Buzzardhut
August 5th, 2007, 11:49 AM
One of the most prominent and growing movements today is the "Emerging/Emerged/Emergent Church". They claim they are still rising up and their doctrines have not solidified, some claim they do not have any fundamental doctrines but their aim is apparent. These Emerging Christians" seek to deconstruct and reconstruct Christian beliefs, standards, and methods of the church to accommodate the postmodern culture. Proponents of this movement call this "conversation" to emphasize its developing and decentralized nature. The predominantly young participants in this movement prefer narrative presentations drawn from their own experiences and biblical narratives over propositional, biblical exposition.
Emergent methodology includes frequent use of new technologies such as multimedia and the Internet. Emergents communicate in open dialogue rather than the dogmatic proclamation found in historic Christianity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_Church
Some Emergents have differing emphases, depending upon the particular author or institution. Much of the Emerging or Emergent Church meld with typical postmodern rationalizations of men in regarding relativism - any lack of standards of truth from scripture.
One common theme is their concern with today’s churches losing touch and remaining relevant with the modern culture. Emphasis is on the "need" to reformat the church and Christianity towards the greater good of building better inroads and relationships with the post modern culture.
2 Main Types of Emergents will be studied here:
The Revisionist Deconstructionists
1. The Revisionist - 'Updates' theology back to the liturgical Dark Ages before the Reformation
2. The Deconstructionist - 'Updates' theology and worship styles back to the Dark Ages of Mystery Babylon with Ecumenism, mystical chants, Labyrinths, etc....
Contemporary Worship is welcomed and necessary.
Born-again believers with liberty in Jesus Christ worship in spirit and truth, scriptural and doctrinally sound when it comes to praise and worship and Gospel teaching and exposition of the Word.
False doctrine is not welcomed and no one should hide behind heresy and claim s/he is just upgrading the program.
The Revisionists and Deconstructionists, is of Satan and many denominations have been applying this subtle change for years under everyone's noses.
The Emergent Revisionists and Deconstructionists are the enemies of God’s true salvation message.
The Revisionists and Deconstructionists in the Emergent Church Movement believe in:
1. No Absolutes.
2. No stable rules to follow.
3. A subjective free for all.
4. Gods Word is just a fairy tale open for any Judas to interpret.
5. There is no exegesis - drawing true meaning out of scripture,
6. only eisegesis - reading into the scriptures anything you want it to say and not what God meant.
The Emergent Movement is a movement away from the Word of God and a movement towards the Ecumenical religion of Rome and Universalism.
God says His Word is True, but when declared, Emergents reply;
“Did God really say that?”
“Isn’t that just your interpretation of what you think God meant?”
“That is just your personal opinion.”
That was the same line of thought Satan presented to Eve in the garden "Did God really say that?" (Emergents will tell you this story is a fairy tale.)
Emergents think in this way of no absolutes because they do not believe Gods Word and cannot understand how anyone could be gullible or naive enough to believe it.
They are of the same mindset as Pontius Pilot in John 18:37-38; who asked Jesus "What is Truth?" meaning 'your interpretation of truth can be different than my own'.
They do not admit they believe Gods Word is not true, they just say no one has the ability to determine it.
This leaves a vacuum to be filled with evolution, DaVinci codes, Gnosticism, existentialism, Azuza revivals, Emergence movements, and other subjective extra-biblical acts taught right along side God’s Word.
Scripture tells us “the heart of man is wicked” and it is best to never rely upon it for the wisdom of God.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?
We should allow the scriptures to examine ourselves within, the scriptures examine us, the Emergents declare authority over scripture and turn to soulish attempts outside the bounds of scripture for spiritual self-examinations.
Examining the inner man within yourself by your self is Eastern Mysticism and Gnosticism.
Since Satan cannot remove Gods Word, which will stand forever, he tries to discredit it and discredit any person who declares it.
His goal is to neuter II Timothy 3:16-17 'Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another--showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way'.
Since the Emergents claim there is no ability to determine the correct truth of canon rule of scripture, they are free to declare:
• there is no hell,
• no literal creation,
• no proper form of worship,
• no Bible foundation to stand upon.
• A man can marry another man if he feels like doing it.
• All roads lead to heaven.
• All religions and religious books speak of the same god.
