These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted.
(Jude 4, 8, 12)

The Evangelical Community Should Have Purged This Emerging Leaven Before It Spread

The Lord be praised that He has seen fit to open the door for Apprising Ministries to have become one of the leading voices against the sinfully ecumenical Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church, a neo-liberal cult now operating within mainstream evangelicalism.

Its primary legacy is that through its core doctrine of corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM), masquerading as spurious Spiritual Formation ala Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster and his spiritual twin Dallas Willard, the Emergent Church leaders have been quite successful in taking the focus off proper Christian spirituality; and instead putting it upon mere subjective feelings.

While all of this was going on, circa the late 90′s, foolish evangelical leaders would make the tragic decision to begin using these warped and toxic teachings within their own Young Adult and Youth ministries. By doing so, thereby opening them to a veritable who’s who of heresy, including the unholy EC trinity of apostates.

In this way, Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, universalist EC pastor Doug Pagitt, and his friend Dr. Tony Jones, the progressive “theologian in residence” at Solomon’s Porch headed by Pagitt—along with a whole host of Emergent apostates—were given virtually free reign over what are now a new generation of teachers.

You should know that they have joined forces in a now upgraded Emerging Church 2.0 that has in place its new postmodern form of circus “big tent” Progressive Christianity—a Liberalism 2.0—sometimes referred to as Emergence Christianity. Unfortunately, as a prime example of how blind mainstream evangelicalism is becoming I pointed you to Fantasyland: Farewell Emerging Church, 1989-2010.

Oblivious to its being raped by people who are not even in the faith, many have simply written the EC off as dead. What it’s done is like some kind of a huge mutant mushroom produced poisonous spores which have been carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes (Ephesians 4:14) spreading now throughout the visible church.

Many have even landed in the mainstream of the evangelical community; actually returning home because the Emerging Church was initially launched by Leadership Network from inside its own walls in the first place. With all of this in mind, Apprising Ministries again brings you the following words of warning circa 1985 by Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989).

Regardless of whatever differences we have with some of his teachings, incontrovertibly Martin was a renowned defender of what he so often referred to as “the historic orthodox Christian faith.” He was also a former adherent to liberal theology and laid out the evil methodology of liberalism aka modern theology, which that was used to take over the dead and dying mainline denominations:

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)

Well, you’ll need to understand that this EC cult of the new liberalism learned well from their evil forebears and have followed the exact same track to infiltrate the largely spiritually obtuse evangelical camp. For years now they’ve been indoctrinating spiritually dense evangelical churches desperate to fill church buildings through their own publishing houses, church-related schools, seminaries, denominations, etc.

Now you have the necessary backdrop to see what’s going on—and what’s at stake—with this piece from American Baptist Press Conference seeks to nurture children, youth in ‘new kind of Christianity’. Bob Allen begins by revealing to us that the EC 2.0 is indeed using the same methodology described above:

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is among sponsors of a four-day meeting next May to discuss ways to train up children and youth in a “new kind of Christianity.”

Scheduled May 7-10, 2012, at Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., the Children, Youth and a New Kind of Christianity conference will bring leaders, ministers, volunteers, parents and students together for dialogue about the spiritual formation of children and youth in the “emergent” or “missional” church. (Online source)

As far as that goal they need only continue what they’ve been doing for years in evangelical Youth Groups and Young Adult ministries to train the current crop of worship leaders and young pastors further infecting the mainstream of the church with the EC postmodern form of pseudo-Christianity. Allen tells us a familiar trio is behind this:

Nationally known presenters include progressive evangelical social activists like Brian McLaren, Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis alongside children’s and youth ministry experts such as Ivy Beckwith, Joyce Bellous, Amy Dolan and Michael Novelli. (Online source)

So-called Red Letter Christians and good friends McLaren, Tony Campolo, and Jim Wallis. Allen also points out:

McLaren, author of books including A New Kind of Christianity, said in a promotional video that in his travels he has heard a recurring theme that new forms of ministry, worship and community taking root and growing around the world are not being transmitted effectively to children and youth. (Online source)

In Brian McLaren Admits Ken Silva Was Right you’ll see Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren has finally come out of the closet as an adherent of Progressive Christian theology, which he began laying out in his book A New Kind of Christianity. It’s not the historic Christian faith and no one—let alone impressionable children—should be following it.

You need to know that the term big tent itself, which I mentioned above,  really concerns the universalism forming the rotten core of this pseudo-Christian neo-liberalism not so slowly spreading throughout the very heart of apostitizing evangelicalism. At this point it’s important to remind you again that we are talking here about a form of Christian Universalism (CU).

Despite minor variations in various views, this CU is based upon a universal atonement of Christ on the Cross—an at-one-ment—similar to that of New Age Spirituality and the Metaphysical Mind Science cults; all of which sounds strikely like the Love Wins mythology of Rob Bell, the Elvis-like rock star pastor of the Emerging Church rebellion against the authority of the Bible.

The evangelical community should have thrown Brian McLaren out of its fellowship years ago…

See also:

SETTING BRIAN MCLAREN STRAIGHT

BRIAN MCLAREN AND HIS NEW EMERGING PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY

THE EMERGING CHURCH AND THE NEW PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY ON OTHER RELIGIONS

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Note from Jan: Jim Fletcher is right. Friends of Israel today are treated like we have a mental disease. Even within evangelicalism, we are scorned and marginalized. What is our crime?

I guess it’s our interpretation of the Bible for we see Israel’s land as God-given, not a piece of property that can be divided up and handed over to terrorists. I have written and spoken on Emergent Church issues for years and have aimed often at one of its leaders, Brian McLaren.

Most of those in this stream consider Israel to be an inconvenience at best and dangerous at worst. Sister ministry leader Jim Fletcher expresses my sentiments about McLaren and his followers who claim that friends of Israel are worse than Muslim terrorists. Thanks, Jim. Visit his Web site here.

An Open Letter to Brian McLaren

By Jim Fletcher
www.prophecymatters.com
www.olivetreeviews.org
August 19, 2011

Mr. McLaren: 

For a long time, I have noticed the disconnect between your seemingly serene, peace/love/justice/mercy persona, and the vitriol with which you discuss Christian Zionists, and what I’d call Bible-believers in general. 

From your publicity photos, to your blogs and video links, you project an air of compassion and spiritual healing. Your eminently marketable brand fairly screams Frank Costanza’s famous mantra, “Serenity now!” 

