Hello and welcome to the next broadcast. We're talking about understanding the times in which we live. We'll try to make it plain and simple. Well, as we continue understanding the times in which we live today, we need to understand that God's program for today is the local church. The word church, or churches, is in the Bible over a hundred times, and that's God's plan for our present age. But like Israel, we refuse to stay with God's plan, and as a result, we're paying a serious price for that. We said, like Israel, we said, nay, but we will have our kings, and we want to have someone leading us like they do it in the world, never mind these little churches and pastors. We've got to have a big movement, and we are paying a serious price for that. God's plan for our age has always been very plain, and it has been very simple. For Israel, it was priests teaching the people, and parents training their families to do what God commands. God's plan today is local churches. The Bible says, and so were the churches established. gave pastors who are to teach faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. The Bible says in Ephesians 4.11, he gave some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints. The plan was plain. It was simple. God wanted pastors teaching the word of God, parents going home and making sure their children understand it. Ephesians 6.4 says, And ye fathers bring up them children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But no, we couldn't do that. We, like Israel, decided we had a better plan. So at first, Samuel, Aidan, four of the elders gathered themselves together and decided that they wanted to do it like the world did it. In the late 1800s, in the early 1900s, our leaders gathered themselves together because we were concerned about the advancement of modernism and liberalism. And we decided we needed to do something to combat our Philistines. So we decided we needed an ism to stand against modernism and liberalism, and so we called it Fundamentalism. We decided that God's local churches scattered everywhere could not handle the threat. That didn't make any sense. Like Israel, they said tribes scattered all over the place, no central leadership. That doesn't make any sense. What they basically said was God doesn't know what he's talking about. Well, we did exactly the same thing. We said, well, what we have to do is have a central leadership. We've got to have a movement. These little pastors and these little churches can't do it. Well, that's what God said to do. Oh yeah, God doesn't know what he's talking about. Let's just go ahead and do it like we want to do it. Let's do it like the nations. The world has colleges, so we organize colleges. The world gives doctor's degrees, so we give doctor's degrees. The world has newspapers, yeah, let's get some newspapers. The world has magazines, let's publish some magazines. The world has seminars, yeah, let's start some seminars. The world has associations, yeah. Do you know that Baptists have over 300 different associations? The world has a board of directors, that's what we need, and so let's get our parachurch ministries going, and we will have a board of directors. And the influence of pastors faded, and the influence of college presidents and professors took control, and soon we had the phrase, as goes the colleges, so go the churches. And the problem with that statement is it's true, it's exactly what's happening. And the other problem with it is it's unscriptural. That is not what God intended. Now, it's fine to have a college if it's part of your local church. That's fine. You can have a newspaper and you can have whatever if it's part of your local church. But we made a big mistake when we said we'll just put the churches back here in the background and we will come with our movement. Well, God's plan was we're going to have pastors in every city. Titus 1 and 5. Editors, presidents, professors have more influence than pastors. Scores of parachurch ministries with no scriptural foundation continue to spring up all around the world. Now, there are thousands of parachurch ministries on the internet doing that which is right in their own eyes. Some of them are more doctrinally correct than others, but none of them have a scriptural foundation to stand on. Did you hear me? No para-church ministry has a scriptural foundation to stand on, and neither do they have any direction in the Word of God as to how to operate. Why would God give them direction on how to operate on ministry that he never ordered in the first place? God's program today is the local church. That's it, plain and simple. Well, to add to our fundamental confusion, In the last 50 years, new issues have come to the forefront, with many fundamentalists taking many different positions concerning these issues, or taking no stand at all. A partial list includes such important issues as Bible translation, music standards, dress standards, Calvinism, lordship, salvation, repentance, separation, and the list goes on. While fundamentalists continue taking different positions on these issues, It becomes obvious that the word fundamental means many different things to many different people. The term now raises more questions than it answers. Fundamentalism is an ism. What's the dictionary say an ism is? It is a tag hooked on the end of a name that promotes a belief accepted as authoritative by a group. Let me give you that again. A tag hooked on the end of a name that promotes a belief accepted as authoritative by the group. Oh yeah, Fundamentalism says it, that's it, that's the authority. What is Fundamentalism? We've got all so many different brands of it, saying so many different things, nobody knows anymore. Well, let's look at some of these groups. We have, for example, Communism, Marxism, Socialism, Modernism, Muhammadism, Unitarianism, Catholicism, Nazism, Zionism, and fundamentalism. And the list goes on. The world hardly knows what the real gospel is anymore. And I say without apology, the blame lays at our feet. We have been weak, shallow, and cowardly in our stand for taking a stand on what is right and what is wrong. Well, the world has socialism. Socialism, a mixture of communism and Marxism, and any other thing contrary to capitalism. Well, like Socialism, we Fundamentalists have our own mixture of Fundamentalism. We have Fundamentalism, we have Neo-Fundamentalism, and Pseudo-Fundamentalism, and Militant Fundamentalism, and Moderate Fundamentalism, and the list goes on. So, like the world, we've got