Why you should become a Bible-believing anarchist
who also believes the universe was created around 4004 B.C.
The great Presbyterian scholar J. Gresham Machen wrote a book entitled Christianity and Liberalism, arguing that liberal Protestantism was not just another brand of Christianity, alongside conservative Bible-believing Christianity, but was not Christianity at all, but a completely separate religion. I agree with Machen, and I consider myself a conservative Bible-believing Christian like Machen. But Machen did not defend creationism, and although he was a political libertarian, did not consider himself an anarchist, and probably would be alarmed at the suggestion we abolish civil government.
Machen was a colleague of Cornelius Van Til, who said "There is no alternative but that of theonomy and autonomy." Machen's book could have been titled "Theonomyism and Autonomyism," but Christianity and Liberalism probably sold more copies. "Theonomy" means "submitted to God's Commands." "Autonomy" means "making up my own religion as I go along." Van Til's festschrift was entitled Jerusalem and Athens.
"Fundamentalism" is the belief that the Bible is the Word of God the Creator, and we should just believe that whatever the Bible says is true, regardless of what any created being says.
"Whatever the Bible says" is a tricky phrase. But not too tricky. Jesus said "I am the door" (John 10:7-9). This does not mean that Jesus is a plank of wood that swings on brass hinges. There are literary devices used in the Bible, and no "fundamentalist" denies this.
The Bible was written by intelligent adults for intelligent adults.
"The Fundamentals" were a series of doctrinal booklets published around 1910. They were an apologetic response to "modernism," or "liberalism," which denied "fundamental" doctrines like the deity of Christ and His virgin birth; doctrines which "liberals" agree were taught and believed by the "pre-scientific" authors of the Bible, but cannot be believed by "modern man."
"Fundamentalist" simply describes a formal commitment to the Bible as the Word of God. Among such people could be numbered: Augustine, Calvin, Gov. John Winthrop ("City on a hill"), Jonathan Edwards, Abraham Kuyper (Prime Minister of the Netherlands), B.B. Warfield, and J. Gresham Machen. Some of the booklets promoted "premillennialism," which authors of other booklets may not have agreed with.
Machen intersects with the Scopes Trial saga. You may want to check that link.
It is richly ironic that H.L. Mencken wrote a positive obituary about J. Gresham Machen. In that obituary, Mencken disagrees with Machen's fundamentalism, but claims that fundamentalism is more logical than liberalism, which doesn't even have a claim at being a logical religion. Liberals claim to be Christian but don't even agree with all the fundamentals of the Christian religion. Why do they bother going to church or dressing up like clergymen? At least fundamentalists are trying to be consistent with principles with which Mencken and other liberals don't agree. Mencken's obituary, "Dr. Fundamentalis," appeared in the Baltimore Evening Sun (January 18, 1937), 2nd Section, p. 15:
Machen was an intelligent fundamentalist. Mencken respected Machen for not being a hypocrite. The opponents of "fundamentalists" were known as "modernists" a century ago, and "liberals" more recently. Machen wrote a book entitled Christianity and Liberalism, in which he argued that "Christianity" without the fundamentals of Christianity is not just Christianity with some theological errors, but a completely different religion from Christianity. That means the mainstream Christian religions like United Methodists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians are not Christian churches at all. Mencken agreed with Machen on this. Why do liberals pretend to be Christians when they hate Christianity? Mencken hated hypocrites.
When Princeton Theological Seminary (home of fundamentalists like B.B. Warfield) abandoned the fundamentals in favor of liberalism, Machen left Princeton and formed the Westminster Theological Seminary. Machen was pushed out of the liberal Presbyterian church and founded the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. These events were front-page news in the New York Times, back in a day when Americans still cared a little about true religion and the press was not as frequently criticized for "liberal bias." It's a different world today.
Machen's book Christianity and Liberalism could have been titled, Liberalism vs. Fundamentalism.
Westminster Seminary and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church were committed to preserving the "fundamentals" of the Christian faith in the tradition of Calvin and the Protestant Reformers.
These are the issues Machen discussed in his book on Liberalism:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Doctrine
Chapter 3: "God & Man"
Chapter 4: "The Bible"
Chapter 5: "Christ"
Chapter 6: "Salvation"
Chapter 7: "The Church"
Liberalism denies the supernatural character of doctrines like the virgin birth and resurrection of Christ.
But anti-liberal Christians like Machen and Warfield did not see that evolution was liberalism/naturalism.
Machen didn't see that statism was liberalism/naturalism
World history is the history of liberalism/naturalism: Morris says Evolution is a "Long War Against God"
Civilization is based on the Bible, not on naturalism. Naturalism leads to the collapse of civilization.
The writers of the Bible were "fundamentalists." They believed what they wrote. Fundamentalists believe what the Bible teaches. Liberals don't.
If you want to be a "Christian," you have to be a "fundamentalist." Otherwise, you're just making up your own religion and cloaking it with the label "Christian."
The issue is authority. Some people are willing to let the Word of God be their authority. Other people want to be their own authority. Some choose several authorities from the Authority Smörgåsbord, but it is still they themselves who decide which "authority" will be on their plate. Atheistic anarchists say allowing the God of the Bible to be one's ultimate Authority is inconsistent with the principle of being your own god. That's a logical position. The Christian Anarchist worships and serves the Creator as Ultimate Archist rather than any creature (Romans 1:25).
Jesus is the incarnate Word (John 1:1)
The Bible is the inscriptured Word.
Supernaturalism vs. naturalism
Theonomy vs. Autonomy