Your English degree has served you well as a best-selling author and popular conference speaker. Your provocative book titles, like The Secret Message of Jesus, and A New Kind of Christianity, seem inspired by your friend, Marcus Borg, and reveal your considerable marketing skills. You are skilled at presenting your liberal views to mainstream evangelical audiences. 

So it is with dismay that I read a recent blog posting on your Web site that references a letter from Naim Ateek to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Ateek makes the following statement, which you indicated that you felt was so important that it needs to be in bold print: 

“With candor, the last two groups of extremists, i.e. Jewish and Western Christian Zionists, are a greater threat to us than the extremist Islamists. In fact, these extremists have more military power and clout to uproot all Palestinian presence both Christian and Muslim from our homeland.” 

Extremists? Do you seriously believe that Bible-believing Christians (I think you’d call us fundamentalists) are extremists? And to imply that Christian Zionists are more violent than Muslim terrorists is not only an infinite stretch, but it is outright hate-speech–incendiary and violently provocative. It is unacceptable. 

Elsewhere in your writings you have referred quite often to Christian Zionists, as in this call to understand:

“The need to confront the terrible, deadly, distorted, yet popular theologies associated with Christian Zionism and deterministic dispensationalism.” 

Terrible? Deadly? 

You don’t know us, yet you seem very comfortable in your slanders, which tells me a great deal about the state of modern evangelicalism–which you and your friends have successfully infiltrated. 

To date, you seem to insulate yourself effectively from those of us you view with such disdain. Since you would (I am assuming here) frown on the word “debate,” I wonder if you’d care to have a public conversation about Christian Zionists, with a Christian Zionist? Please name a date and place convenient for you, or allow us to host you with real hospitality, which you do not, evidently, return in kind. 

Mr. McLaren, your tolerance has very visible limits, and I wonder if your followers understand this reality. Your public dislike of Dispensationalists and Christian Zionists is outrageous. It is simply wrong and quite unjust. 

It’s time to practice the love and compassion you preach.

As of right now, sir, I view you as the most intolerant Christian leader active in America. Will you repent of your hate-language directed at friends of Israel? 

Sincerely and eagerly awaiting your reply,

 Jim Fletcher
To better understand these issues, visit our Web categories of “Israel”, “Spiritual Deception” and “Prophecy Watch.”

Also take a look at our video page, “To Make You Think.”

From Understanding the Times: Weekly e-Update with Jan Markell of Olive Tree Ministries 8/19/11.

See also:

BRIAN MCLAREN ADMITS KEN SILVA WAS RIGHT

BRIAN MCLAREN SPEAKS AS A UNIVERSALIST

SETTING BRIAN MCLAREN STRAIGHT

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HT: Pyromaniacs

See also:

BRIAN MCLAREN ADMITS KEN SILVA WAS RIGHT

BRIAN MCLAREN SPEAKS AS A UNIVERSALIST

THE WILD GOOSE OF THE EMERGING CHURCH IS NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT

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See also:

ROB BELL AND POSTMODERN NEO-LIBERALISM

SETTING BRIAN MCLAREN STRAIGHT

THE EMERGING CHURCH AND THE NEW PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY ON CHRIST

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By Apprising Ministries correspondent Christine Pack of Sola Sisters

Thank you to Eric Barger for pointing out this story. Writer Brian McLaren, who is often identified as an evangelical (even though he rejects the central tenet of Christianity, Christ’s atoning death on the Cross, and calls it “false advertising for God”), will be one of the keynote speakers with something called The Vision Project.

The Vision Project is a New Age think tank and group that is dedicated to promoting its New Age view of the world: chiefly, that all of life is evolving upward, and that as all humans evolve spiritually, they will become spiritually enlightened and thus will be able to “co-create” and transform the world around them into a better and better place.

In joining The Vision Project, Brian McLaren has now openly aligned himself with New Agers like Barbara Marx Hubbard, Andrew Cohen, Jean Houston and Heidi Rose Robbins.

What is The Vision Project?

The Vision Project is a New Age think tank/community whose purpose is to advance the New Age eschatological view. Yes, even heretics and New Agers have eschatology. It’s wrong eschatology, but it’s eschatology nonetheless.

es·cha·tol·o·gy /ˌeskəˈtäləjē/ – Noun: The part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.

The New Age eschatological view is that all people have a divine inner spark within, and, for a significant period of their physical evolutionary development, are unaware of this. But that, once humankind has physically evolved to a certain state, they will begin to awaken to this divine inner spark, and thus begin their spiritual evolutionary journey. This is believed to culminate in an awakening to one’s own divinity and one’s ability to co-create the future of our world with God.

It is believed that humanity will reach a “critical mass” in its spiritual evolution, at which time a paradigm shift will occur, and a “heaven” or “enlightenment” will be ushered in. This “critical mass” is believed to be achieved when “enough” people awaken to their inner divinity and ability to co-create the future of our planet along with God. (Of course, this is absolutely against the clear teaching of the Bible which is that God alone holds the destiny of our world in his hand, and that, rather than becoming better and better, the world will spiral into sinful wickedness as the return of Christ draws closer.)

You might be asking: Why does it matter how lost New Agers think about the end times? Because it is not only the New Agers who reject the clear teaching of the Bible that as God’s judgment draws closer and closer, the world will spiral into deeper and deeper depravity and wickedness. Leaders of the dangerous and heretical Emergent Church Movement – many of whom have bestselling books that are  popular among our youth – also embrace the New Age view of the end times. Best-selling author and creator of the NOOMA videos Rob Bell also talks about “co-creating” with God:

“I would begin with the understanding that God has left the world unfinished, and so, in Genesis chapter 1, this creation poem is about trees that are created to have the ability to create more trees. So, to me an authentic spirituality begins with the premise that we co-create the world with God. The world is not done, and that all of action is essentially rooted in creativity. Any way in which you contribute to the ongoing creation of the world you are in fact, in some form or another being creative and so then I think the question from there becomes ‘what is art?’”

Emergent Church leader Brian McLaren, besides openly partnering with New Agers on this platform, has already written of his alignment with this New Age eschatological thinking here.

