“Fundamentalism” and the Word of God
“Fundamentalism” and the Word of God
By: J.I. Packer
[Fulfilling “A book that’s been on your reading list but you never get around to it” as part of the 2021 Spring/Summer Reading Challenge]
“If the human mind is set up as the measure and test of truth, it will quickly substitute for man’s incomprehensible Creator a comprehensible idol fashioned in man’s own image…”
J.I. Packer, most widely known for his book Knowing God, also wrote this excellent book (back in 1958).
I found this book to be compelling, intelligent, and transparent.
Before you let the word ‘Fundamentalism’ scare you away, give this book a chance. Packer lays out several reasons for why the term "‘fundamentalism’ (note the quotes in the title), which traces roots back to 1909, is no longer a helpful term and should not be used. It comes with a lot of historical and theological baggage that takes away from any serious discussion about the actual beliefs held by adherents.
“the word is prejudicial, ambiguous, explosive and in every way unhelpful to discussion. It does not clarify; it merely confuses. It is only in use today because critics of Evangelicalism have dragged it up.”
While we should commend original fundamentalists for their zeal in defending their beliefs at a time when “militant Liberalism” was threatening to the faith, we must move forward and away from this term, recognizing the original movement’s weaknesses: “anti-intellectual bias, distrust of scholarship, de-valuing of reason in matters of religion, and susceptibility to eccentric influences.”
Later in the book he explains why authentic Christian faith requires us to use our minds, to reason, and to study. Worth quoting at length:
“The Evangelical is not afraid of facts, for he knows that all facts are God’s facts; nor is he afraid of thinking, for he knows that all truth is God’s truth, and right reason cannot endanger sound faith. He is called to love God with all his mind’ and part of what this means is that, when confronted by those who, on professedly rational grounds, take exception to historic Christianity, he must set himself not merely to deplore or denounce them but to out-think them. It is not his business to argue men into faith, for that cannot be done; but it is his business to demonstrate the intellectual adequacy of the biblical faith and the comparative inadequacy of its rivals, and to show the invalidity of the criticisms that are brought against it. This he seeks to do, not from any motive of intellectual self-justification, but for the glory of God and of His gospel. A confident intellectualism expressive of robust faith in God, whose Word is truth, is part of the historic evangelical tradition.”
Packer actually suggests ‘Evangelical’ is a better term, but we can see how this term hasn’t aged well either. Since 1958 ‘Evangelical’ has accumulated just as much baggage as fundamentalism with associations to legalism and especially and unfortunately, with far-right politics that seem inseparable in probably most Americans’ minds. I am not sure what a better term for us would be at this point.
Fundamentalism is identified by five major beliefs:
Infallibility/inerrancy of Scripture
Diety of Christ
Virgin birth (and other miracles)
Christ’s death atoning for our sins
Jesus’ bodily resurrection
“Fundamentalism” and the Word of God focuses on the first tenet— the infallibility of Scripture— because beginning with a foundational belief that the Bible is our ultimate, trustworthy authority is essential for any further doctrinal discussion.
“The deepest cleavages in Christendom are doctrinal; and the deepest doctrinal cleavages are those which result from disagreement about authority. Radical divergences are only to be expected when there is no agreement as to the proper grounds for believing anything… Those who disagree as to the principle of authority and, in consequence, as to the right method in theology, can reach no significant agreement on anything else.”
Before going further, a note about the writing style/formatting of this book. It is an old book and it is one that is a bit hard to read. I’m not sure if it’s been reprinted but the copy I have is small font, huge paragraphs, biblical references are in Roman numeral format, plus Packer just has a huge vocabulary so you might have to look up some words. It makes for a read that requires a quiet environment and a lot of concentration.
To be clear: it is definitely is worth your time. There were parts I didn’t fully grasp but there is still plenty that is easily understood. To the writing style— this book is presented as an argument. He is writing to present his side of the fundamentalism debate. He is writing to persuade Christians to hold fast to the authority of Scripture.
Therefore, much of his writing is strongly worded, which, personally, I find refreshing. There is no mincing words with Packer. He puts it to you straight. I mean, don’t you just love a theologian who uses the word ‘bumptious’?? (just look it up… you know you want to.)
He describes 3 authorities we can appeal to:
Scripture (Evangelical view- the Bible is God’s words and interprets itself)
Church (Traditionalist view- what the Church says, God says and Church tradition reveals truth)
Reason/Conscience (Subjectivist view- what I feel God says, God says- I examine the Bible with an open mind and measure it against my own reason and what I find in extra-biblical sources)
Packer urges us to maintain the same view of Scripture as Jesus:
“Jesus Christ endorsed [Scripture] with the greatest emphasis and the full weight of His authority.” (Jn 7:16, 12:49, 7:48. Mark 1:22, Matt 5:17-18, Jn 10:35)
“Christ’s claim to be divine is either true or false. If it is true, His Person guarantees the truth of all the rest of His teaching; therefore, His view of the Old Testament is true. If His claim is false, there is no compelling reason to believe anything else that He said… If we refuse to believe some part of what He taught, we are in effect denying Him to be the divine Messiah—on our own authority.”
Packer confirms that when we believe in the ‘inspired’ Word of God we do not believe God literally dictated every word of Scripture but that every word we have in the Bible is exactly as God intended it. It is not unreasonable to believe that the Creator and Sustainer of the world would have the power and sovereignty to inspire the Bible as He would have it.
