Apprising Ministries brings you the following, which is excerpted by permission from The Emergent Church: Redefining Christianity, an excellent book from pastor Bob DeWaay of  Critical Issues Commentary.

As one who’s been studying the neo-liberal cult of the Emerging Church, with its new postmodern form of big tent Progressive Christianity aka Emergence Christianity, for years now I can tell you quite frankly that this is simply the best book on the subject:

Emergent writers condemn any approach that declares some ideas to be true and others false. Absolute truth claims do not fit into the Emergent “conversation” because they “divide people”. But the price of giving up such claims is to give up the very claims that the Biblical writers made.

Getting back to Paul’s address before Festus and Agrippa, his words indeed got Agrippa’s attention:

“King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets? I know that you do.” Agrippa replied to Paul, “In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.” And Paul said, “I would wish to God, that whether in a short or long time, not only you, but also all who hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these chains.” (Acts 26:27-29, NASB)

Paul believed that truth claims such as the bodily resurrection of Christ (Acts 26:23) were to be proclaimed even before kings who had the power over Paul’s life. His was not a conversation with those who were just as likely to be right as Paul was, but a bold proclamation of the truth designed to convince others of the truth.

But the very practice of the New Testament apostles is what most Emergent leaders oppose. Compare that to Paul’s assessment of the Judaizers in Galatia:

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Galatians 1:6-9, NASB)

Furthermore, Paul urged others to follow his example and charged elders with the duty of correcting false teaching: Titus 1:9: Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. Contrast Paul’s instructions to Christian elders with the ideas of emergent writer Samir Selmanovic:

“We have created a false tension between keeping our Christian identity intact and approaching the world in humility. Humility is to be our identity. When we open ourselves to be taught by ‘the other,’ we don’t become less the followers of Christ but more so.”[1]

According to Paul we are to guard the flock against “the other” (or religious beliefs that are not in accord with the faith once for all delivered to the saints) and in the Emergent view “the other” teaches us. Humility is not openness to false religions and false teachings; it is the realization that we are sinners who need a savior.

The real false tension is the one Emergent thinking creates between humility and confidence in the once-for-all revealed truth. Moses was called “humble” (Numbers 12:3) and to him was given the revelation of God’s truth. Humble Moses told the Israelites not to listen to anyone who came in the name of a god they had not known—even if they produced signs (Deuteronomy 13:1-4).

The idea that God’s people would listen to false teachings as a sign of their humility is in opposition to what we are told in the Bible. 

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Endnotes:

1. Samir Selmanovic, “The Sweet Problem of Inclusiveness – Finding Our God in the Other,” in An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones editors (Grand Rapids: Baker,
2007), 198.

HT: Lighthouse Trails Research

See also: 

SAMIR SELMANOVIC: GOD IS FATHER OF All RELIGION

CHARLES SPURGEON: THOSE WHO BURY THE GOSPEL WITH TRASH

OLD FASHIONED LIBERALISM IN THE EMERGING CHURCH

LIBERALISM 2.0 THE NEW PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

THE EMERGING CHURCH, A LAVA LAMP, AND LEAVEN

THE NEW CHRISTIANITY OF BRIAN MCLAREN AND THE EMERGING CHURCH 

PHILIP CLAYTON WITH “BIG TENT” CHRISTIANITY IN THE EMERGING CHURCH