“Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?” (Amos 3:3)

Big Tent Progessive Revolution

In the articles Big Tent Christianity Pretending To Be The Church and Pretending That Big Tent Christianity Is The Church, which serves as the second part, Apprising Ministries has taken you through a short report entitled Big Tent conference in Raleigh hopes to bridge political divide byYonat Shimronm, who is credited as “staff writer” for  The News & Observer of Raleigh, NC—though as near as I can tell has written but this one article.

It serves as a puff piece for the lastest apostasia-palooza of the Emerging Church called Big Tent Christianity: Being and Becoming the Church (BTC) getting underway today, which is thrown by the Transforming Theology network team of Dr. Philip Clayton, whom I’ve introduced you to e.g. in Philip Clayton With “Big Tent” Christianity In The Emerging Church. You’ll find more detail in those prior posts so here I’ll just remind you that BTC features a veritable who’s how of heresy headed by the unholy Emergent Church trinity of apostates, Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, universalist Emerging Church pastor Doug Pagitt, and his friend Tony Jones, the progressive “theologian in residence” at Pagitt’s Emergent Solomon’s Porch.

I also told you that one more notable among this spiritually motley crew would be uber-liberal theologian Harvey Cox, who’s very instrumental in assisting progressive Christian theologian Philip Clayton while they continue cobbling together their new postmodern form of “big tent” Progressive Christianity—a Liberalism 2.0—sometimes referred to by these rebels against the final authority of God’s Word as Emergence Christianity. What you’d best realize is that BTC is now going to marshal an open, and all-out, advance of progressive/liberal theology against mainstream of the evangelical community; through evangelicalism’s ominous embrace of the sinfully ecumenical Emerging Church, its poison was long ago injected into their Young Adult and Youth ministries. Following is more documentation concerning what’s about to be detonated within spiritually spineless evanjellyfish.

Note below Greg Boyd, whose pathetic god of Open Theism Dr. Gary Gilley rightly points out is but a slightly biggger version of man, thinks he’s about to have “fun” at BTC talking with McClaren [sic], [Shane] Claiborne & 20 other progressive types.” And what do these progessive/liberal rebels want to do; infect “the future of the Church” capital C:

 
(Online source)

Earlier the Big Tent Twitter account retweeted:

(Online source)

Again, we’re talking about progressive/liberal “Christians” as the link within takes us to a post by progressive pastor and historian Dr. Bob Cornwall called A Good Enough Theology: Can We Learn from the Fundamentalists (Bruce Epperly). In the introduction Cornwall says:

Later this week a group of Christians will gather in Raleigh, NC to celebrate a Big Tent Theology.  Alas, I can’t be there, but Bruce Epperly has been laying out what for him is a “Good Enough Theology.”… he addresses [the] concern [of fundamentalists] for sound doctrine and attending to scripture.  In this piece, Bruce reminds us that we needn’t be absolutists to be concerned about such things. (Online source) 

Below you’ll see that the uber-progressive Dr. Bruce Epperly wants us to know that he’s “a teacher, spiritual guide, writer, lecturer, retreat leader, and reiki teacher”:

(Online source)

Sung To The Tune Of Just A Closer Walk With Thee  — “Right Into Idolatry”

We get another peek at where the Big Tent Christianity of the Emerging Church 2.0 is headed as our progressive guru Epperly, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) who attends Disciples United Community Church, also tells us:

Persons of faith are called to be global pioneers. Although you may be rooted in a particular religious tradition, you may also find spiritual nurture through the insights and practices of the historical religious traditions, native spiritualities, or the new spiritual movements of our time. You may, for example, attend church on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, and share fully in the ritual of Holy Communion. But, throughout the week, you may practice Zen Buddhist meditation or Transcendental Meditation, receive reiki or acupuncture treatments, or attend a Native American sweat lodge.

The challenge for spiritual pilgrims is to find creative ways to integrate the wisdom of their own faith with global spiritual practices.

Over the past several years, I have been involved in exploring progressive Jewish and Christian spirituality. Despite a tragic history, progressive Jews and Christians can learn much from each other’s traditions. We look for common ground not only in the affirmation of an active, loving, and personal God but also the celebration of a common history and complementary spiritual practices. I believe that Jews and Christians can deepen their spirituality by sharing each other’s spiritual practices, holy days, and theological insights.

God’s truth is larger than any religious tradition. As we share our faith, we do not seek to convert one another, but grow together by sharing a common spiritual adventure.
(Online source)

Sure remember now, this is a big tent so it’s no problem if you want to erect altars to the Baals practice Zen Buddhist meditation or make Asherahs Transcendental Meditation because “God’s truth is larger than any religious tradition.” Ah, who cares that God takes a really dim view of idolatry e.g. 2 Chronicles 33:1-9, it’s different now because…um-well, we “feel” it is. Now there’s room for everybody who enters through this wide tent gate; sadly though, they’re not listening to Jesus Who has already warned us:

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

And should you still have any doubt that the Emerging Church 2.0 has left the Christian building, if it was ever even in it, I’ll draw your attention once again to the same old interlocking circles of apostates teaching at this BTC. For some reason if one goes to the BTC schedule page right now you get this:

(Online source)

But you’ll see below via screen shot what the page originally looked like (click to enlarge):

(Online source)

