Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? (1 Corinthians 5:6)

From Adding It Through These Past Few Years Contemporary Evangelicalism Is Full Of Leaven

Being in online apologetics and discernment work along the Internet front Apprising Ministries has pointed out that a part of our labor in the Lord is the documenting of the painfully obvious New Downgrade within mainstream evangelicalism; obvious at least for those blessed by God with eyes that see.

I’ve also told you before that the root of growing apostasy roughly begins with the charismatic revival circa 1960 as it later spreads through the Jesus People/Movement in the early 1970′s and out into various mainline denominations as well as into what became the Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission. ((http://tinyurl.com/2do9obh, accessed 6/15/12.))

You need to realize that this is the spiritual cesspool from which the new liberalism of the Seeker-Driven/attractional methodology of letting culture define the church visible would spring. What people forget is that the Emerging Church aka the Emergent Church is merely another side of that same bankrupt coin.

The EC is simply a postmodern form of the new liberalism. John MacArthur’s insight is helpful here:

[H]ow do you know it’s the new liberalism?  Because you can’t stop a seeker-friendly movement, because it’s going to be redefined, it’s going to be redefined, it’s going to be redefined…  It’s relentlessly being redefined because the culture changes so fast in a media-driven society.  It changes so fast!

You know, Schuller is the architect of this.  Robert Schuller is the absolute father.  The grandfather of the movement, who was a little bit below the radar, was Norman Vincent Peale.  Norman Vincent Peale is a classic liberal.  The primary impact that Norman Vincent Peale has had on the world is through his leading disciple, Robert Schuller; who said to me, “I can sign the confession of my denomination and makes the words mean anything I want them to mean.”  Well, that’s classic neo-orthodoxy—or liberalism, whichever.

So, you’ve got Norman Vincent Peale, who creates this kind of liberal, social gospel; his number one disciple, positive-thinker Robert Schuller. Robert Schuller develops this concept of the church many years ago, where he goes into Orange County and he goes door-to-door, and passes out cards, and tells people to write down what they want a church to be, and then he gives them what they ask for.

And so if you wanna know—he said in his speech at NRB (National Radio Broadcaster’s convention) many years ago, “If you want to know how to build a church, ask the community, and give them what they want.”  His most famous disciple trained into that model is Bill Hybels, and the second is Rick Warren.  Rick Warren says, himself, that when he left seminary, he drove right to the Crystal Cathedral and was mentored there.

So, there’s a flow going on here.  And where is it going?  It’s going toward the Emerging Church.  That’s why you can have all those people—Rick Warren and Brian McLaren—way out on the edge of the Emergent Church, you can have all those people at the same conference in San Diego all speaking, and, in between, sessions on Yoga.  If you just look at the roots of something—and look where it’s going: if you let the culture define the church, there’s no way to catch up. (source)

Just as the old liberalism, this is all doomed to failure because there’s no power of God behind it. The man who’s probably done more harm to the younger sectors of the professing Christian community is former Emerging Church rock star icon Rob Bell, who was the original teaching pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church.

Shortly after arguing for a form of Christian Universalism as his Love Wins mythology Bell would leave the church arena for Hollywood and television production. Bell’s book was even too much postmodern liberalism for Zondervan, which is telling considering all of the other Emergent skubalon they are willing to publish.

Well, now get ready because Bell’s new publisher HarperCollins Publishers is getting set to drop The Rob Bell Reader e-book this coming Tuesday, June 19th:

New York Times bestselling author Rob Bell is known for bringing out into the open and exploring the deeper questions of Christian life and faith—how we relate to God, how to love others, how to channel difficulty into creativity, how to understand eternity, and how to live as Jesus taught. He invites us to examine closely the beliefs we claim to hold most dear but often do not take the time to reflect upon.

TIME calls Bell the most exciting voice in the church today and, now with the Rob Bell Reader, readers can sample selections from Love Wins, Velvet Elvis, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, Sex God, and Drops Like Stars. (source)

A most dangerous voice in younger sectors of the church visible is more like it. Rob Bell may be out of the spotlight but HCP has come up with a masterful marketing ploy to put his warped and toxic teachings in front of countless thousands with this fee e-book. Let’s be praying the Lord will help them see through Bell’s mystic mythology.

Further reading

• ROB BELL AND CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM
• PHIL JOHNSON DESTROYS LOVE WINS MYTHOLOGY OF ROB BELL
• ROB BELL AND POSTMODERN NEO-LIBERALISM