As the Emerging Church, now upgraded to version 2.0 with its newer, more clearly delineated postmodern Progressive Christian theology, spreads like a spiritual staphylococcus aureus infection a main focus of this particular online apologetics and discernment work here at Apprising Ministries has been monitoring and exposing the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church.

For example, one of the most repugnant aspects of this EC rebellion against the word of God can be seen in Doug Pagitt And The Emerging Church Gay Agenda and Jay Bakker, Homosexuality, And Gospel Reductionism where I’ve alerted you to a pet EC issue of affirming that a lifestyle of having sexual relations with another of the same sex, i.e homosexuality, is also a viable one for the Christian.

Mainstream evangelical leaders ignore this at the grave peril of your youth because large sections, after years of Emerging Church propanganda, have cut themselves loose from the proper Christian spirituality of sola Scriptura and have instead thrown themselves into corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM). The point being, now their personal “revelations” end up trumping Scripture.

The result will prove to be the spiritual nightmare that’s already engulfed the now mortally wounded mainline [read: apostate] denominations, which circa 1960’s fully embraced spurious CSM and began playing spiritual Russian roulette. Combining this with a deadly cocktail of feminism and liberal theology they now find themselves in their death throes as the powerful homosexual lobby literally tears them apart.

So I say in the Lord, Evangelicalism Meet Thy Future. I gave you another peek the other day in Heartland Clergy Adopt Pro-Gay Position where I told you about a piece of lunacy in the Lord’s Name called The Heartland Proclamation by a group of cowardly compromisers calling themselves the Heartland Clergy for Inclusion; they tell us “[t]he Holy Spirit compels” them to write:

The verdict is in. Homosexuality is not a sickness, not a choice, and not a sin… [and we] embrace the full inclusion of our LGBT brothers and sisters in all areas of church life, including leadership;… (Online source)

What utter nonsense; God absolutely did not compel those words, it’s just the love of self and a wild goose chase after another spirit. That spiritually motley Heartland Inclusion crew is lead by Rev. Eric Elnes, Senior Pastor at Countryside Community Church in Omaha along with Associate Pastrix Chris Alexander. His bio is rather revealing with him receiving “his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies” from uber-liberal Princeton Theological Seminary.

Apparently Elnes has quite the background as he’s said to be:

internationally recognized for creating multi-sensory, experiential worship that transcends classification as “traditional” or “contemporary.” Eric’s books include, Igniting Worship: The Seven Deadly Sins (Abingdon, 2004) and Asphalt Jesus: Finding a New Christian Faith Along the Highways of America (Jossey-Bass, 2007).

He was the lead author and editor of the Phoenix Affirmations – a popular, ecumenically developed set of twelve principles that are becoming an important theological backbone of the progressive Christian movement in and outside the United States. (Online source)

You can see, with the so-called “progressive Christian” movement we’re dealing with something that’s neither Christian nor progressive; it’s the same unverisal skubalon of the original modern theology, i.e. liberalism, nothing new there. As I’ve told you, and the KHAS-TV News 5 report (video below) Hastings church officials divided over “Heartland Proclamation” shows, the homosexual lobby is ripping apart churches.

Jordan Shefte tells us this divisive inclusion:

document is an attempt to end religious discrimination based on sexual orientation. The proclamation started in Omaha. “Everyone is a child of God and ought to be welcomed at worship,” said David McCarthy, Hastings College Chaplain. (Online source)

Ah, the pro-gay progressive mantra: “Everyone is a child of God.” I guess they think if they repeat that long enough it will suddenly become true; any Scripture to back that up Chaplin McCarthy? Answer: No; we just feel that’s the way it should be. Well, let me show you Jesus—whom you claim to follow—from the Apostle John’s eyewitness deposition from his Gospel.

Under the direct inspiriation of God the Holy Spirit he tells us all who receive Jesus, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12); and simple logic tells you that if you need to become something, then you were not that thing before. The Gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name must be responded to individually.

No way around it, salvation is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in the finished work of Christ on the Cross alone; and God be praised, since Christ died for sinners, this Good News is for everyone who will come to Him. Shefte then tells us that, “‘Heartland clergy for inclusion, acceptance from the heart’ is the slogan for the proclamation that is reaching out to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons.”

There’s everything right with “reaching out to” the LGBT people for whom Jesus shed His blood, but there’s horrible eternal consequences for lying to them and affirming them in their sin; that’s not admirable, this is homopression leaving them in their prison of sin. Next Shefte points out:

While the proclamation has not yet reached the Hastings area for signatures, it does have the religious community talking. “I don’t think you can choose who you love,” said McCarthy. “People fall in love, and that’s just the way we’re built.” (Online source)

Be ready for that argument posited here by Chaplin McCarthy: Homosexuality isn’t sinful for those who’re born that way. However, even if this were to be proven definitively, it doesn’t help the LGBT cause at all because all of mankind is born with a sinful nature. In fact, the fellas below are an example of taking that argument to its logical conclusion:

Shefte then tells us:

Rev. Marcus Mackay, pastor at Peace Lutheran Church, has a different viewpoint. “Homosexual activity is contrary to god’s word, and so our hope and our prayer in having homosexuals come to church would be that they would stop sinning if you will,” he said. Regardless of the approach, both pastors feel that this is an important issue that needs to be publicly discussed. (Online source)

There’s nothing to discuss; if you believe what the Bible says, because Mackay is right: Homosexual activity is contrary to God’s Word because it will always be outside of the marriage covenant of one man to one woman ordained by our Creator (cf. Matthew 19:3-6). Jordan Shefte now wraps up her report with an exchange from the two ministers:

Being gay by itself is not a sin,” countered McCarthy. “Being heterosexual by itself is not a sin.That doesn’t mean that every action, either gay or straight, is sinless.”

“Homosexuality is a sin according to god’s word, and so for a Christian pastor, for a Christian general to say that homosexuality in and of itself is not a sin or is not sinful is to go against god’s word and what god clearly teaches and says,” said MacKay.

The issue will not be settled overnight, but McCarthy feels that eventually, it will be commonplace. “I think that 150 years from now, regardless of how this thing settles, people will look back and say can you believe people were fighting about that” he said. (Online source)

Unfortunately, McCarthy’s first statement is only an exercise of using many words to say nothing, and pastor MacKay is to be commended for stating the truth; as I’ve said before, that the Bible condemns homosexuality as sin is as clear as it gets in the Bible. That said, sadly I do find myself in agreement with McCarthy that eventually the deviant lifestyle of homosexuality will become as accepted by many of the mainstream denominations as it is now in the mainline.

And that very dark and threatening same-sex storm, right now approaching hurricane force, is currently only slightly off the coast of your own local church. So make sure that you fortify your position by building upon the Rock of God’s Word:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching.
(Matthew 7:21-28)

See also:

GROWING GAY AGENDA IN EVANGELICALISM

THE NIGHTMARE BEGINNING FOR MAINSTREAM EVANGELICALISM

PCUSA VOTES TO ALLOW OPENLY GAY CLERGY

GAY AWAKENING FOR MAINSTREAM EVANGELICALISM GROWS CLOSER

BIBLE OUTS GAY MARRIAGE

WHY NO CONDEMNATION FOR CHRISTIANS WHO ARE HOMOPRESSIVE?

JAY BAKKER CRITIQUES KEN SILVA AT RELIGION DISPATCHES