Post by Daniel on Sept 8, 2016 20:52:15 GMT -5
The ‘Church’ Infecting Christianity: Where Did the Emergent Church ‘Emerge’ From?
By David Fiorazo on September 8, 2016
“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” Jude 1:3-4
It has crept and slithered through America since the early 1900s infecting countless victims. Its goals are compromise, ambiguity, tolerance, globalism, and in some cases, universalism. Its path is destruction and its foundation is sinking sand.
The ‘Emergent Church’ is a movement of the late 20th and early 21st century that crosses a number of theological boundaries. Followers, participants, and those who identify can be described as evangelical, post-evangelical, liberal or post-liberal, reformed, neo-charismatic, and post-charismatic. I refer to it as the Cult of Liberalism.
They seek to live their faith in what they believe to be a “Postmodern” society. It is an untraditional network of individual believers and churches that prefer to be understood as a “conversation” or a friendship rather than an organization. What those involved mostly agree on is their disdain for fundamental Christianity and disillusionment with the organized, traditional, and institutional church.
The emergent, or emegring church favors the use of simple story and narrative in preaching style. Adherents often place a high value on good works or social activism and action. The hallmark of the emergent church is the liberal, new age aspect including the practice of contemplative monastic meditation and prayers. While some do emphasize eternal salvation, many in the emerging church emphasize the here and now (taking care of the earth, etc.) and reject the inerrancy of Scripture.
Regarding doctrine, these folks reject systematic Christian theology, the integrity of Scripture, and gospel exclusivity. They don’t believe Christianity is the one true religion and many (but not all) in the emergent church promote homosexuality. Many deny the deity of Jesus Christ; they call for diversity, “unity,” and camaraderie among all religions, and they modify and expand their teachings. It is quite clearly and simply a war against the Truth.
At an emergent church workshop in San Diego about ten years ago, former national coordinator of the Emergent Village, Tony Jones stated:
“This is about our belief that theology changes. The message of the gospel changes. It’s not just the method that changes.”
What? I submit to you that Jesus never changed his message to fit the times! Books, sermons and articles have been and will be written about the emergent church, and I’ve come to realize that too many believers are at times uninterested, uninformed, or just plain apathetic about the Bible and understanding the times we live in. There are plenty of biblical warnings and information available on false teachers and teachings if you’re interested in doing the research.
In a revealing comment about why Jones departed from the traditional Bible church, he described his younger days in a Protestant church like this:
“I’d say there was one word that summed up my religious life: obligation.”
Rather than seek Christ’s kingdom first and dig into Scripture, Jones decided to travel the world and see how other religions and worshippers found peace through prayer and meditation.
“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” 1 Timothy 4:1
“Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:30
They are best-selling authors in Christian stores, speakers at entertaining music festivals, popular on the political Christian Left, and well-known leaders in religious circles. Theirs is often pseudo-Christianity and they have invaded the true body of Christ. Please understand the goal here is to provide various quotes directly from those considered part of the emergent church, not to explain or refute each one in detail.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Here are a few more quotes from Tony Jones:
“In any case, I now believe that GLBTQ [Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Queer] can live lives in accord with Biblical Christianity (at least as much as any of us can!) and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state.”
“I think the Bible is a f***ing scary book (pardon my French, but that’s the only way I know how to convey how strongly I feel about this).”
“Some people today may find it compelling that some Great Cosmic Transaction took place on that day 1,980 years ago, that God’s wrath burned against his son instead of me. I find that version of atonement theory neither intellectually compelling, spiritually compelling, nor in keeping with the biblical narrative.”
***
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. 2 Peter 2:1-3
Tony Campolo is an author, professor of Sociology at Eastern College, former spiritual counselor to President Bill Clinton, modern mystic, popular religious commentator, and a leader of the progressive evangelical movement, “Red Letter Christians.” I remember hearing Tony Campolo speak in California in the late 80s. I remember laughing a lot because he’s a great entertainer. He knows how to reach both young and old. His theology is more concerning than his presentation.
