A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

rgin birth of Jesus, the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, a substitutionary theory of the atonement, and the imminent, bodily second coming of Christ. It can be readily seen why Mennonites, with their historic position of orthodoxy and evangelicalism, would be affected by the Fundamentalist movement. Most Mennonites, according to Bender, sympathized warmly with the struggle against modernism. 62 By and large, however, they did not formally join the Fundamentalist ranks, although they almost without exception held to the fundamentals and considered themselves fundamentalists in a descriptive sense. It would appear that Mennonite Brethren have been more susceptible to Fundamentalist influences than any other Mennonite group. When the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) was organized in 1944, the only Mennonite body to join it was the Mennonite Brethren Church. The more conservative Mennonite bodies were aided in their resistance to Fundamentalist influences by their traditional objection to outside contacts, and by their strong emphasis on nonresistance which the Fundamentalists usually sharply rejected. In commenting on the positive influences of Fundamentalism on the M.B. Church V. Adrian makes the following statement: "Fundamentalism was valuable for a time and to some degree. Its principle was to concentrate its defence and apologetics in that area of Christian faith which was most under attack and which was absolutely essential to Christian faith."" The liabilities of a fundamentalistic attitude have also been evident 376 HISTORY OF THE MENNON1TE BRETHREN CHURCH in the M.B. Church. Fundamentalism, essentially an apologetic movement, built its theology on very narrow premises. The "five points" of Fundamentalism, valuable as they are, do not exhaust the content of the Christian faith and message. The liabilities of such a concentration on certain biblical truths are that other major doctrines are often minimized or neglected since they do not fit into the "system." Fundamentalism has concentrated on Christian dogmatics, rather than on Christian ethics. It has emphasized man's relationship to God but has failed to give equal emphasis to man's relationship to his neighbor as taught by Christ: "And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:39). Fundamentalism has exalted "the work of the cross" but has been strangely silent about "the way of the cross" and the demands of Christian discipleship." Mennonite Brethren teaching on the ethic of love and nonresistance has fared badly under the influence of Fundamentalism. Since many liberal theologians were pacifists in their attitude toward war, Fundamentalists generally rejected nonresistance as part of a liberal theology, without differentiating between humanistic pacifism and biblical nonresistance. 61 Hyper-Fundamentalists have through the years been known for their support of militarism and nation