Unfortunately, we’re living in a time of growing spiritual blindness as Jesus sends 1 Peter 4:17 judgments against the visible Christian church; this darkness is why mainstream evangelicalism would make such a foolish decision to embrace the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church with its quasi-universalism in a new version of postmodern Progressive Christian theology under their spiritual circus “big tent” of empty Emergence Christianity. Apprising Ministries brings you the following words of warning circa 1985 by Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989), a renowned defender of what he so often referred to as “the historic orthodox Christian faith.”

Concerning the methodology of liberalism aka modern theology that was used to take over the dead and dying mainline denominations Martin, a former adherent to liberal theology, said:

There is a progression that takes place in liberal theology: It begins with a corrupt bibliology, a corrupt view of the nature and the inspiration of Scripture. They have a corrupt theology because once you are picking and choosing from the Bible what you want, your theology has to suffer from it, because your human reason is corrupt… every major theological seminary that has turned from orthodox Christianity began with disbelief of Biblical doctrine. There wasn’t a single exception.

This corrupt Bibliology then lead them to the next step. Their theology began to be touched by it, their view of the Cross, the Virgin Birth were both immediately questioned; then came the miracles of Christ… 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. That is not a baseless charge, I stand prepared to prove that the Cult of Liberal Theology in the United States has deliberately and consistently followed this methodology to entrap, control and dominate the denominations and the churches of the United States and our educational institutions. (The Cult of Liberalism, available from Walter Martin Religious InfoNet)

Well, you’ll need to understand that this EC cult of the new liberalism learned well from their evil forebears and have followed the exact same track to infiltrate the largely spiritually obtuse evangelical camp, which they’ve been indoctrinating for years now through its own publishing houses, church-related schools, seminaries, denominations, etc. Remember, spiritually dense evangelical churches desperate to fill church buildings, began using the warped and toxic teachings of leaders within the Emerging Church such as rock star pastor Rob Bell in their Young Adult and Youth ministries and exposing them e.g. to the unholy Emergent Church trinity of apostates, Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, universalist EC pastor Doug Pagitt, and his friend Tony Jones, the progressive/liberal “theologian in residence” at Solomon’s Porch.

These guys are now so far off track that they couldn’t find the Christian faith with radar; and the first thing they’ve done is to replace sola Scriptura with highly subjective Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) perpetrated by Emerging Church mentors Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster, along with his friend and spiritual twin SBC minister Dallas Willard, as so-called Spiritual Formation (SF). Now consider what Martin says above following his multi-year examination of seminaries in this nation, “every major theological seminary that has turned from orthodox Christianity began with disbelief of Biblical doctrine”; in other words, they caved in on the inerrancy of Scripture and embraced destructive higher criticism.

I’m sorry to tell you, but there are many prominent names within the Emerging Church who have already done so, which is why you’re seeing this corrupt Bibliology already affecting the younger sectors of evangelicalism. You see, many of them are not old enough, or informed enough, to realize that they are being fed the same theological poison once dispensed by modern theology aka liberalism; it’s simply repackaged as a postmodern theology, i.e. a newer form of progressive/liberal theology. There’s not really much difference because once you reject the text of the Bible, the only other place you can go is within corrupt human nature, which inevitably produces the same heresies that have now mortally wounded the mainline denominations.

As we examine their history from the late 1960’s on we see they would begin the practice of spurious CSM whose immediate fruit is sinful ecumenicsm; the next step was the ordination of women to the office of pastor-teacher (i.e. senior teaching elder) in violation of Holy Scripture, which invariably leads to the rejection of the doctrine of Hell in favor of some supposed universal “Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of man,” and the very next thing we observe was the embrace of the deviant lifestyle of homosexuality as a viable one for the Christian. I wish I had better news, but from my closely monitoring intel on the Internet, I can tell you for certain that much more of evangelicalism than you may even want to know is already well along on this broad path.

Should funding allow me to continue with Apprising Ministries I’m going to begin to take you through the various doctrines of classic liberalism, and its clone progressive Christianity—which is not progressive or Christian—so you’ll be able to see that the McLarens and Pagitts are basically regurgitating doctrines and arguments long ago debunked by Christian apologists like Walter Martin. A good example is gay-affirming “pastor” Jay Bakker, leader of a support group called Revolution NYC trying to pass itself off as a church, and who heads up a rather rapscallion, and largely Biblically illiterate bunch in the Emerging Church who’ve crowned themselves Outlaw Preachers. While he seems to be very sincere in what he teaches, the fact remains, he is sincerely ignorant when it comes to Scripture.

