Fundamentalism works until you realize there is someone else in the room; someone who believes differently, thinks differently, who thinks that what they believe is as inerrant as what you believe.
If the two of you are to survive, love will have to prevail. And whether the rationale for that love is based on the other’s faith or yours; love must prevail. Otherwise you'll kill each other and God gets no glory in that. He who hates another does not know God.
Some of us believe in the inerrancy of scripture, that scripture is the real test of whether something’s true or not. But if that were true there would have been no reason for Jesus to resist the devil in the wilderness. After all, the devil was quoting scripture. He quoted more bible verses than Jesus did.
So if inerrancy exists, it must be in something other than just the words. Interpretation matters, but application even more. And that’s the rub, because even two fundamentalists can’t agree on interpretation, let alone how to live it out.
‘The commandments … are summed up in this one rule: “love your neighbour as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.’ Romans 13:9,10. Paraphrasing 1 John 3:18,19 ‘we know that we belong to the truth when we love not just with words but with actions.’
The poignancy and truthfulness of what fundamentalists believe have little to do with how many verses they can quote. It has to do with whether they love.
For a day will come when the fundamentalist is in the same room as his enemy. If he loves his enemy, as Christ loved his enemies, then fundamentalist or not, he’s got the application right, and that is all that really matters.
I am biting my tongue as I write this, keenly aware of my predisposition to debate with fundamentalists over anything from eschatology to gay rights, but I’ll say nothing more lest the next room I’m in is with a fundamentalist, who God puts there to test what I really believe!
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