Revisiting the Fundamentals II

This is an excerpt from "The Fundamentals," the classic, multi-volume turn of the century work on Christian doctrine.

by Dr. L.W. Munhall

Sin separates and estranges the sinner from God; and he becomes an enemy of God by wicked works (Romans 8:7), has no peace, (Isaiah 57:21), no rest (Isaiah 57:20), is polluted (Ephesians 4:17-19), condemned (John 3:18), and without hope (Ephesians 2:12). Oh, the curse and ruin of sin!

If unrepenting and unbelieving, the future has for him, first, inexorable and awful judgment, second, the wrath of God, and third, eternal torments . . .

The preacher who ignores these three awful and inexorable truths preaches an imasculataed Gospel, be he never so faithful in proclaiming other truth. He who preaches the love of God to the exclusion of God's justice and wrath proclaims idle sentiment. No one will ever truly desire salvation unless he first realizes that there is something to be saved from. "By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house" (Hebrews 11:7); all of which symbolizes the sinner,s condition, need, motive and hope.

In no way can the love of God be so clearly, beautifully, and convincingly set forth as in the fact that God makes plain to the sinner his condition and peril, then shows him the way of escape, having in His great mercy, Himself provided it at infinite cost. Now, at this point the Gospel comes in as indeed good news, showing God's love for the sinner.

Revisiting the Fundamentals

I have recently begun reading the classic multi-volume set "The Fundamentals." Over at my own blog, I am going to introduce a weekly feature that will highlight clips from the series, about which you can read in a short history from Wheaton College. There is a possibility that I will also post it here.

The Fundamentals originally came out in the very early 1900s as a 12-volume set. Later, Dr. R.A. Torrey supervised combining most of the original essays into a four-volume set, which is available very reasonably through Christian Book Distributors.

This new feature will usually be posted on Saturdays or Sundays, but I'll give you a clip today just to show you what you're in for. It's really a treasure trove. The following is from Volume 1, and the essay "Life in the Word," by Philip Mauro . . .

Many unspiritual teachers in these last days, and many superficial readers of Scripture, deem it incredible that salvation, which is the beginning of the life of the risen Christ in the soul of a perishing man, should be wrought through an operation so apparently simple as that of receiving God's Word, through faith, into the heart.

The clear declarations of God's Word on this subject are indeed frequently ridiculed in pulpit utterances. But to such minds the germination of a seed by merely casting it into the ground would be equally incredible. These spiritually-blinded ones, wise in their own conceits, miss altogether the teaching of the Bible concerning the wonderful process of spiritual conception and generation, which, in view of the equally mysterious process of natural conception, should not be deemed "a thing incredible." "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made" (Romans 1:20).

The passage in 1 Peter 1 sets forth, moreover, the fact that spiritual regeneration through the Word of God conforms to the great biological law stated with such emphatic iteration in the first chapter of Genesis, namely, that the life imparted is the same in kind as that of its source, all the characteristics of the latter being reproduced in it. Emphasis is laid on the fact that the seed is incorruptable, and that the Word, which is its source, is eternal. Moreover, as in John's Gospel, the new, incorruptable and eternal life, which proceeds from spiritual conception by the Word of God, is put into direct contrast with the natural life, or "flesh." "For," continues the Apostle Peter, "all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." The prominent characteristic of grass is that it withereth, and of the flower of grass, or of plant life, is that it falleth away. "The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but "—in direct contrast with this—"the Word of the Lord endureth forever." So it does, and so do all they who are begotten of the incorruptible seed of the Word.

The passage closes with the unmistakably plain statement, "And this is the Word which, by the Gospel, is preached unto you."