Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1, NASB) 

Can You Be A Christian And Not Believe What Christians Believe?

Recently in the article “The Emergent Church is a Form of Paganism,” an interview with Dr. John MacArthur did with Paul Edwards of WLQV in Detroit MacArthur said of Emerging Church Pastor Doug Pagitt:

Let me just cut to the chase on this one: [Doug] Pagitt is a Universalist. What he was saying is real simple. He was saying when you die your spirit goes to God and judgment means that whatever was not right about you, whatever was bad about you, whatever was substantially lacking about you, gets all resolved. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Buddhist, a Hindu or a Muslim—doesn’t matter whether you’re a Christian really; we’re all going to end up in this wonderful, warm and fuzzy relationship with God. That’s just classic universalism.

I think you know it’s most helpful, Paul, to go back and kind of recast how we view these people. He’s not a pastor; he’s not a Christian; that’s not a church. When you call yourself a Christian and you call yourself a pastor and you say you have a church, all of that has to be—to be legitimate—defined biblically. And if it’s not, that’s not a church and you’re not a pastor and you’re not even a Christian.

What you have here is a form of false religion … A form of paganism that basically wants to be thought of as Christian because it gains a certain ground. (Online source)

In addition just about a year ago Doug Pagitt, a good friend of Emerging Church pastor Rob Bell, was interviewed by Todd Friel of Way of the Master radio. Following is a section of the transcript of the interview. This will give you confirmation that MacArthur is correct in calling Pagitt a universalist. Friel asks Pagitt, pastor of the Emergent Church attended by well known Emerging theologian Tony Jones, “How is God going to judge the good Muslim?” Pagitt answers, “there’s going to be no difference between the way God going to interact with you when you die and the way God’s going to interact with a Muslim when a Muslim dies.”

Todd Friel is a Christian and our opening text clearly tells the regenerated i.e. born again Christian that through God’s grace alone; by faith alone, in Christ alone there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, which means he will remain in the presence of the Lord in Heaven. So if Pagitt then tells us “there’s going to be no difference between the way God going to interact” with a Christian like Todd Friel and an unregenerate i.e. unsaved non-believer then he is teaching universalism and contradicting what the Scripture says applies only to those those who are in Christ Jesus.

So I ask again; why are evangelical church bringing in men like Doug Pagitt who believe not the Gospel of Jesus Christ to teach your young?

Pagitt Says God Will Treat All Men The Same After Death

Todd: Sure it is. I’m a good Muslim. Where do you think I go, pastor?

Doug: Where do I go? See here we go again. Now you’re talking about a place..

Todd: What happens to my soul when I die?

Doug: Ok, now THERE’s a different question.

Todd: Alright

Doug: There you go.

Todd: What happens to my soul when I die?

Doug: There you go. And I’m not just.. you know. You’re the guy who wants to be precise about words. That’s why you put sentences together like this.

Todd: Don’t you?

Doug: Yes very much…

Todd: OK

Doug: That’s why when you put together questions like that…

Todd: Alright.

Doug: … and ask them they don’t make any sense.

Todd: I’m a good Muslim. What happens to my soul when I die?

Doug: You are… you interact with God, just as every other human being interacts with God.

Todd: You mean Hebrews 9: “It is appointed to a man once to die and then judgment?”

Doug: Right, yea, that’s interaction with…

Todd: So he gets judged?

Doug: Right, that’s interaction with God.

Todd: Uh huh, and so…

Doug: Yeah.

Todd: What’s… what’s going to happen to the… How is God going to judge the good Muslim?

Doug: Does it.. God’s going to judge the life and repair and restore and heal the life of everybody in the same way. There’s gonna be no difference between what God…

Todd: So the Muslim is ultimately not going to be… go to a bad place. He’s ultimately going to be restored with God when he dies?

Doug: No, there’s going to be no difference between the way God going to interact with you when you die and the way God’s going to interact with a Muslim when a Muslim dies.

Todd: So I wanna put… I wanna put this into my fundamentalist language. What I just heard you say is: There is no difference between the Christian and the Muslim afterlife. God is going to have a good place prepared for both of us.

Doug: No, I… No I didn’t say a place. See, here you go again.

Todd: Ok, a good thing, a good event, a good existence.

Doug: I didn’t say a place. What I said was, the way God’s going to interact with you is the same way that God’s going to interact with everybody. The same experience of all of humanity. God will… God will interact with all of humanity in judgment the same, no matter who you are, or what your parents have taught you, or what you believe. (Online source)

See also:

DOUG PAGITT UNIVERSAL STATEMENT

DOUG PAGITT: THE EMERGENT CHURCH IS A CALL TO FRIENDSHIP WITH THE WORLD

DOUG PAGITT AND THE CULT OF THE EMERGENT CHURCH