Preservings $20 No. 25, December, 2005 - Plett Foundation

preached predestination (or eternal security),
Arminius taught it was possible to fall from
grace. This teaching was adopted by John
Wesley (1793-91) in England and became part
of the Methodist Creed.
From George Whitefield (1714-70) and
John Wesley came the “Holiness movement”
in England, from which developed American
Revivalism in the 19th century, also known
as “the great awakening”. Fundamentalism
developed in 1900 as a reaction against theological
liberalism which originated with the
European “enlightenment”. By the 1950s this
movement has become a synonym for bigotry
and intolerant legalism, so that Protestant
Fundamentalists in North America reinvented
themselves as so-called Evangelicals.
These developments were paralleled on
the European continent by Separatist Pietism
which came out of Lutheran and Reformed
orthodoxy in the 18th century. Both American
Revivalism and German Separatist Pietism
adopted the dispensational teachings of Darby
later popularized by Scofield and the American
Bible school movement of the 1920 and 30s.
Biblical Interpretation.
Each confession has its own way of interpreting
the Bible. The reason is that possibly
neither is wrong, but emphasize a particular
truth over against other truths. For example,
Anabaptists rated believers’ baptism highly,
Luther stressed grace, Methodists favoured holiness,
while Mennonites emphasised discipleship.
Dispensationalists denied the Gospels,
focusing instead on end-times speculation
and a mania to spread their dogma throughout
the world.
Christ was the foundation stone of faith for
conservative Mennonites and Hutterites and
the Bible was interpreted accordingly. Their
faith was manifested by following in Christ’s
footsteps; they believed in living out His teachings
and emulating His life as set forth in the
Gospels--referring to Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John. Hence conservative Mennonite faith
and religious culture can be characterized as
“Gospel-centric.”
As already mentioned, American Revivalists,
Fundamentalists and about 80 per cent of
modern-day Evangelicals adhere to Scofieldian
or dispensational thinking that the Gospels
do not apply in the current time period, only
coming into force in some mythical future
1000 year reign. Consequently there exists a
huge chasm between the religious cultures of
so-called Evangelicals and that of conservative
Mennonites. The faith of the latter is specifically
predicated on the Gospels, while that of
the former specifically denies the Gospels in
the present time.
In this sense conservative Mennonites and
Hutterites have more in common with their
Catholic, Orthodox and traditional Protestant
brothers and sisters in Christ, as none of these
groups have officially denied the efficacy of
Gospels.
World-View.
16 - Preservings No. 25, December 2005
The underlying world-view or Weltanschauung
of a particular faith or confession,
will to some degree articulate and define its
religious culture.
The Calvinist/Revivalist/Fundamentalist
stream of religious culture, propounds a negative
view of man’s place in the universe. Mankind
was evil from creation, and completely
dammed. In their view only by taking certain
legalistic and precisely defined “steps” could a
relationship ever be established with God. The
idea of a climatic conversion experience which
evolved in this context supposedly responded
to the question of how such a relationship
could be established.
Conservative Mennonites, in contrast, had
a more positive view of man’s place in the
universe. They believed man was essentially
good, being created in God’s image. Individuals
at birth were seen as fully redeemed and
wholesome beings. Upon reaching the age of
mental accountability, believers needed only
to claim, affirm and appropriate the grace
and mercy of God. There was no need for an
artificial dramatic conversion experience, nor
was the necessity of such an entrance ritual
taught anywhere in scripture. Individuals, at
least those from Christian homes, were raised
in God’s kingdom and always part of it.
Conservative Mennonite religious culture
was fundamentally literate as each believer
was called to read and study scripture. History
was seen as the record of God working
among His people. It was important to document
God’s goodness through the centuries,
the record of which illuminated the way into
the future.
American Fundamentalism, by comparison,
had significant anti-intellectual, anti-literate
and anti-historical elements, being largely
articulated by futuristic end-times speculation.
The personal history of individuals and even
communities were perceived as obstacles to
full and unequivocal integration into their “superior”
religious culture and manifest destiny
for world hegemony.
Such variances in world-view have created
parallel differences in the religious cultures
of the two streams of Christian thought.
Revivalists/ Fundamentalists created a series
of legalistic procedures and steps that the
individual needed to complete successfully
before being recognized as a fully redeemed
human being.
Conservative Mennonites believed the only
precondition for salvation was a penitent heart.
This was well expressed in 1882 by Kleine
Gemeinde Aeltester Abraham L. Friesen
(1831-1917), Jansen, Nebraska, who wrote,
“In simplicity of mind we hold that a true
heartfelt remorse and repentance is a presentable
reformation upon which we are promised
salvation, and which is the foundation of every
conversion,” Leaders, page 569.
Cultural Interaction.
Each perspective needs to be respected by
those who interpret the Bible differently. Each
religious sub-culture within Christianity has at
some point been led of God to its particular
theological and cultural formation.
For the most part--at least in the last century,
Christian confessions have conducted
themselves honourably with respect to each
other as well as towards religious cultures of
other faiths.
But this has not always been the case.
While so-called Evangelicals like to posture
in the media as a persecuted minority, their
treatment of other religious cultures has often
been heartless and cruel, premised on a belief
in a divine destiny as the dominant religious
culture, and often as the “only” religious culture
of worth and validity. An example of this
sort of myopic attitude is seen in Bob Jones III,
President of Bob Jones University, a southern
Baptist Bible seminary, who has characterized
Pope John Paul II, undoubtedly among the
greatest Christian leaders of our time, as an
“Anti-Christ.”
The traditional argument of American
Revivalist-Fundamentalist-Evangelicals to
conservative Mennonites and Hutterites was
that culture impeded/hindered salvation. There
may be some truth to this assertion to the extent
that it inhibited them from abandoning their
Gospel-centric faith and succumbing to the
separatist message of so-called Evangelicals.
What the predators were really saying was,
“your culture impedes salvation according to
the legalistic creed of our religious culture.”
Or to put it another way, “abandon your
culture--ours is good, yours is bad, or even
invalid and evil.”
Faith over Culture.
Of course, this is not to say that believers
should not be willing to re-evaluate their
culture and traditions. Jesus re-evaluated the
Jewish culture of His time in the Sermon on
the Mount. He criticized the scribes for their
interpretation of the Old Testament and then
deepened the tradition by raising the standard
of moral conduct among those who would
follow Him.
Conservative Mennonites and Hutterites
are sometimes held up as examples of how
culture can be stifling, inhibiting a vigorous
faith. How important can it be that the buggies
are of a certain construction or that clothes are
of a particular fabric and colour?
It appears self-evident that community
protocol such as those of the Amish and Old
Colony Mennonites manifested in the objective
or material realm are much less damaging
psychologically and less traumatising than the
insidious internal or subjective mind control
techniques commonly used by American
Fundamentalists during the 1950s to establish
absolute dominance over adherents.
All religious cultures, nonetheless, should
realize that traditions even though inspired
and wrought of God will not place believers
into a relationship with God. Traditions are
important but should not be over emphasized.
Culture like money is unavoidable but should
not become the reigning paradigm.
One sees this in religious cultures such as