“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:8-9)

The Sad Emergent Effect

This work began to become clear as the Lord developed a theme the other day on Slice of Laodicea because Ingrid Schlueter had no way of knowing that I had been working on the idea for this piece as she was posting “Listen to the Voice of the Next Generation….and Weep…”. Earlier I had already noticed that there was an interesting comment on Slice concerning my article concerning Christian pastor-teacher Rob Bell: A Very Poor Christian “Communicator”
which had originally appeared there months ago as “A Very Different Kind of Communicator.”

The following comment is from an obviously intelligent and seemingly sincere eighteen-year-old young man named Jake Meador, who decided to approach the issues he raises with my work publicly, which is fine with me. Here is what he said:

How does reading the autobiography of Marilyn Manson disqualify Bell as a preacher of the gospel? There is such a thing as desiring to be aware of the culture around you and be relevant to it. Furthermore, in todays (sic) post-Christian world reading the work of someone who grew up in a Christian home and rejected it all (like Manson) is a very good idea for church leaders so that they know what my generation is like and why so many of my peers ditch the whole church scene after high school.

Furthermore, the whole tone of many of these comments show your own refusal to listen. You honestly believe Bell reads Manson’s book so he can be turned on by descriptions of Manson’s sin? Stop taking cheap shots. You really think using a hands-on example in preaching is that dangerous? “Well Paul never did it so we can’t either.” Paul was in one culture, Bell is in another. I’m not putting them on the same pedestal, I know Paul, as an Apostle and author of scripture was inspired by God and as such has infinitely more authority than any other name we could bring into the conversation, but all that said, Paul was still telling one culture about Jesus, Bell is telling another.

And yes, Satan comes as an angel of light, that’s true. But so do real angels. What if someone in the early church said that about Paul or Barnabas because they were doing new things?
And one more word, even if I don’t convince you that Bell is doing wonderful, god-honoring (sic) things at Mars Hill, would you please adopt a new tone in your condemnation of him? I much prefer reading these same concerns in the work of DA Carson because he is actually gracious and affirming where he can be. The whole tone of many of these comments smacks of self-righteous religion and I assure there is nothing more repulsive to me, or Christ for that matter, than overly-defensive, convinced-it’s-our-job-to-condemn-all-things-different Christianity.

Try talking to a typical college kid sometime and ask them what they think of evangelical Christianity. You’ll be grieved at their response. One of my best friends (who is not a Christian) recently told one of my christian (sic) friends that he’d never seen Christianity on a personal level until this past year, he’d always thought it was just some ideas about god that had no affect on our day-to-day lives other than it made us pro-life, or opposed to homosexuality, or Republican.

I don’t wish to condemn the way you think or do things, but I do want to ask you to have a greater sensitivity to how your words might be perceived by others. And if you’d start listening honestly rather than listening to condemn (“what can i (sic) pick out of this that’s wrong?”) I (sic) think you’d find that Christianity and a relationship is Christ is far greater, brighter, and more beautiful than anything you can possibly imagine.

“Be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger,” right?

Now since Jake’s criticism struck me as a bit judgmental but still respectful–albeit quite misinformed–I decided to go over to talmidim: thoughts from an unfinished christian, which his website. From the above comment it is easy to see just how much the mystic musings of Emergent Church leaders have affected Jake’s thinking. This was confirmed as I checked out his links listed and read some of the information he provides. I couldn’t help but feel compassion for him because one can sure see the confusing and conflicting world-views that this young man has been ingesting.

Incidentally, talmidim is a reference to the students of a rabbi and likely reveals rabbi wannabe Rob Bell’s aberrant influence upon Jake. Yet there on his site I once again saw sorry links which have become all too typical for people Jake’s age, Andrew Jones, Donald Miller, Spencer Burke’s “TheOoze,” Rob Bell’s Mars Hill playpen and Guru Brian McLaren a major leader warping the minds of our youth through the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church. But at the same time there were also links to Tom Ascol, John Piper and James White. It was then that I felt the Lord speak to my heart and say: “This is what Ryan would be like if you hadn’t grounded him in My Word.”

