“...always learning and
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth"
(2Timothy 3:7)
...The subtitle gives more than a slight hint as to why it
reads like this: “Why I am a missional + evangelical +
post/protestant + liberal/conservative + mystical/poetic +
biblical + charismatic/contemplative +
fundamentalist/Calvinist + Anabaptist/Anglican + Methodist +
catholic + green + incarnational + depressed-yet-hopeful +
emergent + unfinished Christian.” If this confuses you,
welcome to “post-modern” Christianity in the age of despair.
This despair is what Francis Schaeffer predicted would
happen when man gave up the possibility of validly knowing
truth about God and the world He created. ...
Brian McLaren recently appeared in Time Magazine’s list of
the twenty five most influential evangelicals.4 His
selection to the list is based on his role as a key leader
in the “emergent” (sometimes called “emerging”) church—a
movement popular with young people. His book is published by
Youth Specialties, a ministry which promotes mysticism as a
means of connecting young people with Christianity. In A
Generous Orthodoxy, McLaren tells the story of how he has
created a unique version of Christianity by gleaning parts
he likes from many sources. The result is what he calls
“emergent” Christianity....
The kingdom as
envisioned by McLaren involves holistic, planetary
“salvation” without any apocalyptic intervention of God (McLaren
despises dispensational theology6).
Personal salvation from hell is disparaged as a wrongly
motivated “consumer product” that distracts from the more
important issue of saving the “whole world” in the here and
now. Rather than providing
Christian hope to a generation of young people who have
rejected all forms of Christianity, McLaren undermines the
possibility for anyone to have a valid Christian hope based
on knowing the truth of the gospel. I say that because he
removes the hope of validly knowing anything....
A Religion of Perpetual Doubt
As McLaren himself says, if you
are looking for a clearly stated theology that asserts what
is true about itself and false about other ideas, you will
not find it in his book. To argue about what is true or
false is a relic of the bygone era of “enlightenment
rationalism” that is the hallmark of modernity. The Bible, for McLaren, is about
doing good works, as God’s people, for the benefit of all
people; it is not about propositional, objective truth.9
...
...his purpose is not to tell us what is true or false
about propositional statements regarding God, man,
salvation, and eternity; but to stimulate our thinking by
purposely promoting obscurity. I wonder what value
“stimulated thinking” has if coming to the knowledge of the
truth is ruled out as a reasonable outcome? Paul warned
about the result for those who indulge in this type of end
times delusion: “always learning and never able to come to
the knowledge of the truth” (2Timothy 3:7).
Since the book is about orthodoxy, a clear definition of
“orthodoxy” should be provided. But alas, clear definitions
are too “modern.” Here is his deconstructed version of what
he says most of us hold as “orthodoxy”: “For most people,
orthodoxy means right thinking or right opinions, or in
other words, ‘what we think,’ as opposed to ‘what they
think.’”13 “Deconstructed” refers to the idea that some
personal or social motivation lies behind what people claim
to be saying. ...
So if I say, “orthodox means
that which is in keeping with the clearly revealed truth
that God has given us in the inspired, inerrant Scriptures,”
the deconstructionist tells me that this is just code for my
arrogant belief that I am right and others are wrong. After
all, “Winners write history,”14
so the doctrinal formulations of “euro-centric, western
civilization” are highly suspect....
The
Line of Despair
...Epistemology is the study of knowledge. It is
particularly concerned about how one distinguishes valid
knowledge from invalid knowledge. Postmodern scholars in
that field see flaws in every possible approach to
validating human knowledge. They have abandoned the
possibility of a field of knowledge that is any more than
“tribal” (i.e. “true” for our group only in as much as it
helps us make sense of things in our situation). Now
theology has jumped on the bandwagon of despair that
characterized much of secular philosophy in the twentieth
century....
The Scriptures give the key to two kinds of knowledge—the
knowledge of God, and the knowledge of men and nature.... There
could have been no Reformation and no Reformation culture in
Northern Europe without the realization that God had spoken
to man in the Scriptures and that, therefore, we know
something truly about God, because God has revealed it....
