The Submerging Emerging Church

There is a postmodern movement in the churches of America that is commonly known as “the Emerging Church”. The ‘movement’ began in the late nineties, and gained momentum early in the new century.

One of its most prominent leaders is a man by the name of Brian Mclaren, Pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church near Baltimore, MD.

In a 2005 Baptist Press interview, Mclaren defines the ‘movement’: “…there’s got to be a lot more humility and a lot more gentleness and (we feel that) that the Gospel is made credible not by how we argue and make truth claims. But it’s made credible by the love and the good deeds that flow from our lives and our community.”

One of the more bizarre assumptions by Mclaren is that the message of the Gospel is not about who is going to Heaven or Hell, but that the primary reason for Jesus Christ coming to earth was to fix the culture with a social Gospel; to fix poverty, to eliminate unhappiness, to repair the grimness of the situation in the social world.

A result of this type of liberal doctrine is the watering down of the Sacredness of Scripture and the dismissal of any absolute dogma regarding Bible doctrine.

But probably the most noticeable result of this ‘movement’ is the blatant apathy and indifference of the next generation to provide a bold evangelical witness for salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead, many are focused on Christ repairing the situations and circumstances in which they live in.

From this movement, younger generations are applying Christ to the fruit of unrighteousness rather than dealing with the root, which is salvation. More emphasis is initially placed on right living rather than emphasizing the need for forgiveness and redemption in the Lord Jesus.

I recently preached to a group of teenagers at a Saturday night youth rally. The emphasis of the rally, I was told, would be geared towards right living and bearing Spiritual fruit.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with that. In the world in which we find ourselves today, the new generation could use a double-dose of respect for their elders, behavior modification, setting a good example as a Christian, etc.

That night I preached on the Rich Man who was found in Hell upon death. It was noted that the man had all of his senses about him in Hell: Seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, and hearing.

For an eternity the Rich Man would hear the cries of the damned that died apart from Christ. There were three that were mentioned: Cain, who asked the Lord “Am I my brother’s keeper?”; Judas, who sold the Lord Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and hanged himself; and King Agrippa, who, after the Apostle Paul had presented the Gospel to him, said “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian”.

These men, just like the Rich Man, would remember for an eternity each and every single time that they were presented with the Gospel.

The point that I made to those young people that night is that Hell is real. Hell is not a parable, Hell is not a figment of the imagination, and Hell is not an allegory or a symbolic representation to scare people into getting saved.

Some people think that it is offensive and rude to ‘scare’ someone into getting saved by telling them the truth about a real, literal Hell. In my opinion, I would much rather ‘scare’ someone into Heaven than love them into an eternal Hell.

Brian Mclaren

Yet, that’s exactly what Brian Mclaren and many of the Emerging Church leaders endorse.

In a 2007 interview, Mclaren said: “A lot of arguments happen among religious and non-religious people about the question of ‘Who’s going to Hell and who’s going to Heaven?’ And a lot of times Christians get into this argument by saying ‘We have the only way into Heaven’. And people often ask me what do I think is the way into Heaven.

“I have a problem when they ask me this question because it assumes that the primary purpose of Jesus coming and the primary message of Jesus was a message about how to get to Heaven.”

If I may, Mr. Mclaren, on this issue Jesus was crystal clear: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10

As for the issues of social progress and ‘lifestyle evangelism’, the Rich Man who found his place in Hell upon death was ten times more concerned with the spiritual state of his five brothers than he was their social status, poverty level, and lifestyle. The only problem was that it was too late.

One young man came forward in the invitation at the youth rally to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior. He shocked everyone. He was thought to be saved and he thought himself to be saved also. Yet, he had been living in darkness for some time.

After the invitation was given and the rally was concluded, two other students gave their hearts to Christ. They thought they were saved also.

I guess they got ‘scared’ into Heaven.

Sorry Mr. Mclaren. I’d rather stick to the fundamentals of the Gospel.