BRIAN MCLAREN: THE EMERGING CHURCH VIEW THAT JESUS CAME FOR GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION
By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Nov 28, 2008 in AM Missives, Current Issues, Emergent Church, Features, Rob Bell
For those of us old enough to remember The Firesign Theatre, the non-gospel of the Emergent rebellion against the Bible aka the Emerging Church will remind you of their album “Everything You Know Is Wrong.” And such is the root any cult takes; cast doubt on the Scriptures, and/or offer their unique twist on them, to insure its followers need the true “wisdom” i.e. Gnosis of its particular leaders.
Ah, but we don’t see that kind of response from, say, followers of Emergent Church icon Rob Bell when one such as I dares to criticize something he’s taught. Try it yourself sometime and immediately you’ll hear, “But Rob says”; or “Rob is only bringing out the original understanding”, etc., etc., blah, blah.
Not content to simply take the Bible at face value, which was good enough for men powerful in Christ such as Jonathan Edwards or Charles Spurgeon; no, recently Bell instructed his church that we need to also venture in the murky mystical waters of the truly “enlightened ones” with their esoteric, self-validating, alleged experiences of the Sacred through their transcendental meditation:
It’s interesting how many traditions (pause) When you read the great enlightened ones; meditation, centering prayer, reflection—in every tradition you can find the mystics—and what’s always at the heart of the spiritual lives, the everyday lives of the great ones was always a period of time. Whether it’s prayers, chanting, meditation, reflection, study—whatever you call it—what is it essentially; it’s taking time to breathe. Because when you’ve been breathing, (slight pause) in a proper sort of way, you’re far better equipped to handle what life throws your way. (Online source)
Well, if you’d like a synopsis of the gospel of social concern advanced by already saved humanity in “many traditions” [means: interspirituality] currently being taught to your youth in evangelical youth groups e.g. Saddleback Church Pastors Using Rob Bell Teachings below Emergent Swami Brian McLaren, one of “the great enlightened ones,” lays it right out for you:
Emerging View: Jesus came to become the Savior of the world, meaning he came to save the earth and all it contains from its ongoing destruction because of human evil. Through his life and teaching, through his suffering, death, and resurrection, he inserted into human history a seed of grace, truth, and hope that can never be defeated.
This seed will, against all opposition and odds, prevail over the evil and the injustice of humanity and lead to the world’s ongoing transformation into the world God dreams of. All who find in Jesus God’s hope and truth discover the privilege of participating in his ongoing work of personal and global transformation and liberation from evil and injustice.
As part of his transforming community, they experience liberation from the fear of death and condemnation. This is not something they can earn or achieve, but rather a free gift they receive as an expression of God’s grace and love. (Everything Must Change, 79, 80)
Above is a crystal clear example of another very common methodology used in the Kingdom of the Cults. Take familiar terminology; gut it of its original definitions, and then pump it full of new meaning. And right now this Emergent cult of postliberalism is following precisely the same methodology to take over your churches as did their forebears in the original cult of liberal theology as they captured the mainline denominations.
The following by Dr. Walter Martin from the Apprising Ministries piece Delusions of Dallas Willard completely exposes it for those not content to continue their impressions of Rip Van Winkle; and who instead, actually wish to wake up to what’s going on—right now—within mainstream evangelicalism:
And finally they had emptied the Gospel of all its content; they were simply using the outward shell so that they go on collecting money from the people and the churches; because they knew that if the people in the pew knew that they were apostate, they’d throw them out. So the strategy was hang on to the trust funds; hang on to the money we’ve got; hang on the properties we control, and we will gradually educate the laymen into this new approach to theology.
And then finally we will take control of everything. The gradual process of feeding you theological poison until you become immunized enough so that you don’t know what’s happening to you. And when you wake up to what’s happening to you, it’s too late they’ve got everything.