You don’t think this is a big deal? That anyone is paying attention to this nonsense? That perhaps The Vision Project is just a vanity project without any power or bite? Look again at that roster. It is closely aligned with the United Nations, and lists the following speakers and organizations:

Kofi Annan,
Secretary-General UN

Bono,
Lead singer of band U2

Karan Singh,
Member of Parliament, India

Vacalav Havel,
Former president of the Czech Republic

Ela Gandhi, Member of Parliment, African National Congress, South
Africa

The Earth Charter Initiative (a United Nations document aimed at fostering sustainable development, and created by former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev)

This matters because the Emergent Church leaders I mentioned above (Brian McLaren and Rob Bell), while perhaps not all that familiar to many of us, are rock stars to our children, teenagers and college students. Their books sell in the millions.  Their influence is substantial. And we, as parents, are accountable for our children and will one day stand before the Lord and give an account for them. By God’s grace, may we awaken to the dangerous teachings and leaders that have crept in unawares, and make every attempt to make sure that our impressionable young people are awake and alert to their dangerous teachings.

The original article appears complete with a comments section right here.

See also:

BRIAN MCLAREN ADMITS KEN SILVA WAS RIGHT

IS OSAMA BIN LADEN HELLBOUND BRIAN MCLAREN?

BRIAN MCLAREN SPEAKS AS A UNIVERSALIST

SETTING BRIAN MCLAREN STRAIGHT

ROB BELL AND POSTMODERN NEO-LIBERALISM

ROB BELL ON THE RECORD CONCERNING SCRIPTURE

THE WILD GOOSE OF THE EMERGING CHURCH IS NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT

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Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

Summary: Verses One And Two

Living Spiritual Teacher and leading guru of the Emerging Church, author, speaker, activist[1] Brian McLaren tells us in his recent book A New Kind of Christianity that “about fifteen years ago” he was having lunch with “a well-known Evangelical theologian.”

Somewhere during the lunch with his friend Rod Washington—whom I’ve never heard of—Washington apparently said to McLaren, “Most Evangelicals haven’t got the foggiest notion of what the gospel really is,” and asked McLaren to define it.

O please. No, of course not, nobody knew the Gospel for 2,000 years, blah, blah, blah…so that’s why we needed the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church to come along.[1] Right. McLaren continues:

I answered as any good Romans Protestant would, quoting Romans. He followed up with this simple but annoying rhetorical question: “You’re quoting Paul. Shouldn’t you let Jesus define the gospel?” When I gave him a quizzical look, he asked, “What was the gospel according to Jesus?”

A little humiliated, I mumbled something akin to “You tell me,” and he replied, “For Jesus, the gospel was very clear. The Kingdom of God is at hand. That’s the gospel according to Jesus, right?”[2]

“What was the gospel according to Jesus?” Translation: What is gospel according to what I dreams said it was?” Next McLaren tells us that, “The kingdom of God is at hand [means] God’s new benevolent society is already among us.” No, the Gospel has always been repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Name.

Jesus even tells us this Himself during His Bible study with two of His disciples He’d met up with on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection from the dead:

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. (Luke 24:44-48)

However, apostates like Brian McLaren and Rob Bell, once an icon of the Emerging Church, don’t like that because it contradicts their teaching that all men are already saved[3] You see, for many in the Emerging Church, and more and more of mainstream squishy attractional evanjellyfish, “the gospel” has been redefined into a new postmodern form of the spiritually bankrupt social gospel; the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.

But, even the first two verses of our opening text above Paul tells the church in Corinth that he will remind them of the gospel I preached to you. The Greek here gives the picture — “I would have you know.” As in “this is a very important matter this” gospel I preached to you. In other words, it’s not just a little friendly reminder; but rather, a short exposition of the Gospel preached by the Apostles of Jesus Christ.

Under the inspiratio of God the holy Spirit, Paul was telling them that this Gospel was absolutely not to be taken lightly, for it is the very heart of the Christian faith. The Apostle wanted to make sure they understood that it’s only by which [i.e. this gospel] you are being saved; as it is possible—no matter how strongly or sincerely—for one to believe in vain. Paul clearly elaborated further on this in Galatians 1:6-9.

Summary: Verses Three And Four

In the next two verses Paul will pass on what I also received. The words he uses here in the Greek are technical terms; ones which are also used in rabbinical writings. This is why there are many apologists and commentators who will correctly use this passage to link the Apostle Paul with very early Christian tradition concerning the fact of Christ’s literal bodily resurrection from the dead.

However, Paul is actually doing more than merely passing on an early creed of the ancient Church. Look now at Galatians 1:11-12 —For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ (emphasis added).

A careful examination of these verses shows that Paul is actually telling us that no man made up the gospel that was preached by me, and while he was most likely aware of these early creeds that were circulating among the early believers, the Apostle is also informing us that he received the Gospel personally through a revelation of Jesus Christ Himself.

That’s a pretty solid Source, and it also answers the postmodern deconstructing question mused to McLaren by “evangelical” theologian Rod Washington earlier. For you see, it’s because of his seeing the risen Christ in person that Paul can even be a genuine Apostle (see—1 Corinthians 9:1). So what he’s doing here, in actuality, is verifying the truth of this early Christian creed.

In verse 3 the Apostle begins to tell us what the Apostolic Gospel was/is — that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. And that’s why it is so important to know Who Jesus Christ of Nazareth is. Not just that He died for our sins, but also that Christ is God Himself in the person of the unique (Greek: monogenes) God-Man Jesus of Nazareth (see—Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1, 14, 18).

Then in verse 4 Paul tells us Christ was buried and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. And therein, we have the Gospel. If there was more to it e.g. some “principles” (as in Mormonism); or, some “sacraments” (as in apostae Roman Catholicism), or, “works” of any kind—here is where Paul would have included them.

You will notice however, that he did not. That’s because there are none attached to what God “finished/paid in full” (see—John 19:30). And Paul specifically tells the church at Ephesus that there are no works involved in salvation — For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

So this is the extra Good News for the regenerated Christian, it is by grace you have been saved — it’s past tense; an event which has already happened. And now we can look at 2 Corinthians 5:17 with a fuller understanding of what the Holy Spirit through Paul is actually telling us — Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Can you see there; this common phrase that we often use — “born again” — is not merely some kind of a figurative statement at all. O no, it is a quite literal and glorious fact. Soli Deo gloria!

________________________________________________________________________________
End Notes:

[1] This is how he’s billed at his personal webiste: http://www.brianmclaren.net/, accessed 7/20/11.

[2] The sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church has now been upgraded to the Emerging Church 2.0—with its newer, more clearly delineated, postmodern Progressive Christian theology, which these rebels against the final authority of the Word of God will often refer to under their circus “big tent” as Emergence Christianity.

[3] See Rob Bell Defending Love Wins Mythology.

