This is a reprint of an article written by Missionary David Cloud, a Fundamentalist Baptist Missionary and founder of Way of Life Literature. David Cloud’s writings and tireless research into the history of Pentecostalism and my personal doubts with its core doctrines were the reasons why I left that movement in 2004.
Here David Cloud makes a strong Biblical case for Christian separation. One of my personal gripes with the evangelical Christian movement as a whole, is an outright acceptance of Churches, who teach doctrines, which are in direct conflict with the Word of God. This article tells the truth about this sort of “Unity” among the apostate Churches. It is my pleasure to reprint this on my blog.
The evangelical philosophy is often stated by the dictum, “In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things charity.”
Though commonly attributed to Augustine, it was apparently first stated by the 17th-century Lutheran Rupertus Meldenius (a.k.a. Peter Meiderlin).
It became the rallying cry of the Moravians, who had a wonderful missionary zeal but retained such Romanist heresies as infant baptism and an ordained priesthood and who promoted unity above the absolute truth of God’s Word for the purpose of “revival.”
The “in non-essentials liberty” principle was adopted by the fundamentalist movement of the 20th century. Fundamentalism focused on a unity built around “the fundamentals of the faith” while downplaying “minor issues.” The pragmatic objective was to create the largest possible united front against theological modernism and for evangelism and world missions.
“Historic fundamentalism has always been characterized by a core of biblical, historic, orthodox doctrines. … Most fundamentalists would be content with terms like ‘major doctrines’ or ‘cardinal doctrines’ to describe their consensus. … [T]here are other doctrinal distinctives that some may claim for themselves as fundamentalists. But to make these beliefs articles of fundamentalist faith would cut the movement’s channel more narrowly than history will allow” (Rolland McCune, Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal, Fall 1996).
Continue reading “Guest Voice:David Cloud – In Essentials Unity”