Emergent or Submergent?

[Ncdataman]

"There are many ways to God."
"Jesus is just my way."
"All religions are true in their own way."

We have all heard statements like those before. Sometimes, even Christians who don't understand their Bibles will say them.

Have you ever wondered how God reacts to this? It's insulting.

I have mentioned the emergent church before. It's a popular movement within the evangelical church that has caught the interest of many.

Here is a statement from one of its unquestioned leaders:

"Missional Christian faith asserts that Jesus did not come to make some people saved and others condemned. Jesus did not come to help some people be right, while leaving everyone else to be wrong. Jesus did not come to create another exclusive religion."

Sorry to disagree, but that is all wrong.

First of all, Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. Plain and simple. As Paul wrote, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief" (1 Timothy 1:15).

He did not come to "help some people be right, while leaving everyone else to be wrong." We all were wrong and separated from Him by our sins. The Bible says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). And only those who believe in Jesus Christ will be saved.

Another emergent leader I quoted before writes:

"I must add, though, that I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherence to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts."

This sounds very inclusive and loving, but it is flat-out wrong and unscriptural. We want people to become "followers of Jesus" in a biblical context!

The Bible teaches that you become a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Acts 4:12 says, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

Jesus plainly said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life . . . "

That brings us to the sin of insulting the Holy Spirit. What is that? It's when we reject the work He has come to do.

It is the office of the Holy Spirit to present the saving work of Jesus Christ to the unbeliever. Jesus said, "And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8 KJV).

But when someone refuses to accept Jesus Christ, he is really denying the very mission of the Holy Spirit and is saying that he doesn't need salvation. They are saying that Jesus cannot save them and His shed blood was a waste! His death was unnecessary.

This is a blatant insult to the Holy Spirit of God. As it says in Hebrews 10:29, "Think how much more terrible the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant as if it were common and unholy. Such people have insulted and enraged the Holy Spirit who brings God's mercy to his people" (NLT).

To resist the Holy Spirit's appeal is to insult God and cut off all hope of salvation.

The Bible poses this alarming question: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3).

 

[1SeekingHim]

amen thats truth your preaching

 

[dannibear]

I love this post. I have heard many people say
that Christianity are like other religions, but it's
different in many ways! Like how forgiveness and love
is at the center of our faith, and that we have a loving
God that forgives us, if we only ask. There can't be no other
god like our loving Father, and I get offended that after all
He did for us, people don't see that it's special, and powerful,
and meaningful in every way. Thank you so much for
the Truth you shared

 

[Hekuran]

What is 'Emerging Church'?

I think this misses the point a little. The heart of the emerging church movement is not in challenging the historical doctrines of the traditional churches, but in finding ways of worship and community that are meaningful and appropriate today.

Churches should be a bridge between heaven and life on earth as we live it today. Many churches give off the impression that they are a bridge between heaven and life in the 1950s.

This is from George Lings writing on emergingchurch.info

The phrase “Emerging church” is an attempt to express succinctly the re-imagining of church that has been taking place in the last 20 years as a response to our rapidly changing UK mission context.

The phrase “emerging church”, in my mind, is too passive and too modest; these ways of expressing church differently have already emerged and are very much claiming to be more authentic church than the inherited models. So keep an eye out for the phrase “fresh expressions of church” that has increasing currency in the circles I move in.

I do not want to say that traditional forms of church no longer connect with anybody. The increase in attendance of Cathedral worship and the creation of new Monastic Orders prove that there is much in the history of the Christian Church that continues to draw. In a nutshell, I have become convinced that the mission of God is our primary calling and that the Church of God is shaped around that mission. We can draw on the traditional forms of worship where they are appropriate but should realise that these forms tend to connect with middle-class, middle-aged, white people with a preference for pseudo-classical music (See John Drane’s McDonaldization of the Church).

What kick-started emerging church in the UK? Our best guesses are:

• The observation that when young people grew up to be “adults”, they didn’t “fit” into “adult church”; a cultural gap not just a generational gap existed. (See Graham Cray’s Grove Evangelism Booklet no.57).
• The church planting trend in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s proved we had good intentions regarding mission but missed the opportunity to think creatively about what sort of churches were needed. (See Stuart Murray’s & my Grove Evangelism no.61).
• The statistical evidence that 40% of the population in England and Wales have never been to Church and have no residuary awareness of Christianity and no experience of church (Gone But Not Forgotten by Francis & Richter). For many, Jesus continues to be as deeply attractive as church is deeply alien.
• A growing unease within Christians that what happens on a Sunday often fails to connect with the other areas of their lives.

What makes something church? It might be as simple as being both Christ-centred and communal. In addition, I value Robert Warren’s definition of 3 intersecting circles of “worship”, “mission”, “community” (with “spirituality” at the heart) but would add the 4th dimension of “intrinsic belonging to the wider church”.

What is it that emerging church is doing differently? To serve a diverse mission context, fresh expressions of church are correspondingly varied.

A significant difference in one stream of emerging church is the targeting of a network rather than a neighbourhood for mission; some people (network churches) identify more with where they work and socialise than where they sleep.

Another stream is defined by its use of small-group as the context for church (base communities, cell church).

Other streams have kept congregation size but have changed where it gathers, when it gathers and what takes place (alternative worship, café church, midweek church, youth congregations).

Further still, some emerging churches are embarking on community development where any expression of their worshipping life is low-key and still evolving. Some churches will draw on more than one of these differences as appropriate.​

The emerging church movement is a bit of a sprawl of ideas and initiatives. There is a lot that Christians seeking to follow Jesus according to the Bible would want to reject, some that we should question, and plenty that we should celebrate and adopt.

 

[Ncdataman]

You copy and paste from their website and use that as your counterpoint? It should be apparent by now that the emerging church is more experience-based than Bible-based. Further, in the emerging church the Word of God takes a secondary position to the worship of God.

While Dan Kimball and other promoters of the emerging church may be sincere in their efforts to evangelize the postmodern generation and believe they are genuinely representing the scriptures, there are some real concerns that need to be addressed. Deviating from the Word of God for extrabiblical experience can open the door to deception. While worshipping God is a very important part of the Christian faith there are problems that can occur if worship supersedes the word.

 

[Hekuran]

I agree. The Bible is our final authority, and personal experience should not be placed above scriptures.

I am not quite sure what you are saying about worship superseding the Word. I cannot think of ways in which worship detracts from the Word, or in which the Word detracts from worship. Each should glorify and deepen the other.

Some in the emerging movement are thoroughly orthodox in their theology, others are worryingly detached from the authority of the Bible

But that's not the point I wanted to put across. I didn't paste that text as a counterpoint, merely to widen the perspective on what the emerging church movement is. My observation is that what is interesting about it – and what drives it – is the way it deals with questions about how to connect with people who have a postmodern mindset.

 

[Ncdataman]

I cannot speak on the movement in the UK, but in the US the movement is stressing the experience over the message, the flare over the substance. when pastors and churches turn into a entertainment option instead of the way to the father then it is heading in the wrong direction. Thanks for your input my brother

In Christ,

NC