Man is free to do whatever he thinks is ok (Anarchy): Judges 17:6 and Judges 21:25
These ideologies begin by disillusioned seminary professors who pass their unbelief in scripture through a rigid higher criticism down to their students who infect this poison into churches and entire denominations.
They resort to this process because they are avoiding accountability to God’s Word.
It is a falling away from evangelicalism (last days apostasy) and falling unto Ecumenism and the One World Church.
Evangelists influence the culture with the true Gospel.
That is the Great Commission.
The wrong strategy is altering the Gospel with a watered down version to fit the culture.
It's good to desire more contemporary worship for the culture.
The Revisionists and Deconstructionists want to turn the church back into the Dark Ages of mystical Gnosticism.
They approach the Scriptures as Myth claiming there is no Literal Creation as described in Scripture, no Original Sin, and no need for atonement because there is no Hell.
To them, Christianity is just another religion of the world like Islam.
The Post-modernism of the Emergent movement is dissolution of "cold, hard facts" in favor of "warm, fuzzy subjectivity."
The Emergent church movement falls into line with basic post-modernist thinking--it is about experience over reason, subjectivity over objectivity, world religions and Churchianity over true Christianity, images over words, the inward intent as apposed to the outcome.
There are reactions to modernism, and are thought to be necessary in order to actively engage contemporary culture, and there is not yet a standard method of "doing" church amongst the groups choosing to take this post-modern mindset, so there is a huge range of how far these groups take a post-modernist approach to Christianity.
Some groups go only a little way in order to impact their community for Christ, and remain biblically sound. Most groups, however, embrace post-modernist thinking, which, eventually, leads to a very liberal, loose translation of the Bible. This, in turn, lends to liberal doctrine and theology.
Experience is valued more highly than reason, truth becomes relative.
Relativity opens up all kinds of problems, as it destroys the standard that the Bible contains absolute truth, negating the belief that biblical truth is absolute.
If the Bible is not our source for absolute truth, and personal experience is allowed to define and interpret what truth actually is, a saving faith in Jesus Christ is rendered meaningless and just one of many ways to approaching God.
Another area where the Emergent church movement has become anti-biblical is its focus on Ecumenism. Unity among people coming from different religious and ethnic backgrounds, and diversity in the expression of corporate worship is a strong focus of the emergent church movement.
Being Ecumenical means compromise is taking place, and results in a watering down of scripture in favor of not offending an apostate or pagan.
This is in direct opposition to passages such as Revelation 2:14-17, Jesus' letter to the church of Pergamum, in which the Church is warned against tolerating those who teach false doctrines.
False doctrine seems to abound greatly within the Emergent church movement.
Emergents allow for a plurality of Scriptural interpretations.
They challenge to re-think, re-analyze, re-interpret, and rewrite the Gospel and scripture interpretations to many possible relative meanings and applications. Biblical truths become vague, and almost scorned, replaced by universalistic and syncretistic themes that resemble mystical concepts, subtly and overtly.
Proponents of the movement advocate a subjective view of doctrine in which they embrace a continual reexamination of and flexible approach to theology which causes them to see the faiths of all religions as a journey rather than a destination. Emergents claim to "hold in tension" even radical differences in doctrines and morals. Emergents see theology as an icon pointing to God rather than as a definition of God, they do not see any doctrinal expositions as definitive.
Their universalistic concepts of "salvation" (that all the sincere find heaven) are usually regarded as "finding the god within you," (Panentheism) and god is in everything (Pantheism) . Evangelistic church missions are regarded as a waste of time, and church believers in ages past, who died for their faith in Jesus Christ, are regarded as unnecessary zealots.
The Emergent worship focuses on Centering Prayer as a method of prayer, which prepares them to receive the gift of God's presence. Centering Prayer is drawn from ancient prayer practices of the Christian contemplative heritage, notably the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert, Lectio Divina, (praying the scriptures), The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. It was distilled into a simple method of prayer in the 1970’s by three Trappist monks, Fr. William Meninger, Fr. Basil Pennington and Abbot Thomas Keating at the Trappist Abbey, St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts” (www.contemplativeoutreach.org)
The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous 14th century book presenting contemplative meditation as a spiritual process enabling the ordinary person to enter and receive a direct experience of union with God. This form of meditation, recently known as 'Centering Prayer' (from a text of Thomas Merton), says to be traced from and through the earliest centuries of mystical Christianity. The Centering Prayer centers one on the god within each individual. http://www.letusreason.org/current74.htm
During a conference on contemplative prayer, Thomas Merton was asked: “How can we best help people to attain union with God?" His answer was very clear: "We must tell them that they are already united with God." Contemplative prayer is nothing other than coming into consciousness of what is already there. (A Time of Departing by Ray Yungen, p. 80).