The Critical Importance Of The Bible

For those who don’t know, two years ago witnessing to Ryan, who is the same age as Jake, in a classroom within a secular high school God would allow me the privilege of leading him to Christ. But in my sharing of the Gospel of God with Ryan there was no “begging” him to accept Jesus, or trying to “engage” his cultural surroundings, rather I depended on God the Holy Spirit and simply showed Ryan from the Bible that if you are to become a Christian you will be surrendering your very life to Him. Somehow known only to himself and the Lord Ryan would give his life to Christ. However, unlike Emergent rebels against the authority of the Bible, the very next thing I did was to instruct him about the critical importance of the inerrant and infallible Word of God. As any true minister sent by Christ I taught Ryan that he must believe it, and then do exactly what it says–no matter what the warped world around you looks like!

Now Ryan is feeling called to ministry and there isn’t anyone at our church who can’t see God’s Hand on this young man. Before he graduated teachers at school would tell me they marveled at how he just abruptly changed from a dour person into one who is full of joy. I had nothing to do with that; all I can be thankful for as an unworthy servant, is that as his pastor I taught Ryan that God’s answers to these conflicting world-views will be found in the Bible itself. And further, that through daily prayer with the Lord over His Scriptures Ryan could develop a relationship with His Master so that Jesus would lead him through this maze of conflict with which Satan is relentlessly pursuing our precious youth.

What needs to be asked is: How much longer will we sit idly by and watch as the enemy corrupts and steals our children? And what is going to take for you to lift up your Sword? Just how far do enemy forces have to penetrate into the Church of our Lord before we rise and fight back this rising tide of phony unity? This is what I have tried to cover lately some of my writings such as Take Off Your Gloves, We Are Not Brothers!, and So Take Off Your Gloves,! Yes, it is a theme and yes, the tone is angry, but whoever told you the Lord doesn’t get angry quite obviously told you a lie. What you have to decide here is whether or not He is speaking through ministries and works like this. But you’d best decide soon.

The Emergent Confusion Being Sown

Here’s a quick example of what I am talking about in Jake’s case and why–though I am sure he’d tell me it isn’t necessary–I am concerned, not only for him, but also for his generation into which so much Emergent confusion is being sown while they are slowly being fed postmodern poison by deceivers like McLaren and Bell. In a post called Great Prayers of old dead guys (and girls) Jake correctly points out that “liturgy can be a beautiful thing.” I would even say that in many circles in the Body of Christ this is a neglected area, however Jake then gives way to Emergent influences when he begins to roll up together a disparate group of things he’s been taught are considered “Christian.”

First he refers to the very dubious C.S. Lewis whom Jake tells us “often spoke of the value of reading old books.” Well, that all depends on what old books one is reading. And then comes one of the main Emergent postmodern mantras that you need to come to see are actually aimed by satanic forces at attacking Reformed theology as Jake tells us:

the errors in the thought of the 1600 are not the same as the errors of thought in 2006, and as a result we are less susceptible to making the same mistakes as the men writing in 1600. Furthermore, much is to be gained in reaping from their wisdom b/c their understanding of the world is so radically different from our own.

It seems that, and perhaps I’m just being nostalgic for the past, but it seems that many the Christian world-view found in many saints of the past was much more God-centered than the world-view of Christians today. The value of reading their prayers then is that it enables us to further see and appreciate the god-centeredness (sic) of the saint as well as our own need to make our lives more centered on who God is.

Here is a good example of a young person who has been indoctrinated into postmodern thinking. It also shows how low reasoning skills are sinking through the relativism it will inevitably produce. First we make a sweeping generalization regarding alleged erroneous thinking and then draw a conclusion that doesn’t logically follow. Because “errors” of the 1600s may not be the same, this doesn’t necessarily mean that we are less susceptible to “making the same mistakes.” But be that as it may, let me draw your attention again to a key part of that second paragraph where Jake says:

the Christian world-view found in many saints of the past was much more God-centered than the world-view of Christians today. The value of reading their prayers then is that it enables us to further see and appreciate the god-centeredness (sic) of the saint as well as our own need to make our lives more centered on who God is.

Teachings Of Demons Attack The Reformation

Jake is right in that the sorry effects of the Church Growth Movement of a modern evangelicalism that remained steeped in humanism has led to the new reformation of the man-centered theology Robert Schuller prophesied. The average American Christian is no where near as God-centered as “saints of the past,” men such as a Jonathan Edwards or a Charles Spurgeon. But because of the influence of counterfeit Christian teachers like McLaren and Bell, seducing spirits with their doctrines of devils attacking the Reformed theology held by those aforementioned giants in Christ, Jake is instead speaking of so-called “saints” designated by the Roman Catholic Church.

