12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12 (NASB)
When this blog first came online in 2006 and then when I became associated with Christian Research Network in 2007 the number one topic that seemed to consume my time was debating a group of people called the “Emergents.” One of their leaders was Brian McLaren….
Debating the defenders of writers such as Brian McLaren was a very eye opening thing. I found it very interesting that they used the very same methods as Liberal Christians and atheists. The Straw Man fallacy was the most prevalent tool they used. They were the defenders of relativism and universalism. Our resistance to any compromise caused them to refer to us as “backward” and “legalistic.” They made the false assumption that all holders of relativism make, which is declaring absolute truth to be a myth. When proof was given from the Bible they declared that was only our interpretation. It took awhile, but we learned from this to see the logical end of a debate fast approach when that argument was given. Why? It is a total waste of time at that point to continue. Another aspect of debates like this was the way it made me examine myself and my faith, which is a good thing. These fellows were all about trying to sow seeds of doubt in the heart. Their parting shots were always quite disturbing. Of course these were simply fiery darts of deception intended to neutralize us. One such dart was that all that I was trusting in was, to him, just a house of cards and props. I knew better, but it made me think about how this person could have conceived of such a thing. Then I understood or at least I think I did. It occurred to me that our trust in God, in His Sovereignty, to save and keep us is to them an unreality. They are trusting in their own work, their own decision, their own religiosity to hold them. Within that religiosity they have the mechanism of the sinner’s prayer in response to some sort of ‘time of decision.’ They have made the right decision so they ‘must be saved.’ Right?