Did Jesus or the apostles ever instruct us to pray this way? If not where did it come from? They call it alternative worship. Those involved in the Emerging church make use of liturgies, prayer beads, icons, chants and practices from Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, the Anglicans and Eastern religious practices. They see this as a return to the Ancient Faith that will give them a richer spiritual experience through practicing sacramental rituals. By making it their own experience many see this as privatization of their faith.
Their worship does not just involve old stylistic candles, crosses, and incense. They make use of multimedia- music, video projection screens, vivid fluorescent black lights etc. to bring one into a multi-sensory experience with “the divine.” They walk the labyrinth in the darkness lit by candles and have the fragrance of incense permeate the air as they stop and chant Christian words or Contemplative thoughts and prayers. It becomes a personal spiritual experience as each one enters into their own spiritual space.
“There is a movement in youth ministry that is taking us back to what some would call ancient spiritual practices, or different contemplative tools.” (Mark Oestreicher, President Youth Specialties)
Although some Emergent thinkers such as Brian McLaren, and many Evangelical scholars such as D. A. Carson use "emerging" and "emergent" as synonyms, a large number of participants in the emerging church movement maintain a distinction between them. "Emergent" is sometimes more closely associated with Emergent Village. Those participants in the movement who assert this distinction believe "emergents" and "emergent village" to be a part of the emerging church movement but prefer to use the term "emerging church" to refer to the movement as a whole while using the term "emergent" in a more limited way, referring to Brian McLaren and emergent village.
Many of those within the emerging church movement who do not closely identify with emergent village tend to avoid that organization's interest in radical theological reformulation and focus more on new ways of "doing church" and expressing their spirituality. Mark Driscoll, an early leader associated with the emerging church conversation, now distances himself from the "emergent thread."
Individuals questioning Emergent modern teachings are labeled as "misunderstanding", "judgmental," or "divisive."
The Emergent movement is a symptom, not a cure.
Emergents reveal how society chooses religion over a true personal conversion salvation through Jesus Christ.
Man is religious in nature and must worship something.
Rejection of worshiping Jesus in Truth will turn to worshiping the next best alternative, personal subjective reasoning.
Jesus discussed this with the Woman at the Well and Jesus also said few find the true road to heaven and most church members today are on the pathway to destruction.
They are either victims of the quick and easy seeker models or liturgical rituals.
Worship will always involve the senses.
But it is futile to Worship God without a regenerated spirit.
God does not accept a worship that rejects His Blood sacrifice. (see Cain & Abel in Genesis)
Study Matthew 7:15-20, "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
No one should disagree about using something new as long as
it filters through the scriptures and passes through as acceptable unto God.
Seeking new ways to witnessing to a changing culture is admirable.
Utilizing ways which compromise the Truth of the Gospel in any way is nothing more than a promotion of false doctrine and leading others away from Jesus Christ instead of to Him.
The present goals of today’s Church should be:
• Understanding and application of Gods literal Truth of the Scriptures.
• Presenting the Historical and factual Truth and Purpose of the real Jesus Christ in His virgin birth, Death on the Cross for atonement, and literal actual Resurrection for Eternal Life.
• Challenging others to reject their path to Hell and choosing salvation through the historical Jesus Christ to cover all sin for spiritual regeneration.
• Baptize and equip the regenerate to repeat the above.
A more valid question should be asked: “How do we declare the above to a western culture immersed in:
• A cultural mix of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s
• Political Correctiveness
• Nature (gender, evolution, etc) over Scripture
• Relative Truth over Bible Truth
• Individuality Vs. Spiritual Authority
• Mass Media & Entertainment Vs. Personal Discipleship
• Steeped in fast paced12hr workdays 6 days a week trying to raise a family Vs. church attendance.
It is the real and historical Jesus that saves us
The Word of God reveals this historical Jesus to us.
It is the Word of God that produces Faith.
It is the Word of God that corrects us.
It is the Word of God that instructs us.
The Word of God should be primary, not secondary.