I told you in Jay Bakker Critiques Ken Silva At Religion Dispatches that I’ve been using the issue of homosexuality in order to light up the dark sky with the Word of God to give you a chance to see the wide, and very rapid, advance of the EC and its evil pro-gay agenda. I’ve also told you that because evangelicalism has rejected the proper Biblical spirituality of sola Scriptura in favor of CSM it has placed itself upon the postmodern playing field of existential and highly subjective experience where there are no rules; my point being, evangelicalism is defenseless against such as these. In closing this. for now, I’ll give you an example of how EC advocates are attacking proper doctrine concerning the Bible by pointing you to The Bible Is Jesus Once Removed by Emerging Church “author, coach, speaker, and consultant” Jonathan Brink, ” Managing Director for Thrive Ministries.”[1]

For more I refer the interested reader to Crooked Talk From The Emerging Church Trojan Horse; here I’ll just tell you Brink’s post concerns a comment I left on one of his earlier posts, which apparently “sparked a lot of interesting comments and conversations.” Brink then tells us:

 I noticed something in Ken’s own words this morning. Ken stated:

“Well, since he asked; I think God has revealed of Himself what He wanted us to know about Him in His inerrant, infallible, Word i.e. Holy Scripture. Therefore, any theology that’s shaped by the Bible, in context and rightly interpreted, accurately represents the size of our infinite Creator God that He needs us to have of Him.”

And as I read that I thought, “If you just substitute Jesus for Scripture, I’m all in on that. It would read like this.

“Well, since he asked; I think God has revealed of Himself what He wanted us to know about Him in His inerrant, infallible, Son i.e. Jesus Christ. Therefore, any theology that’s shaped by Jesus accurately represents the size of our infinite Creator God that He needs us to have of Him.”

And with that I began to realize why people have so many theological disagreements. Our faith is in our interpretation of Scripture, as opposed to Jesus. As much as I love Scripture it’s Jesus once removed. (Online source)

Sounds very pious, “As much as I love Scripture it’s Jesus once removed”; however, it’s actually a subtle attack on Scripture pitting it against Jesus as if what we read in the Bible is somehow in conflict with what Jesus taught. What you need to know is this odd idea that somehow the Bible is lesser than Jesus is not new; and what it’s designed to do is open the door for such as these to circumvent God’s authority in favor of the autonomy of their own subjective experiences. That one can somehow have Jesus as opposed to obeying His inspired Word in Holy Scripture is impossible. Lord willing, I’ll cover this in more depth; but for now just consider what Jesus says below:

 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

Christ Jesus is our Example and our Master; just as Jesus, the living Word of God lives in commitment to Holy Scripture, the written word of God, so should we. If that’s Bibliolatry, then the charge must also be leveled against God the Son Himself. And as I said, the hue and cry that to be obedient to, and bow before, the final authority of the inerrant and infallible Word of the one true and living God in the Bible is somehow to worship Scripture instead of the One the Bible speaks about is not new at all. The following is from Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) who stood tall in Christ facing down the original cult of liberalism in what became known as the Down-grade Controversy; and it sounds like he could have been writing about Jonathan Brink and others like him in the Emerging Church today:

Let me call your attention to the fact that when Jesus had risen from the dead, He was just as tender of Scripture as He was before His decease. He told them that “all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me. Then He opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and this it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead” (Luke 24:44-46, KJV).

Find Jesus where you may, He is the antagonist of those who would lessen the authority of Holy Scripture. “It is written” is His weapon against Satan, His argument against wicked men. The learned of this hour scoff at the Book and accuse of Bibliolatry those of us who reverence the Divine Word; but in this they derive no assistance from the teaching or example of Jesus.

Not a word derogatory of Scripture ever fell from the lips of Jesus Christ; but evermore He manifested the most reverent regard for every jot and tittle of the inspired Volume. Since our Savior, not only before His death, but after it, took care to commend the Scriptures to us, let us avoid with all our hearts all teaching in which Holy Scripture is put into the background.[2]

Just understand, the church has been there; done that, and we have the apostasy to show for it.

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Endnotes

[1] http://jonathanbrink.com/about/, accessed 2/18/11. 

[2] Charles Spurgeon, At the Master’s Feet [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005], January 30.

See also:

THE GREATEST EXPERT ON THE SCRIPTURES AND HIS VIEW OF THE BIBLE

RECLAIMING THE BIBLE AS THE WORD OF GOD

DON’T BE FOOLED BY THOSE WHO ONLY SAY THEY LOVE SCRIPTURE

ROB BELL ABSOLUTELY WRONG ABOUT SCRIPTURE

THE EMERGING CHURCH SOWING ITS NEO-ORTHODOX CONFUSION ON SCRIPTURE

JOHN MACARTHUR: EXISTENTIAL NEO-ORTHODOXY DENIES SOLA SCRIPTURA

SCRIPTURE TESTIFIES TO JESUS’ DEITY