McLaren acknowledges that the Reformation shifted the
understanding of authority from the church to the
Scriptures. He also sees this very much tied into modernity:
“Martin Luther’s famous individualistic statement, uttered
before the Catholic authorities with whom he disagreed,
expresses the shift perfectly: ‘Here I stand.’”21
... The following extended quotation
from McLaren aptly illustrates the reason the Bible cannot
function authoritatively for postmodern thinkers:
"How do “I” know the Bible is always right? And if “I” am
sophisticated enough to realize that I know nothing of the
Bible without my own involvement via interpretation, I’ll
also ask how I know which school, method, or technique of
biblical interpretation is right. What makes a “good”
interpretation good? ... Which scholars and why? Don’t all these appeals to
authorities and principles outside the Bible actually
undermine the claim of ultimate biblical authority?...23
...The postmodern view
of the hopelessness of knowing the truth flies in the face
of the Biblical claims that God will judge us and hold us
accountable if we suppress the truth:
“For the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is
evident within them; for God made it evident to them”
(Romans 1:18, 19)
The problem, according to the Bible, is
not a supposed human inability to know or communicate, but a
sinful repression of what IS known. Paul continues, “For
since the creation of the world His invisible attributes,
His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen,
being understood through what has been made, so that they
are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). ...
Which Jesus Should we Serve?
McLaren’s doctrine of Christ is confusing.
He claims to have
known “seven Jesuses.”25 I do not think that this was meant
to be a literal claim there were “seven Jesuses,” but rather
that various Christian groups have emphasized a different
aspect of Jesus and that McLaren has gleaned some useful
bits from each of them.
This is his theological approach in a nutshell. Having
disparaged that we can know the truth of the Bible by means
normally accepted by evangelicals, McLaren then gleans from
various versions of Christianity what seems amenable to his
own religious sensibilities. ...he picks and chooses what he likes from
various traditions....
For example, he learned mysticism from these
Catholics: “...Flannery O’Connor, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen... as well as the medieval
mystics and others.”26 Mysticism becomes an important part
of McLaren’s “emergent” Christianity. He writes, “Many of
those little churches [within Roman Catholicism] in the
contemplative tradition emphasize how God may be mystically
experienced through contemplation....”27
From Eastern Orthodoxy McLaren learned about Jesus saving
the whole cosmos by entering it and becoming part of it:
“Second, as humanity (and all creation) enters into God
through Jesus, God also enters Jesus’ people, species, and
history. And by entering all creation through Jesus, God’s
heart is forever bound to it in solidarity, faithfulness,
loyalty, and commitment.”28 This aspect of Jesus becomes
ground for McLaren’s understanding of planetary, cosmic
salvation within history. He later describes an experience
where he personally felt the interconnectedness of all
things in God:
"I felt that every tree, every blade of grass, and every pool
of water become especially eloquent with God’s grandeur.
... It was the
exuberant joy of simply seeing these masterpieces of God’s
creation…and knowing myself to be among them. It was to be
one of them, and to feel and know that 'we'—all of these
creatures, molecules, and phenomena—were together known and
loved by God, who embraced us all into the ultimate 'We'...”29
To me this experience of the interconnectedness of all
things is so New Age that it would not fit into any
Christian category. However, given McLaren’s understanding
of a Jesus who enters “all creation” and is “bound to it in
solidarity,” then there is plausibility for this experience....
Jesus and Planetary Salvation
One of the key features of the “generous orthodoxy” promoted
in McLaren’s book, is that practice must precede theology.
This means, rather than going to a people group with a fixed
set of theological beliefs about God, man, the world... one goes to the people first and
finds a practice that fits their needs and priorities.
... He cites Donovan from Donovan’s book
Christianity Rediscovered: “. . . praxis must be prior to
theology. . . In my work [theology would have to proceed]
from practice to theory.... What Donovan and then McLaren gained from this
was a theology of creation rather than a theology of
personal salvation.36
The practice that McLaren found to inform his theology leads
him to what appears to be a version of “liberation theology”
in which God comes to judge oppressive systems. He does so
by bringing “truth and justice” into our deceived world and
liberating us from the vicious cycle of injustice we created
in this world.37
...
...McLaren is “uncomfortable” with a
“hell-centered” approach to salvation.40
He says that explaining this planetary “saving” Jesus to an
agnostic Jewish friend evoked this response: “I could
believe in a Jesus like that.”41
It offends sinners to hear about the need to repent and
believe the gospel as preached by Christ and His apostles.