[4] Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christianity [ New York: HarperOne, 2010], 138, 139.

See also:

SETTING BRIAN MCLAREN STRAIGHT

ROB BELL AND POSTMODERN NEO-LIBERALISM

“GOOD” EXPERIENCES AREN’T NECESSARILY FROM GOD

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Ten years in the making was the latest EC apostasia-palooza called the Wild Goose Festival (WGF), which I covered in The Emerging Church On A Wild Goose Chase.

As I said previously, WGF features a veritable who’s who of heretics who’ve now gone embarking upon some Wild Goose Chase after another Jesus than the one we’ve always proclaimed, and to receive a different spirit from the one we received, and to accept a different gospel from the one we’ve always accepted (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:4).

Along with this, their mystic mush god with a man-shaped hole in his/her/it’s heart has issued a new command: “You shall shut off your mind and love mankind, whom you worship, with all of your heart and all of your true self and all of your strength in your nonduality.” So without a doubt, as it heads out upon its spiritual long road to nowhere The Wild Goose Of The Emerging Church Is Not The Holy Spirit.

Far from dead the Emerging Church now has leaders who’ve taken off their sheepskin and revealed themselves to be the wolves they are with their Liberalism 2.o as evidenced by Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, whom I told you began laying out the new postmodern progessive/liberalism now preached by the Emerging Church 2.0 in his recent book A New Kind of Christianity (ANKoC).

And a couple of days ago he came right out and admitted that I was right all along:

(Online source)

By his own mouth Brian McLaren is not an evangelical Christian. Now you know.

See also:

IS OSAMA BIN LADEN HELLBOUND BRIAN MCLAREN?

BRIAN MCLAREN SPEAKS AS A UNIVERSALIST

SETTING BRIAN MCLAREN STRAIGHT

Print this entry

By using warped and toxic teachings of EC leaders like Emerging Church rock star pastor Rob Bell the mainstream of the visible church has been poisoning its own young; and since squishy evanjellyfish has now followed the mortally wounded mainline denominations out of the closet, with its man-love of heart murmur spirituality at the expense the God-centered spirituality of sola Scriptura, I’ve also been giving you peeks at its bleak future of division and compromise of God’s Word.

Let me remind you here that, not only is Tony Campolo a leading spokesman for this postmodern progressive de-formation of the Christian faith—Liberalism 2.o—he’s also still quite influential within younger sectors of evangelicalism as well. It’s important to remember, that as admirable as some of his social concerns are, Campolo is actually in bed spiritually with his fellow Red Letter Christian (RLC) friends Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren and universalist Roman Catholic mystic Richard Rohr.

Other notable RLCs would be Campolo’s disciple Shane Claiborne, Jim Wallis, progressive/liberal historian Diana Butler Bass, and Tony Jones, the progressive “theologian in residence” at the Emerging Church of universalist Doug Pagitt; a spiritual motley crew if there ever was one. Against this background I’ll point you to the following tweet this morning by Campolo:

(Online source)

If you didn’t know “the Wild Goose” reference has a double meaning; first, Celtic Christianity calls the Holy Spirit an Geadh-Glas, the Wild Goose, and “teaches that the Holy Spirit is the representative of God’s femininity.”[1] Secondly, it’s the name of an upcoming apostasia-palooza called the Wild Goose Festival (WGF), which has the Emerging Church buzzing with excitement. The link Campolo provides takes us to Pentecost: The Coming of the Wild Goose by Jim Wallis where he informs us:

In two weeks, my family and I will be headed down to Shakori Hills, North Carolina for the Wild Goose Festival. In the Celtic Church, the symbol for the Holy Spirit is a wild goose — wild, free, and untamed. The festival will be a weekend of justice, spirituality, music, and the arts. It is an “and” kind of space, more than an “either/or.” It will, no doubt, be a busy weekend. But I am looking forward to it, not just for the activities, but for the reminder that it is by chasing after the wild goose, the Holy Spirit’s movement, that we see ourselves, and our world, transformed. (Online source)

As you watch the promotional video for WGF below you’ll see a veritable who’s who of heretics who’ll be embarking upon some Wild Goose Chase after another spirit (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:4); this includes all the people I’ve mentioned above, as well as others quite familiar to AM such as gay-affirming “pastor” Jay Bakker, self-professed “queer inclusive” ELCA pastrix Nadia Bolz-Weber, EC interspiritual leader Samir Selmanovic, Christian universalist Chad Holtz, and the Empress of Emergence Phyllis Tickle.

It’s also interesting to note that among the speakers we find outright purveyors of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) in Living Spiritual Teacher and Jesuit priest John Dear as well as Carl McColman of the spiritually whacked website Anamchara and author of The Big Book of Christian Mysticism: The Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality. Dear is a disciple of Thomas Merton, the Golden Buddha of CSM and just take a look at who recommends McColman’s book:

The history section of WGF tells us:

The Wild Goose Festival began as a simple but potent idea: What if Greenbelt could happen in a unique United States context?

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Greenbelt is an arts, music, justice and spirituality festival that’s been happening in the UK for nearly 40 years. (Online source)

I talked about Greenbelt a couple of years ago in Greenbelt Festival A Peek At Future Inclusive Christianity where I explained it’s really another glimpse of the all-inclusive faith these Emergent Christ-followers find worth believing; and in fact, this perversion of the Christian faith may have already slithered into the Young Adult and Youth ministries of your own local church. Essentially, it’s really a spiritual free fall out into the delusion of creating your own Christianity with a mystic mush god made in your own image.

The wise Christian will have nothing to do with these neo-Gnostic fools who’ve unbuckled themselves from the Word of God and have embarked upon their Wild Goose Chase of subjective experience; with no gravity, they will only drift deeper into spiritual outer space. While debunking the mythology of Dallas Willard, a major perpetrator of CSM along with his twin Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster, Bob DeWaay hits upon the critical issue with this pragmatic existentialism:

If pragmatic tests are the means of determining which practices are valid, and if these people feel closer to God and more like Christ through their practices, then Willard has no valid way of rejecting their practices. Having no valid argument, he resorts to an invalid ad hominem argument.

