In a message presented at the Greenbelt
Festival in England in August, emerging church leader Brian McLaren sought to
destroy absolute biblical authority by claiming that we have entered a new era
of Bible reading. He divided church history into three parts: Bible 1.0 was the
Roman Catholic approach to Scripture whereby the Bible “was read and controlled
by the religious elite”. Bible 2.0 was the Protestant approach to Scripture by
which “the Bible itself was viewed as inerrant” and believers tested everything
by it. Bible 3.0 is the new approach recommended by McLaren whereby the
multiplicity of interpretations available on the Internet allegedly render any
one authoritative interpretation invalid. He says that Bible 3.0 is to be “in
conversation with everything and everyone”. He says, “Bible 1.0 didn’t give up
to Bible 2.0 without a fight. And it’s very difficult for Bible 2.0 to imagine
a world of Bible 3.0”, but, “If we are ready, we are going to discover the
Bible as better, deeper and richer than before” (“Brian McLaren: ‘We’ve entered
a new era of Bible reading’”, ChristianityToday.com,
Sept. 4, 2014). McLaren’s “deeper and richer” Bible reading is the one-world
church’s approach which is tolerant of other views and exalts unity, “social
justice”, etc., over doctrinal purity. McLaren grew up in a fundamentalist
Christian home, but he rejected the faith of his parents and his godly
grandparents, who were Brethren missionaries. He is a dangerous heretic who has
robbed many of their biblical faith. In response to the Bible 1.0, 2.0, 3.0
thing, we would observe that McLaren’s view of history doesn’t start early
enough. In truth, Bible 1.0 is not the Catholic Church. It is the New Testament
churches under the direction of Christ’s apostles. Bible 1.0 is the
Christianity of those who believe that one infallible faith was delivered in
the New Testament Scriptures and is to be contended for (Jude 3). Bible 1.0 is
the Christianity of those who take the words of the resurrected Christ
seriously when He said that His disciples are to be taught to “observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). There is no room for
the confusion of multiple interpretations here. Bible 1.0 is the Christianity
of those who believe that Paul committed absolute truth to faithful, born again
men who were to teach “the same” to others (2 Timothy 2:2). Bible 1.0 is the
Christianity of those who are taught to test, beware of, mark, avoid, and
reject false teachers and heretics (Romans 16:17-18; Ephesians 4:4; Philippians
3:2, 17-18; Colossians 2:8; 2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 3:10-11; 1 Timothy 4:1-4; 1
John 4:1). This is impossible for those who believe in a variety of acceptable
interpretations. By McLaren’s scheme, no one is a heretic. Rather, all are
sincere seekers with different “perspectives”. Further, Bible 1.0 is the
Christianity of those are taught to study to show themselves approved unto God
by “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) and who “have an
unction from the Holy One” to know the truth (1 John 2:20, 27). This means that
the Spirit of God leads His redeemed people to the correct interpretation of
Scripture. (For more on this see http://www.challies.com/articles/the-false-teachers-brian-mclaren.)
EMERGING CHURCH CHANGE AGENTS
Emerging church leaders like Brian McLaren are
very effective change agents. His popular breakout book A New Kind of Christian presents theological liberalism in the
guise of a wiser, kinder, gentler type of Christianity called “Postmodern”. The
book recounts a pastor’s journey from a position of holding the Bible as the
absolute standard for truth, a position in which doctrine is either right or
wrong, to a pliable stance in which “faith is more about a way of life than a
system of belief, where being authentically good is more important than being
doctrinally right” (from the back cover of A
New Kind of Christian). Chameleons like McLaren can talk like Bible
believers when it suits their purpose. But he has publicly rejected (by
re-definition) such fundamentals of the faith as the inerrancy of Scripture,
the necessity of the new birth, the substitutionary blood atonement, the
literal return of Christ, and eternal judgment. In other words, he has rejected
the New Testament Christian faith and has become its enemy. He is a dangerous
man, but he is clever and patient, and he is by no means alone in his war
against biblical Christianity. He is joined by thousands of “new thinkers” who
are leavening individuals, homes, churches, and schools with heresy. McLaren
has indicated that he is targeting the children and grandchildren of today’s
fundamentalists.
