The sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church continues on their foolish Wild Goose Chase; so here at Apprising Ministries I continue tracking the destruction in the wake of The New Downgrade And Its Apostles Of Unbelief. As I do you’ll come to see that the EC’s new postmodern version of Progressive Christian theology under their spiritual circus “big tent” Emergence Christianity depends upon philosophy and not Biblical theology.

Refusing to follow the historic orthodox Christian faith and to worship the one true and living God of the Bible, instead these apostates would rather follow the whimsical ways of their highly subjective experience and to construct their own mystic mush god with a man-shaped hole in his/her/its heart.

That’s why in The Wild Goose Of The Emerging Church Is Not The Holy Spirit I pointed out that we’re dealing with neo-Gnostic fools who, through their practice of existential corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM), have now convinced themselves they are the truly enlightened ones. So now these deluded ones truly do believe that they’re receiving special revelation from God while they use a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness commonly known as Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP).

And this awful influence of the Emerging Church has now reached deeply into the younger sectors of the evangelical camp of the church visible. Now we’re witnessing with more and more of them joining with the EC in spurious CSM and CCP, which is about to explode like a spiritual wildfire into a raging Progressive Degeneration Within Mainstream Evangelicalism.  Keeping this in mind, yesterday in Gay, Tattooed, And Generally Liberal Folk On The Emerging Wild Goose Chase I shared another eyewitness account of the recently concluded EC apostasia-palooza called the Wild Goose Festival (WGF).

Therein I told you that the mainstream Protestant Christian community itself is responsible for crippling its own future by handing their young to wolves like gay-affirming universalist Doug Pagitt and his progressive/liberal theologian in residence Tony Jones, forming two-thirds of the apostate EC trinity along with Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren. It’s well past time for you to come to see that because of their long-time practice of CSM, and rejection of sola Scriptura, these leaders within the early EC have long ago left anything even remotely representing the historic orthodox Christian faith.

As a matter of fact, in Brian McLaren Admits Ken Silva Was Right I showed you clear evidence that guru McLaren is now out of his theological closet and openly refers to himself as a progressive Christian. Should diminishing funding allow, I will be instructing you as to the theology of so-called progressive Christianity. For now, suffice to say it has pagan universalism at its corroded core.  This understood we turn to a tweet today by Steve Knight:

(Online source)

You may recall that Knight started the EC group TransFORM; and his link takes us to Crazy, Holy, Hungry Ones: My Wild Goose Festival Reflection by former EC pastrix Julie Clawson over at the God’s Politics blog of Jim Wallis. Clawson tells us she “was excited” to attend WGF and then get to “learn from respected Christian leaders.” However, as I pointed out before WGF was a veritable who’s who of heresy including the evil EC trinity, universalist Roman Catholic mystic Richard Rohr, gay-affirming “pastor” Jay Bakker, self-professed “queer inclusive” ELCA pastrix Nadia Bolz-Weber, along with EC interspiritual leader Samir Selmanovic, Christian universalist Chad Holtz, and the Empress of Emergence Phyllis Tickle (in video below).

No respected Christian leaders to be found there in that bunch; and not suprisingly, Clawson wasn’t exactly pleased by my description of WGF:

I had to laugh when I read after the festival that some opponents were deriding the festival, questioning our faith and referring to the event as Apostate-palooza (because *obviously* anything to do with art, camping, and justice can’t possibly be Christian). (Online source)

I would hope that Julie Clawson isn’t as limited in her understanding as that statement makes her seem. No one’s saying those things are anti-Christian; the Liberalism 2.0 of the Emergent cult is. Though billed as a Christian festival WGF was more akin to a neo-bohemian assemblage of spiritual hippies as Clawson continues:

Wild Goose was a gathering of those who dream of a better way: a better way to be human, a better way to be the church. Not in a “we want to be better than you” sort of way, but more of a deep felt recognition that the world is not as it should be.