He cannot have it both ways. Either God’s Word determines both how we come to God and how we grow in grace, or humans determine these things by pragmatic means. (Online source)

As I close this out, for now, I bring your attention to a piece by Dr. Al Mohler entitled An Unmitigated Theological Disaster — Kirby Godsey Strikes Again. You may wonder what this has to do with the Wild Goose Festival; in a word, everything. Consider the opening quote Mohler uses and, if you’ve been following what I’ve been covering here lately at Apprising Ministries, see if it doesn’t sound mighty familiar:

“Most Christians assume that Christianity is the one and only  religion that is God-inspired and that carries the imprimatur of God’s  blessing,” laments R. Kirby Godsey. In his new book, Is God a Christian?,  Godsey sets out to oppose that assumption and to argue that “the  stakes for mankind have grown too high for any of us to engage our faith  as if our understanding of God represents the only way God’s presence  may be known in the world.” (Online source)

Did you recognize the theme song of the emerging Wild Goose set; in Emerging Church Leader Samir Selmanovic Worships With Witches I told you this WGF speaker sings it this way:

Can it be that the teachings of the gospel are embedded and can be found in reality itself rather than being exclusively isolated in sacred texts and our interpretations of those texts? If the answer is yes, can it be that they are embedded in other stories, other peoples’ histories, and even other religions?…

God’s table is welcoming all who seek, and if any religion is to win, may it be the one that produces people who are the most loving, the most humble, the most Christlike. Whatever the meaning of “salvation” and “judgement,” we Christians are going to be saved by grace, like everyone else, and judged by our works, like everyone else…

For most critics of such open Christianity, the problem with inclusiveness is that it allows for truth to be found in other religions. To emerging Christians, that problem is sweet… Moreover, if non-Christians can know our God, then we want to benefit from their contribution to our faith.[2]

This is what underlies the Wild Goose mythology, and it’s not Christianity; it’s at best the heresy of Christian universalism, and at worst, it is pagan universalism. So, while Al Mohler is discussing someone not necessarily aligned with Emergent Wild Goosers, what he says fits these deluded dreamers perfectly:

In When We Talk About God … Let’s Be Honest, Godsey embraced positions that the church has openly declared to be heresy. In Is God a Christian?,  Godsey just picks up where he left off in his earlier book, but this  time he is even more explicit in his embrace of radical pluralism.

“Christians need to get over it,” he admonishes. “Jesus is not God’s  only word.” As he explains, “Every person is a word from God that has  never been spoken and will never be spoken again in exactly the same  way.” He also admonishes Muslims to “get over it” when they claim  exclusive status for the Qur’an. The very idea of exclusivity is a  “peril” that “simply defies reason.”…

For the most part, Godsey studiously avoids engaging the biblical  text. That is at least consistent with his marginalization of biblical  authority. “The notions of inerrancy and infallibility are treacherous  human fallacies,” he argues. In his earlier book, he had asserted that  “the authority for our faith should not rest on the Bible alone, or even  primarily.”…

Instead, he argues that Christians should “weigh scripture against the  word that we have heard and seen from God in Jesus.” At this point,  Godsey is left in an untenable position. What does he know of Christ  apart from the Scriptures? This is a familiar predicament for liberals  who deny biblical authority but claim a knowledge of Jesus. Whatever  knowledge of Jesus we have apart from the Bible is just a figment of our  imagination. If the Bible is not the authoritative source of divine knowledge, we are left with nothing more than our own imagination and arbitrary judgment. We can make Christianity anything we might want it to be.

In the place of the Bible, Godsey claims human reason as his authority. Thus: “No rational pathway can lead us to the conclusion that Christians alone or Muslims alone have sole access to the ultimate reality that underlies the meaning of the universe.” Based on that judgment, Godsey then argues that claims of exclusivity are immoral because such claims turn Christianity “into a self-centered, narcissistic religious system that says to the rest of the world that they must become like us if they wish to be accepted by God.”…

There are different forms of universalism and inclusivism within theological circles today, but the most intellectually embarrassing form of pluralism is the very one that Godsey champions. He writes as if all the religions of the world are basically similar, when even a cursory knowledge of the belief systems of the world reveals how dissimilar they are. Godsey does not even privilege monotheism, arguing that Christians should see adherents of all other religions as “equals before God.” (Online source)

You need to know that the people I mentioned earlier are all on that same broad path; some further along than others, but they are on it nonetheless. My question is: How far down this wide road to destruction does mainstream evangelicalism itself have to get before it finally recognizes the New Downgrade? The sad fact is, these associated with this Wild Goose Chase after another spirit have absolutely no business whatsoever teaching in the heart of the Christian community:

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. (Romans 16:17-18)

Wild Goose Festival – June 23 – 26, 2011 – Shakori Hills Farm, NC from Wild Goose on Vimeo.

_________________________________________________________________________
End Notes:

[1] http://tiny.cc/y22d1, accessed 6/12/11.

[2] Samir Selmanovic, “The Sweet Problem of Inclusiveness – Finding Our God in the Other,” in An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones editors [Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007], 192, 195, 196, emphasis mine.

See also:

BRIAN MCLAREN SPEAKS AS A UNIVERSALIST

TOXIC THEOLOGY OF DOUG PAGITT

THE EMERGING CHURCH, DOUG PAGITT & PROCESS THEOLOGY

DOUG PAGITT AND HIS SOLOMON’S PORCH AFFIRM HOMOSEXUAL SIN

ROB BELL AND POSTMODERN NEO-LIBERALISM

BIG TENT CHRISTIANITY IS A POSTMODERN PROGRESSIVE LIBERALISM

MORE ON—THE gOD OF THE EMERGING CHURCH

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No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.

If You Love Someone You’ll Tell Them The Truth

Apprising Ministries has been warning you about the judgments coming upon the church visible now that mainstream evangelicalism has embraced the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church.

I’ve also told you that EC progressive/liberal theologians such as Dr. Philip Clayton of the Transforming Theology network and Tony Jones, heretical “theologian in residence” at the church of his equally heretical quasi-universalist pastor Doug Pagitt, are among EC notables who’ve been busy “doing theology.” This is their term for bantering ideas back and forth—that may or may not have anything to do with the Bible—as they continue cobbling together their new postmodern version of Progressive Christian theology, which they often refer to as “big tent” Emergence Christianity.

In fact, the term big tent itself really concerns the universalism forming the rotten core of this pseudo-Christian neo-liberalism—a Liberalism 2.0—now being spread by an upgraded Emerging Church 2.0 throughout the very heart of apostitizing evangelicalism. At this point it’s important to remind you again that we are not just talking here about a universalism teaching men will be saved regardless of their religious convictions. Rather, what’s under discussion is a Christian Universalism (CU), which does generally see Jesus Christ as the only way that all men will eventually be saved.

