For those with eyes to see they will know that the sky was very red this morning over what is passing for Christianity here in America. As I have said recently the time we live is not a time for unity; it is a time for division. We must begin to turn our backs to those like Shane Claiborne who wish to teach false doctrine and have introduced their Emergent controversies into our Lord’s Church.

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith.

The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.
(1 Timothy 1:3-7)

To Tolerate False Doctrine Is Not Loving At All

At this late hour we need bold men anointed to preach the Gospel in the Holy Spirit and power. And they will not be sent forth by Christ until His real Church starts separating from these postevangelicals who preach a false man-centered (semi-pelagian) theology all the while encouraging us to return to the religious bondage originating within apostate Roman Catholicism.

Recently Shane Claiborne, a rising icon in the emerging church, was scheduled to speak at Cedarville University. Apprising Ministries says praise the Lord that this event ended up being cancelled. For those who may not know Claiborne is right among those advocating practices talked about in Monastic Evangelicals and Their Prostitution in Ancient Spiritual Disciplines.

Christianity Astray Today magazine tells us:

A growing number of evangelicals—younger evangelicals in particular—are maturing the movement in another way. They are taking their newfound love affair with Christian tradition and the early church beyond the realm of books and talk and into their churches and Christian lives…

Among evangelicals, the trend has extended to retreats at Catholic monasteries, recovery of Celtic spirituality, and observance of the divine hours. Not surprisingly (given the biblical focus of evangelicals), the slow, meditative monastic prayer technique called the lectio divina has captivated many. (Online source)

But the sad fact is that these so-called spiritual disciplines of contemplative spirituality, which are seen as making one closer to God, are nothing more than a return to legalism. Apparently these protesting—NOT “Protestants” didn’t read Galatians 3:3 — Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh (NASB)?

Now in a piece called Don’t Fear Disagreement (by Shane Claiborne) Claiborne weighs in with his version of the CU cancellation. It appears over at God’s Politics a blog by Jim Wallis and friends, which proudly announces its agenda to highjack evangelicalism with postmodern (read: post-liberal) theology:

The monologue of the Religious Right is over and a new conversation has begun! Join the God’s Politics dialogue with Jim Wallis and friends Brian McLaren, Diana Butler Bass, Becky Garrison, Gareth Higgins, Shane Claiborne, Mary Nelson, Gabriel Salguero, Tony Campolo, and others. (Online source)

Claiborne begins his disagreement with the usual quiet arrogance of the “we’re just a little bit smarter than you are” Emergent Church. He speaks condescendingly about a “small group of people,” whom he does not actually know and admits he hasn’t spoken with personally, which he says “try and tear down something they disagree with.” Uh-oh, seems Claiborne has violated the pet Emergent argument because didn’t come to my “community” to get to know me before criticizing me.

Well be that as it may, he says that “unfortunately” we malevolent meanies were then given “validity” by CU:

The internet has made it possible for every person to have channels of significant influence at their fingertips, regardless of credibility or content. This can be used for good or for bad. And in the case of Cedarville University, we have the bad. I was supposed to speak at Cedarville University in Ohio.

At the last minute they cancelled, the VP’s job was threatened, all kinds of ugliness. A small group of people have used an impersonal, indirect means of communication to try and tear down something they disagree with. Unfortunately Cedarville gave validity to this group of bloggers by reacting to their demands… and as we all know dissension spreads like fire, or yeast as Jesus said. (Online source)

Emerging Away From The Historic Orthodox Christian Faith

Claiborne is quite right, dissension from this emerging cult of the new liberal theology has rapidly become the source of much friction in the Body of Christ. And our Lord did warn of the yeast of false teaching — Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6, NASB). Here the Master warns of all false teaching, even that of leaders in the emerging church like Rob Bell and Claiborne’s “Red Letter Christian” friends Tony Campolo and Emergent Church guru Brian McLaren.

This Diseased Tree of the emerging church continues metastasizing right now all throughout the Body of Christ like a spiritual cancer. And the fact is that this Emergent rebellion against the Bible is killing the mainstream evangelical community just as dead as their fathers in what Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989) called Cult of Liberal Theology once did the mainline denominations. Dead denominations in spiritual rigor mortis that Rick Warren recently said we ought to unite with because they have the same Savior as genuine Christians.

My own post Cedarville University To Welcome Shane Claiborne will show that I am also one with a “rogue website” and a part of these “vigilante voices” that apparently Claiborne—in love of course—feels does not have “credibility” or deserve “validity.” So I thought I’d present these few facts which he appears to be unaware of. By the way, in his post whining about these big bad bloggers isn’t Claiborne here using the Internet as one of his own “channels of significant influence at [his] fingertips”?

