Tuesday, March 11, 2014

A Very Good video by John McArthur On The Emergent Church


What is so dangerous about this movement?

Here are two quotes by John MacArthur:

"The bottom line, I think, in the movement is that it is a denial of the clarity of Scripture. It is a denial that we can know what the Bible really says. And as I said, it’s amorphous because there’s a mish-mash of approaches to this and a mish-mash of styles and things like that. But they have embraced this mystery as if it’s true spirituality. And so, it becomes celebration of mystery, a celebration of ignorance, a celebration that we can’t really know. I think it’s just another form of liberalism. I think it’s just another form of denying the clarity of Scripture. And I think there’s a motive behind it…


What is so interesting about this movement is the Emerging Church sanctifies the culture. The Emerging church sanctifies the post-modern culture as if it is legitimate and says if we’re going to reach these people, we’ve got to become like these people. That’s never been the biblical way…never. The Bible does not change. It’s not a chameleon, it doesn’t shift and change and adapt to culture. It confronts culture. It confronts an aboriginal culture. It confronts an ancient culture. It confronts a modern culture. It confronts every trend with fixed unchanging truth in every situation. And the Emerging Church not only is unwilling to believe the clear statement of Scripture, but it’s unwilling to take the clear statement of Scripture and confront the culture. It wants to let the culture define what Christianity should be." 

Here are some dangerous quotes from some of the leaders of this movement:



“I must add, though, that I don’t believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts.” –Brian McLaren
"I now believe that GLBTQ [Gay, Lesbian, Bisexuals, Transgender, and Queers] can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (as least as much as any of us can!), and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state." –Tony Jones
“I don’t think we’ve got the gospel right yet….I don’t think the liberals have it right. But I don’t think we have it right either. None of us has arrived at orthodoxy.” –Brian McLaren
“The Christian faith is mysterious to the core. It is about things and beings that ultimately can’t be put into words. Language fails. And if we do definitively put God into words, we have at that very moment made God something God is not"–Rob Bell
“Ultimately, I hope Jesus will save Buddhism, Islam and every other religion, including the Christian religion, which often seems to need saving about as much as any other religion does.” –Brian McLaren
McManus says the greatest danger to following Jesus is Christianity. Postmodern Erwin McManus is one of the greatest emerging dangers to the Church From the Lighthouse: “Christian or Christ-follower. It’s a distinction that is being made more and more today, and often the latter term, Christ follower, is replacing the former term, Christian. Even many Christian leaders are making the switch. But just what does […]... Erin McManus
Here is a list of some of the  other leaders in this movement:

  1. Bell, Rob
    1. Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan
    2. Church: Mars Hill Bible Church
    3. Web: www.marshill.org
  2. Burke, John
    1. Location: Austin, Texas
    2. Church: Gateway Church
    3. Web: www.gatewaychurch.com
  3. Driscoll, Mark
    1. Location: Seattle, Washington
    2. Church: Mars Hill Church
    3. Web: marshillchurch.org
  4. Jones, Tony
    1. Location: El Cajon, California
    2. Church: Unknown
    3. Web: www.youthspecialties.com
  5. Kimball, Dan
    1. Location: Santa Cruz, California
    2. Church: Vintage Faith Church
    3. Web: www.vintagechurch.org
  6. McClure, Joel
    1. Location: Hudsonville, Michigan
    2. Church: Water's Edge
    3. Web: www.watersedge.tv
  7. McLaren, Brian
    1. Location: Spencerville, Maryland
    2. Church: Cedar Ridge Community Church
    3. Web: www.crcc.org
  8. Pagitt, Doug
    1. Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
    2. Church: Solomon's Porch
    3. Web: www.solomonsporch.com
  9. Scandrette, Mark
    1. Location: San Francisco, California.
    2. Church: Reimagine
    3. Web: www.markscandrette.com
  10. Sutton, Dave
    1. Location: Newport, United Kingdom
    2. Church: New Duffryn Community Church
    3. Web: unknown.
  11. Ward, Karen
    1. Location: Seattle, Washington
    2. Church: Church of the Apostles
    3. Web: www.apostleschurch.org
  12. Willard, Dallas
    1. Location: University of Southern California
    2. Church: unknown
    3. Web: www.dwillard.org
  13. Xander, Dieter
    1. Location: Novato, CA
    2. Church: Quest
    3. Web: www.questnovato.com



2 comments:

Chuck Porritt said...

I have found the 'Lighthouse Trails' website to be an extremely helpful source of information about the Emergent Church, and its promotion of 'centering prayer' (Eastern meditative techniques) to achieve contact with the spirit world. This movement has already made significant inroads into many Christian institutions that were once considered stalwarts of evangelical Christianity.

James Carr said...

Pastor it makes me think of that verse in Revelation when Jesus said that if He had not shortened the time even the elect wouldn't be saved. Thanks for that post. I am praying for you to feel better.

James Carr