ROK-14d
Short Clip
This hurricane of apostasy is blowing stronger, but it has been around for a long time. In fact, things were so bad in Christendom, the visible church of followers of Christ, about one hundred years ago, that the greatest Bible teachers of that generation banded together to put up the flag of truth.
This group of conservative, Bible-believing and teaching pastors and professors sat down and declared what were the “non-negotiables” of the faith. They published their confession as a form of:
The Fundamentals of The Faith
At the end of days, truth is under attack and lies will abound. That is why Jesus said watch out for false teachers and counterfeit religion.
When faced with a profusion of false teachers, cults, and apostasy at the turn of the century, evangelicals produced a defense of true orthodox doctrine, that was published and distributed from 1909-1915.
The writers who contributed to this series read like a “Who’s Who of Christianity” of the day. They were:
• R.A. Torrey [D.L. Moody’s assistant and then the founder of Biola, the Bible Institute of LA],
• B.B. Warfield [of Westminster Seminary],
• J.C. Ryle [a well-known pastor and devotional writer],
• G. Campbell Morgan [an expository Bible teaching pastor],
• C.I. Scofield
,
• James M. Gray [President of Moody Bible Institute],
• A.T. Pierson [widely know devotional writer], and so on.
These men distilled down the fundamental beliefs that distinguish a true believer from a false or counterfeit one. They boiled down all theology into seven essentials. They then presented and explained these seven doctrines in a multi-volume set of books called “The Fundamentals”. From those volumes we can find:
Seven Essential Doctrines
Here is their list of the seven essentials, and the guide to use to uncover when someone is a false-teacher and on a course heading towards “falling away” from truth.
INSPIRATION: All we know and believe about God is based on His Word, so they affirmed the Inspiration and Reliable Historicity of the Bible.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJV) All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
DOCTRINE: God’s Word teaches clear doctrines about Jesus Christ and His Church, so they specifically named the cults who presented false gospels in their day such as the errors of the Jehovah Witnesses, Mormonism, Christian Science, Spiritism, and so on.
Titus 1:9 (NKJV) holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.
DEPRAVITY: God’s Word declares the reality of sin, so they affirmed that man is not basically good, but born a sinner.
Romans 5:12 (NKJV) Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
SUBSTITUTION: God’s Word only presents Biblical salvation as received only by faith in the God-incarnate Christ Jesus who became sin for sinners to save them.
2 Corinthians 5:21a (NKJV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
IMPUTATION: God’s Word teaches that salvation can not be earned at any level, and is dispensed by God not by any church and cleric, thus they clearing exposed the errors of Roman Catholicism, and every other religion of human achievement and works righteousness.
2 Corinthians 5:21b (NKJV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
CHRISTOLOGY: Finally, they most fervently declared that all error starts in some way with an incorrect view of Christ, so they strongly affirmed the Deity, the work, and the personal visible Return of Christ.
2 John 1:9-11 (NKJV) Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; 11 for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.
CREATION: God is revealed from cover-to-cover in His Word as the Creator of the Universe just as described in the Bible, so they exposed the grave errors of Evolutionism and Darwinism.
Colossians 1:15-17(NKJV) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.