one assembly is binding on all.
FUNDAMENTALISM
Fundamentalism was, in its pure form, an assertion of certain ideas
concerning the Bible, especially dispensationalism. Conservative and
evangelical, fundamentalism became a rallying point for church leaders and,
during the late nineteenth century, was one of the major thrusts of
Christianity in America.
Many Christians adopted all or part of the theology while remaining in their
present churches.
In 1869, a group of ministers formed what became the Believers Meeting for
Bible Study. The ministers met to promote belief in the "doctrine of the
verbal inspiration of the Bible, the personality of the Holy Spirit, the
atonement of (Christ's) sacrifice, the priesthood of Christ, the two natures in
the believer, and the personal imminent return of our Lord from heaven."
In 1883, the annual meetings were moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, and
thus became known as the "Niagara Conference on Prophecy."
Part of the aim of the Niagara Conference was to manifest the primitive idea
of the ecclesia, the church. Thus the conference was the ministers' means of
forming what Darby called the church, a gathering of believers free of
denominational systems. However, the ministers did not leave their mainline
denominations. They gathered for the informal closeness and doctrinal purity
that should characterize the church. They used the Bible reading as developed
by the Brethren, and they accepted Darby's ideas on dispensationalism and his
eschatology.
In 1890, a definitive step for the whole course of fundamentalism occurred.
The Niagara Conference adopted a statement of doctrine. That statement set the
priorities for the movement.
In that statement, the premillennial return of Christ is presented as the
answer to the impossibility of converting the world in this dispensation. The
conference accepted the premillennialist's idea that the world is becoming less
Christian, with evolution not bringing real human progress, thus necessitating
Christ's direct intervention before the millennium. The conference asserted the
belief that the Bible (in its original text) is inerrant, that the Scriptures
are Christ-centered, and that all of the books of the Bible are equally
inspired. Most important, a Calvinist theological emphasis on human depravity
and salvation by the blood of Christ was detailed in six articles. As the
movement to support the statement developed, it drew the majority of its
strength from churches of the Reformed heritage (Baptist, Presbyterian, Reformed,
and Congregational).
In the 1920s, fundamentalism had its major battle ground in the Baptist and Presbyterian churches. Fundamentalists denied the second blessing (a major idea of the holiness movement, the second blessing is a personal religious experience after which the believer is believed perfected for life), and two ideas of the Adventists “soul-sleep” and annihilationism. Soul-sleep is the idea that the soul exists in an unconscious state from death until the resurrection of the body. Annihilationism refers to the belief that the wicked are destroyed instead of existing in eternal torment. While some Methodists and some Adventists would, in the 1920s, agree on the "five fundamentals," the Methodists and Adventists were not prominent in the fundamentalist movement.
The five fundamentals are:
1) the inspiration and infallibility of the Bible,
2) the deity of Christ (including his virgin birth),
3) the substitutionary atonement of Christ's death,
4) the literal resurrection of Christ from the dead, and
5)
the literal return of Christ in the Second Advent.
These points were derived from the 14 points of the statement adopted by the
Niagara Conference. They became the crucial points at issue in the 1920s at the
height of the modernist/fundamentalist controversy.
As modernist thinking grew, there was increasing polarization within
American Protestantism, and polarization was followed by the formation of new
denominations. The modernist thinking was highlighted by a theology that
accepted the theory of evolution and by "higher Biblical criticism"
(Scriptural analysis using the insights and data provided by historians,
archeologists, and other scientists).
The new denominations occasioned by the fundamentalist controversy were of two
kinds. First, there were churches that differed from their parent church only
by acceptance of a fundamentalist stance that was used to reinterpret past
doctrinal statements. Second, new groups emerged totally based on
fundamentalism.
Fundamentalism of both kinds has become split into essentially two parties. One group emphasizes separation from all apostasy and from what are seen as special evilsócommunism, the National Council of Churches, and organizations which compromise the faith. A second group, a later development, is more positive and emphasizes its conservative theology.
Page was last updated on 08/14/00
