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April 28, 2007

Let's just throw truth out the window and see what emerges...

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 3:16-4:4, ESV)

You may have noticed a recent blog post, and you may or may not be surprised that it upset a few people. And, although I softened a couple harsh phrases, I never took it down.

I posted it in reaction to a friend of mine reading a chapter out of a book by Rob Bell called Velvet Elvis, at a midweek Bible study full of young people who might not have the discernment or wherewithal to see the dangers of it for themselves. And apparently there is a decent-sized group of young people in the same circle who are really into the book. I have heard testimony from people who have seen groups of them in coffee shops around town, gathered together to read this book. I have also heard testimony from those who have seen young people from the same circle in the bookstore purchasing Rob Bell's new book, curiously titled Sex God.

I'm not going to touch that one with a ten-foot pole.

But as for the first book, The Velvet Elvis, I knew that it was a load of crap right away, from hearing just the one chapter. So I went home and got on "The Google". I read some blogs by people who were tearing it apart, but I presumed that they were misquoting and taking things out of context, which turned out to be the case in at least one instance. But they were probably justified in their exaggeration. (Why would Bell tear apart a core tenet of historic orthodox Christianity and then say, "I didn't mean to tear it apart, I believe in it, after all?")

Now that I have read the whole thing for myself, I can start blogging about it more specifically. I will be taking direct quotes from the book, Lord-willing, not out of context, and counter Rob Bell's words with Scripture and historic Christian doctrinal creeds. But first, I want to lay a foundation about the dangers of the Emergent church movement in general.

It may be that my friends are quite over that book and are no longer advocating the reading of it, and if so, then praise God! But the book is still out there, available to all, and the Emergent church movement is still alive and well.

The Emergent church is harmful because it breeds doubt and embraces doubt. I was listening to John MacArthur, who describes it as

bashing the truth, shredding the truth without having to put anything in its place, being cute and clever and novel and shocking and all of that, and leaving people stunned, but with nothing else. This is the worst kind of stuff because it sows seeds of doubt in the most fragile. This is the stuff that victimizes the children who are 'tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine.' [...] And then to elevate that [tossing, doubt] as if that's real spiritual nobility is sad. ("What's So Dangerous About the Emerging Church?", Grace To You, Audio CD)

I feel very concerned for the "children tossed to and fro" (Eph. 4:14). I have friends who are deeply heartbroken over someone they know who suffers in this way, to the point of hysterics, sinking in shifting sands rather than grounded on the solid rock of Christ. I have another friend who has been battling doubt herself, and, although she is an independent thinker, I am certain that this doubt is the fruit of the environment around her which is embracing the Emergent movement, because the Emergent movement embraces doubt as if it's a good thing!

Emergents may or may not believe in absolute truth, but they do not believe it is possible for you to know the truth, if it exists. This makes tolerance the absolute rule and kind of does away with preaching altogether.

The book of Jude urges us to "contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (verse 3). Jude talks about how harmful it is to allow heresy in the midst of the church, saying,

These are blemishes on your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, looking after themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. (vv. 12-13, ESV)

The Bible is very explicit that truth is to be defended and that heresy is not to be tolerated. But in the postmodern culture and in the Emergent circles, it seems intolerance is the only sin that cannot be tolerated! But this is where we must separate our public lives from our spiritual lives. We can tolerate all kinds of things civilly, deal with all kinds of wickedness in the culture around us or even in the workplace. But such things cannot be tolerated in the church!

Jude says there are three ways to handle heretics and those who listen to them. "And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh." (vv. 22-23) Some you will be able to reason with through counseling, others you will have to be aggressive in your approach in order to keep them from the fires of hell, and others you have to treat like a disease, like clothes contaminated with leprosy that will infect all who come near them, that you must completely remove all association with such and protect your flock from them, because of the malignancy of their infection!

I must, in conclusion, point out that Jude ends his epistle by giving glory to the sovereign God who is able to sustain and preserve his children though they may be surrounded by all kinds of doctrinal error. Jude recognizes that God's going to take care of the ones who are truly his. They will never fall away.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 24-25, ESV)

Posted by aaronlord at April 28, 2007 05:58 PM

Comments

Posted by: lilly at April 30, 2007 03:32 PM

Posted by: Aaron Lord at April 30, 2007 08:47 PM

Posted by: lilly at May 14, 2007 05:49 PM

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