“Inspiration is to be defined as a supernatural, providential influence of God’s Holy Spirit upon the human authors which caused them to write what He wished to be written for the communication of revealed truth to others.”
“The Lord was well able to prepare, equip and overrule sinful human writers so that they wrote nothing but what He intended; and Scripture tells us that this is what in fact he did. We are to think of the Spirit’s inspiring activity, and, for that matter, of all His regular operations in and upon human personality as concursive; that is as exercised in, through and by means of the writers’ own activity, in such a way that their thinking and writing was both free and spontaneous on their part and divinely elicited and controlled, and what they wrote was not only their own work but also God’s work.” (Ps 135:6)
“The infallibility and inerrancy of biblical teaching does not, however, guarantee the infallibility and inerrancy of any interpretation, or interpreter, of that teaching…”
He reminds us that we cannot believe the Bible outside of the work of the Holy Spirit:
“Having disclosed himself objectively in history, in His incarnate Son, and in His written, scriptural Word, God now enlightens men subjectively in experience, so that they apprehend His self-disclosure for what it is. Thus, He causes them to know Him, and His end in revelation is achieved.”
“The evangelical certainty of the trustworthiness and authority of Scripture is of exactly the same sort, and rests on exactly the same basis, as the Church’s certainty of the Trinity, or the incarnation, or any other catholic doctrine. God has declared it; Scripture embodies it; the Spirit exhibits it to believers; and they humbly receive it, as they are bound to do.”
I find his reference to the Fall enlightening as we determine where our authority is going to be— within ourselves and our own ability to make judgements or in the Creator.
“It was precisely because man welcomed the prospect of becoming the measure and judge of all things that sin first entered the world. ‘When you eat… you will not need to depend any more on what God chooses to tell you; you will be able to work out for yourselves what is good and bad, and be master of your own judgment, not the basis of your own experience; you will have a mind of your own for the first time’... Man sought intellectual self-sufficiency, ability to solve life’s problems without reference to the word of God… they are still apt to demand instead that their reason be permitted to make its own independent assessment of what He says and to have the last word deciding whether it is credible or not.”
We are constantly battling our flesh, wanting control, wanting to be our own god and make the rules. We are regularly fighting our urge to demand the things our own way because we believe we know better than anyone else. This is the original sin— the usurping of God’s authority and design. He has given us His Word that has asserted itself as “a God-given, error-free, self-interpreting unity, true and trustworthy in all that it teaches.” Judging it as anything else or assigning credibility factors to different parts is unbelief and rebellion, however well-intentioned.
Who or what is your final authority? Really think about that. Who or what do you bow to? Whatever your church leaders say? Tradition? Professors? Popular opinion? Whatever feels right? Your own knowledge and judgement?
Or the very words of God?
It is essential to all matters of faith to get this right or your basis for all your other beliefs is on shaky ground.
I think I copied down 80% of the end of the book because it was so good. Packer definitely knows how to stir his audience to love God and His Word. Here are some favorites, and, as before, it’s worth quoting in length:
“The honest way to commend God’s revealed truth to an unbelieving generation is not to disguise it as a word of man, and to act as if we could never be sure of it, but had to keep censoring and amending it at the behest of the latest scholarship, and dared not believe it further than historical agnosticism gives us leave; but to preach it in a way which shows the world that we believe it whole-heartedly, and to cry to God to accompany our witness with his Spirit, so that we too may preach “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” (1 Cor 2:4-5)
“We have to choose whether to bow to the authority claimed by the Son of God, or whether on our own authority to discount and contravene a part of His teaching; whether to rest content with Christianity according to Christ, or whether to go hankering after a Christianity according to the spirit of our age; whether to behave as Christ’s disciples, or as His tutors…
We have to choose whether to embrace the delusion that human creatures are competent to judge and find fault with the words of their Creator, or whether to recognize this idea for the blasphemy that it is and drop it. We have to decide whether to say that we believe the Bible and mean it, or to look for ways whereby we can say it without having to accept all the consequences...
We have to choose whether, in presenting Christianity to others, we are going to rely on the demonstration of the Spirit to commend it, or on our own ability to make it masquerade as the fulfillment of secular thought.”
“Let us not fear the opposition of men: every great movement in the Church from Paul down to modern times has been criticized on the ground that it promoted censoriousness and intolerance and disputing. Of course the gospel of Christ, in a world of sin and doubt, will cause disputing; and if it does not cause disputing and arouse bitter opposition, that is a fairly sure sign that it is not being faithfully proclaimed… it is becoming increasingly necessary for a man to choose whether he will stand with Christ or against Him… It is out of such times of questioning that great revivals come… Controversy of the right sort is good; for out of such controversy, as Church history and Scripture alike teach, there comes the salvation of souls.” — Machen
Further reading:
Taking God at His Word by Kevin DeYoung is a more recent and easy to understand book on the authority and inerrancy of Scripture— why we can and should trust it.
Surviving Religion 101 by Michael J. Kruger is about more than just the authority of Scripture but this was written by a scholar of the New Testament canon and has a few chapters discussing why we can trust the Bible as we have it.
Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen would be another good book— Packer quotes Machen a lot in his book. I haven’t read this one but it comes highly recommended.
Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism by George M. Marsden is another one I haven’t read but has come recommended.
(Note: These last two books are also older and may be harder reads)
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