Props and multimedia illustration aids can be used to help explain God's Word but should not be the chief result in and of themselves.
Preaching & Teaching from Gods Word is essential.
And the believer has the Holy Spirit within him guiding him to proper worship.
The up and coming standard is the One World Church
The Emergent movement is a morphing entity preparing this planet for the one world church.
There are specific warning signs that are symptomatic that your church may be headed down the Emergent/Contemplative road.
In some cases a pastor may not be aware that he is on this road nor understand where the road ends up:
• Scripture is no longer the ultimate authority as the basis for the Christian faith.
• The centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ is being replaced by humanistic methods promoting church growth and a social gospel.
• More and more emphasis is being placed on building the kingdom of God now and less and less on the warnings of Scripture about the imminent return of Jesus Christ and a coming judgment in the future.
• The teaching that Jesus Christ will rule and reign in a literal millennial period is considered unbiblical and heretical.
• The teaching that the church has taken the place of Israel and Israel has no prophetic significance is often embraced.
• The teaching that the Book of Revelation does not refer to the future, but instead has been already fulfilled in the past
• An experiential mystical form of Christianity begins to be promoted as a method to reach the postmodern generation.
• Ideas are promoted teaching that Christianity needs to be reinvented in order to provide meaning for this generation.
• The pastor may implement an idea called “ancient-future” or “vintage Christianity” claiming that in order to take the church forward, we need to go back in church history (before the Reformation) and find out what experiences were effective to get people to embrace Christianity.
• While the authority of the Word of God is undermined, images and sensual experiences are promoted as the key to experiencing and knowing God.
• These experiences include icons, candles, incense, liturgy, labyrinths, prayer stations, black lighting, contemplative prayer, experiencing the sacraments, particularly the sacrament of the Eucharist.
• There seems to be a strong emphasis on ecumenism indicating that a bridge is being established that leads in the direction of unity with the Roman Catholic Church.
• Some evangelical Protestant leaders are saying that the Reformation went too far. They are reexamining the claims of the “church fathers” saying that communion is more than a symbol and that Jesus actually becomes present in the wafer at communion.
• There will be a growing trend towards an ecumenical unity for the cause of world peace claiming the validity of other religions and that there are many ways to God.
• Members of churches who question or resist the new changes that the pastor is implementing are reprimanded and usually asked to leave.
http://www.understandthetimes.org/commentary/c54_pf.shtml
[YOU TUBE VIDEO]G13HDyrWtEI[/YOU TUBE VIDEO]
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c5/buzzardhut/Emergent.jpg
Emergent methodology includes frequent use of new technologies such as multimedia and the Internet. Emergents communicate in open dialogue rather than the dogmatic proclamation found in historic Christianity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_Church
Some Emergents have differing emphases, depending upon the particular author or institution. Much of the Emerging or Emergent Church meld with typical postmodern rationalizations of men in regarding relativism - any lack of standards of truth from scripture.
One common theme is their concern with today’s churches losing touch and remaining relevant with the modern culture. Emphasis is on the "need" to reformat the church and Christianity towards the greater good of building better inroads and relationships with the post modern culture.
2 Main Types of Emergents will be studied here:
The Revisionist Deconstructionists
1. The Revisionist - 'Updates' theology back to the liturgical Dark Ages before the Reformation
2. The Deconstructionist - 'Updates' theology and worship styles back to the Dark Ages of Mystery Babylon with Ecumenism, mystical chants, Labyrinths, etc....
Contemporary Worship is welcomed and necessary.
Born-again believers with liberty in Jesus Christ worship in spirit and truth, scriptural and doctrinally sound when it comes to praise and worship and Gospel teaching and exposition of the Word.
False doctrine is not welcomed and no one should hide behind heresy and claim s/he is just upgrading the program.
The Revisionists and Deconstructionists, is of Satan and many denominations have been applying this subtle change for years under everyone's noses.
The Emergent Revisionists and Deconstructionists are the enemies of God’s true salvation message.
The Revisionists and Deconstructionists in the Emergent Church Movement believe in:
1. No Absolutes.
2. No stable rules to follow.
3. A subjective free for all.
4. Gods Word is just a fairy tale open for any Judas to interpret.
5. There is no exegesis - drawing true meaning out of scripture,
6. only eisegesis - reading into the scriptures anything you want it to say and not what God meant.