On June 8, 2015, Tony Campolo reiterated his support for the LGBTQ community, saying:
“As a social scientist, I have concluded that sexual orientation is almost never a choice and I have seen how damaging it can be to try to “cure” someone from being gay. As a Christian, my responsibility is not to condemn or reject gay people, but rather to love and embrace them, and to endeavor to draw them into the fellowship of the Church.”
He has concluded that it is “almost never a choice”? The fact is those within the medical, psychiatric, and scientific communities do not all agree with Campolo. Let’s clarify that we are to love all people and most believers try doing so; the difference is in accommodation. You can stand for God’s truth and accept someone living in sin without approving of their sin. A few more classic quotes from Campolo:
“Going to heaven is like going to Philadelphia… There are many ways…It doesn’t make any difference how we go there. We all end up in the same place.”
“On the other hand, we are hard-pressed to find any biblical basis for condemning deep love commitments between homosexual Christians as long as those commitments are not expressed in sexual intercourse.”
“But the overwhelming population of the gay community that love Jesus, that go to church, that are deeply committed in spiritual things, try to change and can’t change…”
“…we want to see God at work converting society, converting the systems, so that there aren’t the racist overtones, the economic injustices, the polluting of the atmosphere.”
“I learn about Jesus from other religions. They speak to me about Christ, as well… I’m not convinced that Jesus only lives in Christians.”
***
Brian McLaren is the founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, MD, he serves as a board chair for Sojourners, an emergent church leader and a founding member of Red Letter Christians.
“I don’t believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu or Jewish contexts…”
“Yes, I find a character named God who sends a flood that destroys all humanity except Noah’s family, but that’s almost trivial compared to a deity who tortures the greater part of humanity forever in infinite eternal conscious torment, three words that need to be read slowly and thoughtfully to feel their full import.”
“For many Christians, their faith is primarily about what happens to people after they die. That distracts them from seeking justice and living in a compassionate way while we’re still alive in this life. We need to go back and take another look at Jesus’ teachings about hell. For so many people, the conventional teaching about hell makes God seem vicious. That’s not something we should let stand.”
“In this light, a god who mandates an intentional supernatural disaster leading to unparalleled genocide is hardly worthy of belief, much less worship. How can you ask your children…to honor a deity so uncreative, over reactive, and utterly capricious regarding life?”
“In the Bible, save means ‘rescue’ or ‘heal’. It emphatically does not mean ‘save from hell’ or ‘give eternal life after death,’ as many preachers seem to imply in sermon after sermon.”
***
Jim Wallis is a lifelong political activist best known as the founder and editor of social justice powerhouse, Sojourners’ Magazine, for which he admitted to accepting money from George Soros, who has financed groups supporting abortion, Islam, and atheism. Wallis supports same-sex marriage, adheres to big tent progressive “Christianity,” and has been arrested 22 times for acts of civil disobedience. He served as a spiritual adviser to President Obama.
“I don’t think that abortion is the moral equivalent issue to slavery…I think poverty is the new slavery. Poverty and global inequality are the fundamental moral issues of our time. That’s my judgment.”
“Jesus didn’t talk about homosexuality at all; the Bible talks about the poor again and again and again.”
“Christianity will be impotent to lead a conversation on sexuality and gender if we do not bodily integrate our current understandings of humanity with our theology. This will require us to not only draw new conclusions about sexuality but will force us to consider new ways of being sexual.”
“As more Christians become influenced by liberation theology, finding themselves increasingly rejecting the values of institutions of capitalism, they will also be drawn to the Marxist analysis and praxis that is so central to the social justice movement.”
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. 7 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, 8 and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Mark 10:6-8
***
Rob Bell is the former pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI, a promoter of new spirituality and mysticism, and a former pop icon in the emergent church movement. Thanks in part to his liberal theology and to Oprah, Bell has been welcomed into millions of naive and unsuspecting Christian homes. Bell once described himself this way:
“I have as much in common with the performance artist, the standup comedian, the screenwriter, as I do with the theologian. I’m in an odd world where I make things and share them with people.”
Pastor Joe Schimmel wrote that Bell takes every possible liberty to “deny reality and to either explain Hell away or get everyone into Heaven, regardless of his or her rejection of God and the Gospel.” Bell tries to empty Hell of God’s holy wrath, and “he creates an exit door from the inside out and claims that Hell is merely what we make it.”
