For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ… These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear.
(Jude 4, 12)

Heading Toward An Already Foregone Conclusion

The online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries has been documenting the growing falling away of the mainstream evangelical community; and I’ve warned you that there is a tsunami of apostasy—pushed along by 1 Peter 4:17 judgments—headed toward the church visible.  Not a few of these judgments have come through evanjellyfish’s foolish embrace of the sinfully ecumenical Emergent Church, headed by the unholy trinity of apostates, Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, universalist Emerging Church pastor Doug Pagitt, and his friend Tony Jones, the progressive “theologian in residence” at Solomon’s Porch. 

Speaking of McLaren, I told you e.g. in Brian McLaren And His New Emerging Progressive Theology that with his lastest book A New Kind of Christianity guru McLaren has begun laying out the new postmodern form of “big tent” Progressive Christianity now preached by the Emerging Church—a Liberalism 2.0—sometimes referred to by these rebels against the final authority of God’s Word as Emergence Christianity. Since I covered this further in Toxic Theology Of Doug Pagitt, here I’ll simply tell you that progressive Christianity teaches universalism. With all of this this in mind then, over at Pyromaniacs Frank Turk has written an Open Letter to Brian McLaren where he reminds McLaren that “this Sunday will be the expiration of a 5-year moratorium you put into motion back in 2006.”

We now think back to January 23, 2006 over at the Out of Ur  blog from Christianity Astray Today magazine where the leading EC theologian Brian McLaren wrote:

Usually when I’m asked about this subject [of homosexuality], it’s by conservative Christians wanting to be sure that we conform to what I call “radio-orthodoxy,” i.e. the religio-political priorities mandated by many big-name religious broadcasters. Sometimes it’s asked by ex-gays who want to be sure they’ll be supported in their ongoing re-orientation process, or parents whose children have recently “come out”… (Online source)

Well, looking again at Brian McLaren’s non-stand about homosexuality (or about anything else for that matter), you need to understand this. There was always little chance that McLaren is ever going to come down on the side of what the Bible actually says about the deviant and sinful lifestyle of having sexual relations with another of the same sex, i.e homosexuality, because of his own warped and toxic views concerning the inspired texts of Holy Scripture. You should know that McLaren sees the Bible in a very allegorical “Alexandrian School” approach to Scripture so he would not readily see what it clearly appears to be saying when simply read at face value.

But that’s not good enough for these new reimagined Gnostics and their supposed superior mystic spirituality; and much of this has to do with the Emerging rebellion against Sola Scriptura going on within evangelicalism and its spiritually deadly dance of deception with a neo-pietism fueled by the spurious Spiritual Formation of Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster. The sad fact is we have been witnessing the rise of a Cult of Richard Foster who, with an able assist from his spiritual twin ordained Southern Baptist minister Dallas Willard, has spread corrupt Contemplative/Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM)—a core doctrine of the Emerging Church from its inception—deep within rapidly apostatizing evangelicalism.

It’s critical for you to keep in mind that for one to even be a practioner of CSM they would first have to put themselves at odds with the Lord’s Reformers who rejected these Roman Catholic mystics now so romanticized today by the Emergent Church and evangelicalism; they were considered apostate; i.e. not Christians. So one might imagine my surprise, as I point out in Ravi Zacharias Answers “Can A Person Live A Sincere Christian Life As A Homosexual?”, when this prominent “Protestant” evangelical apologist literally gushes as he is lavishing his praise upon a recent apostate Roman Catholic mystic. Yet in that piece you could watch for yourself, via a now pulled video, as Ravi Zacharias emphatically stated, “One of the greatest saints of recent memory was Henri Nouwen.” But this disastrous drift from Sola Scriptura within the visible church today is no light matter at all.

You see, in my opinion, this is precisely what Brian McLaren was waiting for. Now more specifically to the progressive and postmodern liberal Emergent Church, and the issue of practicing homosexuality, those who are involved with the “spiritual disciplines” of CSM e.g. like McLaren, his disciple Rob Bell, and his friend Emerging Church Pastor Doug Pagitt, have clearly jettisoned the proper Biblical spirituality of sola Scriptura in favor of a highly subjective, neo-orthodox (at best), and existential (feelings-oriented) approach to Holy Scripture. And that’s why in his post at Out of Ur  McLaren goes on to opine: 

Most of the emerging leaders I know share my agony over this question. We fear that the whole issue has been manipulated far more than we realize by political parties seeking to shave percentage points off their opponent’s constituency. We see whatever we say get sucked into a vortex of politicized culture-wars rhetoric–and we’re pastors, evangelists, church-planters, and disciple-makers, not political culture warriors. Those who bring us honest questions are people we are trying to care for in Christ’s name, not cultural enemies we’re trying to vanquish.

