This is a follow-up to the Apprising Ministries piece Doug Pagitt And The Emerging Church Agenda and gives you more evidence concerning the so-called “conversation” of the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church that morphed into Emergence Christianity (EC). You need to understand that this cult of a postliberalism, now firmly within mainstream evangelicalism, was always a “revolution” with an agenda i.e. they really weren’t wanting to seriously listen to anyone who wasn’t going to get on-board with its desire to infiltrate the mainstream of the church visble.

A leading figure in this de-formation of proper biblical Christianity from its evil beginnings was heretical quasi-universalist pastor Doug Pagitt. In such pieces as Christianity 21: Emerging Voices Of A Pseudo-Christian Faith I warned you concerning the recently concluded EC apostasia-palooza Christianity 21 (C 21), which Pagitt put on along with his equally heretical friend and “theologian in residence” Tony Jones. I also showed you that C 21 was to have alleged “innovative” and “most important voices for the future of Christianity” who supposedly spoke to “shape the future of our faith.”

C 21 featured such familiar EC names as Phyllis Tickle, the Empress of Emergence Christianity, “queer inclusive” ELCA “pastor” Nadia Bolz-Weber, Makeesha Fisher, Julie Clawson, and gay affirming PCUSA “pastor” Nanette Sawyer. And another C 21 “voice” was Danielle Shroyer who is “pastor” of Journey Church in Dallas, TX, whom I briefly introduced to you in Tony Jones And Courtney Perry Et Al. Yesterday in her post What do you do when a revolution isn’t sexy anymore? Shroyer is quite revealing re. the EC agenda as she writes:

I stumbled into this conversation as an eighteen year old college freshman in Waco, Texas.  A few short years later, I felt as if I’d accidentally been placed among a fabulous group of people who happened to be sitting on top of a revolutionary volcano. It was thrilling, and sexy, and I quite literally believed that we were going to change the world…

I’ll freely admit- I went through a time of mourning that the sexiness of the new revolution is likely behind us.  Those were some great moments.  But then one day, something beautiful dawned on me:  the reason why it doesn’t feel as new and cutting edge anymore is because it worked.  These new ideas actually infiltrated such strange and previously unheard-of places as Bible colleges (who would have thought in 1999 that ANY place, much less a Bible college, would offer a degree in emerging church studies???) and denominational headquarters (whoever would have thought we’d gain the appreciative ear of the Archbishop of CANTERBURY?!) and the shelves of Barnes and Noble (who’d have guessed this conversation would produce stacks and stacks of books that publishers wanted to buy and readers wanted to purchase?!). 

Who knew that there would be so many communities of faith across the GLOBE putting this theology and ecclesiology into practice for people trying to find a way to follow Jesus? If Andrew [Jones aka Tall Skinny Kiwi] thinks that 2009 is the year the emerging church conversation ceased to be controversial, it’s because we have convinced enough of the status quo that we’re right…

I remember a moment in 2004 at the National Pastors Convention/Emergent Convention in Nashville when Doug Pagitt and I were walking down the hallway.  The evening general sessions were both underway, and as we walked past the door of the NPC session, we noticed there was an artist painting live on stage, and a camera was showing his work and displaying it up on huge video screens overhead for all to see.  We looked at each other, wide-eyed.

The revolution we now call the emerging church movement may  not be as sexy as it once was… But it is far from over…overall, I feel incredibly proud and humbled to have been a tiny, tiny part of what the Spirit is doing in our midst. (Online source, emphasis mine)

We note a couple of things above: 1) Such as these never were going to listen to dissenting views because they already had their own preconceived agenda to change [read: take over] the visible church with their “new ideas” by convincing “enough of the status quo” that they were “right”; and 2) Shroyer just happens to mention Doug Pagitt. This would be the same Doug Pagitt that Andrew Jones, who was also part of it, tells us in Is the Blogosphere Ready for Mark Driscoll? is the very one whom Leadership Network had assemble what “became Terra Nova and then Emergent”.

And any doubt as to the true motives of those in the inner circle of the EC is cleared up for us below by Shroyer in her later response to a commenter on her piece in the combox here:

I’d argue that yes, what has been labeled the emerging church conversation has begun the process of revolutionizing the theology and ecclesiological practices of the Church. We are reforming the traditions and ideas handed down to us by both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism and even Orthodoxy. Further, we are not only rethinking old things and reintroducing forgotten concepts; we are also creating entirely new ones. (Online source)

The issue’s pretty clear: For one to embrace this uber-ecumenical Emerging/ent/ence version of Christianity as a move of God they really must reject the Protestant Reformation. And as we close this out for now, I point you again to a lecture by Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989) whom even evangelical icon Billy Graham called “the most articulate spokesman for evangelical Christianity that I know.” While speaking circa 1985, because he felt the visible church was “in a rapidly accelerating apostasy,” Dr. Martin would include a lecture on what he had begun to call the Cult of Liberal Theology.

I want you to note carefully what I underlined above in the first quote from Shroyer; as you read the progression Dr. Martin will now show you that liberalism used to take over the dead and dying mainline denominations, pay close attention and you will then see how it is as a Liberalism 2.0 The Emerging Church Is Hijacking Evangelicalism:

There is a progression that takes place in liberal theology: It begins with a corrupt bibliology, a corrupt view of the nature and the inspiration of Scripture. They have a corrupt theology because once you are picking and choosing from the Bible what you want, your theology has to suffer from it, because your human reason is corrupt… every major theological seminary that has turned from orthodox Christianity began with disbelief of Biblical doctrine. There wasn’t a single exception.

This corrupt Bibliology then lead them to the next step. Their theology began to be touched by it, their view of the Cross, the Virgin Birth were both immediately questioned; then came the miracles of Christ… And finally they had emptied the Gospel of all its content; they were simply using the outward shell so that they go on collecting money from the people and the churches; because they knew that if the people in the pew knew that they were apostate, they’d throw them out. So the strategy was hang on to the trust funds; hang on to the money we’ve got; hang on the properties we control, and we will gradually educate the laymen into this new approach to theology.

And then finally we will take control of everything. The gradual process of feeding you theological poison until you become immunized enough so that you don’t know what’s happening to you. And when you wake up to what’s happening to you, it’s too late they’ve got everything. That is not a baseless charge, I stand prepared to prove that the Cult of Liberal Theology in the United States has deliberately and consistently followed this methodology to entrap, control and dominate the denominations and the churches of the United States and our educational institutions. (The Cult of Liberalism, available from Walter Martin Religious InfoNet)

See also:

THE NIGHTMARE BEGINNING FOR MAINSTREAM EVANGELICALISM

DR. WALTER MARTIN: AMERICAN THEOLOGIANS FROM BAD TO WORSE

EMERGING WRONG VIEW OF THE BIBLE

NEO-ORTHODOXY: AN EMERGENT OVERVIEW

THE EMERGING CHURCH SOWING ITS NEO-ORTHODOX CONFUSION ON SCRIPTURE

CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS STANDING UP FOR JESUS?

DR. WALTER MARTIN ON APOSTASY CIRCA 1985