Rob Bell quotes:
“Repentance is not turning from sin. It is a ‘celebration’ of life in Christ. Anyone who tells you that you need to repent is not talking about Christianity.”
“Of all the billions of people who have ever lived, will only a select number ‘make it to a better place’ and every single other person suffer in torment and punishment forever? Is this acceptable to God? (from Love Wins)
“This participation is important, because Jesus and the prophets lived with an awareness that God has been looking for partners since the beginning, people who will take seriously the divine responsibility to care for the earth and each other in loving, sustainable ways.”
(And on page 178) “This God whom Jesus spoke of has always been looking for partners, people who are passionate about participating in the ongoing creation of the world.”
“What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births? …Could you still be a Christian? Is the way of Jesus still the best possible way to live?” (from Bell’s book Velvet Elvis)
“When people use the word hell, what do they mean? They mean a place, an event, a situation absent of how God desires things to be. Famine, debt, oppression, loneliness, despair, death, slaughter—they are all hell on earth. Jesus’ desire for his followers is that they live in such a way that they bring heaven to earth.
***
“Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.” Luke 13:22-24
Next, Doug Pagitt is another leader in the emergent church movement. An author and pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis, Pagitt was asked, “Is homosexuality incompatible with Christian faith?” He replied:
“NO. Being Gay and Christian is not a contradiction in any way.” (But wait, there’s more!)
“The inerrancy (of Scripture) debate is based on the belief that the Bible is the word of God, that the Bible is true because God made it and gave it to us as a guide to truth. But that’s not what the Bible says.”
“God is constantly creating anew. And God also, invites us to be recreated and join the work of God as co-(re)creators… Imagine the kingdom of God as the creative process of God reengaging in all that we know and experience… When we employ creativity to make this world better, we participate with God in the recreation of the world.”
“[T]he early evangelists recognized they could help the Jesus story make sense if Jesus was seen as someone who was chosen to appease the wrath of God – hence, the ‘anointed one’ who could do what no one else could do…”
***
Finally, Shane Claiborne is an author, co-founder of The Potter Street Community – formerly The Simple Way, a graduate of Eastern University and is a part of The Alternative Seminary in Philadelphia, PA. Like Tony Campolo, Claiborne is a Red Letter Christian. He is a leading figure in the New Monasticism movement and is featured in the documentary “The Ordinary Radicals.” He is an environmentalist and wrote the foreword to Ben Lowe’s “Green Revolution: Coming Together to Care for Creation.” He once stated that he “gave up Christianity to follow Jesus.”
In the words of Shane Claiborne:
“There are extremists, both Muslim and Christian, who kill in the name of their gods.”
“So for those of us who have nearly given up the church, may we take comfort in the words of St. Augustine: ‘The Church is a whore, but she’s my mother.’ She is a mess and has many illegitimate children. But she is also our momma…” (from Irresistible Revolution)
“But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the Kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy, too. But I guess that’s why God invented highlighers, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.”
If you’re like me, you had to look closely at several of the above quotes; something about them seems a little off. This can test our ability to judge between truth and error. Spurgeon once said, “Discernment is not a matter of knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is the difference between right and almost right.”
How did we get to the point where many of these liberal, emergent ideas and teachings have blended in with truth and sound doctrine? How have they slithered their way into modern Christianity? The answer goes back to the book of Genesis and the original sin of Adam and Eve. Remember how the serpent deceived Eve by questioning God? (“Did God really say…”) He then encouraged them to disobey God as he declared, “You will not surely die…” (Genesis 3:1-4)
All it takes is a seed of doubt and invitation to sin. Many progressive leaders and deceivers question absolute truth and promote ambiguity and confusion. No wonder these men are so popular – they’re going with the flow of pop culture. Paul warned about conforming to this world (Romans 12:2).
