As an online apologetics and discernment labor in the Lord Apprising Ministries is doing what we can to expose the warped and toxic teachings of the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church, ^[1] which tragically, mainstream evangelicalism chose to embrace rather than purge from its ranks.

So let’s consider that we now have on our hands the Love Wins mythology of EC rock star pastor Rob Bell, where a supposed minister of the Gospel is actually pressing forth the argument for Christian Universalism—contra evangelicalism—while still being considered an evangelical in good standing himself.

Now think that Fuller Theological Seminary, “an evangelical, multidenominational, international, and multiethnic community,” ^[2] sponsors the podcasts of heretical EC universalist Doug Pagitt and Dr. Tony Jones, his equally heretical progressive/liberal “theologian in residence” at his Emerging Church, is now a professor with FTS. ^[3]

By this point you ought to be able to see we have some very real problems inside the church visible, and particularly within the mainstream of the evangelical community. Today Jones tweeted that his latest book has dropped:

(Online source)

It’s very telling that Jones would want to make sure we see that Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, part of the unholy EC apostate trinity with Jones and Pagitt, has pronounced his blessing upon Jones’ book. Even Phyllis Tickle, the very Empress of Emergence herself, gushes:

Jones’s…research is…the experiential knowledge and realistic assessment of one who has been in the movement from its inception in this country…

This is one piece of work that…[is] a way of charting not only where Emergence is, but also where it has to go and is going. (Online source)

But that’s for another day; here we’re concerned with what Tony Jones is revealing about his own spiritual life of immorality. First, we see the other day he tweeted:

(Online source)

The post he brings us to is also most revealing:

(Online source)

Now Tony Jones—a leading progressive/neo-liberal theologian in the Emerging Church—announces that he adheres to the flawed philosophy of relativism, which we really don’t find all that surprising. However, it does speak loudly as to why Jones has absolutely no business whatsoever teaching within the evangelical community—let alone at one of its leading institutions instructing in Christian spirituality.

The question you need to ask is how possibly can a moral relativist truly be an orthodox Christian minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ without adhering to the moral absolutes of God’s inerrant and infallible Word in the Bible? Answer: He couldn’t. You see, a relativist believes that the subjective experience of another may be true for them; and ultimately that there is no known transcendent truth.

Jones quotes Fish:

Neither “I believe in moral absolutes” nor “I don’t” will be a reason in the course of ordinary, non-philosophical, deliberation.

Now that’s some pragmatism that I can believe in! (Online source)

However, pragmatism is not at all in line with the Christian who is a doulos i.e. slave of God through Christ Jesus; but it is perfectly suited for an apostate rebel against the final authority of Holy Scripture. The truth is, the relativist can never arrive at any actual absolutes because they always have to concede that the beliefs of another might be true for them.

Not only is relativism totally antithetical to Christianity, it’s also self-defeating. To make the statement “truth is relative” is to state an absolute, which we’re to then take as true. Well, if this is a truthful statement, then not all truth is relative, and so, that initial proposition is false. It’s just a sinful way of thinking in a futile attempt to avoid moral absolutes.

That noted, the philosophy of relativism does happen to be a perfect fit for fools like Dr. Tony Jones who wish to argue in favor of practices of sexual immorality. In Christianity 21 To Attack Christian Sexuality I brought to your attention a July 11th blog post by Jones where he quotes the homosexual writer Dan Savage, whom he calls “America’s premier sex advice columnist.”

Jones lets us know that Savage opines “monogamy is right for many couples” but some:

people need more than one partner, [Savage] writes, just as some people need flirting, others need to be whipped, others need lovers of both sexes. (Online source)

Keep in mind here that I’m having to cover these kinds of delicate sexual issues now because people like Tony Jones, with their spiritually deviant desires, are considered mainstream evangelicals. Now that we noted this, the people who would need “lovers of both sexes,” and thus multiple sexual partners, would be the bisexuals of the LGBT community. 

