21 Therefore the Lord heard and was full of wrath; And a fire was kindled against Jacob And anger also mounted against Israel, 22 Because they did not believe in God And did not trust in His salvation. (Psalms 78:21-22 NASB)
Dealing with Emergents and others who insist that they are Christians while what they say and do is marked as distinctly the fruit of unbelief, can be a very trying experience. I suppose that is why our enemy will never stop his attacks on those who are called by the name of Christ to discourage and confuse them. Earlier this week I became involved in a discussion in a Reformed site about a post there on The Atonement. The problem was that it was written by Greg Boyd who is an Open Theist. The site from where the poster got the article is notorious amongst those at CRN as one that is all about casting doubt on every aspect of Orthodox Christianity. All was well until two fellows showed up with whom I had had issues before. What was the problem? Both of these fellows would be right at home at Solomon’s Porch with Doug Pagitt even though they both claim to be Reformed in their theology. However, if you are like me and see God’s Word as absolute truth and any attempt to water that truth down is an attempt to introduce error then when you have discussions with two fellows who want to have “many steams of outlook on the atonement” that are all valid regardless of the fact that their source is from an Open Theist or not, then you understand why I said some things in that discussion that many who lean toward Political Correctness would frown upon, calling me the divisive one. I left the discussion with this parting shot:
It appears to me that you have little or no discernment. If you did have any it has been plowed under by too much seminary.
Why did I get so upset? Why did their attack get me to that point? It got there because they both saw no issue with fellowshipping with known heretics, such as an Open Theist and they both believed there were many ways to interpret God’s Word that were all equally valid. By-the-way, this is the exact same message we used to get from Doug Pagitt years ago when he talked about the many “steams of faith.”