Kevin T. Bauder What is the gospel? It is more than simply the plan of salvation, but what more? This question deserves both a negative and a positive answer.</p> <p>Negatively, the gospel is not the whole Christian faith. To say that all the teachings and practices of Christianity are related to the gospel is not… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder Fundamentalists have not often appealed to 2 Corinthians 11:4 as a key text for their understanding of ecclesiastical separation. Even a cursory examination of the verse indicates that their reluctance has been well founded. It fairly bristles with interpretive problems, making it the sort of text that provides a hazardous foundation for… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder By every indicator, historic, mainstream fundamentalism is a shrinking movement. Churches are shrinking. Fellowships are shrinking. Mission agencies are shrinking. Schools have closed and those that remain are scrambling for students. Furthermore, the churches are producing fewer young people who feel any sense of calling toward vocational ministry. From an educational perspective,… Continue Reading
Jeff Straub In recent weeks, my colleague Kevin Bauder has written a series reflecting on the fundamentalism of his youth. He expressed gratitude for those who he knew in his early life and their influence upon his future ministry. His exposure to fundamentalism happened early and was pretty good. This got me thinking about my… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder Over the past several years I have read a number of books and articles about “growing up fundamentalist.” Almost without exception these works have been written by people who are trying to justify their life choices by pointing to the oppressiveness of their fundamentalist upbringing. In some cases they claim to have… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder At the time my father enrolled in Bible college, few fundamentalist pastors went to seminary. That was beginning to change a decade later as I approached my senior year. Some of my professors were encouraging me toward seminary. One evening our church hosted a seminary president at a special event, and he… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder One of the rituals of life at Bible college was the daily chapel service. In chapel we heard preaching by local pastors and other Christian leaders. We sang hymns—usually better ones than the hymns I’d grown up singing. Part of chapel was also devoted to community life. Chapels were like student assemblies… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder My parents always stressed the importance of college education. My father actually modeled his commitment to higher education by going to college during my teen years. He graduated the same spring that I graduated from high school. As commencement drew near, the question was not whether I would attend college, but where… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder When I was growing up our church held at least four public meetings every week. During Sunday school the children would be taken to graded classes for instruction while adults remained in the church auditorium for a Bible lesson. Sunday school was followed by the morning service, which featured singing, prayers, giving,… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder One aspect of growing up fundamentalist was going to summer camp. Every fellowship of churches seemed to have a camp of its own. There were also a number of independent camps. Ours was a Regular Baptist camp located west of Traverse City, Michigan. The site had been one of Al Capone’s hideouts… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder During the years following my parents’ conversion, our little church went through a series of pastors. Some were more qualified and some less so. The congregation finally called a church planter from the Fellowship of Baptists for Home Missions. He is the pastor who baptized me and who began to instruct me… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder My parents were not Christians when I was born. As far as I know, my mother’s parents never went to church and had no Christian commitments. The only religious text in their house was a copy of Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. My father grew up… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder Some of you new students may not understand just exactly why we take the position we take in regard to Billy Graham’s ecumenical evangelism…. Billy Graham and I have been for many years personal friends. This is not a personal difference between my father and Dr. Graham—that is what defenders of Dr.… Continue Reading
Word has come that Donald K. Campbell passed away last Sunday, January 14. Campbell was the third president of Dallas Theological Seminary, following John Walvoord and preceding Chuck Swindoll. He was still the president when I moved to Dallas to work on a Ph.D. in 1991. At the time I was still completing a D.Min.… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder George Dollar’s 1973 History of Fundamentalism in America includes a section warning against dangers that face fundamentalism. One of those dangers was “Crusading Calvinism,” which, Dollar warned, “will continue to attract the more intellectual to its position, confuse others, and cause its opponents to be disturbed and sensitive over the issue” (276).… Continue Reading
A few weeks ago, Roger Olson of Baylor University devoted a blog post to asking “What Is ‘Fundamentalism?’” By way of contrast he was also trying to say how fundamentalism differs from evangelicalism. He used Edward John Carnell’s critique of fundamentalism as the fulcrum of his argument. Olson did not mention that Carnell’s “Exhibit A”… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder [Editor’s note: A technical difficulty prevented last week’s essay from being emailed. Part Two of this series can be found on Central Seminary’s website.] Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been responding to Roger Olson, who teaches at Truett Seminary (Baylor University). Not long ago Roger blogged about the difference between… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder I am responding to colleague Roger Olson who, in a recent blog post, attempted to articulate the difference between fundamentalism and evangelicalism. His argument relied upon an old critique in which Edward John Carnell labeled fundamentalism as “cultic orthodoxy.” My first step was to flesh out Carnell’s critique by placing it in… Continue Reading
I appreciate many aspects of Roger Olson’s work. He has written a clear exposition of Arminian theology that I require my students to read. He can show civility and charity toward those with whom he disagrees. We are on opposite sides of certain issues, but I know him to be a man of both clarity… Continue Reading
Kevin T. Bauder Over the past several weeks I’ve been writing about the founding of the New Testament Association of Independent Baptist Churches and the renaming of the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship from the old Conservative Baptist Fellowship. This is not ancient history, but it is history that has been largely forgotten. Many younger leaders who… Continue Reading