“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.”

“A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15-20, ESV)

Once Upon A Time There Was No Emerging Church

Looking at the red sky this morning here’s a short article that gets at the fetid root of this issue of the Emergent Church aka Emerging Church or Emergence Christianity, which is a cult of repainted liberal theology i.e. a Liberalism 2.0. Anyone even remotely following Apprising Ministries and my on-going analysis of this Emergent attack on sola Scriptura will be aware of the grave spiritual danger—toward which it is undoubtedly taking everyone who will follow it.

As a matter of fact I continue to be in direct dialogue when possible with well known sources within the Emergent Church in order to better understand it. And yes, we are well aware that—as maybe I am, maybe I’m not—EC pastor Mark Driscoll puts it, “the more liberal-minded Emergent team, does not speak for every church in the ‘conversation.’ ” Well, just the same however, in his book A Generous Orthodoxy Emergent Guru Brian McLaren explains:

“In the late 1990’s, I was invited to become part of Leadership Network’s Young Leader Networks (YLN), also briefly known as the TerraNova Project. I was grandfathered in as the network’s ‘old guy,’…I met with Doug Pagitt to discuss our future plans.”

Please know that the discernment ministry Herescope has some excellent articles that uncover the real truth about the actual beginnings of the Emerging Church through Leadership Network, which is our main concern here. Note also the involvement, from the very beginning, of Doug Pagitt—who just happens to be pastor of Solomon’s Porch, which is also the home church for another Emergent Church leader Tony Jones. Dr. John MacArthur has rightly pointed out Pagitt’s own universalism here. And below is a video showing you what Pagitt’s particular Emerging Church is like.

Despite the fact that so many, many of the leaders and people in this movement have such a low view of Scripture—neo-orthodox at best—I will still show you from the Bible what the heart of the matter is. The involvement of men like Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt, who in my opinion have long ago left the faith—if they were ever even in it—is the rotten and poisonous root from which this emerging insurgence against Biblical authority under discussion originally sprang. And thus it would put this Emerging Church movement into the category of “a diseased tree.”

I’m also sure there are many sincere Christians who have become involved in the Emergent/Emerging Church who do wish to make church relevant to this definitely pagan and allegedly “postmodern” nation. However, the truth is that if you are Emergent/Emerging then you would have already fallen for its two main lies. The first is that those of us who preach the Bible don’t attempt at all to make the Gospel somewhat relative to our culture. And the second is buying the idea of postmodernism itself; because you need to understand that it’s simply an artificial category of philosophy today, which one then chooses to believe in. In truth it’s really a reimagined relativism.

But regardless, the historic witness from the Bible itself tells us in our opening text that Christ Jesus of Nazareth unambiguously told us —“A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.” Today I strongly urge those of you who are among the above sincere Christians following Emergent Hollow Men e.g. Rob Bell to humbly ask the Jesus, which you say you follow, what the Lord means by the statement I just quoted from Him above. And then let Christ Jesus lead you away from this seditious Emergent rebellion against the Word of the one true and living God.

See also:

THE EMERGING CHURCH SOWING ITS NEO-ORTHODOX CONFUSION ON SCRIPTURE

DOUG PAGITT SAYS JOHN MACARTHUR PREACHES A PERVERTED GOSPEL

DOUG PAGITT OF THE EMERGENT CHURCH TALKS ABOUT THE “DISTURBED” PARENTING OF JOHN PIPER AND HOW PIPER IS IN THE DARK AGES

TONY JONES: “JOHN MACARTHUR IS A SOFT GNOSTIC”

IS TONY JONES A CHRISTIAN?