Psalm 36:1-4

An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong.

The Price For Not Detecting And Hating Sin

Verse 2 of our text speaks volumes about so many Evangelical Christian leaders here in this Laodicean age – For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful. Although the Emergent Church movement is but a symptom of a dying Church, it has become imperative that parents and pastors come to recognize what this whole pretty vacant (remember that song?) “conversation,” aimed by the Devil at your young adults and teens is actually teaching them. Many of you have started to notice a shift in your church services to a more seeker sensitive Purpose Driven Life feel in worship and preaching. While ever-present enemy forces aimed this emphasis at the older adults, at the same time more and more of you are beginning to see your youth ministers beginning to employ “techniques” of worship that have been culled from this so-called Emerging Church.

If you wish to understand how it is that we got into this morbid mess, the first thing you’ll need to do is to recognize that mild warnings from the Lord through men like A.W. Tozer were ignored while leaders within what has come to be called Evangelicalism were busy attempting to make the Church appealing to a changing American culture after World War II. This was their first mistake. You might look at warnings from men like Tozer in the early 1950’s on as the Lord expressing His annoyance with His Body for trying to compromise His Gospel in its attempt to live in peace with this increasingly secular nation. Then Billy Graham turned his back on the Reformers who literally gave their lives to free us from the apostate theology of Roman Catholicism; in order to promote himself through his New York City crusade Graham has admitted that he willingly chose to court the Church of Rome, and Christ gave him over to make a huge gaffe from which the Evangelical church will never recover.

For you must know that later it would be Billy Graham who also lent his credibility to, and thus opened the door for, false prophets of the “prosperity gospel” like Oral Roberts, who would help usher in the blasphemy of the Word Faith Movement. Then in an even more tragic decision Graham would encourage Robert Schuller to go on television, which would then bring his heretical teachings of modern Gnostic philoso-theological psycho-babble right into countless homes in America in a move that would literally inflict a mortal wound on the American Christian Church. So while His precious Bride was also busy incorporating secular humanistic teachings of “modern” psychology into His Church, Christ our Lord changed His tone and raised His Voice a little louder through men like Dr. Walter Martin–not exactly known for his shyness.

We arrive at today where our Creator–the LORD God Almighty–has now become angry; as a result you are going to see Christ Jesus expressing His wrath through what God the Holy Spirit leads His watchmen to say, and this tone is going to become more vitriolic and even harsh. Just because so many, many Evangelical spokesmen and leaders haven’t noticed that the Christian Church in “postmodern” America has now been invaded by a new religion, I regret to inform you that it simply will not change this sad fact. Haven’t you noticed? Even the quite liberal Christianity Today has written about Ted Haggard, the charismatic pastor and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and the optimistic evangelism of his “faith-based” ecumenical kingdom of “new” Evangelicalism. We have no excuse.

Twin Deceptions Of Purpose Emerge

Ok, maybe here you find yourself asking “Emergent What?” As we bring the Emergent Church back into our brief discussion, I tell you that you need to see these seeker sensitive trends from the ecumenical “new” Evangelical religion as twin purpose-driven deceptions that have emerged from the shadows as judgments from the Lord Himself. On the one side you have the Purpose Driven Life slithering in for the older adults, while at the same time we have the Emergent Church as the other serpentine spirit for the younger set. You see, to God it doesn’t matter one iota that Christians in secularized pagan postmodern America decided that we didn’t need to pay much attention to the spiritual aspect of our existence. He had already forewarned us long ago – in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils (1 Timothy 4:1, KJV).

Then in the early part of the twentieth century as so many Christians decided that God will only do those things that we happen to be comfortable with, the Church turned its back on its own source of power, the Person of God the Holy Spirit. I am not going to get into this area further at this point, as my position is stated here, but suffice to say that the Bible is a Book of Supernatural origin and it must be spiritually interpreted through the assistance of God’s Spirit Who wrote it. So we can immediately do away here with the silly and sappy seeker sensitive Evangelical misinterpretation concerning the issue of “judging.” How many times immature Christians and unbelievers passing themselves off as Christians will solemnly quote the famous verse – “Judge not, that ye be judged.” However another verse immediately comes to mind – The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him (Proverbs 18:17).