Tomorrow morning self-professed progressive theologian Tony Jones is slated to teach Frontier Thinking of Big Tent along with another progressive/liberal theologian by the name of Harvey Cox. Just so you know, in Is Big Tent Wimpy or Radical Philip Clayton informs us that, “Brian McLaren and Tripp Fuller and I launched the Big Tent Christianity project”; and back in October of 2009 Fuller, a student of Clayton’s and part of his Transforming Theology Network Team, tells us in Harvey Cox and Philip Clayton on Faith and Theology for the Future Church: Homebrewed Christianity 64:

What an episode!  Not one, but two amazing and articulate theologians in one podcast.  This week Harvey Cox and Philip Clayton get together for a conversation about faith and theology for the future church.  Harvey’s newest book ‘The Future of Faith’ and Philip‘s upcoming release ‘Transforming Christian Theology‘ create the backdrop for a quite engaging conversation you are sure to enjoy and share. (Online source)

In posts like Why Evangelicalism Is Failing A New Generation, As Is The Emerging Church I’ve told you that Emerging Church guru Brian McLaren has begun laying out this new mythology of  postmodern progressive Christian theology, which Cox and Clayton et al are still in the process of dreaming up, in his book A New Kind of Christianity. So as I close this out, for now, I’ll show you just how influential Cox is with this BTC crowd of apostates. We begin with Dr. Mike Wittmer, Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, who writes in his blog post Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christianity, Introduction:

why doesn’t Brian want me to know and believe the truth about Jesus?  He says that his new kind of Christianity is led by Doug Pagitt, who isn’t sure that Jesus is God; Marcus Borg, who argues that Jesus is dead; and Harvey Cox, a Harvard Divinity professor who wants to blow the whole thing up and construct a new view of God that will connect with our secular age.

Brian says that Cox’s new book, The Future of Faith, divides church history into the Age of Faith (pre-Constantine), the Age of Belief (from Constantine until today), and the Age of the Spirit (yeah!  That’s us!).  This tripartite division of history sounds similar to the system taught by Joachim of Fiore (a medieval Jack Van Impe), except that Joachim said that the Age of the Spirit would climax around 1260 (about 700 years before Jack’s first miss).

The benefit for Brian is that Cox’s model enables him to dismiss everything from Constantine until now—ecumenical creeds, councils, Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, and Piper—as belonging to an imperialistic Age of Belief when doctrine was used to “burn and banish heretics.”  We now live in the fresh air of the Spirit, who frees us from our confining and mean-spirited, doctrinaire past. 
(Online source, emphasis mine)

O yeah, of course I’m sure *wink* it’s just another one of those odd coincidences these same names always keep showing up associated together with false teaching, but work with me k, next we note the importance leading EC guru McLaren places upon the mythologies of Pagitt, Borg and Cox; each of whom—save Marcus Borg— is instructing at BTC. And now we consider the following endorsements for The Future of Faith by Harvey Cox; also keep in mind that both McLaren, who tells us it “motivated me to keep working to help make actual the possible future Cox envisions,” and his fellow Red Letter Christian, progressive historian Diana Butler Bass, are also teaching at BTC:

Harvey Cox is the most important liberal theologian of the last half century because he could see around corners…. The Future of Faith is, quite simply, a beautiful book and a Cox classic.
—E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Souled Out
 
The Future of Faith is insightful, provocative, and inspiring—I found myself uttering a hearty evangelical ‘Amen’ at many points!
—Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary and author of Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport

This important book has not only helped me understand the past, present, future of this amazing phenomenon called Christianity . . . it has also motivated me to keep working to help make actual the possible future Cox envisions.
—Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian

The Future of Faith is a tour de force. As passionate and challenging as his classic, The Secular City, Cox’s new book invites the faithful, the skeptical, and the fearful into a spirit-filled version of Christianity that can renew a hurting world.
—Diana Butler Bass, author of A People’s History of Christianity

Cox brings the eye of an historian and the heart of a theologian to explain where we’ve come from and where we’re going. The Future of Faith is an essential guide to that future.
—Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners and author of The Great Awakening

Harvey Cox has been a voice of both reason and faith in our cynical times. Now, he offers a fresh vision for the resurrection of a new global Christianity that will restore our faith both in ourselves and in the divine.
—Deepak Chopra, author of Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment

Hey, now that Deepak Chopra, who apparently is a Christian pantheist mystic, has brought up the subject of “a new global Christianity” perhaps he should give Purpose Driven/Seeker Driven pastor Bob Roberts some pointers concerning Robert’s nifty new venture Global Faith Forum: From a Conversation About Other Faiths to a Conversation with Other Faiths. *Contextualization alert* Master missiologist Ed Stetzer would probably be proud of me that the following song by the Ramones suddenly popped into my head:

We’re a happy family
We’re a happy family
We’re a happy family
Me mom and daddy

I’m friends with the President
I’m friends with the Pope
We’re all making a fortune
Selling Daddy’s dope

We’re a happy family
We’re a happy family
We’re a happy family
Me mom and daddy

My question again is: “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?”

See also:

DOWNSIZING THE BIG TENT OF PHILIP CLAYTON

PHILIP CLAYTON AND A “JESUS” WHO’S GANDHI WITH A BEARD

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DOESN’T MATTER TO BRIAN MCLAREN

TOXIC THEOLOGY OF DOUG PAGITT

BIG TENT PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY AS LIBERALISM 2.0

THE EMERGING CHURCH AND THE NEW PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY ON OTHER RELIGIONS 

THE EMERGING CHURCH AND THE NEW PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY ON CHRIST