Why Fundamentalism Is Not Faith

I find the perspective of the author of the following article (that I’m reposting below) interesting and useful.  It conforms to my own experience and observations during the two decades or so I spent in more conservative churches, including some very “Fundamentalist” congregations.  Which is that yes: there is comfort and value in “knowing God” and coming to know the great Love God has for us, which many if not most such churches espouse.

But, if God is present and speaking in the present world, then God cannot be a static or unchanging God.  Nothing else is – the very core of the nature of Creation is constant change and variety, an infinity of possibilities and realizations, each reflecting their own instantiation of some aspect of the nature of God.

So, if we claim that the Bible is in fact an inerrant, and direct (read: unchanging) revelation of God’s word that is without contradiction, then we must be careful to not assume that our own finite minds are capable of fully comprehending even a tiny portion of the infinitude of God that is the source of that document.

Many of us make this mistake, concluding that our current understanding is the only valid understanding of what our faith (or “The Truth,” whatever that means), and the Bible, is attempting to tell us.

When we do that, then we’ve set up our own perspective as an inerrant and unchanging standard for our faith.  The result is that any possibility of coming closer to God is actually lost. What we believe now becomes the standard, and an idol. And, God’s voice becomes hard to discern, if not entirely silent – lost in the noise of our own selfishness and egocentricity.

God is still speaking.  We are called to listen for God’s voice and be open to the power of change and growth that is always an inherent part of God’s Word., God is not only speaking to us directly, but also through everything, and everyone around us.  No one has a monopoly on comprehension of God, and no one understands more than a tiny fraction of all that God is, or all that God says, to us.