God is the judge. He alone knows the heart. The best of Christians falter and fail to live up to ideals of our Savior. But by God’s grace, we should strive to both verbally confess basic Christian doctrines and actively practice fundamental Christian morals. Our beliefs and our behavior ought to be parallel lines. 

I have in my library a four-volume set of books entitled, The Fundamentals. The books contain ninety essays written by conservative Christian scholars. The essays were originally published in twelve volumes and were released quarterly beginning in 1910. Lyman and Milton Stewart, Christian philanthropists, paid to publish three million copies and mail them free of charge to pastors and Christian workers across America. Thus the project, The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, was intended primarily to be a response to modernism or liberalism that was taking over Protestant seminaries and creeping into Protestant churches. The essays were largely apologetic in nature, defending traditional Christian beliefs against modern doctrinal innovations, higher criticism, and spurious cults.

The title, The Fundamentals, communicates the idea that there are certain essential or fundamental truths to the Christian faith. People can differ over minor matters, but some doctrines such as the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible are for the Christian foundational and indispensable.

From this, the term “fundamentalist” arose. A century ago, “fundamentalist” identified those who affirm the traditional, basic Christian beliefs defended in The Fundamentals. Unfortunately, in recent decades the word has been redefined and used to refer to extremists of any religion, particularly those who are bigoted and violent. For example, the American news media regular refers to “Islamic fundamentalists,” although no one in the Muslim world employs this terminology.

The concept of fundamentals in the Christian faith, however, comes much sooner in history than the early twentieth century. From the days of the apostles, Christians have always affirmed that a “rule of faith,” certain cardinal doctrines, are necessary to the gospel.

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