"I took no torch with which to light the sun, but the sun enlightened me." Charles Spurgeon


"It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will bear no fruit because there is no winter there."
- John Bunyan


"For how can the idea of God enter your mind without instantly giving rise to the thought, that since you are
his workmanship, you are bound, by the very law of creation, to submit to his authority?—that your life is
due to him?—that whatever you do ought to have reference to him? If so, it undoubtedly follows that your life is
sadly corrupted, if it is not framed in obedience to him, since his will ought to be the law of our lives."
- John Calvin

2/19/2009

The New Pelagians

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...
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