The Emergent Movement is a movement away from the Word of God and a movement towards the Ecumenical religion of Rome and Universalism.
God says His Word is True, but when declared, Emergents reply;
“Did God really say that?”
“Isn’t that just your interpretation of what you think God meant?”
“That is just your personal opinion.”
That was the same line of thought Satan presented to Eve in the garden "Did God really say that?" (Emergents will tell you this story is a fairy tale.)
Emergents think in this way of no absolutes because they do not believe Gods Word and cannot understand how anyone could be gullible or naive enough to believe it.
They are of the same mindset as Pontius Pilot in John 18:37-38; who asked Jesus "What is Truth?" meaning 'your interpretation of truth can be different than my own'.
They do not admit they believe Gods Word is not true, they just say no one has the ability to determine it.
This leaves a vacuum to be filled with evolution, DaVinci codes, Gnosticism, existentialism, Azuza revivals, Emergence movements, and other subjective extra-biblical acts taught right along side God’s Word.
Scripture tells us “the heart of man is wicked” and it is best to never rely upon it for the wisdom of God.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?
We should allow the scriptures to examine ourselves within, the scriptures examine us, the Emergents declare authority over scripture and turn to soulish attempts outside the bounds of scripture for spiritual self-examinations.
Examining the inner man within yourself by your self is Eastern Mysticism and Gnosticism.
Since Satan cannot remove Gods Word, which will stand forever, he tries to discredit it and discredit any person who declares it.
His goal is to neuter II Timothy 3:16-17 'Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another--showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way'.
Since the Emergents claim there is no ability to determine the correct truth of canon rule of scripture, they are free to declare:
• there is no hell,
• no literal creation,
• no proper form of worship,
• no Bible foundation to stand upon.
• A man can marry another man if he feels like doing it.
• All roads lead to heaven.
• All religions and religious books speak of the same god.
Man is free to do whatever he thinks is ok (Anarchy): Judges 17:6 and Judges 21:25
These ideologies begin by disillusioned seminary professors who pass their unbelief in scripture through a rigid higher criticism down to their students who infect this poison into churches and entire denominations.
They resort to this process because they are avoiding accountability to God’s Word.
It is a falling away from evangelicalism (last days apostasy) and falling unto Ecumenism and the One World Church.
Evangelists influence the culture with the true Gospel.
That is the Great Commission.
The wrong strategy is altering the Gospel with a watered down version to fit the culture.
It's good to desire more contemporary worship for the culture.
The Revisionists and Deconstructionists want to turn the church back into the Dark Ages of mystical Gnosticism.
They approach the Scriptures as Myth claiming there is no Literal Creation as described in Scripture, no Original Sin, and no need for atonement because there is no Hell.
To them, Christianity is just another religion of the world like Islam.
The Post-modernism of the Emergent movement is dissolution of "cold, hard facts" in favor of "warm, fuzzy subjectivity."
The Emergent church movement falls into line with basic post-modernist thinking--it is about experience over reason, subjectivity over objectivity, world religions and Churchianity over true Christianity, images over words, the inward intent as apposed to the outcome.
There are reactions to modernism, and are thought to be necessary in order to actively engage contemporary culture, and there is not yet a standard method of "doing" church amongst the groups choosing to take this post-modern mindset, so there is a huge range of how far these groups take a post-modernist approach to Christianity.
Some groups go only a little way in order to impact their community for Christ, and remain biblically sound. Most groups, however, embrace post-modernist thinking, which, eventually, leads to a very liberal, loose translation of the Bible. This, in turn, lends to liberal doctrine and theology.
Experience is valued more highly than reason, truth becomes relative.
Relativity opens up all kinds of problems, as it destroys the standard that the Bible contains absolute truth, negating the belief that biblical truth is absolute.
If the Bible is not our source for absolute truth, and personal experience is allowed to define and interpret what truth actually is, a saving faith in Jesus Christ is rendered meaningless and just one of many ways to approaching God.
Another area where the Emergent church movement has become anti-biblical is its focus on Ecumenism. Unity among people coming from different religious and ethnic backgrounds, and diversity in the expression of corporate worship is a strong focus of the emergent church movement.
Being Ecumenical means compromise is taking place, and results in a watering down of scripture in favor of not offending an apostate or pagan.