False teachers have been around since the early church days. The major issue with the emergent church is that they reject the authority of Scripture. These teachings were not accepted by evangelical Christians overnight. We can trace the rapid advancement of the emergent church to the late 80’s and 90’s, when people began talking about how to modernize and re-create church to be more attractive to the unchurched.
continue reading
davidfiorazo.com/2016/09/the-church-infecting-christianity/
By David Fiorazo on September 8, 2016
“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” Jude 1:3-4
It has crept and slithered through America since the early 1900s infecting countless victims. Its goals are compromise, ambiguity, tolerance, globalism, and in some cases, universalism. Its path is destruction and its foundation is sinking sand.
The ‘Emergent Church’ is a movement of the late 20th and early 21st century that crosses a number of theological boundaries. Followers, participants, and those who identify can be described as evangelical, post-evangelical, liberal or post-liberal, reformed, neo-charismatic, and post-charismatic. I refer to it as the Cult of Liberalism.
They seek to live their faith in what they believe to be a “Postmodern” society. It is an untraditional network of individual believers and churches that prefer to be understood as a “conversation” or a friendship rather than an organization. What those involved mostly agree on is their disdain for fundamental Christianity and disillusionment with the organized, traditional, and institutional church.
The emergent, or emegring church favors the use of simple story and narrative in preaching style. Adherents often place a high value on good works or social activism and action. The hallmark of the emergent church is the liberal, new age aspect including the practice of contemplative monastic meditation and prayers. While some do emphasize eternal salvation, many in the emerging church emphasize the here and now (taking care of the earth, etc.) and reject the inerrancy of Scripture.
Regarding doctrine, these folks reject systematic Christian theology, the integrity of Scripture, and gospel exclusivity. They don’t believe Christianity is the one true religion and many (but not all) in the emergent church promote homosexuality. Many deny the deity of Jesus Christ; they call for diversity, “unity,” and camaraderie among all religions, and they modify and expand their teachings. It is quite clearly and simply a war against the Truth.
At an emergent church workshop in San Diego about ten years ago, former national coordinator of the Emergent Village, Tony Jones stated:
“This is about our belief that theology changes. The message of the gospel changes. It’s not just the method that changes.”
What? I submit to you that Jesus never changed his message to fit the times! Books, sermons and articles have been and will be written about the emergent church, and I’ve come to realize that too many believers are at times uninterested, uninformed, or just plain apathetic about the Bible and understanding the times we live in. There are plenty of biblical warnings and information available on false teachers and teachings if you’re interested in doing the research.
In a revealing comment about why Jones departed from the traditional Bible church, he described his younger days in a Protestant church like this:
“I’d say there was one word that summed up my religious life: obligation.”
Rather than seek Christ’s kingdom first and dig into Scripture, Jones decided to travel the world and see how other religions and worshippers found peace through prayer and meditation.
“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” 1 Timothy 4:1
“Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:30
They are best-selling authors in Christian stores, speakers at entertaining music festivals, popular on the political Christian Left, and well-known leaders in religious circles. Theirs is often pseudo-Christianity and they have invaded the true body of Christ. Please understand the goal here is to provide various quotes directly from those considered part of the emergent church, not to explain or refute each one in detail.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Here are a few more quotes from Tony Jones:
“In any case, I now believe that GLBTQ [Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Queer] can live lives in accord with Biblical Christianity (at least as much as any of us can!) and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state.”
“I think the Bible is a f***ing scary book (pardon my French, but that’s the only way I know how to convey how strongly I feel about this).”
“Some people today may find it compelling that some Great Cosmic Transaction took place on that day 1,980 years ago, that God’s wrath burned against his son instead of me. I find that version of atonement theory neither intellectually compelling, spiritually compelling, nor in keeping with the biblical narrative.”
***
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. 2 Peter 2:1-3
Tony Campolo is an author, professor of Sociology at Eastern College, former spiritual counselor to President Bill Clinton, modern mystic, popular religious commentator, and a leader of the progressive evangelical movement, “Red Letter Christians.” I remember hearing Tony Campolo speak in California in the late 80s. I remember laughing a lot because he’s a great entertainer. He knows how to reach both young and old. His theology is more concerning than his presentation.
On June 8, 2015, Tony Campolo reiterated his support for the LGBTQ community, saying:
“As a social scientist, I have concluded that sexual orientation is almost never a choice and I have seen how damaging it can be to try to “cure” someone from being gay. As a Christian, my responsibility is not to condemn or reject gay people, but rather to love and embrace them, and to endeavor to draw them into the fellowship of the Church.”
