I just watched an interview on a website called “TheOoze.com,” which is one of the main reference points for those engaged in the Emergent Church conversation. I’m one who has come lately to this dialogue, having recently read and been impacted (stimulated and disturbed at the same time) by a book entitled “Why We’re Not Emergent” by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck. The subtitle is intriguing: “By Two Guys Who Should Be.”
I was stimulated by the book because I’m one who firmly believes that God is really there, and that He has really spoken to us truthfully and without error through His written Word – the Bible – and ultimately through His own Son, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. These two guys also believe that, and therefore we have a solid basis for communication, because words can have meaning only so far as they refer to a solid basis of objective, propositional truth. The book was disturbing to me because through their writing I was exposed to the thought processes of some who are giving leadership to the emerging/Emergent church movement. So, I decided to go to the source and see for myself, thus ending up at TheOoze.com.
It’s a very attractive website, with all kinds of interesting links and connections, video clips, and visually appealing design. Even though I’m an old guy, I’m totally interested in the young adult generations, and the media presentations and language that appeal to them. However, this morning when I watched the interview between Spencer Burke, who authors much of the stuff on the site, and Tim King, an author and publisher, I was appalled to the point of disbelief and even anger.
These two guys were talking about downplaying discussions concerning the end of the age (which they called “doomsday scenarios”), and instead the need to move past our theologies to embrace the mystery of the unknowable God, who has given us pointers to Himself (though He apparently cannot be found) through all religious systems, not just Christianity. Burke and King were speaking with great relief about finally transcending our formative theological patterns, renouncing the need to convert others, and moving into the exhilaration of true dialogue and celebration with those of differing belief systems, kneeling humbly before the feet of mystery, seeking together to find the unknowable God.
This is malarkey. There’s a more contemporary term that would be totally accurate, but I’m enough of a traditionalist to confine that term to mostly private muttered syllables emerging at times of personal frustration, for example, on the golf course.
First of all, God is not unknowable. Though we do not have exhaustive truth concerning Him (since He is infinite there is still plenty of mystery to go around), He has communicated truthfully and accurately concerning Himself through His Word and through the person of Jesus. His Word is truth, and Jesus is the absolutely accurate representation of that truth in human form. Jesus was pretty exclusive in His claims and demands. He stated that He is the only way to the Father. He commanded His followers to know Him and obey Him. He gave us of His Spirit so that we might have the power to live like He lived, and He commanded us to make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe everything He taught His followers. Jesus alone provided necessary forgiveness and the power to be transformed, and He clearly stated that to refuse Him is to refuse the Father, who is God.
The only reason God seems to be unknowable to men like Burke and King is that they have turned their backs on the One who makes Him known, seeing Jesus only as a model for living, and not as the Living One who encounters us by His Holy Spirit to reveal truth about Himself and His Father to us. This kind of stuff is poison for the mind and soul, and if it is read or listened to at all, please approach it with a clear filter of truth in place. The journey they are on is one that leads to death, and they need to encounter the Jesus of the Bible, repent, and be saved.
GW
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How the Fathers heart must ache when His children think He is unknowable.
ReplyDeleteThanks for speaking truth Gary. Why young adults are falling for the emergent theology, I'm not sure. Lord reach young adults with a longing for a radical call of abandonment, not a watered down gospel of blind tolerance. Lord lift their blinders, and give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Your Son.
ReplyDeleteThank you Gary for speaking the plain truth. It is so refreshing to my spirit. I have some loved ones going through this battle and I have been contending for them in my times of personal intercession. But it's nice to know I'm not crazy in thinking how far off base this line of questioning and searching is.
ReplyDeleteI've been wondering what the emerging church is all about. Thanks for laying some of it out for us. I'll have to read more about this. Thanks Gary! :)
ReplyDeleteI am sooo glad to hear this from you. Not only is the Emergent church in error, but, I believe, dangerously deceptive. May God bless you as He leads you to lead others!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Gary for a strong, well articulated statement on the subject.
ReplyDeleteI too believe that the 'emergent church' is in error, but the "why" that Ignite Directors doesn't have an answer for must be answered if we are to take seriously, in the context of their salvation, these dialogues; preaching the same ole same ole to the choir is not convincing those who are merging with this movement. In fact, many are leaving the Church partly because of this. They [reason] that the Bible cannot be inerrant because of apparent "irreconcilable differences", i.e. loving your enemies today verses killing them earlier; both by order of the same unchanging God. "Is God schizophrenic, or has He evolved?" they ask with tongue in cheek. We need to get to know these people without the polarizing Christian trappings of 'superiority' (that's not an accusation against Gary or any of you) and take them very seriously, as does the One who died to redeem them. Most of them have been churched, but were able to be [drawn away because...] We, the Church, need to fill in the rest of that sentence, see our failure before God, and begin asking Him how He would use us to enlighten them. The world collectively has valid grievances against the Church, and this is where the Devil finds opportunities to set his snares; the emergent church simply being one of them. Let us do what we can to ensure that the fowler is caught in his own devices.
ReplyDeleteI like the emerging church, at least as it is represented by John Burke, Donald Miller, Rob Bell, and others. Brian McLaren has written some good things, though I just read one that I think was off. Oh well, everybody has a bad day.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I like the emerging church -- when it is at its best -- is that it realizes that most of what we know of evangelical Christianity is that it has done a pretty poor job in a number of areas that are critical to the Good News really being Good News. Donald Miller writes in "Blue Like Jazz" about how evangelicals will often say they love you, but then will ostracize you if you don't fit their mold, or if you seem to not be coming around to their way quickly enough. John Burke writes in "No Perfect People Allowed" about how each person is a masterpiece in need of having the dirt removed in order for the beauty to be revealed. If you are given a masterpiece, you treat it with special care, and take it to an expert in art restoration -- you don't treat is like the dirt defines the person underneath.
Another thing that the emerging church tends to do better at is it recognizes the importance of the environment, the importance of peacemaking, the importance of caring for the poor and the otherwise excluded from society.
It is wrong to judge the emerging church by an interview between two guys I've never heard of before. Clearly there is great variety in the emerging church, and there isn't a credo that defines it. Please be open to hear what many of the young people who follow this are saying. Many of them know the Bible quite well, and are simply trying to follow Jesus and the Bible better than the old folks are. Incidentally, I'm no spring chicken!
I really agree with Tim's point on this one. I suppose there will be good and bad versions of any new movement.
ReplyDeleteI think it will be important to find the good and the fresh, and equally important to protect our hearts from the bad.
Authors like Rob Bell and Donald Miller may be controversial (using "bad" words and drinking wine) but they do seem to offer a very refreshing perspective on the relationship aspect of God.
And they have done wonders in helping people to overcome their past and their guilt and think of themselves as whole again, which is not something that, in my experience, I can say was a strong attribute of the evangelical church.