Dangerous Trends

In

The Church of Jesus Christ

I have a burden for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s vineyard is being trampled by the presence of dangerous wolves among the sheep. We should be alert today for the creeping errors of the Emerging/Emergent Church movement. Satan is the author of all deceptions. Satan is the father of all lies.

Recently I was speaking with another pastor who lamented that there has never been such a day like this in his life time where there are so many different heresies and threats to the cause of Jesus Christ. We face the onslaught of  the New Perspective on justification by faith alone, a watered down gospel that is heavy on God’s love but light on God’s call to repentance and holiness, Postmodernism, The Emergent/Emerging church movement, Secular Humanism, the New Atheism, the rise of Islam and the call for a Caliphate, Political correctness, multiculturalism, the return of ecumenism,  the use of gimmicks to build the church, and at the same time we see the death of Western Civilization, a departure of biblical worship, an eroding of the authority of the Word of God, an eschatology of pessimism, and a incipient worldliness that is creeping into the church. This does not include the long list of cults that are among us such as Mormonism, Jehovah Witnesses, the New Age movement, Hinduism, and reincarnation, Buddhism, and a host of other religious cults.

When we consider the dangers of the Emerging/Emergent church movement what things should we be alert to? First, we must resist any form of tampering with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Second, we must be wary of any one or any movement that suggests that the church has been in error for the last 1700 years. Run from such nonsense as fast as you can. Third, when anyone starts to water down preaching and adopts a casual, trite, and silly manner of delivering the Word of God we must run from that as if we are fleeing the plague. Fourth, we must be alert for the departure of throne room worship. Worship matters! If we lose the art of biblical worship we lose everything. It is that important. I draw a line at worship. Cross that line with a worldly, carnal, silly, casual approach to God and you have become an agent for the demise of the historic faith that was once delivered to the saints. 

An article written on a blog by a concerned Christian expressed this concern about the presence of error creeping into the church:

“My heart is troubled. I found out my church is beginning to adopt some of the “Emerging church” doctrine.  It is scary to see such deception creep into our supposed “safe places” and through people who should know better.  It is where God wanted us to be able to recharge in between venturing out into this world to be His light.  This time it is so sinister as to use “missionaryism” to our communities as the topic.  A topic that every church wants to improve on and do the Lord’s work by bringing others to Christ.  But the methods they are suggesting are dangerous and disarming.

I feel we may be losing ground to these feel good/new age Emergent’s.  In this new approach, they stress that we (the saints) need to leave our Bibles and God’s word behind and go out and make friends with non-believers (sojourners) in a non-confrontational manner by joining their groups and once we have become friends, we are to invite them back into our community groups, which they are calling “incarnational communities”.   There we can fellowship with them in a non-discriminatory manner to show them God’s word without confrontation.  To tell you the truth, the actual process feels deceptive to the non-believers and somewhat cult-ish. It was the word “incarnational” that set off alarms so I began doing some homework on its roots…

I can’t believe they said to leave our Bibles behind and go out into this world.  Are we really to become part of this world to bring non-believers to Christ?  After we are born again, we are to be in this world but not of this world.  God’s word tells us that we are to be his light to the world by living differently due to my faith and the hope that my faith in Christ gives me.  God’s word (the Bible) is one of the items God said “above all” do not leave behind.  It is part of our holy armor Paul describes in Ephesians.

Ephesians 6:10-20 – (NKJV) – The Whole Armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. ¹¹ Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. ¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

¹⁴ Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵ and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; ¹⁶ above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. ¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; ¹⁸ praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints— ¹⁹ and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. (emphasis added)

God’s word is our sword. It is how we awaken those asleep, sow His seeds, and protect ourselves from our enemy.  This is a time of spiritual warfare…With our churches infiltrated by the likes of Rick Warren and Brian McLean where do we, that are battle weary from living in this world (but not of this world) go…  There is more deception out there than I can possibly describe.  It is now a wolf in sheep’s clothes.  We need to be on guard from the “Emerging” doctrine.  We need to stay watchful within our churches and keep our armor on because: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).” 

This is not a time for compromise. This is not a time for apathy. This is a time for action. Where are the prophet’s on the wall sounding the alarm that the Lord’s people are being led astray by those within her own ranks? Where are those who have discernment? Where are those who passionately care for the glory of God? May the Lord awaken His sleeping church and cause many of His prophets to sound the alarm before more of His people are led astray.