EMERGING CHURCH SPREADING BY “SEASONING”
In his blog this month, Brian McLaren says that
the emerging church is growing in influence, “not by creating a new slice of
the pie, but by seasoning nearly all sectors of the pie” (“More on the emergent
conversation”, BrianMclaren.net, Nov.
17, 2014). He is exactly right, and the “seasoning” extends even to many
“fundamentalist” churches. What McLaren calls “seasoning”, the Bible calls
“leaven”, and it twice warns that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (1
Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:9). The church at Corinth and the churches in
Galatia were being careless about error. They were entertaining it,
countenancing it. They were “bearing with it” (2 Corinthians 11:4). But if a
small amount of error is countenanced, it will eventually leaven everything.
This is why we have warned that most fundamentalist independent churches will
be emerging within 20 years. Large numbers of them are entertaining error. They
haven’t capitulated, but they are playing with it. They are arguing, “But this
is just a small thing; let’s ‘major on the majors’”. They are playing with
contemporary worship music, which even in its most “conservative” form is a
definite bridge to the one-world church of the Getty’s and Townend’s and
Redman’s and Kendrick’s and Zschech’s. Some are even playing with contemplative
prayer.
Brian McLaren did not invent emerging heresy.
It is in the very air we breathe today. He is a product of it, and he in turn
has become a purveyor. He grew up with the priceless heritage of being the son
and grandson of Bible-believing Christians, but at some point he was converted
to modern unbelief. His book A New Kind
of Christian is doubtless biographical to some degree. An evangelical
pastor is converted by a likable man named “Neo”, who befriends him in a crisis
of faith. At the beginning of the conversations, the pastor is afraid that
Neo’s ideas are corrupting him (p. 26), but he quenches the fear, continues to
listen to the voice of the serpent, and becomes a convert to heresy. McLaren,
the author of the book, considers this transformation a good thing, of course.
This reminds us of the 1956 movie The Invasion
of the Body Snatchers, in which the earth is invaded by aliens in the form
of seed pods. Each pod is capable of transforming a human being into an alien
by capturing his soul if the individual is sleeping nearby. The invasion is
quiet and insidious. One by one, unsuspecting human beings are transformed into
aliens with alien thinking and objectives who seek to transform everyone else.
A doctor discovers what is happening and tries to warn people, even standing on
a highway screaming to the motorists, “They’re here already! You’re next!” but
he is ignored. Like The Invasion of the
Body Snatchers, the emerging church is an alien Christianity. It spreads
quietly and subtly, from individual to individual. It puts people at ease by
downplaying its radicalness and by using the comfortable old biblical and
theological terms, yet with new definitions. McLaren and his friends would tell
you that they believe in Biblical inspiration, salvation, atonement, judgment,
and the kingdom of God, but they re-define these terms in modernistic ways.
They are “sincere and caring”. They profess to love Jesus and the truth. The
emerging heresy takes over the hearts and minds of those who are sleeping and
are not alert to the danger, who have been lulled to sleep by the popular
thinking that judging is carnal and “critics” are mean-spirited troublemakers
and that preaching and teaching should be kept on a “positive note” and “not
deal with personalities”. It is especially effective in converting second
generation Christians who often lack the spiritual dynamism and vigilance of
the first generation. It spreads through the “seed pods” of literature,
Internet blogs, MP3 sermons, Bible College classrooms, and friendships. It
captures the hearts of pastors’ sons, who then insidiously convert unsuspecting
congregations. The Invasion of the Body
Snatchers was fiction, but the invasion of the emerging church is very
real, and we are doing everything we can to warn and protect as many people as we
can. This is a major motivation for the production of such things as these kinds
of articles. We need parents and preachers and teachers and missionaries who
will provide serious discipleship to the next generation to protect them from
the invasion of apostasy.