He has concluded that it is “almost never a choice”? The fact is those within the medical, psychiatric, and scientific communities do not all agree with Campolo. Let’s clarify that we are to love all people and most believers try doing so; the difference is in accommodation. You can stand for God’s truth and accept someone living in sin without approving of their sin. A few more classic quotes from Campolo:
“Going to heaven is like going to Philadelphia… There are many ways…It doesn’t make any difference how we go there. We all end up in the same place.”
“On the other hand, we are hard-pressed to find any biblical basis for condemning deep love commitments between homosexual Christians as long as those commitments are not expressed in sexual intercourse.”
“But the overwhelming population of the gay community that love Jesus, that go to church, that are deeply committed in spiritual things, try to change and can’t change…”
“…we want to see God at work converting society, converting the systems, so that there aren’t the racist overtones, the economic injustices, the polluting of the atmosphere.”
“I learn about Jesus from other religions. They speak to me about Christ, as well… I’m not convinced that Jesus only lives in Christians.”
***
Brian McLaren is the founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, MD, he serves as a board chair for Sojourners, an emergent church leader and a founding member of Red Letter Christians.
“I don’t believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu or Jewish contexts…”
“Yes, I find a character named God who sends a flood that destroys all humanity except Noah’s family, but that’s almost trivial compared to a deity who tortures the greater part of humanity forever in infinite eternal conscious torment, three words that need to be read slowly and thoughtfully to feel their full import.”
“For many Christians, their faith is primarily about what happens to people after they die. That distracts them from seeking justice and living in a compassionate way while we’re still alive in this life. We need to go back and take another look at Jesus’ teachings about hell. For so many people, the conventional teaching about hell makes God seem vicious. That’s not something we should let stand.”
“In this light, a god who mandates an intentional supernatural disaster leading to unparalleled genocide is hardly worthy of belief, much less worship. How can you ask your children…to honor a deity so uncreative, over reactive, and utterly capricious regarding life?”
“In the Bible, save means ‘rescue’ or ‘heal’. It emphatically does not mean ‘save from hell’ or ‘give eternal life after death,’ as many preachers seem to imply in sermon after sermon.”
***
Jim Wallis is a lifelong political activist best known as the founder and editor of social justice powerhouse, Sojourners’ Magazine, for which he admitted to accepting money from George Soros, who has financed groups supporting abortion, Islam, and atheism. Wallis supports same-sex marriage, adheres to big tent progressive “Christianity,” and has been arrested 22 times for acts of civil disobedience. He served as a spiritual adviser to President Obama.
“I don’t think that abortion is the moral equivalent issue to slavery…I think poverty is the new slavery. Poverty and global inequality are the fundamental moral issues of our time. That’s my judgment.”
“Jesus didn’t talk about homosexuality at all; the Bible talks about the poor again and again and again.”
“Christianity will be impotent to lead a conversation on sexuality and gender if we do not bodily integrate our current understandings of humanity with our theology. This will require us to not only draw new conclusions about sexuality but will force us to consider new ways of being sexual.”
“As more Christians become influenced by liberation theology, finding themselves increasingly rejecting the values of institutions of capitalism, they will also be drawn to the Marxist analysis and praxis that is so central to the social justice movement.”
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. 7 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, 8 and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Mark 10:6-8
***
Rob Bell is the former pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI, a promoter of new spirituality and mysticism, and a former pop icon in the emergent church movement. Thanks in part to his liberal theology and to Oprah, Bell has been welcomed into millions of naive and unsuspecting Christian homes. Bell once described himself this way:
“I have as much in common with the performance artist, the standup comedian, the screenwriter, as I do with the theologian. I’m in an odd world where I make things and share them with people.”
Pastor Joe Schimmel wrote that Bell takes every possible liberty to “deny reality and to either explain Hell away or get everyone into Heaven, regardless of his or her rejection of God and the Gospel.” Bell tries to empty Hell of God’s holy wrath, and “he creates an exit door from the inside out and claims that Hell is merely what we make it.”
