Emergent or The Story is in the Pages, Keep Your Eye on the Bible

You not only have a purpose in life, you are worth it. God thought you were worthy of His love so much that He sent His son to earth for you. Does that not sound nice, regardless if it is true? Emergent literature seems to agree with that, it tends to dance down the pathway of emotional responses. Authors such as Rob Bell, Brian McLaren and Donald Miller say this and even more, but they usually do not have the authority behind their statements and subtle whispers. They try to find a way to blend the bible with post-modernism, but they have trouble realizing the blend is not right. Emergent, or emerging, authors and thinkers try to use the fundamental truths of Gods scripture along with the ever swaying lack of truth in post-modernism. The result is an emerging movement (or conversation) of social gospel made up of emotional reactions, antithetic usage of scripture and a lack of truth.

A few quotes from leaders in the conversation:

"The Way is not a method or a map, The Way is an experience."
- Leonard Sweet, SoulTsunami

“The Christian faith, I am proposing, should become (in the name of Jesus Christ) a welcome friend to other religions of the world, not a threat”
-Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy McLaren

"Heaven is full of forgiven people. Hell is full of forgiven people. Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for. Hell is full of forgiven people God loves, whom Jesus died for. The difference is how we choose to live, which story we choose to live in, which version of reality we trust. Ours or God's."
-Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis

”The main reason of the incarnation of Jesus is so that we can understand how to be human”
- Rob Bell

"I once listened to an Indian on television say that God was in the wind and the water, and I wondered at how beautiful that was because it meant you could swim in Him or have Him brush your face in a breeze."
— Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

"I don't agree with 1/4 of my first book"
-Donald Miller

"religious doctrines just aren't very compelling, even if they're true."
- Shane Claiborne

"[In Calcutta] The goal was not to keep people alive...but to allow them to die with dignity, with someone loving them, singing, laughing, so they were not alone."
- Shane Claiborne


The problem with this movement (or conversation, as it is called by people in the movement) really is the lack of substance when it becomes spiritual, as they prefer to skim the outside of spiritual truth or even flat out refuse it. The truth of the cross and the reason Christ died for us is muddle up by this movement.

Steve Chalke (an author highly praised by Brian McLaren) has even called the death of Christ on the cross "cosmic child abuse" and even goes as far as claiming, "Jesus believed in original goodness." After that, the author and dreamer Shane Claiborne claims that Jesus is in the eyes of everyone (The Irresistible Revolution). Donald Miller seems to believe that pain and brokenness are the main problems of humanity and we need to learn to love ourselves (Blue Like Jazz). Even Rob Bell says that Christ died so we can "understand what it means to be human." These authors miss the fact that Christ died to free us from our bondage of sin. They ignore 1 John 4:10, "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Christ died and suffered on the cross so he could absorb the wrath of God so we did not have to.

They also twist and mold scripture to fit their idea of Christ. Share Claiborne claiming the Christ was a revolutionary, rebellious leader who was crucified because he hung out with sinners (The Irresistible Revolution). He also says that the principalities and powers and rulers of our dark world that Ephesians tells us about are the empire because it makes the world unsafe because millions live in poverty. He totally ignores the truth that Ephesians actually talks about darkness spiritually.

That is just two main issues I have found with the emergent church, they also distort scripture when discussing war and violence (and ignore the perfect demands of God for Israel to go to war)and become spotty when they are presented with big morality hot topics such as homosexuality ("Frankly, many of us don't know what we should think about homosexuality. We've heard all sides but no position has yet won our confidence so that we can say "it seems good to the Holy Spirit and us." -Brian McLaren). These issues are too much for me to continue writing about currently, Perhaps I'll expand with a Part II to this.

This movement very well could be remembered when Paul warns us to be wary of false teachers who exchange to truth of God for a lie, perhaps a lie that drips honey to our ears.

How Do You Like This Now?

People love to manipulate and twist scripture so it can fit their ideas. Why do people tend to twist peacemakers in Jesus' sermon on the mount to mean people who make worldly peace and not spiritual? What ever happened to God commanding the annihilation of the Amalekites? That's sure not peaceful, but that was perfect and right. How do those people explain those old testament scriptures like that? The holy, just, righteous and perfect God command that a nation be blotched up, that meant that Israeli going to war and slaying the Amalekites was holy, just and perfect. What kind of kink does that put in the peace loving misconception that people lick up in this current age?