This is confirmed as we return to what Jake says next, “here is part 1 of the series, this is a prayer of Ignatius of Loyola, Catholic saint from the time of the Reformers.” With the misunderstandings of supposed reform after Vatican II, and following the example of evangelical leaders like Billy Graham and new evangelical leaders like Rick Warren, most who would say they are part of the Christian “tradition” just arbitrarily decided to accept Roman Catholics as “brothers.” This would have the devastating effect of opening the door for a counter-Christian movement like the emerging church to come along, which has since developed into a neo-liberal cult of its own. A psuedo-Christianity that just rolled up everything even remotely considered “Christian” into a big ball of Gnostic mysticism and then presented it to the Body of Christ as Christian.

Those who have been following Apprising Ministries lately may have noticed the change in tone and more of a focus on the apostate Church of Rome in some of my writings. And just this morning I received “An observation of your ministry from a fellow evangelical.” First of all I am not an Evangelical, but in this email I was told:

I have noticed in ministry websites such as AM and others that you have a very strong anti-catholic agenda… I used to feel the same, and was very adamant in my conversations with Catholics about their need to “come to the truth” as found in the Scriptures.

However, I would like to point out a problem that I ran into and which you seem not to recognize: What we as evangelicals are really doing is trying to get Catholics to come to OUR INTERPRETATION of the Scriptures. The Catholic Church certainly uses Scripture, just look at the official Catechism in which there are approximately 4 cited Scriptural references on every page (of an almost 700-page document).

In all sincerity, when I discovered that the Catholic Church does in fact base much of their teachings on the Bible, I began to realize that my understanding of the Bible (which I had known was “correct” because “the Holy Spirit” guided me into that knowledge), was actually just a somewhat prideful presupposition based on a tradition of hermeneutics inherited in my youth. Believe me, I am not a Catholic, but have been raised as a Christ-follower of the evangelical tradition.

The Reformation Was Brought About By God

I’ll have more to say about this particular sad litany of compromised “Christianity” another time but the truth is that no amount of postmodern rhetoric is going to change the absolute fact that God Himself raised up the Reformers. Many of these brave saints were mercilessly persecuted for the sake of their King and now we’re just supposed to forget all that and throw our arms around the Roman Catholic Church? Again we can argue that further in another piece as the focus of this article is the Lord’s anger at leaders within the Body of Christ who have been so busy trying to do a supernatural work by their own corrupt human reasoning. And one of the extremely tragic results unfortunately has just been illustrated by Jake Meador.

Beloved of God, this is an exhortation and admonition to the Body of Christ to arise from our slumber and take back our young! Can anyone possibly think that I would be angry with this young man who, because of the perilous times he happens to live in, has had almost no chance to come to understand the actual Christian faith with so many of these false teachers being allowed to operate within the Church under the cover of orthodoxy? Of course not; our Lord says in Matthew, Mark and here in Luke, But Jesus called for them, saying, “Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (v.16, NASB)

But ravening wolves in sheep’s clothing within the Emergent Church are hindering them because these false prophets continue to confuse and entangle young people like Jake without even being called to account within their own movement as Steve Camp recently pointed out. It is obvious that Brian McLaren has already had an impact on Jake and Campy is speaking the sad and absolute truth when he says:

Brian McLaren is without doubt the unprecedented leader and poster-child of the Emergent Church/Emerging Church ecumenical postmodern movement within evangelicalism today. He and his minions have challenged two thousand years of orthodox biblical Christianity on its most essential doctrines (the veracity and authority of Scripture; justification by faith alone; imputation of the righteousness of Christ; penal substitutionary atonement; the omniscience of God, Hell-eternal punishment, etc.) with his own hybrid postmodern version; and is winning ground among some evangelicals with his heretical and aberrant beliefs.

For now I leave you with this: Do you seriously think that Christ Jesus the Lord is just going to stand by much longer as this repugnant rebellion against His Word and His Reformation continues within His Church that He purchased with His Own blood? As I have previously pointed out it was a Reformation that the Spirit brought about for the cause of Christ in which many of God’s Own children gave their very lives. What have you given lately?