Roger Oakland
The Emerging Church
Imagine my surprise to find that Peter Drucker, the management guru, had a major hand in the formation of what is now known as the Emerging Church. I guess management by objectives is useful there too. What is not useful is to turn the church into a business model by a person who is enamored with mysticism.
This emerging church considers today’s Christianity too individualistic, with too much emphasis on a heavenly kingdom and not enough on the kingdom of God on earth here and now. Joel Osteen captured the “new” concept in the title of his book, “Your Best Life Now”. These emergent leaders reject terms like the plan of salvation and asking Jesus to be Lord of your life.
The emerging church idea is not just a new way of doing church, it is literally a new belief system. Doctrine, as we who have grown up in the traditional church know it, here would be minimized. There becomes more of an experiential (a move from faith to experiences of feeling) faith encounter, than a faith based personal relationship with Jesus. Those who attend these churches will think that what they are receiving from the church is truth, because it makes them feel good.
Consider that the proponents of this emerging church concept are well known church leaders who have published books through what we all consider Christian publishing houses, like Baker, Zondervan (Zondervan is now owned by Fox News, by the way) and others. Perhaps the moral of the story here is that just because a book is published by a “Christian” publisher doesn’t mean that it might not be heretical. The problem is, that it does mean that the Christian who does not wish to be deceived, has to be extra wary. One might have second thoughts when purchasing materials from:
- Bill Hybels
- Rick Warren, known for his “Purpose Driven Life” book
- Tony Campolo
- M. Scott Peck, “A Road Not Taken”
- Dan Kimball
- Brian McLaren
- Mark Driscoll
- Rob Bell
- Richard Foster, “Celebration of Discipline”
- Aldous Huxley
- Beth Moore
- Charles Swindoll
The Emerging Church is attempting, and unfortunately succeeding, in building a bridge into the New Age movement. The Hindu (yoga) and Buddhist concepts of having a christ consciousness, rather than Jesus living with, has the emerging church looking more like every other religion on earth, instead of Jesus being the only way to God, man is made into a god.
The measure of success to the pastors of the world has become the numbers of people who are coming to their church, rather than those who are listening and obeying God’s word. Thus, is born the megachurch. The emerging church has the culture forming the church, rather than the church impacting the culture. We are called to be separate from the world, and evangelizing the world, not to be working to try to create a “heaven on earth”. The message of the Church, they would argue, should be go “fit” the culture. What used to be about beliefs (justification by faith, for example) would now be about behavior.
This emerging church is harking back to the time when the church was part of the Roman Catholic tradition, even to including the Catholic icons, incense, liturgy and sacraments. They have put an emphasis on the Eucharistic Jesus. The Eucharistic Jesus is experiencing Christ through the sacrament of communion, via transubstantiation or the concept that the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ. This is basically, a re-sacrifice of Christ each time it is done. Wasn’t Christ sacrifice one for all? I think so and the Bible says so.
The worship service within the emerging church is filled with multi-sensory experiences. The sanctuaries are darkened, candles, icons, incense and whatever may work to give multi-sensory stimulation. One of the promoted ideas is the Labyrinth. It is a maze-like structure used for contemplative prayer. Small deal, that it originated from pagan practices. The idea is to empty your mind and “center” it in order reach God’s presence by the time you reach the center of the labyrinth. Another concept being promoted is the drumming circle, which is used to put an individual into a mystical state. What was once considered New Age and of the occult has become acceptable within the church.
Contemplative prayer may be part of not only the labyrinth, but of everyday life, to one of the emerging church adherents. This type of prayer seeks a meditative state brought on by the repetition of individual words or phrases or focusing on the breath on an object. Blanking out the mind and participating in this contemplative prayer has long been an Eastern religious practice and has the underlying premise that God is in all things and in all people (panentheism). Richard Foster admits that contemplative prayer has the possibility to take the pray-er into demonic realms. Great. The emergent leaders embrace mysticism, which, being occult, is definitely, addressed in the Bible as being forbidden.
Basically, all paths lead to God. Doesn’t anyone think about Jesus saying, “No man comes to the Father, but by Me” and “I am the way, the truth and the life”? To quote Rob Bell, “We’re rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion”.
The emerging church finds talking or thinking about the end times and Jesus coming back is the wrong way to look at things. They will attempt to convince people that Christ is already within them as a global christ-consciousness. They condemn those who believe Jesus will return for His people. Besides, man will evolve into “godliness” and the positive thought will avert the end of the world, if you follow the New Age teaching.
Tony Campolo likens those who believe the Bible as being as bad as terrorists. All in all, Jesus has been reduced to the status of a good teacher and role model, not as the Son of God He is.
One of the concerning ideas of the emerging church is that they are teaching converts from other religions that they can keep their religion and just add Jesus to the mix. The Roman Catholic church has done this for years. I personally saw it on Guam. I’m sure you have not been immune to hearing the phrase, “we worship the same God”. Not true. I call your attention to the one of the Ten Commandments that specifically says, “Have no other gods before Me.” If we, indeed worship all the same god, that would mean, that even in Moses’ time there would have been no need for that specific Commandment.
Emerging church guru, Brian McLaren rejects Christ’s atonement because that would say that God is vindictive. The Bible has been reduced to be not a product of Divine inspiration or authority. The New Age sees the atonement as at-one-ment or humanity’s oneness and equality with God. This seems to cause a recall of what the Serpent said to Eve, “You shall be as God”. So, where do you think this at-one-ment idea really comes from?
In a nutshell, emergent Christianity says, we are justified by works rather than by grace, embraces mysticism, and altered states of consciousness and that we are all gods. Those who maintain a true biblical view are weird and a threat to society.
We should expect to see signs and wonders, more attention to Mary and even manifestations of Jesus begin to abound.
(Matthew 24:23) “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. (24) For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (25) See, I have told you beforehand.
(2 Corinthians 11:2) For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. (3) But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. (4) For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted… (13) For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. (14) No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. (15) Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.
Here are some examples of those signs and wonders that are already out there. It is difficult to dismiss something when the person has actually seen it, however, consider the source and ask, is this a deception? http://heavenshelpers.org/?id=47&page=Deception+by+signs+and+wonders
Are you part of one of the Emerging Churches? Chances are you were not aware of what changes actually have been made to the true gospel. What will you do?
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