Frankly, many of us don’t know what we should think about homosexuality. We’ve heard all sides but no position has yet won our confidence so that we can say “it seems good to the Holy Spirit and us.” That alienates us from both the liberals and conservatives who seem to know exactly what we should think. Even if we are convinced that all homosexual behavior is always sinful, we still want to treat gay and lesbian people with more dignity, gentleness, and respect than our colleagues do. If we think that there may actually be a legitimate context for some homosexual relationships, we know that the biblical arguments are nuanced and multilayered, and the pastoral ramifications are staggeringly complex. We aren’t sure if or where lines are to be drawn, nor do we know how to enforce with fairness whatever lines are drawn.

Perhaps we need a five-year moratorium on making pronouncements. In the meantime, we’ll practice prayerful Christian dialogue, listening respectfully, disagreeing agreeably. When decisions need to be made, they’ll be admittedly provisional. We’ll keep our ears attuned to scholars in biblical studies, theology, ethics, psychology, genetics, sociology, and related fields. Then in five years, if we have clarity, we’ll speak; if not, we’ll set another five years for ongoing reflection. After all, many important issues in church history took centuries to figure out. Maybe this moratorium would help us resist the “winds of doctrine” blowing furiously from the left and right, so we can patiently wait for the wind of the Spirit to set our course. (Online source)

While I absolutely hate what Brian McLaren is doing (cf. Psalm 97:10), he is quite intelligent; and from watching the impact liberalism and CSM had with the mainline denominations, guru McLaren would know that by infiltrating the Young Adult and Youth ministries with CSM as far back as the late 90’s, it was only a matter of time before evangelicals would follow the same putrid path. That’s why over the past couple of years Apprising Ministries has been covering gay-affirming “pastor” Jay Bakker of a sad church social club by the name of Revolution:NYC; and as I told you e.g. in Jay Bakker Reflects The Sad Condition Of The Visible Church, make no mistake, Bakker’s star is on the rise within the Emerging Church.

As I’ve explained before Bakker heads up a group of largely biblically illiterate, and I say a rather rapscallion bunch spiritually, who anointed themselves Outlaw Preachers (OPs) and galvanized around him. It’s important for you to realize that Bakker, whose newfound popularity has his latest book circulating widely, is tip-of-the-spear for the EC’s pushing for acceptance within evangelicalism that a lifestyle of homosexuality is a viable one for the regenerated Christian. This is a key EC point of attack as it continues its assault upon proper Biblical Christianity; and Bakker’s whole shtick is spreading the myth that the practice of homosexuality isn’t always sinful.

You may also recall from Doug Pagitt And Homosexual Sin and Correcting Tony Jones that both Pagitt and Jones are out as joining Bakker in his mythology of man-love (cf. 2 Timothy 3:2); likely McLaren and Bell won’t be far behind. You need to know that this evil pro-gay agenda is gaining even more strength, and has already penetrated deeper into mainstream evangelicalism—metastasizing as a spiritual cancer carried by by corrupt critical-thinking killing Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism; and so I’m warning you again, you really need to understand that there’s a very dark and threatening same-sex storm—now rapidly approaching hurricane force—looming just off the coast of your own local church.

See also:

BRIAN MCLAREN SPEAKS AS A UNIVERSALIST

KEN SILVA VS. JAY BAKKER FROM THE HEART

BIG TENT CHRISTIANITY IS A POSTMODERN PROGRESSIVE LIBERALISM

GAY AWAKENING FOR MAINSTREAM EVANGELICALISM GROWS CLOSER

HOMOPRESSION IS AT LEAST AS BAD AS HOMOPHOBIA

THE SIN OF HOMOSEXUALITY IS DIFFERENT

PHILIP YANCEY AND A NON-STANCE ON HOMOSEXUALITY