by
John MacArthur
Copyright 2005-2006, Grace to You.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Over the next few weeks we will be focusing on the Emerging
Church Movement and the influence of postmodernism on the contemporary church.
Many of these posts will come from John MacArthur’s upcoming book The Truth War
(coming in Spring 2007). Today’s post, however, comes from his article in the
Fall 2006 issue of The Master’s Seminary Journal. The full text of this article,
along with other helpful articles regarding the Emerging Church, can be read by
obtaining a copy of the journal from The Master’s Seminary.
From the very beginning, the battle between good and evil has been a battle for
the truth. The serpent, in the Garden of Eden, began his temptation by
questioning the truthfulness of God’s previous instruction: “Indeed, has God
said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’? … “You surely shall not
die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and
you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:1,4–5). And this has been
his tactic ever since—casting doubt on the straightforward revelation of God.
Throughout the centuries, this age-old war on truth has been repeatedly fought
even within the church. The biblical writer Jude, for instance, faced such a
situation when he wrote his epistle. Though he had wanted to write about the
wonders of the common salvation that he shared with his readers, he was
compelled instead to urge his readers to “contend earnestly for the faith which
was once for all delivered to the saints” (v. 3). False teachers, like spiritual
terrorists, had secretly crept into the church (v. 4). The lies they were
spreading, like doctrinal hand grenades, were spiritually devastating. They were
enemies of the truth, and Jude was compelled to expose and confront them.
Over the past few decades, the church in the United States has fought this very
battle on several fronts. In the sixties and seventies, the doctrine of biblical
inerrancy came under direct attack. The Bible, it was said, was full of errors,
and thus could not be trusted as historically or scientifically accurate. In the
eighties and nineties, the sufficiency of Scripture was targeted. The
charismatic movement (with its need for additional revelation from God) and
Christian psychology (with its emphasis on neo-Freudian counseling techniques)
attempted to undermine the fact that God “has granted to us everything
pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him,” as revealed
in Scripture (2 Pet. 1:3).
As the millennium drew to a close, the attack on God’s revealed truth came in a
new way. This time the relevance of Scripture was the point of attack. Rather
than being directly maligned, the Bible was quietly discarded by church leaders
for whom biblical teaching was simply not a major priority. “The Seeker
Movement,” more or less advocated limiting the presentation of divine truth to
what unbelievers are willing to tolerate.
A new movement is now arising in and around evangelical circles. Now, it
appears, the main object of attack will be the perspicuity of Scripture.
Influenced by postmodern notions about language, meaning, subjectivity, and
truth, many younger evangelicals are questioning whether the Word of God is
clear enough to justify certainty or dogmatism on any point of doctrine.
Ironically, this new movement more-or-less ignores all of the previous debates.
Instead, its proponents are much more interested in dialogue and conversation.
As a result, propositional truth (which tends to end dialogue rather than start
it) is scorned and rebuffed as an outmoded vestige of twentieth-century
modernism.
This movement is very diverse and still developing, but it is generally referred
to as “the Emerging Church.
This article originally appeared
here
at Grace to You.
Introducing the Emerging Church, Part 2
The Emerging Church Movement is made up of an admittedly broad and variegated
collection of pastors and church leaders, with a common concern for Christian
mission within a postmodern generation.
As one author explains:
At the heart of the “movement”—or as some of its leaders prefer to call it, the
“conversation”—lies the conviction that changes in the culture signal that a new
church is “emerging.” Christian leaders must therefore adapt to this emerging
church. Those who fail to do so are blind to the cultural accretions that hide
the gospel behind forms of thought and modes of expression that no longer
communicate with the new generation, the emerging generation. (D.A. Carson,
Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005],
12)
Mark Driscoll, an ”emerging” pastor himself, defines the movement this way:
The emerging church is a growing, loosely connected movement of primarily young
pastors who are glad to see the end of modernity and are seeking to function as
missionaries who bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to emerging and postmodern
cultures. The emerging church welcomes the tension of holding in one closed hand
the unchanging truth of evangelical Christian theology (Jude 3) and holding in
one open hand the many cultural ways of showing and speaking Christian truth as
a missionary to America (1 Cor. 9:19–23). Since the movement, if it can be
called that, is young and is still defining its theological center, I do not
want to portray the movement as ideologically unified because I myself swim in
the theologically conservative stream of the emerging church. (Mark Driscoll,
Confessions of a Reformission Rev. [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006], 22)
In asserting himself as a theological conservative, however, Driscoll is in the
minority among ECM leaders. The neo-liberal thrust embraced by the majority of
those in ECM is spearheaded by Emergent, an organization begun in 2001, which is
deliberate in its desire to impact the entire movement.
By 2001, we had formed an organization around our friendship, known as Emergent,
as a means of inviting more people into the conversation. Along with us, the
“emerging church” movement has been growing, and we in Emergent Village endeavor
to fund the theological imaginations and spiritual lives of all who consider
themselves a part of this broader movement. (Online Source)
Because of the influence of Emergent, many have seen the term as synonymous with
“emerging,” referring to the movement as a whole as the Emergent Church
Movement. Those who are more conservative, however, differentiate between the
terms. As Driscoll writes:
I was part of what is now known as the Emerging Church Movement in its early
days and spent a few years traveling the country to speak to emerging leaders in
an effort to help build a missional movement in the United States. The wonderful
upside of the emerging church is that it elevates mission in American culture to
a high priority, which is a need so urgent that its importance can hardly be
overstated.
I had to distance myself, however, from one of many streams in the emerging
church because of theological differences. Since the late 1990s, this stream has
become known as Emergent. The emergent church is part of the Emerging Church
Movement but does not embrace the dominant ideology of the movement. Rather the
emergent church is the latest version of liberalism. The only differences is
that the old liberalism accommodated modernity and the new liberalism
accommodates postmodernity. (Driscoll, Confessions, 21)
It is this particular segment of ECM, the Emergent Church, that has most
blatantly attacked the clarity and authority of the Scripture. And of all the
voices that make up Emergent, the most prominent belongs to Brian D. McLaren.
McLaren has been called “the emerging church’s most influential thinker,” as
well as “the de facto spiritual leader for the emerging church.” He currently
serves as the chair of the board of directors for Emergent Village, and is a
frequent guest on television programs and radio shows. In February 2005, he was
listed as “One of the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America” by Time
Magazine. His books include A New Kind of Christian, A Generous Orthodoxy, and
most-recently The Secret Message of Jesus. Though the ECM is admittedly diverse,
McLaren has emerged as its most prominent spokesman.
Other ECM leaders include Spencer Burke, Eddie Gibbs, Tony Jones, Dan Kimball,
Kyle Lake, Erwin McManis, Doug Pagitt, Chris Seay, and Leonard Sweet.
This article originally appeared here at Grace to You.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's
Collection" by:
Tony Capoccia
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