our ISM. Well, the world has its Modernism. Modernism represents those who modify traditional beliefs according to modern ideas. Well, since modernism represents the present as opposed to the past, modernism changes every few years. Like modernism, fundamentalism continually modifies its traditional beliefs according to the new modern ideas. We're no different than they are. The world has liberalism. Liberalism represents those who are open to new behavior or opinions and are willing to discard traditional values. Well, like liberalism, many who travel under the banner of fundamentalism are open to any new behavior or opinion while discarding traditional values. I've been a Christian for 59 years. I have seen fundamental groups come and I've seen them go. I've watched different groups of fundamentalism form their own core beliefs on what they thought was important. Like the first group they gathered together, and baptism wasn't important. They left one third of the Great Commission out of their teaching on concerning what fundamentalism is. Not one word is said in all of their writings, in their fundamentals, about baptism. Nothing. Why? Because we don't want to get the Presbyterians and the Anglicans upset. They're baptizing the babies. And so we can't go into this immersion thing. We can't, you know, baptism. Baptism. Immersion is not a mode of baptism. Immersion is baptism. There isn't any other kind in the Bible. Well, we just dumped that because we've got to have unity. We've got to have unity. And so nothing's changed. In fact, it's gotten a lot worse. And so I've watched fundamentalism change their position on such issues as the King James Bible, music standards, dress standards, separation standards, repentance and other issues. These things were and are being set aside for new, modern ideas of fundamentalism. I remember when the World Congress of Fundamentalism met in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1976. In their resolutions they said a fundamentalist maintains an immovable alliance to the inerrant, infallible, and verbal inspired Bible. A fundamentalist believes that whatever the Bible says is so. A fundamentalist judges all things by the Bible, and is judged by the Bible, and is judged only by the Bible. Well, wouldn't a Pentecostal Christian say that? Wouldn't a Brethren say that? Wouldn't a Calvinist say that? Any Christian would say that. Wouldn't Billy Graham and Jack Van Impey and most other TV evangelists agree with that statement? Of course they would. In their resolution they said, a fundamentalist maintains an immovable allegiance to the inerrant, infallible, and verbal inspired Bible. What Bible? Today there are many people running under the banner of fundamentalism using different translations of the Bible. In their resolution they said a fundamentalist believes that whatsoever the Bible says is so. Wouldn't every Christian denomination say they believe that? And which Bible are they talking about? In the resolution they said a fundamentalist judges all things by the Bible and is judged only by the Bible. If all fundamentalists are judged, all things, by the Bible, and only by the Bible, how is it we have so many different kinds of fundamentalists leading in so many different directions today? And not only that, our fundamentalists are very selective concerning doctrine these days. Some fundamentalists approve that the damnable heresy that teaches repentance is not necessary for salvation. Jesus said, I tell you, you shall all likewise perish. Oh yeah, we don't like that anymore. Can't get a crowd with that. Let's just dump that. They call themselves fundamentalists. Other fundamentalists promote the heresy of Calvinism which says that God may have brought your little girl and all the little girls in the nursery of the church into this world for no other reason than he could watch them burn in hell forever. That is heresy. Oh, lots of fundamentalists today are promoting that. Some fundamentalists accept the Bible teaching concerning separation or music standards or dress standards and repentance. Others reject it all or part of it. First Timothy 5, 21 says, I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another. doing nothing by partiality. Nothing by partiality? Most fundamentalists openly rebuked Christianity Today magazine for its liberal content. However, when the Sword of the Lord promoted the heresy put forth by Jack Hiles and Curtis Hudson that repentance is the enemy of soul winning, fundamentalists remained strangely quiet. Nothing by partiality? The Sword of the Lord even changed their hymn book to line up with this heresy, and fundamentalists' reaction? Nothing by partiality? What about when we're quick to separate from those men who have a little hair touching their collar and remain silent while fundamentalists attack the character of God with Calvinist heresy that says God brought people into the world for no other reason than to put them in hell? Doing nothing by partiality? Some are quick to denounce Bob Jones for having Calvinist Ian Paisley preach at his university, and remain silent when Clarence Sexton does the same thing. Some fundamentalists are quick to denounce Jack Van Impey for his associations, and yet remain silent when Jack Scott promoted Geronimo Aguilar and his sensual rap dancers at the Richmond Outreach Center, and Scott said what they were doing is awesome. He also said that Geronimo Aguilar was his very good friend and it's interesting that Jack Scott is in prison now for having sex with a minor and Geronimo Aguilar has seven felony abuse charges against him for having sex with two girls under the age of 14. Well, both these men had a crowd of people out there listening to them every week as they talked. Is crowd success? We seem to think so. I've traveled Canada from coast to coast many times. I've forgotten how many times. I have visited most of our churches, and across this country there are churches that are faithfully holding to the truth of the Word of God. Some have never seen their attendance grow above 50, and they never will. The Bible says, moreover, it is required in Stuart's that a man be found That's the answer right there, that we'd be found faithful. Well, two reasons we compromise. One is the desire to reach numbers, and the other is to get rid of the stigma of being a Bible Christian who obeys God. Well, there you have it, plain and simple. Be sure to tune in for our broadcast tomorrow as we continue this series on understanding the times in which we live. so so