There are various views but this CU is based upon a universal atonement of Christ on the Cross—an at-one-ment—similar to that of New Age Spirituality and the Metaphysical Mind Science cults; all of which sounds a lot like the Love Wins mythology of Rob Bell, the Elvis-like rock star pastor of the EC rebellion against the authority of the Bible. Sadly it’s led to discussions such as follows in this piece. One of these who enjoys this speculative anthropocentric (man-centered) theology of the EC 2.0 is Mike Morrell, who is currently so far out there off the Christian path that we can’t even get a radar fix on him.

You may recall I introduced you to Morrell in Mike Morrell On Matthew Fox, John Wimber, And The Emerging Church where I told you his Twitter bio explains that he’s:

Futurist @KedgeForward. Grad Fellow, Strategic Foresight MA @RegentU. Provocateur-In-Residence, David Group Int’l. Journalist. Nu-media publicist. Opti-mystic. (Online source)

Morrell is “Partner/Foresight Professional” for something called KedgeForward, whose KedgeForward blog I first cited in Richard Rohr And The Emerging Church As The Third Way; in addition, a piece which ran in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in September of 2004 called Tie That Binds ‘Emergent’ Church informs us:

Michael Morrell keeps the emergent church network informed with a Web site that promises ‘the best Jesus-infused sites you never knew about.’…[and] has become one of the movement’s linchpins, connecting thousands of previously disconnected people and emergent groups through the Internet…

As an editor for “the Ooze,” Morrell keeps in touch with the central people and ideas sparking the movement… (Online source)

The point being, Morrell is deeply involved with the leading voices within this neo-liberal Emergent cult, which has also been referred to as “the converstion”; however the truth is, it’s always only been their own monologue amongst the likeminded. And below Morrell tweets concerning a favorite EC topic right now:

(Online source)

There’s a real surprise, Morrell is in lock-step with McLaren; birds of a fetid feather. The link takes us over to McLaren’s blog and his post Q & R: Is OBL in HELL? Therein Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, one of the unholy Emergent Church trinity of apostates along with the aforementioned Jones and Pagitt, shares a few questions from one of his readers. They first ask McLaren “do you bellieve Osama bin Laden will go to hell?” Then there’s the follow up query, “If not, what do you think is his eternal destiny?”

Whoever Does Not Obey The Son Shall Not See Life, But The Wrath Of God Remains On Him

In typical postmodern postliberal methodology McLaren begins his a-response by asking a series of deconstructing questions in order to lead us into some mental off-roading into the postmodernWonderland of Humpty Dumpty language where they bend and shape words into whatever Play-Doh shapes they wish to:

Before replying, I think it’s worthwhile for us to ask ourselves why this question matters to us. Do we fear that God will be excessively merciful or excessively harsh? Or do we want to use an extreme case to bolster one of our own theories? Do we want to use this as a test question to expose others’ bad (from our perspective) ideas? Or do we simply want to hold up to the light of God this part of our experience – as witnesses (from a very limited vantage point) of OBL’s life, misdeeds, and death? (Online source)

You now know that Jell-O actually can indeed speak, no. Well, Brian McLaren, it looked to me to be a very straight forward question and Scripture clearly says that we who would presume to be teachers are to hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that [we] may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine (Titus 1:9). Notice, contra McLaren and his dutiful disciple Rob Bell, this verse presupposes 1) that there is such a thing as sound doctrine, and 2) that we may know it in order to give instruction in it.

McLaren tells us he believes “OBL’s destiny is to face the living God,” Whom he tells us “ultimately and absolutely and beautifully just and loving.” We wouldn’t necessarily quibble with this in and of itself; Scripture tells us that God is loving and just. Guru McLaren then continues:

I believe God’s justice and love are perfectly integrated so as not to be, at heart, two separate things, but one beautiful, holy, awesome reality. I also believe that God sees and understands everything, from every angle, in ways that we do not and can not, which is why judgment from our limited perspective is so wrong. Whatever is wrong and evil in OBL will, I believe, be named, exposed, revealed, and dealt with appropriately, in the perfect light of God’s justice and love. (Online source)

Yes, this all sounds so pious and humble; God is without limit so this “is why judgment from our limited perspective is so wrong.” The problem is, it is the job of the Christian to faithfully proclaim what God has said in the Bible; to do so is not passing a false “judgment,” but rather it is to be an obedient ambassador for Christ as we implore [people] on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20). Next we see another example of where the spiritual train wreck that’s Brian McLaren completely derails:

Whatever remains of God’s good image inside OBL will be distinguished from the rest and dealt with appropriately, again in the perfect light of God’s justice and love. Whatever from his story can be healed will be healed. Whatever cannot will be dealt with in some other appropriate way. Somehow, grace will have the final word. Somehow (as they say), love will win – not at the expense of justice, but through and with and in justice. Beyond that, I have no desire to speculate … only to live my life in harmony with God’s justice and love. (Online source)

Again McLaren ends with another pious sounding statement about living “in harmony with God’s justice and love,” which plays very well to far too many in our time of timid tolerance. However, what Brian McLaren has just said prior to this is anything but in harmony with God’s Word, from which we draw our idea of the Lord’s justice and love in the first place. You see, there was no good in Osama bin Laden in the first place; just like there’s no good in you, the same as there is no good in me as well. For it is written:

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh… Wretched man that I am! (Romans 7:18, 24)

Those were the words of the Apostle Paul whom the Lord used to write half of the New Testament. If you think that a practicing Muslim, i.e. an idolator, like bin Laden had any good in him when arguably the greatest of the Apostles did not, you are a dreamer. Jesus Himself said to Jewish religious leaders—men every bit as devout as Osama bin Laden may have been to his demon — “I said therefore to you that you will die in the sins of you; for not you believe that I Am [the eternal God], you will die in the sins of you” (John 8:24, literal Greek).

The Good News of Christ Jesus is repentance and forgiveness of sins in His Name; in other words, the regenerated believer will not die in his sins. But Osama bin Laden, by his practice of Islam, did not believe Jesus is God in human flesh i.e. very God of very God; so by definition then, 1) if he thought of Him at all, it was a different Jesus (see—2 Corinthians11:4), and 2) as such then, according to Jesus Christ—a pretty good Source for God’s Truth—bin Laden died in his sins. So if we love Muslims such as bin Laden we won’t let them deceive themselves into thinking they can know God without Christ.

