A group of theologians, pastors and laypeople published a series of volumes titled “The Fundamentals”. Published between 1910 and 1915, these booklets defined what had been the non-negotiables of the faith since the Apostles’ Creed:
1) the infallibility of Scripture
2) the deity of Christ
3) the Virgin Birth and miracles of Christ
4) Christ’s substitutionary death
5) Christ’s physical resurrection and eventual return.
These were then, as they are today, the backbone of orthodox Christianity. If a fundamentalist is a person who affirms these truths, then there are fundamentalists in every denomination – Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, Brethren, Methodist, Episcopal …. Everyone who believes in the orthodox truths about Jesus Christ – in short, every Christian – is a fundamentalist. And we should not shrink from the term nor allow the secular world to distort its meaning.
– An excerpt from “The Body” by Charles Colson.