11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Romans 5:11 (NASB)
The very heart of Christianity is the doctrine of the Atonement. Is it no wonder that so many proclaiming a “new type of Christianity” also attempt to do away with this doctrine? Any attempts to redefine Christianity by modifying or eliminating this doctrine are marks of heresy. I have seen professing Christians argue and write off former brothers in the faith over aspects of our faith that are nowhere near as vital to orthodoxy as the doctrine of the Atonement. I have been cursed and called heretical because I have differed from those doing so on things like eschatology or on the Sovereignty of God. How can we do that to our brothers and sisters in Christ whose sins have been atoned for by Christ just as ours have? Emerging Christianity is a nebulously defined paradigm that sees doctrine as divisive and, therefore, unimportant. Its advocates want Christianity to be only about social and relational things and not about doctrine at all. To make that paradigm shift though requires a departure from Christian Orthodoxy because that also says that the Atonement of Christ is not something that should be what defines what real Christianity is or is not.