No, instead of holding out some false hope like Brian McLaren and so many in the Emerging Church 2.0 do—which is no hope at all—rather we’ll be praying for their repentance and preaching the Gospel to them as the may allow opportunity. This is offered as an exhortation for you to stop listening to the McLaren’s and Bell’s with their nightmare that all men are already reconciled to God; people’s eternal destinies hang in their unbalanced scale. And contrary to their man-pleasing mythology (cf. 2 Timothy 4:3-4) there is no second shot:

For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.

But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
(Hebrews 9:24-28)

If you haven’t, may you repent and believe the Good News…before it’s too late…

See also:

BRIAN MCLAREN SPEAKS AS A UNIVERSALIST

ROB BELL DEFENDING LOVE WINS MYTHOLOGY

IS SHANE CLAIBORNE A CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM?

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In fact, the term big tent itself really concerns the universalism forming the rotten core of this pseudo-Christian neo-liberalism—a Liberalism 2.0—now being spread by an upgraded Emerging Church 2.0 throughout the very heart of apostitizing evangelicalism. At this point it’s important to remind you again that we are not just talking here about a universalism teaching men will be saved regardless of their religious convictions. Rather, what’s under discussion is a Christian Universalism (CU), which does generally see Jesus Christ as the only way that all men will eventually be saved. There are various views but this CU is based upon a universal atonement of Christ on the Cross—an at-one-ment—similar to that of the New Spirituality and Metaphysical Mind Science cults, which sounds a lot like the Love Wins mythology of Rob Bell, the Elvis-like rock star pastor of the EC rebellion against the authority of the Bible.

Last year in Brian McLaren And His New Emerging Progressive Theology I explained that this postmodern neo-liberalism aka Emergence Christianity is precisely what Living Spiritual Teacher and leading Emergent Church guru Brian McLaren began laying out for you in his book A New Kind of Christianity. As I pointed out in Brian McLaren Takes On Al Mohler Over Rob Bell men like McLaren and the Emerging Church icon Rob Bell are mystics—neo-Gnostics—who are deeply involved with the practice of corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) and the crown jewel of this spurious CSM, which is a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness known as Contemplative/Centering Prayer. As such, they are now just as off spiritually as the original Gnostics who were being roundly rebuked by the authors of the New Testament.

During what came to be known as the Downgrade Controversy Charles Spurgeon dealt with the evil forebears of these emerging postmodern neo-liberals and here’s what he said about such as these who make shipwreck of people’s faith:

Find if you can, beloved, one occasion in which Jesus inculcated doubt or bade men dwell in uncertainty. The apostles of unbelief are everywhere today, and they imagine that they are doing God service by spreading what they call “honest doubt.” This is death to all joy! Poison to all peace! The Savior did not so…

I have not much patience with a certain class of Christians nowadays who will hear anybody preach so long as they can say, “He is very clever, a fine preacher, a man of genius, a born orator.” Is cleverness to make false doctrine palatable? Why, sirs, to me the ability of a man who preaches error is my sorrow rather than my admiration.

I cannot endure false doctrine, however neatly it may be put before me. Would you have me eat poisoned meat because the dish is of the choicest ware? It makes me indignant when I hear another gospel put before the people with enticing words, by men who would fain make merchandise of souls; and I marvel at those who have soft words for such deceivers. (Online source)

Now you have the right backdrop from which to see The New Downgrade And Its Apostles Of Unbelief and the recent piece at ChristianWeek.org aptly entitled McLaren creates a safe place for doubt. Its author Josiah Neufeld tells us:

Brian McLaren believes the Church is transitioning from an era characterized by words about God to an era of encountering the Spirit. So too, McLaren is shifting his own focus from discussions of theology to the practice of cultivating a spiritual life. (Online source)

Let me translate McLaren’s mystic speak for you: Men like Brian McLaren are hijacking the visible church by taking it away from the proper Christian spirituality of sola Scriptura and into a highly subjective murky mysticism where one decides truth about God by what they “feel” He is saying. Well, guess what; this is already beginning to happen within broader evangelicalism as evidenced by The Power of a Whisper: Hearing God, Having the Guts to Respond, the latest book by Church Growth Movement guru Bill Hybels, and Recognizing God’s Voice. The latter is the March 12-13 sermon below by Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren where—beginning at 5:57 in—he makes the outlandish claim to his congregation that by following the 7 tests he outlines in the sermon they all can be “absolutely certain” when God is speaking directly to them:

I recently told you in Spiritual Blindness And Famine In The Land that there appears to be very rough spiritual waters ahead as spiritual blindness and famine in the land for the Word of God are showing signs of rapid increase; and without the anchor of sola Scriptura, the church visible needs to prepare herself for “dueling revelations.” Unfortunately, what’s going to be happening in increasing numbers within largely pretending to be Protestant evangelicalism will be people running to and fro definitively declaring that “God told me personally” thus and so. If you think things are confusing right now in the church world, as the old saying goes, you ain’t seen nothing yet. It bears repeating that this kind of messed up mysticism festered within the antibiblical monastic traditions of apostate Roman Catholicism and would eventually lead to the Reformation and Rome anathematizing the Gospel itself.

Anyone who seriously thinks God is pleased with this CSM becoming pandemic within the evangelical community, which supposedly derives from the Protestant Reformation, seriously needs to have their spiritual heads examined; and pronto! Returning now to the mythology of Brian McLaren, in his piece Neufeld informs us that the “newest book” by guru McLaren—and that’s exactly what he’s become—Naked Spirituality, is also “about encountering God” in a personal way outside of Scripture in similar fashion to Hbels and Warren. This shouldn’t surprise you when you consider that the Purpose Driven/Seeker Driven sector, and well as the Emerging Church movement, are simply two sides of the same Church Growth Movement coin. The EC had CSM at its rotten core with “key mentors” being  Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster and his spiritual twin Dallas Willard; who at last check is with the Southern Baptist Convention. 

Neufeld continues:

McLaren, the keynote speaker at CMU’s biennial worship conference, drew more than 500 people to his opening lecture – almost tripling the attendance of previous years. In five lectures drawn from his new book, McLaren described four stages of spiritual development he labeled: “simplicity,” “complexity,” “perplexity” and “harmony.”

