By Marsha West
Some of you may recall that in the late 1990s Evangelicalism was introduced to a movement that was “rethinking Christianity against the backdrop of postmodernism” (skepticism, subjectivism, moral relativism). America’s younger generation of professing Christians who thought of themselves as enlightened began rethinking “Old Time Religion,” as they felt there was a need for a “new kind of Christianity.” So naturally these young progressive/liberals were drawn to the movement. Emergent Village, an official network, soon surfaced as one of the leading voices in the emerging “conversation” that was going on among Christians who felt “disillusioned and disenfranchised by the conventional ecclesial institutions of the late 20th century.”
The movement caught on. In no time it morphed into the Emerging or Emergent Church (EC). Most of those who gravitated to it had a low view of the Bible and a high view of social justice, activism and pagan spirituality. Typical of the younger generation, they were in rebellion against orthodox biblical or what they considered institutional Christianity. For them, cultural changes indicated a new Church was emerging. Their agenda? Re-think…re-imagine…re-envision…re-shape… the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Skipping ahead to 2024, the EC has spread their spiritual cancer globally. These change agents claimed that their hope was to bring a “message of peace” that would make Christianity more palatable to the world. But because the Holy Spirit would never bring a message of hope from false teachers who are in deep sin, we can conclude that the Third Person of the Trinity played no part in the EC’s lofty endeavor.
Nevertheless, enlightened EC change agents had great success. And without much blowback from the orthodoxy, the EC managed to make inroads into every aspect of the visible Church. In so doing they have introduced that “new kind of Christianity” they envisioned. In doing so these emergents managed to toss out the biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ, cunningly distorting it (I hear the hiss of the snake) and replacing it with the social justice gospel…which is no gospel at all (Galatians 1:7).
In his 8-part essay on the Emerging Church, Scott Diekmann sums it up this way:
We explored the attitude of the Emerging Church toward Scripture, finding that some have substituted the doctrines derived from the inerrant and inspired Word of God with a doctrine based on an uninspired melding of Scripture, experience, mysticism, and imagination. That lack of Scriptural fidelity has at times led to a redefined Gospel, a message that is predominantly Law rather than Gospel, and pastors who have failed to present the whole counsel of God.
Sleuths With No Names
Apprising Ministries was one of the first discernment blogs to report on the EC movement. The owner, Ken Silva, put together a group of sleuths (who shall remain nameless) that worked behind the scenes gathering info on aberrant movements and cults. They also exposed poisonous false teaching and the people who spread it. Ken had no qualms about exposing wolves in sheep’s clothing. Yes, Ken named names. Ken’s style was to expose the varmints, tell it like it is, lightly sprinkled with snark.
When Ken and I first met he was spending much of his time blogging on EC leaders and naming names. Back then the poison spreaders of neo-postmodernism engaged in a mystical form of Christianity called spiritual formation — a set of “spiritual disciplines” (not defined in Scripture) to help practitioners be more like Jesus. Two highly regarded EC leaders at the time were Dallas Willard and Richard Foster (dubbed “spiritual twins” by Ken.) The “twins” feet were held to the fire by Ken and the sleuths for encouraging all sorts of extrabiblical spiritual practices (borrowed from RCC priests taught by Buddhist monks) such as lectio divina, the silence, yoga, and contemplative prayer (listening/centering/breath prayer). Sadly, undiscerning Christians were all too often involved in RCC mysticism!
So – now that I’ve laid the groundwork, I want to share an excerpt from Ken’s piece Do Not Be Unequally Yoked With Unbelievers under the heading So What Does A Believer Have In Common With An Unbeliever?
Well, this would seem clear enough; but unfortunately, not so today e.g. because evangelicalism made the fateful decision to embrace the apostate and sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church a.k.a. the Emerging Church with its “big tent” Progressive Christianity a.k.a. Emergence Christianity. This is the root reason why we’re witnessing such syncretism within the mainstream right now.
The tragic fact is that the EC brought in its core doctrine of anti-biblical Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism and spread it throughout the younger sectors of evangelicalism. Then in my piece On Contemplative Spirituality and Charismania I showed you the further progression away from sola Scriptura currently going on throughout the heart of the church visible. (Source)
I need to be as clear as polished glass. Those who have a fascination with the esoteric or secret knowledge for the purpose of becoming a more spiritual being are delving into the realm of Gnosticism. Having extra biblical knowledge that no one else has doesn’t bring a person one millimeter closer to God. Just the opposite is true. So anyone (I’m looking at you, Christian) who desires to draw closer to God must spend time reading/studying the Bible.