This is in direct opposition to passages such as Revelation 2:14-17, Jesus' letter to the church of Pergamum, in which the Church is warned against tolerating those who teach false doctrines.
False doctrine seems to abound greatly within the Emergent church movement.
Emergents allow for a plurality of Scriptural interpretations.
They challenge to re-think, re-analyze, re-interpret, and rewrite the Gospel and scripture interpretations to many possible relative meanings and applications. Biblical truths become vague, and almost scorned, replaced by universalistic and syncretistic themes that resemble mystical concepts, subtly and overtly.
Proponents of the movement advocate a subjective view of doctrine in which they embrace a continual reexamination of and flexible approach to theology which causes them to see the faiths of all religions as a journey rather than a destination. Emergents claim to "hold in tension" even radical differences in doctrines and morals. Emergents see theology as an icon pointing to God rather than as a definition of God, they do not see any doctrinal expositions as definitive.
Their universalistic concepts of "salvation" (that all the sincere find heaven) are usually regarded as "finding the god within you," (Panentheism) and god is in everything (Pantheism) . Evangelistic church missions are regarded as a waste of time, and church believers in ages past, who died for their faith in Jesus Christ, are regarded as unnecessary zealots.
The Emergent worship focuses on Centering Prayer as a method of prayer, which prepares them to receive the gift of God's presence. Centering Prayer is drawn from ancient prayer practices of the Christian contemplative heritage, notably the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert, Lectio Divina, (praying the scriptures), The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. It was distilled into a simple method of prayer in the 1970’s by three Trappist monks, Fr. William Meninger, Fr. Basil Pennington and Abbot Thomas Keating at the Trappist Abbey, St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts” (www.contemplativeoutreach.org)
The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous 14th century book presenting contemplative meditation as a spiritual process enabling the ordinary person to enter and receive a direct experience of union with God. This form of meditation, recently known as 'Centering Prayer' (from a text of Thomas Merton), says to be traced from and through the earliest centuries of mystical Christianity. The Centering Prayer centers one on the god within each individual. http://www.letusreason.org/current74.htm
During a conference on contemplative prayer, Thomas Merton was asked: “How can we best help people to attain union with God?" His answer was very clear: "We must tell them that they are already united with God." Contemplative prayer is nothing other than coming into consciousness of what is already there. (A Time of Departing by Ray Yungen, p. 80).
Did Jesus or the apostles ever instruct us to pray this way? If not where did it come from? They call it alternative worship. Those involved in the Emerging church make use of liturgies, prayer beads, icons, chants and practices from Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, the Anglicans and Eastern religious practices. They see this as a return to the Ancient Faith that will give them a richer spiritual experience through practicing sacramental rituals. By making it their own experience many see this as privatization of their faith.
Their worship does not just involve old stylistic candles, crosses, and incense. They make use of multimedia- music, video projection screens, vivid fluorescent black lights etc. to bring one into a multi-sensory experience with “the divine.” They walk the labyrinth in the darkness lit by candles and have the fragrance of incense permeate the air as they stop and chant Christian words or Contemplative thoughts and prayers. It becomes a personal spiritual experience as each one enters into their own spiritual space.
“There is a movement in youth ministry that is taking us back to what some would call ancient spiritual practices, or different contemplative tools.” (Mark Oestreicher, President Youth Specialties)
Although some Emergent thinkers such as Brian McLaren, and many Evangelical scholars such as D. A. Carson use "emerging" and "emergent" as synonyms, a large number of participants in the emerging church movement maintain a distinction between them. "Emergent" is sometimes more closely associated with Emergent Village. Those participants in the movement who assert this distinction believe "emergents" and "emergent village" to be a part of the emerging church movement but prefer to use the term "emerging church" to refer to the movement as a whole while using the term "emergent" in a more limited way, referring to Brian McLaren and emergent village.
Many of those within the emerging church movement who do not closely identify with emergent village tend to avoid that organization's interest in radical theological reformulation and focus more on new ways of "doing church" and expressing their spirituality. Mark Driscoll, an early leader associated with the emerging church conversation, now distances himself from the "emergent thread."
Individuals questioning Emergent modern teachings are labeled as "misunderstanding", "judgmental," or "divisive."
The Emergent movement is a symptom, not a cure.
Emergents reveal how society chooses religion over a true personal conversion salvation through Jesus Christ.
Man is religious in nature and must worship something.