McLaren speaks with an open, hospitable voice, telling personal stories, gesturing with his hands, his microphone cradled in the crook of his elbow. His ideas have been causing ripples of controversy among evangelical Christians ever since he published A New Kind of Christian in 2004, but his ethos is generous, and his characterization of faith as a process open to growth and re-evaluation rather than a fixed edifice is certainly welcome news to many. (Online source)

If you didn’t know, CMU is Canadian Mennonite University, which guru McLaren infected February 3-5. Sadly, “almost tripling” attendance and his mystic mythology “certainly [being] welcome news to many” is a testimony to the truth of 2 Timothy 4:3-4, not something to be celebrated. And the reason why guru McLaren’s empty “ideas have been causing ripples of controversy among evangelical Christians” is because their leaders lack the spiritual guts to tell evangelicals that Brian McLaren is no more evangelical than the Dalai Lama; whose spirituality McLaren is much closer to than he is someone like Al Mohler. I’ll tell you what Brian McLaren is, he is a non-Christian cult leader; not an evangelical Christian. As I pointed out above, McLaren preaches the same poisonous mythology as the other two-thirds of the EC unholy trinity, Doug Pagitt and his friend Tony Jones.

The truth is, each of them are teaching that new postmodern version of Progressive Christian theology, which I mentioned earlier. Neufeld then tells us:

McLaren has some “very loyal critics” whom he expects to hear from as soon as his new book comes out on March 15. “There are a number of specific sticking points that really create problems with some people,” McLaren said. “The irony is, those sticking points that some people are eager to defend are keeping others away from the faith.”  (Online source)

Well, as one who is a critic loyal to my Lord and Master Jesus Christ, here I’ll walk you through McLaren’s mystic-speak again. These so-called “specific sticking points” would be the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith; the ones actually creating “problems” are the neo-Gnostics like McLaren and his “Christian” brother Living Spiritual Teacher and Progessive Christian scholar Marcus Borg, who are denying them. As far as these cardinal doctrines pastor-teachers like me are commanded by God “to defend” supposedly “keeping others away from the faith,” the truth is it keeps unbelievers like Borg from passing themslves off as Christians within the Christian community. However, for dreamers like McLaren and Rob Bell, everyone’s in the big tent so we end up with the oxymoron of Marcus Borg And Christians Who Don’t Believe In Jesus. But such as these cannot do away with the historic orthodox Christian faith.

Neufeld laments that, “Some people go so far as to question McLaren’s Christian faith.” Unfortuately, not enough “names” in position of leadership within larger evangelical community are doing so publicly, which is to their shame as McLaren continues slithering around in evangelical circles. Finally, beginning with a quote from McLaren, Neufeld finishes:

“To those people I say: How do you define Christian?” said McLaren. “If you can’t be a Christian unless you believe world is 6,000 years old and was created in seven literal days and anyone who hasn’t said a certain prayer will experience eternal conscious torment and literal flames of hell forever, well then by that definition they’re speaking the truth. By that definition I don’t fit.

“But if you define Christian as someone who is sincerely seeking to follow Christ and acknowledges there’s an awful lot of slip-ups and foul-ups and mistakes along the way, well I certainly fit.”

Because a spiritual life with God, McLaren says, isn’t just about what you believe. 
(Online source)

McLaren is a master in framing his statements as straw men; while I personally hold to a young earth and creation in 6 literal 24 hour days, it simply isn’t a litmus test for the Christian. We’re not saying “a certain prayer” guarantees one “fire insurance” so you have no responsibilites in this life. What we are saying is wrapped up in guru McLaren et al’s definition of a Christian being “someone who is sincerely seeking to follow Christ.” My question is which one? As you’ll see in Will The Real Jesus Please Stand Up?, there are all kinds of Christs running around the religious landscape. In closing this, for now, the guru is said to have conjured up a final straw man when he is reputed to have mused that a spiritual life with God isn’t just about what you believe. Again, no one credible has ever been teaching that a spiritual life with the Lord is just about, as in only about, what a person believes.

Here’s what we’re saying: The Bible clearly shows us that prior to regeneration man is dead spiritually:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

In other words, those who are not in Christ, have no spiritual life with God (cf. Romans 8:5-11). So the question then becomes: How can one begin a spiritual life with the Creator? No less an authority than Jesus Himself tells us that we must be born again (cf. John 3:3-7); and this most certainly does involve what you believe, as Christ Jesus says — “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins” (cf. John 8:24). The fact is, what a person believes is critical — But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12). Simple logic will tell you that if you need the right to become something, then you were not that thing before; in this case a child of God. 

Furthermore one must believe in the Jesus revealed in the Bible:

“let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10-12)

Do you see; we must believe in the name, i.e. power or authority, of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Finally, one must believe in the only Gospel there is: Repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name, for salvation is by God’s grace alone; through faith alone, in the finished work on the Cross of Christ alone. And this is why men like me reject Brian McLaren; he preaches a different gospel, which is no gospel at all:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9)

I’ll leave you with the following from Kevin DeYoung in his post Trampling Upon Human Hearts; because the time has arrived when calmly analyzing heretical doctrine within evangelicalism is very wrong:

Any Christian worth listening to loves the cross and is loath to see it robbed of its glory. To ridicule what the cross accomplished is to make war with the heart of the gospel and the comfort of God’s people.

J. Gresham Machen understood this well:

They [liberal preachers] speak with disgust of those who believe ‘that the blood of our Lord, shed in a substitutionary death, placates an alienated Deity and makes possible welcome for the returning sinner.’ Against the doctrine of the Cross they use every weapon of caricature and vilification. Thus they pour out their scorn upon a thing so holy and so precious that in the presence of it the Christian heart melts in gratitude too deep for words.

It never seems to occur to modern liberals that in deriding the Christian doctrine of the cross, they are trampling upon human hearts. (Christianity and Liberalism, 120 [pagination may differ])

No doubt, some Christians get worked up over the smallest controversies, making a forest fire out of a Yankee Candle. But there is an opposite danger–and that is to be so calm, so middle-of-the-road, so above-the-fray that you no longer feel the danger of false doctrine.

You always sound analytical, never alarmed. Always crying for much-neglected conversation, never crying over a much-maligned cross. There is something worse than hurting feelings, and that is trampling upon human hearts. (Online source)

See also:

BRIAN MCLAREN AND HIS NEW EMERGING PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY

BRIAN MCLAREN SPEAKS AS A UNIVERSALIST

TIME’S UP BRIAN MCLAREN

BIG TENT CHRISTIANITY IS A POSTMODERN PROGRESSIVE LIBERALISM

LIBERALISM 2.0 THE NEW PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY 

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