Why?
Because it contains God’s revelation of Himself. The Lord Jesus validated the authority of Scripture by saying “It is written” (Matthew 4:1–11).
A Hypocritical Faith
As I exhorted you when going to Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may command certain ones not to teach a different doctrine, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the stewardship from God which is by faith. But the goal of our command is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unhypocritical faith. 1 Tim 1:3-5 (LSB)
Now to David Cloud’s concern with the hypocrisy among emergents in Emergent Christian Hypocrisy:
There is a great hypocrisy that permeates emerging church writings. They denounce dogmatism in the most dogmatic terms!
They reject judgmentalism in the most judgmental terms, having nothing to say of fundamentalist Christianity except ridicule and denunciation.
They reject traditional patterns of Bible “spirituality,” such as daily devotions, as dull and legalistically obligatory, but they accept the most stringent forms of Catholic “spirituality,” such as lectio divina and keeping “the hours” and monasticism, as exciting and life-giving.
And they claim to be “Red Letter Christians,” when in reality they don’t keep the commands Christ gave in the Gospels.
Later Cloud writes…
Prominently in His teaching on the kingdom of God, Christ commanded men to repent of their sin. “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat. 4:17). Yet the emerging church is exceedingly weak about the business of repentance and is not even certain that homosexuals have anything to repent of!
Further, the Sermon on the Mount reminds us that Christ was a bold and dogmatic preacher, whereas the emerging church doesn’t like such preaching, preferring story-telling and “sharing.”
Thus, this idea that we should be Red Letter Christians is not consistently followed even by its own proponents. The Gospels do not present a Christ that looks anything like the emerging church.
The hypocrisy within the emerging church is amazing to behold.
Warning!
These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver! (Psalm 50:21-22)
Ken Silva liked to refer to the EC as an ecumenical neo-liberal cult. But was it a cult? Until his death in 1989 conservative Christian apologist Walter Martin was a major player in the countercult movement. Dr Martin became well-known through The Bible Answer Man radio broadcast. Following is how he defined a cult:
It is a cult because it follows every outlined structure of cultism; its own revelations; its own gurus, and its denial–systematically–of all sound systematic Christian theology. It is a cult because it passes its leadership on to the next group that takes over–either modifying, expanding or contracting–the same heresies; dressing them up in different language, and passing them on. It is theologically corrupt because it is bibliologically corrupt; it denies the authority of Scripture, it ruins its own theology. And it ends in immorality; because the only way you could have gotten to this homosexual, morally relativistic, garbage–which is today in our denominational structures–is if the leadership of those denominations denied the authority of the Scriptures and Jesus Christ as Lord.
That is the only way you got there. And there’s a remedy for this, my brothers and sisters; the remedy is to start asking questions, start demanding definitions of terminology; start insisting that people tell you what they’re giving your money to before you give them a dime. Examine the people that occupy the chairs of theology in the seminaries, and if they are not given to the historic Christian faith–“out with the rascals!” Examine your churches, your sessions, your Baptist boards–and everything else–and find out who is in the faith. You’re told to do that in 1 Corinthians; you’re told to do it in Galatians, you’re told to do it everywhere in Scripture–examine to see whether you’re in the faith [see 2 Corinthians 13:5].
Test all things; make sure of what is true [see 1 Thessalonians 5:21]. I’m not being harsh; I’m not being judgmental. I am being thoroughly, consistently, Christian; in the light of historic theology, and the holy Bible. And I think we have a right to demand that the men who occupy the seats of learning, and who preach from the pulpits, either preach Jesus Christ; or cut off their pensions, their salaries, their golf club memberships, and let them go earn their living as social workers because it is obvious they don’t have any theology that is going to save anybody. With Luther, here I stand; God help me, I can do no other. — Walter Martin, The Cult of Liberalism, 1985)
Rebellion Against God
Ken Silva believed EC was a cult for the reasons Dr. Martin gave. Thus, he continually called them out:
This all too familiar mystic mantra of the Cult of Liberal Theology that swallowed up the mainline denominations is now becoming an all too familiar refrain even within mainstream evangelicalism as it further embraces the tenets of Progressive Theology ala Marcus Borg and its lite version as espoused by Tony Campolo.
Moving on to a quote from an anonymous source that shared his (or her) vision some years ago of the kind of community he wished to be a part of:
In this community, young and old, Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal, upper class and lower class, middle class, heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual–everyone–found commonality and community at the foot of the cross. And God was adding to their number daily those who were being saved. And by saved, I mean that a kingdom of God mindset was being sculpted and refined and fleshed out in lives.