It does not offend them to hear that God
is angry about corporations that make products in a way that
might be deemed not environmentally friendly and that in His
judgment He is raising up a cadre of “Christians” to save
the planet from the industrialists. For the postmodern young
people McLaren is targeting, that is “speaking their
language.”...
...for McLaren the mission is to save the world in a social
and environmental sense, not to rescue lost sinners from a
lost and dying world that God is going to destroy in
judgment. When he says, “He creates the church as a missional community
to join him in his mission of saving the world,” that is
what he has in mind.42
...
Practicing Christianity With No Clear Message
...Mysticism is a key part of “emergent” Christianity, in my
opinion, because of the rejection of propositional truth...
and ultimately the belief that there can be valid, concrete
language from God about God. With an uncertain concept of
Jesus, uncertain knowledge, uncertain salvation, and an
uncertain hope based on the tenuous idea that the kingdom of
God is somehow emerging in the process of world history, McLaren offers the
comfort of mystical experiences such as
the one he had of the interconnectedness of all things.52
Youth Specialties, who published A Generous Orthodoxy,
promotes numerous mystical practices including: deep
breathing, Lectio Divina, Ignatian Contemplation,
Labyrinths, Iona, and others.53 A recent national pastor’s
convention at which Brian McLaren was one of the workshop
speakers and Rick Warren was a keynote speaker featured a
Labyrinth and Yoga.54 Evidently Eastern mysticism is seen as
an important way to reach out to and train evangelical
youth. Never mind that none of this is taught in the Bible....
McLaren’s uncertain orthodoxy apparently is only
“certain” about one thing—that those who believe that God
has spoken clearly, verbally, authoritatively, and
finally to us through the Scriptures are sadly mistaken....To escape from this “control,” McLaren offers
mysticism and even silence....
What is being escaped from is the
authority of Scripture. McLaren apparently would like the Bible to say either
nothing or anything, but nothing so concrete as to be
restrictive....
So when the emergent church service consists of lighting to
set a mood, religious symbols, silence, and mystical
meditation without clear expository preaching, this is in
keeping with the logical consequence of giving up a
rational, meaningful knowledge about God that has been
communicated from God using human languages with concrete
meaning. It is, “escape from reason....”63
...Synthesis is precisely the essence of a generous
orthodoxy. McLaren laments, “Western Christianity has (for
the last few centuries anyway) said relatively little about
mindfulness and meditative practices, about which Zen
Buddhism has said much. To talk about different things is
not to contradict one another; it is, rather, to have much
to offer one another, on occasion at least.”65 We are being
offered a synthesis of world religions in dialogue."66
....this is not the language of the gospel, it is the
language of “dialectic synthesis” that sees the thesis and
antithesis merging into a synthesis that supposedly promises
a better future. McLaren further says: “We constantly emerge
from what we were and are into what we can become—not just
as individuals, but as participants in the emerging
realities of families, communities, cultures, and worlds.”69
Think about what this might mean if his eschatology is wrong
and what is actually emerging is the world system of the
Beast prophesied about in Daniel and Revelation. The new
emergent world of religions cooperating and learning to make
a new, better planet earth would turn out to be the hellish
nightmare the Bible predicts. The new mysticism would be an
excellent way for religious differences to be laid aside
because mystical experiences are not of the sort that
contradict one another like theological ideas do.70
How better to resurrect the dream of the tower builders at
Babel and unify the world?
Copyright © 1992-2005 Twin City
Fellowship
Please
read the rest the of this much-needed message -- along
with the endnotes and references -- at
http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue87.htm
Other articles by Bob DeWaay:
Redefining the Church
Redefining the Church - Part 2
| |
The Dangers
of "Spiritual Formation"
Discernment in an Age of Deception
|
The Emergence of Imaginary Eschatology
True and False
Unity
|
Faulty Premises
of the Church Growth Movement
“Church Health
Award” from Rick Warren or Jesus Christ? |
True and False Unity
Bob DeWaay is
the Pastor of
Twin City Fellowship, a
non-denominational evangelical Church in Minneapolis, MN:
"We are a
body of believers who attempt to live our Christian
faith according to Acts 2:42 by devoting ourselves to
prayer, fellowship, searching the Scriptures, and the
Lord’s Supper. Our mission is to equip the saints for the work of
ministry and to reach the lost with the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. We do this through expository preaching, study
of the Scriptures, publications, our website and
neighborhood outreaches."