The Fundamentals

edited by RA Torrey

Published in the very early 1900s, this collection of faith based essays have been a beacon of truth in the years of attacks from doubters and devils.

The essays start off defending against the documentary hypothesis. This, now largely discredited belief, is that the Pentateuch was thrown together after the Babylonian exile and not written by Moses. I remember being pressured to accept that as truth from one of my High School teachers in the early 70s when she discovered I announced my calling to preach.

So, the first ten or so essays are worth the read although the theory isn’t widely accepted.

Beyond the Mosiac authorship defense, the collection of essays are well worth the time. Every other heresy addressed is still relevant today some 120 years later. The virgin birth, the cross, the resurrection, the new birth, inspiration, and a host of the other fundamentals are vigorously defended.

However, I think the greatest benefit of reading these essays is defining what is meant by fundamentalism. It isn’t believing your group of unique churches are right and everyone else is wrong. Fundamentalism is understanding what is important and locking arms with the larger community to defend it. This book is very, very much worth the read.


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *