For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. (Jude 4-5, NASB)

There Is A New god Set Up To Be Worshipped

The “Prince of Preachers” Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) a man powerful in Christ once wrote:

At the present day, I am afraid that nine people out of ten do not believe in the God Who is revealed to us in the Bible. I can point you to newspapers, to periodicals, and also to pulpits by the score in which there is a new god set up to be worshipped–not the God of the Old Testament; He is said to be too strict, too severe, too stern for our modern teachers.

They shudder at the very mention of the God of the Puritans. If Jonathan Edwards were to rise from the dead, they would not listen to him for a minute; they would say that they had quite a new god since his day. But, brethren, I believe in the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob; this is my God–aye, the God Who drowned Pharoah and his host at the Red Sea and moved His people to sing, “Hallelujah!” as He did it; the God Who caused the earth to open and swallow up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and all their company.

A terrible God is the God Whom I adore–He is the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, full of mercy, compassion, and grace, tender and gentle, yet just and dreadful in His holiness and terrible out of His holy places. This is the God Whom we worship, and He Who comes to Him will take Him to be his Instructor, and so shall he learn aright all that he needs to know. (At the Master’s Feet, July 18)

O, But Brian McLaren Says The Church Has It All Wrong

Apprising Ministries reminds you that Brian McLaren is beyond question a leading authority in the Emergent Church and is influencing thousands through his speaking engagements and numerous writings. In his book The Secret Message of Jesus McLaren apparently has “discovered” what has escaped the Church of Jesus Christ for nearly two thousand years until he happened to come along. In typical jelly-fish fashion however, McLaren then tries to hide his criticism and contradiction of the historic orthodox Christian faith behind “if”; but it quickly becomes clear enough that these are his own personal beliefs.

Right in line with other religious cult leaders McLaren shows he doesn’t think the Church has correctly understood the message of Jesus down through the centuries when he writes: “if this reading of the Gospels is accurate, why didn’t scholars see it a hundred or five hundred or eighteen hundred years ago?” (210) This book provides even further indication that McLaren has rejected proper Biblical teaching recovered at the Reformation. Now, on page 12 of The Rise of the Cults Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989), a renowned authority on religious cults having their origin in the United States, explains that:

A cult, then, is a group of people polarized around someone’s interpretation of the Bible and is characterized by major deviations from orthodox Christianity relative to the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith,…

It is patently obvious to those not mesmerized by the mystic musings of Emergent Guru Brian McLaren that he more than adequately fits the above definition. In his excellent review of The Secret Teachings of Jesus (STJ), Dr. Gary Gilley reveals further McLaren’s deviation from the Gospel of Jesus Christ itself: “But herein lies the problem. McLaren believes that the church has never understood the real message of Jesus.” Then on page 91 McLaren himself “enlightens” us that the Church itself has not even understood the Gospel because it is not actually “justification by grace through faith, the free gift of salvation, Christ being a substitutionary sacrifice for [one’s] sin.” Instead says Guru McLaren “the kingdom of God is at hand. That was Jesus’ message” (ibid.)

A couple of pages later in STJ McLaren’s “new” gospel of inclusivism, only hinted at in A Genrous Orthodoxy, now comes fully emerging when he tells us, “Jesus’ secret message in word and deed makes clear that the kingdom of God will be radically, scandalously inclusive.” This is because, says McLaren, “Jesus enjoys table fellowship with prostitutes and drunks, seeming to shift the focus of spirituality from the temple…to the table of fellowship and reconciliation” (94). There is no mention of repentance or of the new birth as the Emergent cult leader Guru McLaren “uncovers” the “true” gospel in The Secret Teachings of Jesus.

But It Was Already Written Long Ago

Is what I say harsh and unloving? I’m fine with letting the Lord I serve be the Judge of that but I would ask you to consider that until a little more than ten years ago few people said much–if anything–about Brian McLaren. The issue is really pretty clear. In Jude 3 the historic witness of God’s infallible and inerrant Word in the Bible says – Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.

Now if Brian McLaren wishes to deny Holy Scripture and teach that the Church did not have the salvation we share or the faith once for all delivered he certainly has every right to. However, this is written with the prayer that if you have been ensnared by this counterfeit teacher that God may open your eyes and that you will also come to understand these perilous times in which we live. As the Devil blatantly walks further into our Lord’s Church during this time of apostasy fueled by timid $evangelical$ leaders there are those of us who recognize it is time to Take Off The Gloves.

Let me remind the Body of Christ that it was already written long ago:

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9, KJV)

Holy Scripture, the very Word of the one true and living God…or are they but words on a page, an opinion from the Apostle Paul? As the sky grows ever more red each and every morning I must tell you in the Lord, you had best decide where you stand because the $evangelical$ community listens to wolf in sheeps clothing and Emergent Cult leader Brian McLaren at their own grave peril…

See also:

BRIAN MCLAREN WHINES AGAIN

GARY GILLEY INTERVIEW ON CROSSTALK