It was that wrestling with trying to live into the lives God created us to live that became the conversation at Wild Goose. As part of that, one theme that kept resurfacing in the talks I heard was that of learning to be open to the full range of human emotions and experiences in the world. (Online source)

Coming of age at the tail end of the 1960’s I used to hear that kind of talk all the time; now however, we’re hearing the same things all over again, but this time in spiritual terms. Unfortunately, because of centered on the self CSM, such as these—while seemingly well-meaning—are (ala 2 Timothy 3:2) more interested in “a better way to be human” than in preaching the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sin in Jesus’ Name. What people like Julie Clawson don’t seem to realize is they’re actually attacking a caricature that isn’t the genuine Christian faith.

She tells us Emergents are:

People who desired for our faith to mean something tangible. People, who, as Richard Rohr said, don’t want to settle for the easy shallow faith of merely worshiping God — putting God on an idealized but distant pedestal to be admired, but not known. They want to follow God in ways that transform their lives and the lives of others as well. (Online source)

Those of us in Christ also desire our faith be lived out as well; however, this is actually accomplished by our worshiping God. You see to us God isn’t on a “distant pedestal” in the first place; and that said, it’s important to understand that faith doesn’t transform lives, Jesus does through His Gospel. The people who adhere to this emerging postmodern progressive Christianity don’t preach the apostolic Gospel; and so, they are powerless to affect any real change despite their admittedly noble desire to be a people “who desire to follow God…that always orient around caring about the needs of others.”

As I get ready to close this out, for now, let’s be clear: I have no doubt that Julie Clawson, and others within this Emergent cult, truly do wish “to follow God wholly.” The problem is the mystic mush god of progressive Christianity, the one with a man-shaped hole in his/her/its heart, doesn’t even exist. Right desire, but pagan universalism isn’t the answer; and this is what you get with progressive  Christianity. Consider the below tweet from the interspiritual website Patheos:

(Online source)

When we follow the link we end up at a promo piece called Growing Progressive Leaders: The Beatitudes Society by “Rev.” Anne Sutherland Howard, whom I told you in Richard Rohr And The Emerging Church As The Third Way heads something called The Beatitudes Society: Strengthening the Progression Christian Network for justice, compassion, and peace (TBS). Under Resources provided by TBS we find Progressive Christianity Today and the following recommended reading:

(Online source)

You are likely aware that Living Spiritual Teacher and Progessive Christian scholar Marcus Borg is an apostate (at best) who denies the deity of Jesus Christ, which I show you e.g. in Marcus Borg And Christians Who Don’t Believe In Jesus. Below are a couple of The 8 Points of Progressive Christianity:

(Online source)

Did you see in No. 1 that following Jesus can lead, not does lead, to experience with God; and then in No. 2 Jesus is merely one way among many ways to God. Quite obviously, this is not the historic Christian faith under discussion. Then finally, from my copy of the book by Delwin Brown recommended by the progressive Christian outfit TBS above, we’re told that “‘Christ’ is the Christian name for the logos of God in all of creation, including all religions” wherein people are to be encouraged “to consider and to appropriate” the teachings of Jesus “according to the light of the divine in their lives.”

As honorable as the intentions of people like Julie Clawson may be, she needs to repent and renounce her association with these progressive quasi-Christians because what you just read is actually the doctrine of the antichrist. It is written — Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son (1 John 2:22). Progressive Christianity is neither progressive, nor is it Christianity. No tragically, what we’re witnessing is actually a wild goose chase merging onto the broad pathway of pagan universalism.

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End Notes:

1. Delwin Brown, What Does a Progressive Christian Believe? [New York: Seabury Books, 2008], 38.

See also:

SEXUAL IDENTITY WITH THE EMERGING CHURCH ON THE WILD GOOSE CHASE

TOXIC THEOLOGY OF DOUG PAGITT

DOUG PAGITT AND HOMOSEXUAL SIN

TONY JONES, THE EMERGING CHURCH AND PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY

FOR BRIAN MCLAREN AND MARCUS BORG BEING “BORN AGAIN” IS REACHING “ENLIGHTENMENT”?

BRIAN MCLAREN SPEAKS AS A UNIVERSALIST

BIG TENT CHRISTIANITY IS A POSTMODERN PROGRESSIVE LIBERALISM