This person’s vision spread through the visible Church, orthodox seminaries and Bible colleges like a firestorm caused by a lightning bolt touching the ground in an Oregon forest, as professing Christians became enamored with Eastern mysticism and New Age spirituality. Many believers jumped headfirst into monastic practices taught by Catholic priests for the purpose of promoting communion with God even though the Bible teaches that Christians imitating pagans is taboo. Following in the footsteps of apostate Rome and doing what God expressly forbids became a growing trend in the Christian community.
The vision from God the emergents laid hold of didn’t come to them through the Holy Spirit inspired scriptures. The postmodern gospel is certainly not the authentic gospel narrative we find in God’s Word. No. The EC gospel takes our focus off the Lord Jesus and shifts it to sinful man, thus making it man-centered. The gospel of Self (self-esteem, self-worth, me, myself and I) as well as one’s personal experience with God replaces the Gospel of Grace.
Moreover, emergents embrace the principles of social justice, liberation theology and collective salvation. Some of them even incorporate elements of universalism.
Naming Names
Besides “spiritual twins” Dallas Willard and Richard Foster there are many other EC celebrities who’s names you may recognize: Brian McLaren, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Donald Whitney, Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, Phyllis Tickle, Marcus Borg, Leonard Sweet, Bob Buford, Brennon Manning, Eugene Peterson, Donald Miller, Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, Richard Rohr, Andy Stanley, John Ortberg, Frank Viola, Laurie Beth Jones, Ruth Haley Barton, Rachel Held Evans, Shane Claiborn, Dan Kimball, Shane Hipps, Diana Butler Bass, Spencer Burke, Peter Rollins, Steve Chalke, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Jay Bakker, Jen Hatmaker, Karen Ward, Joel McClure, Dieter Xander and many others.
Where are they now? Several have died, even prematurely. Only a few have retained their celebrity status. Hardly any of them are best-selling authors, nor are they invited to speak at faith-based events.
In the past few years, the EC has shifted into a new or neo mode, making the Neo-Emergent movement appealing to a whole new audience of young Christians who straight-out reject the authority of Scripture. I addressed this in a column I wrote several years ago, Emergent Church Spreading Spiritual Cancer:
The emergent movement is most definitely gaining currency, especially with young people and those who are dissatisfied with mainline evangelicalism. This is the reason it’s imperative that committed Christians take a deeper look into the “conversation.” Listen carefully to the language to see whether or not what a person purports is within the pale of orthodoxy…Because if the “conversation” doesn’t line up with Scripture it’s not from God. And if it’s not from God it’s from the pit of hell.
Let me be clear. The new version of Progressive Christianity (liberalism 2.0) is rank heresy. Even so, many undiscerning believers are being pressed into socialism by social justice warriors. And by the way, social justice is socialism!
Sadly, Christ’s sheep are being fed a bunch of garbage by shepherds who should know better. The slop sheep are fed causes theological illiteracy, moreover it is spiritually dangerous.
The cults and counterfeit movements must be thoroughly understood and debunked. We must do as Walter Martin urged us to do: “Examine your churches, your sessions, your Baptist boards–and everything else–and find out who is in the faith.” Bible believers must expose sons of the devil who are poisoning the sheep with false doctrine and call out the villains by name, just as Paul did:
Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, ‘You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord.’ (Acts 13:9-10)
In closing…
Protestia is one of the first polemics news/discernment sites whose conservative Protestant editors and writers have garnered a lot of attention (and push back) for over a decade. I’ll close with a quote from editor David Morrill – David, you took the words right out of my mouth:
We are not doing this just for the thrill of controversy. We are not doing this just to build a following. We are not doing this to make a name for ourselves. We do not revel in the excitement. No friends, we are fighters for a cause that is bigger than ourselves. We do this not for ourselves but for our children and God’s children… We are polemicists. We have one job, and that is to magnify the name of Christ by promoting that which is true, laying waste to that which is false, and committing to ride-or-die with the consequences. (Source)
Research
Related
Emergent Church Spreading Spiritual Cancer By Marsha West
Father of the Emergent Culture By Sarah H. Leslie
Donald Whitney and Spiritual Disciplines (Review of Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life) By Bob DeWaay
Richard Foster and Dallas Williard on Hearing God By Marcia Montenegro
The Emerging Church and the New Progressive Theology on Christ By Ken Silva