Rejection of worshiping Jesus in Truth will turn to worshiping the next best alternative, personal subjective reasoning.
Jesus discussed this with the Woman at the Well and Jesus also said few find the true road to heaven and most church members today are on the pathway to destruction.
They are either victims of the quick and easy seeker models or liturgical rituals.
Worship will always involve the senses.
But it is futile to Worship God without a regenerated spirit.
God does not accept a worship that rejects His Blood sacrifice. (see Cain & Abel in Genesis)
Study Matthew 7:15-20, "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
No one should disagree about using something new as long as
it filters through the scriptures and passes through as acceptable unto God.
Seeking new ways to witnessing to a changing culture is admirable.
Utilizing ways which compromise the Truth of the Gospel in any way is nothing more than a promotion of false doctrine and leading others away from Jesus Christ instead of to Him.
The present goals of today’s Church should be:
• Understanding and application of Gods literal Truth of the Scriptures.
• Presenting the Historical and factual Truth and Purpose of the real Jesus Christ in His virgin birth, Death on the Cross for atonement, and literal actual Resurrection for Eternal Life.
• Challenging others to reject their path to Hell and choosing salvation through the historical Jesus Christ to cover all sin for spiritual regeneration.
• Baptize and equip the regenerate to repeat the above.
A more valid question should be asked: “How do we declare the above to a western culture immersed in:
• A cultural mix of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s
• Political Correctiveness
• Nature (gender, evolution, etc) over Scripture
• Relative Truth over Bible Truth
• Individuality Vs. Spiritual Authority
• Mass Media & Entertainment Vs. Personal Discipleship
• Steeped in fast paced12hr workdays 6 days a week trying to raise a family Vs. church attendance.
It is the real and historical Jesus that saves us
The Word of God reveals this historical Jesus to us.
It is the Word of God that produces Faith.
It is the Word of God that corrects us.
It is the Word of God that instructs us.
The Word of God should be primary, not secondary.
Props and multimedia illustration aids can be used to help explain God's Word but should not be the chief result in and of themselves.
Preaching & Teaching from Gods Word is essential.
And the believer has the Holy Spirit within him guiding him to proper worship.
The up and coming standard is the One World Church
The Emergent movement is a morphing entity preparing this planet for the one world church.
There are specific warning signs that are symptomatic that your church may be headed down the Emergent/Contemplative road.
In some cases a pastor may not be aware that he is on this road nor understand where the road ends up:
• Scripture is no longer the ultimate authority as the basis for the Christian faith.
• The centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ is being replaced by humanistic methods promoting church growth and a social gospel.
• More and more emphasis is being placed on building the kingdom of God now and less and less on the warnings of Scripture about the imminent return of Jesus Christ and a coming judgment in the future.
• The teaching that Jesus Christ will rule and reign in a literal millennial period is considered unbiblical and heretical.
• The teaching that the church has taken the place of Israel and Israel has no prophetic significance is often embraced.
• The teaching that the Book of Revelation does not refer to the future, but instead has been already fulfilled in the past
• An experiential mystical form of Christianity begins to be promoted as a method to reach the postmodern generation.
• Ideas are promoted teaching that Christianity needs to be reinvented in order to provide meaning for this generation.
• The pastor may implement an idea called “ancient-future” or “vintage Christianity” claiming that in order to take the church forward, we need to go back in church history (before the Reformation) and find out what experiences were effective to get people to embrace Christianity.
• While the authority of the Word of God is undermined, images and sensual experiences are promoted as the key to experiencing and knowing God.
• These experiences include icons, candles, incense, liturgy, labyrinths, prayer stations, black lighting, contemplative prayer, experiencing the sacraments, particularly the sacrament of the Eucharist.
• There seems to be a strong emphasis on ecumenism indicating that a bridge is being established that leads in the direction of unity with the Roman Catholic Church.
• Some evangelical Protestant leaders are saying that the Reformation went too far. They are reexamining the claims of the “church fathers” saying that communion is more than a symbol and that Jesus actually becomes present in the wafer at communion.
• There will be a growing trend towards an ecumenical unity for the cause of world peace claiming the validity of other religions and that there are many ways to God.
• Members of churches who question or resist the new changes that the pastor is implementing are reprimanded and usually asked to leave.
http://www.understandthetimes.org/commentary/c54_pf.shtml
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