One also has a hard time believing that the “VP’s job was threatened” at an institution like CU simply by a “small group of people.” Then Claiborne opines:

A university must believe its students are able to “test the spirits” and work out their salvation “with fear and trembling.” We are not talking about junior high kids, but young adults who are capable of discerning truth from fiction, and who need to be trusted with and exposed to diverse perspectives.

Here’s a pertinent fact; another of the bloggers Claiborne would be referring to is Ingrid Schlueter of Slice of Laodicea, and her initial piece on Claiborne’s then upcoming appearance Cedarville University Succumbs to “Irresistable” Seduction. However, as Ingrid would go on to point out in a different post concerning CU, we are not saying we have a problem with students being “exposed to diverse perspectives.”

No, the fact is that institutes of higher learning do bring in materials and/or events which are often “only intended to provoke thought.” But, in closing for now, Ingrid lays the facts about our concerns with this particular—supposedly conservative—Baptist university when she writes:

I have no objection to universities requiring or suggesting reading on a given subject for the purpose of education about the emerging church, that is, provided that adequate spiritual warnings are handed out with the book lists. I and others who stay on top of the emerging authors today read many of these books, but to quote Robert Murray M’Cheyne, we do so as a chemist who handles poison in order to understand its properties.

College students are singularly vulnerable, particularly those who have just left home and who are trying to come into their own as to what they believe. As fewer and fewer homes and churches are giving young people a grounding in the doctrines of the Christian faith, college students are more vulnerable to spiritual deception than ever. These books deserve a warning tag and biblical critiques from teachers who can show the students the dangers of departing from Scripture alone, Faith alone, Christ alone, Grace alone, and the Glory of God alone.

To my knowledge, no such warnings were put on the President’s suggested [reading] list [or issued re. Claiborne]. To compound matters, the school has allowed emerging authors like Donald Miller on campus to spread their postmodern views. The invitation and then cancellation of Shane Claiborne is only adding to the growing confusion at Cedarville University. This is a dangerous dance this school has engaged in. They need to either admit they have gone the postmodern route and publicize themselves as such, or return to the old paths that once made Cedarville synonymous with biblical integrity.
(Online source)

And if Shane Claiborne, or any of these emerging church wolves in sheep’s clothing, wish to arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them (see—Acts 20:28-30) from within the Church of Jesus Christ then they’d best get prepared to meet what A.W. Tozer refered to as “the Religious Specialist.” Tozer said:

Great industrial concerns have in their employ men who are needed only when there is a breakdown somewhere. When something goes wrong with the machinery, these men spring into action to locate and remove the trouble and get the machinery rolling again. For these men a smoothly operating system has no interest. They are specialists concerned with trouble and how to find and correct it.

In the Kingdom of God things are not too different. God had always had His specialists whose chief concern has been the moral breakdown, the decline in the spiritual health of the nation or the church. Such men were Elijah, Jeremiah, Malachi and others of their kind who appeared at critical moments in history to reprove, rebuke, and exhort in the name of God and righteousness.

A thousand or ten thousand ordinary Old Testament priests or New Testament pastors and teachers could labor quietly on almost unnoticed while the spiritual life of Israel or the Church was normal. But let the people of God go astray from the paths of truth and immediately the specialist appeared almost out of nowhere. His instinct for trouble brought him to the help of the Lord and of Israel.

Such a man was likely to be drastic, radical, possibly at times violent, and the curious crowd that gathered to watch him work soon branded him as extreme, fanatical, negative. And in a sense they were right. He was single-minded, severe, fearless, and these were the qualities the circumstances demanded. He shocked some, frightened others and alienated not a few, but he knew Who had called him and what he was sent to do. His ministry was geared to the emergency, and that fact marked him out as different, a man apart.

Those who [see him work] will recognize in him the religious specialist, the man sent from God not to carry on the conventional work of the Church, but to beard the priests of Baal on their own mountaintop, to shame the careless priest at the altar, to face the false prophet and warn the people who are being led astray by him.

Such a man as this is not an easy companion. The professional evangelist who leaves the wrought-up meeting as soon as it ends to hurry over to the most expensive restaurant to feast and crack jokes with his sponsors will find this man something of an embarrassment, for he cannot turn off the burden of the Holy Ghost as one would turn off a faucet. He insists upon being a Christian all the time, everywhere; and again, that marks him out as different.

Toward [such a one] it is impossible to be neutral. His acquaintances are divided pretty neatly into two classes, those who love him out of all proportion and those who hate him with perfect hatred.

See also:

SHANE CLAIBORNE PRAISES DESERT FATHERS

The Price of Sound Doctrine

SHANE CLAIBORNE LIED

The New Evangelical Left Erects Conservative Straw Men

CEDARVILLE UNIVERSITY TO WELCOME SHANE CLAIBORNE

Blame the Bloggers!