Rob Bell quotes:
“Repentance is not turning from sin. It is a ‘celebration’ of life in Christ. Anyone who tells you that you need to repent is not talking about Christianity.”
“Of all the billions of people who have ever lived, will only a select number ‘make it to a better place’ and every single other person suffer in torment and punishment forever? Is this acceptable to God? (from Love Wins)
“This participation is important, because Jesus and the prophets lived with an awareness that God has been looking for partners since the beginning, people who will take seriously the divine responsibility to care for the earth and each other in loving, sustainable ways.”
(And on page 178) “This God whom Jesus spoke of has always been looking for partners, people who are passionate about participating in the ongoing creation of the world.”
“What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births? …Could you still be a Christian? Is the way of Jesus still the best possible way to live?” (from Bell’s book Velvet Elvis)
“When people use the word hell, what do they mean? They mean a place, an event, a situation absent of how God desires things to be. Famine, debt, oppression, loneliness, despair, death, slaughter—they are all hell on earth. Jesus’ desire for his followers is that they live in such a way that they bring heaven to earth.
***
“Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.” Luke 13:22-24
Next, Doug Pagitt is another leader in the emergent church movement. An author and pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis, Pagitt was asked, “Is homosexuality incompatible with Christian faith?” He replied:
“NO. Being Gay and Christian is not a contradiction in any way.” (But wait, there’s more!)
“The inerrancy (of Scripture) debate is based on the belief that the Bible is the word of God, that the Bible is true because God made it and gave it to us as a guide to truth. But that’s not what the Bible says.”
“God is constantly creating anew. And God also, invites us to be recreated and join the work of God as co-(re)creators… Imagine the kingdom of God as the creative process of God reengaging in all that we know and experience… When we employ creativity to make this world better, we participate with God in the recreation of the world.”
“[T]he early evangelists recognized they could help the Jesus story make sense if Jesus was seen as someone who was chosen to appease the wrath of God – hence, the ‘anointed one’ who could do what no one else could do…”
***
Finally, Shane Claiborne is an author, co-founder of The Potter Street Community – formerly The Simple Way, a graduate of Eastern University and is a part of The Alternative Seminary in Philadelphia, PA. Like Tony Campolo, Claiborne is a Red Letter Christian. He is a leading figure in the New Monasticism movement and is featured in the documentary “The Ordinary Radicals.” He is an environmentalist and wrote the foreword to Ben Lowe’s “Green Revolution: Coming Together to Care for Creation.” He once stated that he “gave up Christianity to follow Jesus.”
In the words of Shane Claiborne:
“There are extremists, both Muslim and Christian, who kill in the name of their gods.”
“So for those of us who have nearly given up the church, may we take comfort in the words of St. Augustine: ‘The Church is a whore, but she’s my mother.’ She is a mess and has many illegitimate children. But she is also our momma…” (from Irresistible Revolution)
“But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the Kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy, too. But I guess that’s why God invented highlighers, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.”
If you’re like me, you had to look closely at several of the above quotes; something about them seems a little off. This can test our ability to judge between truth and error. Spurgeon once said, “Discernment is not a matter of knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is the difference between right and almost right.”
How did we get to the point where many of these liberal, emergent ideas and teachings have blended in with truth and sound doctrine? How have they slithered their way into modern Christianity? The answer goes back to the book of Genesis and the original sin of Adam and Eve. Remember how the serpent deceived Eve by questioning God? (“Did God really say…”) He then encouraged them to disobey God as he declared, “You will not surely die…” (Genesis 3:1-4)
All it takes is a seed of doubt and invitation to sin. Many progressive leaders and deceivers question absolute truth and promote ambiguity and confusion. No wonder these men are so popular – they’re going with the flow of pop culture. Paul warned about conforming to this world (Romans 12:2).
False teachers have been around since the early church days. The major issue with the emergent church is that they reject the authority of Scripture. These teachings were not accepted by evangelical Christians overnight. We can trace the rapid advancement of the emergent church to the late 80’s and 90’s, when people began talking about how to modernize and re-create church to be more attractive to the unchurched.
continue reading
davidfiorazo.com/2016/09/the-church-infecting-christianity/
!!
