In the 4th century, St. Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, fought against one of the most prevalent heresies that threatened the Christian Church when he took on Pelagius. Pelagius asserted that there was no original sin and that man was born with a clean slate and that he could either turn one way or the other: towards God and Life, or towards Death and Hell. In The Lost Message of Jesus, Steve Chalke rejected original sin when he said that "Jesus believed in original goodness". In Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell also rejects original sin when he claims that Peter sank not because he lost faith in Jesus, but because he lost faith in himself. God has faith in us. God believes we can do it. We just have to have faith in ourselves. This is obviously a direct contradiction of Scripture (Psalm 51:5; Luke 18:19; Romans 3:12).
Was Jesus' death and resurrection necessary? Is it imperative that he claimed he was the only truth, and the only way, and the only life? It would seem that Rob Bell and Brian McLaren thought not. Bell says that "Jesus was not making claims about one religion being better than all other religions...This kind of life Jesus was living...is the best possible way for a person to live." And McLaren: "I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstancesto help people become followers of Jesus and remain with their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts".
It would seem that many in the emergent church who hold to the same beliefs and ideologies as Bell, Chalke, or McLaren, etc.., are travelling down a path that is works based, rather than faith based. If all Jesus came to do was show us the way to live, and all we have to do to be like Jesus, is walk the way he walked, then he was a pointless sacrifice, and we are as lost as we ever will be. The emergent movement has shifted the focus from Justification by faith to orthopraxy, meaning right living. Is this all it takes to walk on the straight path? Right living? No Propitiation? No Atonement? No, that's not why Jesus died. He died to show us the way to live rightly so that we can follow in his footsteps. And that right there, my friends, is Jehovah Witness doctrine...
2/19/2009
2/15/2009
The Emergent Church: The re-Emerging Heresies
Paul fought the Gnostics.
Athanasius fought the Arians.
Augustine fought the Pelagians.
Luther fought Erasmus.
In some way, we now have the convergence of all four within the Emerging 'Christian' culture...
Athanasius fought the Arians.
Augustine fought the Pelagians.
Luther fought Erasmus.
In some way, we now have the convergence of all four within the Emerging 'Christian' culture...
2/02/2009
They Call Themselves Christians...
Who is Jesus?
There are many people out there who believe in Jesus and profess to know Him. But there are problems that exist when we think or believe something about someone that is not true. It would prove to be quite pointless to have a friend names Joe and believe that Joe was an alien from Jupiter when he really was a banker from Boston. There wouldn’t be much of a connection between Joe and I and that would mean there wouldn’t be any correct communication. No matter how many times I talked to Joe or even talked about Joe, the only thing i would be getting right would be his name. And that just won’t do at all. Especially if there were 66 books of Information written about Joe and his father, and thousands of years of history that would provide a background to Joe and his father’s true self. But this is what the post-modern and consequent emergent generations believe about Jesus. Many would like to simply have a relationship with Jesus, and forgo all of the propositions that describe Him. That would then be no relationship at all, only with the imagined man in one’s own head. And this, according to Scripture, is idolatry. To view Jesus the Son or God the Father as anything other than what the Scriptures show them to be, is idolatry. And this is what the emergent generation has done. Instead of trusting in God and believing what He tells us about Himself through the Scriptures, we have now decided to trust our own selves and make Jesus and God out to what we perceive Him to be. And this is idolatry at its finest. John Calvin understood this long before post-modernity, or even the enlightenment, ever hit our minds:
“Mingled vanity and pride appear in this, that when miserable men do seek after God, instead of ascending higher than themselves as they ought to do, they measure him by their own carnal stupidity, and neglecting solid inquiry, fly off to indulge their curiosity in vain speculation. Hence, they do not conceive of him in the character in which he is manifested, but imagine him to be whatever their own rashness has devised. This abyss standing open, they cannot move one footstep without rushing headlong to destruction. With such an idea of God, nothing which they may attempt to offer in the way of worship or obedience can have any value in his sight, because it is not him they worship, but, instead of him, the dream and figment of their own heart.”
There are many people out there who believe in Jesus and profess to know Him. But there are problems that exist when we think or believe something about someone that is not true. It would prove to be quite pointless to have a friend names Joe and believe that Joe was an alien from Jupiter when he really was a banker from Boston. There wouldn’t be much of a connection between Joe and I and that would mean there wouldn’t be any correct communication. No matter how many times I talked to Joe or even talked about Joe, the only thing i would be getting right would be his name. And that just won’t do at all. Especially if there were 66 books of Information written about Joe and his father, and thousands of years of history that would provide a background to Joe and his father’s true self. But this is what the post-modern and consequent emergent generations believe about Jesus. Many would like to simply have a relationship with Jesus, and forgo all of the propositions that describe Him. That would then be no relationship at all, only with the imagined man in one’s own head. And this, according to Scripture, is idolatry. To view Jesus the Son or God the Father as anything other than what the Scriptures show them to be, is idolatry. And this is what the emergent generation has done. Instead of trusting in God and believing what He tells us about Himself through the Scriptures, we have now decided to trust our own selves and make Jesus and God out to what we perceive Him to be. And this is idolatry at its finest. John Calvin understood this long before post-modernity, or even the enlightenment, ever hit our minds:
“Mingled vanity and pride appear in this, that when miserable men do seek after God, instead of ascending higher than themselves as they ought to do, they measure him by their own carnal stupidity, and neglecting solid inquiry, fly off to indulge their curiosity in vain speculation. Hence, they do not conceive of him in the character in which he is manifested, but imagine him to be whatever their own rashness has devised. This abyss standing open, they cannot move one footstep without rushing headlong to destruction. With such an idea of God, nothing which they may attempt to offer in the way of worship or obedience can have any value in his sight, because it is not him they worship, but, instead of him, the dream and figment of their own heart.”
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