The Task of Theological Humanism
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self-defining structure. It is a growing presence and force in American reaching millions of people with its combative message. One central trait of fundamentalism is its self-proclaimed militarism.back against “overhumanization.” (^11) Fundamentalists fight society,
technological drive to subdue the world, fundamentalists choose not to rely on human intellect but on the revealed will of God. They witness to Christ’s work in the saving of souls from a world besotted with evil. There can be no Decrying the rise of modernity, with its faith in scientific reason and its
compromise with the opposing forces of overhumanization. Mainline churches, which have traditionally sympathized with liberal Christian theo-logy in various forms, are part of a secular humanist heresy. Fundamentalists do not consider “liberal Christians” (i.e., non-exclusionist Christians, who
consider salvation to be redemption for the world on behalf of social justice) to be Christians at all. Liberal Christianity makes accommodations to modern thought, culture, and social structures; it adapts the message of Christianity to current trends and practices. For a fundamentalist, such accommodation
is betrayal of Christ and the Bible.istic threats to their core identity as Bible-believing Christians. They march under the banner of Christ. They struggle for a vision of the world shaped by a highly selective reading of the Bible.^12 Fundamentalists choose to fight human-
“ stages of God’s activity in history. History is the drama of a heavenly deity’s actions. The current age is that of the church. It is decisive for true believers dispensational pre-millennialism.”The foundational myth of many Christian fundamentalists is that of^13 According to the myth, there are seven
to belong to a true Christian church as a bulwark against the evil world outside, a church where faith is taught and lived. The stage to come is all-important: the rapture. Satan is still alive and well in this world, which grows increasingly corrupt. Christ will not tolerate the Evil One much
longer. Christ will come to take up true believers into his heaven above. All non-believers will be left behind to suffer the tribulation when the forces of God confront the forces of Satan. Following the final victory, Christ will institute a thousand-year reign. The purpose of the Christian life is to pre-
pare oneself, to be ready, for the rapture. This vision is widely propagated in the pulpits of fundamentalist churches and in the hugely popular books written by Tim LaHaye. For the fundamentalists, the Bible is inerr-ant; its literal sense is utterly trustworthy as the direct word of God to Left Behind
humans.tribulation of non-believers in such texts as Daniel, Revelation, Matthew 24 (esp. verses 37–41), and most importantly, Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians 4:15–18.^14 They find symbols and metaphors of both the rapture and the