[The following is a reply to my friend Josh Glidden's blog. I've been meaning to write on the subject at hand, but wrote the gist of the subject matter in response to a post he authored. Here's the link to the origianl post: http://joshuaglidden.blogspot.com/2008/01/ranting-raving-and-blaming-worlds.html]
I heard Ravi Zacharias say once that when the tide is low every shrimp has his own puddle. When it comes to "emergent" theology I think you must see the movement as a whole and not focus in on one comment. In light of the observations I've made, I'm probably going to take this a step further and say that I do not agree with questioning the "message" of the Gospel in any form. The "message" I've received is from the Bible and in my opinion there is nothing to question in regards to what we've received. Paul says clearly in 1 Corinthians 15:3 the following: "For I delivered to you of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures...". Now, we know from Acts and Paul confirms in Galatians that he "received" his message directly from Christ himself. To be confirm what he received he went to Jerusalem and compared his message with that of the apostles and it was clear they received the same message. The entire book of Galatians Paul is spending time defending and proclaiming the Gospel. In fact he uses the harshest language that he uses in any epistle to rebuke the Judaizers for adding to the Gospel that he had origianlly laid out for them. He said he wishes they would "emasculate" them selves or "castrate" themselves. One of the largest pagan religions during this time was the worship of Isis in which the priests were all eunuchs and practiced self-castration. I believe Paul was saying if your going to teach the Gospel as Jesus plus circumcision, step it up big boy and go ahead and snip away and cut it all off. You are no different than the pagan priests of Isis! Now, apparently someone had "questioned" the Gospel that Paul had preached and infiltrated the believers to the point where they were abandoning the Gospel. In pop-culture we are experiencing the very same thing. Think about the DaVinci Code, the Jesus Seminar, etc. and they are ultimately questioning the "message" of the Gospel, not just methods. Jones makes a scary comment when he says, "This is about whole new ways of thinking. This is about epistemology...How do we reconsider the gospel and everything that goes along with it?" I don't know Jones' background or what "message" he received but I know that several people within the emergent church are questioning things such as homosexuality. Brian McClaren just decided to take a five year moratorium on the topic to see if we still feel the same way about it then. To me, the movement as a whole doesn't know what the hell they believe. I don't see how any good can come out of questioning the message of the "Gospel", at least the one I know to be true and receieved from the Scripture. Now, it is obvious that the emergent movement operates from a post-modern epistemology in which truth is relative and many operate from a trajectory theology in which theology is dynamic and changing with time and culture. So, rather than questioning our methods in light of the unchanging "message" and truth of the Gospel to contexualize and reach the post-moderns, they have reversed this and began questioning the message itself. It's Gnosticism all over again. It's taking a pagan world view and trying to reconsider the message we've received and just like the Gnostics, they will pass and the true Gospel will stand the test of time and eternity. Rodney Stark wrote the following in "Cities of God" in regards to Valentinus: "Valentinus was very much the academic intellectual, and his movement had the charcteristic of a philosophical school...What he and his students aspired to achieve was to 'raise Christian theology to the level of pagan philosophical studies; in fact, 'the very purpose of the school was speculation...many scholars 'see in Valentinus' teachings the apex of gnosticism, the greatest and most influential of the gnostic schools...What made Valentinus so successful, and such a threat to conventional Christianity, was his effort to reconcile the New Testament with classic elements of Gnosticism by applying 'a peculiar allegorical interpretation of those commonly accepted texts, thereby discovering hidden and deeper levels of meaning consistent with those revealed to Gnostic visionaries." Two leading emergent leaders, Brian McClaren and Rob Bell, have both referenced a book entitled "A Brief History of Everythig" by Ken Wilbur. Ken Wilbur is an evolutionary integrated spiritualist and his book can be found in the "New Age" section of any book store. They both credit this man for having a large influence on their interpretation of the Christian faith. Brian McClaren has recently published a book called, "The Secret Message of Jesus". Apparently there is a secret message that we've missed the last two thousand years.To quote Rodney Stark once again: "...Moritz Friedlander traced the origins of Gnosticism to Jewish roots and claimed that Christianity and Gnosticism were parallel off-shoots of first-century Hellenic Judaism...As for the intense anti-Judaism of much of this literature, it was said to reflect the antagonism of bitterly ex-Jews against the faith of their fathers." It appears to me that much of the "emergent" camp are the disgruntled children of legalism and fundamentalism. I know I've expressed a ton of info here, but I do believe that anytime you borrow from a pagan/secular world view and try to interpret any Scripture or "message" that you're treading on dangerous waters. If you're going to question things, go to the source of the Word! Paul commends the Bereans in Acts 17:11 for the following: "Now these Jews were more noble minded than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." So please, if you're going to ask questions, go to the Scriptures. Don't drink from the toilet of pagan/secular philosophy. Now more than ever, I feel that we as believers need to fight for the truth of the Gospel and not allow these philosophies to toss us to and fro like a wave in the storm of a very unstable ocean. I love you guys and I am truly sharing my heart here. So, please, don't be a stranded shrimp while the tide is low! May Jesus be lifted high!
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