So as we “question” Satan’s lie regarding this critical area of judging what we are taught in the name of Christian doctrine, let us look at the proper spiritually discerned Biblical position. We can state it thusly: Jesus tells us – “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment” (John 7:24). God plainly instructs us – Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21, KJV). And the Holy Spirit preserves the testimony of the early Church in Acts 17:11 – Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. And we pray that Emergents will notice in this verse that the people of more noble character did not consult books about some re-imagined faith; no, the Bible tells us they examined the Scriptures. Perhaps you might consider putting down N.T. Wright’s wishful musings and try this for yourself.

Finally on this subject, it is written:

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” (1 Corinthians 2:11-16)

The key verse relevant to our discussion is verse 15 – The spiritual man makes judgments about all things. The truth is that while we were neglecting the spiritual side of our walk with God, and doesn’t Christ tell us God is Spirit; a sad picture emerged–our much vaunted “theologians” call this a type–one not too unlike we get in the Old Testament of the nation of Israel, the modern/postmodern (read: compromised and worldly) Christian community has recreated an amazingly accurate portrayal of their spiritual denseness. O my, such sophistication in this technological world, yes, we are most impressive…to ourselves. We say: “Can you imagine forgetting all the miracles God did for them and then having to die in the desert?” Try this on, perhaps the Lord says to you: “Can you imagine living such pedestrian and compromised lives when I, the very Creator of the universe, literally live within My people?”

What Is New Evangelicalism Doing?

Well now, maybe our leaders are busy re-imagining their reinterpretations in their rethinking about what they may have thought about the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Oops, it looks as though the Church of Jesus Christ already had this faith right in the first century. It would certainly appear that we really didn’t need some “culturely relevant” Purpose Driven new Evangelical Emergent Church after all. And what are we to do about these commands in the Bible from our Lord for His true ministers: He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it (Titus 1:9); and Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 2:25). The question we must ask our confused Emergent Church leaders is: “How can we do these things if we don’t know what the trustworthy message as it has been taught was; and if there is no such thing as arriving at a knowledge of the Truth of what a passage in the Bible actually means in the first place?”

Am I being mean-spirited here? Take a look at Elijah on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18, where the blasphemous prophets of Baal were calling on the name of their demon god from morning till noon. “O Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened” (vv.26-27). What you need to do now is to get your heads out of books about God by alleged “ministers” of the Gospel and actually examine for yourselves just what our Lord’s true spokesmen have always said in Holy Scripture. Since when has the actual message from the LORD God Almighty ever been “peace and safety”? Take a look a 1 Thessalonians 5:3; and, it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14)

So go ahead, be smug and arrogant as an Emergent pastor if you wish; laugh if you must at the pristine warnings from God’s Word, but if I were you I’d ask myself some serious questions. Think with me now, just how many times in the history of God’s dealings with degenerate mankind has the majority opinion in religious matters that have run counter to what the Bible says ever proven to be true? If you can work closely with counterfeit Christian teachers like Rick Warren and join in with false prophets like Brian McLaren as the Emergent Church merges with the corrupt Church of Rome; and if you truly believe there are “billions” of Christians in this sin-sick world, then where exactly would that put you in regard to the way which is narrow that the Master said only few will find? Do you not remember what Jesus Christ of Nazareth–the LORD God Almighty Himself in human flesh–told you: “broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (Matthew 7:13, KJV).

Remember, two times the Bible says – There us a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25). From what source do you suppose Christ Jesus was drawing His comment re. the broad way that leadeth to destruction? Apparently God the Holy Spirit was trying to get a point across about the sinful self-ish nature of human beings because in Proverbs 12:15 the Lord says – The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice. And friend, here’s your advice: If you’re with a conversation that cannot present its position plainly from Scripture, then you are with a movement with no purpose or backing from God. So here’s some emerging vintage Christianity for you; why don’t you take a long close look at Christ’s example, the example set by the Apostles and then the example of their own disciples–the early Church Fathers–as to the way they approached Holy Scripture. If you do, you will quickly find that it’s an incontrovertible fact that each of them argued their positions from the Scripitures.

And now let me show you something from the Bible about new Evangelicalism in America:

“You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother—my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children. The more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful. They feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness. And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds” (Hosea 4:5-9).

If any man think himself to be spiritual, then let him acknowledge that the Spirit has spoken…