As I continue, this will be important to keep in mind because Jones—an aggressive advocate for that LGBT community—then attacks monogamy himself:

This, of course, will immediately irk most Christians. Christianity has traditionally — although not unequivocally — held to a strict standard of monogamy…the American moment was a particularly puritanical. (Online source)

Can you see; Tony Jones has just fired the first shot in marshalling an assault, from within the evangelical community, upon the proper Biblical Christian ethic of monogamy within the marriage of a man to a woman. Jones then, at the very least, hints of a belief in the fairy tale for adults that is the theory of evolution when he says:

Savage’s sexual ethic is primarily one of realism: human beings are animals who, until very recently, procreated like animals. It is evolutionarily dishonest to demand monogamy of a species predisposed against it. It’s not impossible to be monogamous, he says, but it is super difficult,… (Online source, bold his)

Quite obviously, this does not fall in line with a Biblical worldview; but it would be just fine for a relativist like Tony Jones. Although Dr. Jones makes an error logically as he commits the fallacy of argumentum ad populum, I want you to look very carefully at what he says next:

I do know a few things: 1) [Savage is] a h**luva lot more realistic about sex than most Christians I’ve talked to about sex; 2) based on my experience on this blog and at the Wild Goose Festival, a lot of Christians really want to talk about sexuality; and 3) many Christians are ready for our conversations about sexuality to expand beyond “what to do with the gays,” and instead have a more fully-orbed dialogue about sexuality and human identity.

I also know that, for the first time in my life I’ve met Christians who are in “open” marriages or are practicing polyamory — and I’m committed that my theological/ethical response to them be both Christian and pragmatic/realistic. (Online source)

Behold where the Emerging Church will now begin trying to move the younger sectors of evangelicalism, who like the leaders in the neo-liberal cult within the EC, largely do not hold to sola Scriptura themselves: open marriages and practicing polyamory (many partners). Here you have a professor of Christian spirituality with a well known ostensibly evangelical seminary arguing against monogamy.

Do you see a problem here? Do you think this is all going to just go away if we simply ignore it? Do you really think that Tony Jones will magically stop pushing the evil pro-gay agenda, which has to argue that polyamory is acceptable for the Christian because of the bisexuals in the LGBT community? And he’s just told you that he knows “Christians” who “are practicing polyamory.”

This is why I’ve been telling you that evangelicalism is only now beginning to pay the price for years and years of using their own Young Adult and Youth ministries as human guinea pigs for Emergent apostates like Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt. I truly wonder, what in the world will it finally take for evangelical leaders to see that their fruit is just as absolutely rotten as it possibly gets?

In closing this, for now, you need to know there’s good reasons for Jones to argue for polyamory for the Christian, he may have a personal reason and Rachel Swan from Sweet Bi and Bi attends Solomon’s Porch. In her post Our Soapbox Swan tells us:

if you look over ——> there in the sidebar, you will note that one of the communities I heart is Solomon’s Porch. Sweetie and I started attending a little over a year ago… From the website “Solomon’s Porch is a community seeking to live the dreams and love of God in the way of Jesus.”… Last night, Sweetie and I gave a soapbox sermon. Its not so much sermon-y, but more a talk like thing. (Online source)

Swan also informs us that she’s a, “Bartender turned God chaser, Queer (bi), Un-Cool, Friend to the Other”; and of her “soapbox” with her female companion, and Tony Jones would tweet to his friend Rachel Swan concerning her talk like thing:

(Online source)

It’s one thing to talk about sexuality according to Scripture. However, let me put this into proper perspective for you; clearly here we have relativist Fuller Theological Seminary professor Tony Jones, at the very least, using the argument of Dan Savage in his attempt to make a case for “open marriages” and “practicing polyamory.” In Biblical terms, Jones is pushing for sexual immorality.

The key questions then become: Is this really evangelicalism; for that matter, is it even Christianity? 

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End Notes:

Back to note 1 — Far from dead, the upgraded Emerging Church 2.0—through delusions received in spurious CSM—has been busy forging together its new postmodern form of Progessive Christianity theology, a Liberalism 2.0 many call Emergence Christianity, which Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren begins laying out in his latest book A New Kind of Christianity.

Back to note 2 — http://tiny.cc/l61al, accessed 8/10/11.

Back to note 3 — http://tiny.cc/5lzjo, accessed 8/10/11.

See also:

TONY JONES WORSHIPS A DEMON

TONY JONES, THE EMERGING CHURCH AND PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY

DOUG PAGITT AND HIS SOLOMON’S PORCH AFFIRM HOMOSEXUAL SIN