The "Emerging" Problem Within Our Churches: An Attack on the Scriptures

2 John 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

Now for those of you who keep up with American Christianity then you're probably aware of a new "movement" called the Emergent/ing Church. If you haven't its time you start studying up. The Emerging Church is a direct attack on the authority of the scripture and doing away with age old doctrines such as Sola Scriptura, or Scripture Alone. As a Christian when people attack scripture they are attacking the heart of my faith, truth. Scripture is truth and the Emerging Church says there is no truth. I beg to differ.

The Age of Modernism

Everyone who has been in highschool history knows of the "Age of Modernism". Modernism was the time period from 1890 to roughly the 1950's. This was the mind set during the world wars. This mind set said "there is truth, and we hold and can find or make it" or "through us (humans) we can find truth". Now this view was very distructive. We saw Hitler massacre over 6 million Jews and men like Stalin kill over 50 million people with his "camps". That age has been widely disgarded by both the Christian and World cultures. But a different view has been born.

The Post Modern Culture

This is the culture we find ourselves in today. Postmodernism is dangerous in every way, shape and form. The postmodernist says that "there is truth, but it cannot be found . Some post modernists go as far to say "there is no truth, it is what you make it". For the most part this view has been accepted widely by the world but shunned by the Church until recently. The Emering Church movement pushes this mindset upon its "members" telling them that scripture does not hold all authority but that truth can be found in many ways. They say that the only reason that the scripture holds any authority is that it tells us stories about people interacting with God and God holds all authority. God holds all authority but you don't give His word any? Interesting. So that is the PostModern cultural view invading our Church.

Why is it Dangerous?

I believe this is self explanatory but I will post a comment by one of its younger leaders Rob Bell who has in recent years exploded on to the Christian scene especially with the younger aged and college students.

"...it wasn't until the 300s that what we know as the sixty-six books of the Bible were actually agreed upon as the 'Bible'. This is part of the problem with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be a belief that "Scripture alone" is our guide. It sounds nice, but it is not true. In reaction to abuses by the church, a group of believers during a time called the Reformation claimed that we only need the authority of the Bible. But the problem is that we got the Bible from the church voting on what the Bible even is. So when I affirm the Bible as God's word, in the same breath I have to affirm that when those people voted, God was somehow present, guiding them to do what they did. When people say that all we need is the Bible, it is simply not true. In affirming the Bible as inspired, I also have to affirm the Spirit who I believe was inspiring those people to choose those books."- Rob Bell, pg. 68, Velvet Elvis

WOW. Those are some remarkable statements. You see when someone from the Emerging Church makes statements like this you will never hear or see them use scripture to back up what they're saying because according to them they don't have to use scripture because God didn't preserve scripture so therefore it has no authority. From that statement you can kindof see in a nutshell what they believe so let me diagnoss this statement, using scripture of course.

1.
"it wasn't until the 300s that what we know as the sixty-six books of the Bible were actually agreed upon as the 'Bible'. This is part of the problem with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be a belief that "Scripture alone" is our guide. It sounds nice, but it is not true."
Right off Bell attacks the preservation of scripture. The Bible is made up of 66 books (39 Old Testament (covenant), 27 New Testament (covenant)) and was comprised of under the most intense study and scrutinty known to man to this day. Now I could go on and on telling you how the Bible came to be and who the translators were but that still wouldn't answer the questions of "Is the Bible preserved by God?" and "Can we be Scripture Alone?". The fist thing I'm going to do is go to 2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
So here we see that scripture is "inspired" by God, but you may ask can't scripture be simply inspired but not be wholly truth? Well closer look at the word gives us a clearer view of what it means. "by inspiration of God" in the original scriptural Greek is theopneustos which literally means- divinely breathed in. So Scripture is divinely breathed or directly put into existense by God the Father. Just as it says in Genesis that God breathed life into man (Gen. 2:7) God breathed life into the scriptures. Also the bible containst thousands of prophecies or the foretelling of events. Right now roughly 2000 prophecies have been 100% come true in the bible, to the very last detail (for more study on that go to http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/prophecy.shtml )
So can we be "Sola Scriptura"? Bell says no and that it is not true. Well lets see about that.
Mt 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
The Bible is the word of God.
Now if according to what Mr. Bell said is true about the first time the books of the bible came together was in the 300's then why does Christ say:
John 7:42 Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?
Now if what scripture are we talking about here? The Old Testament (OT) or the Old Covenant. So its interesting that Christ himself talks about the scriptures, so we know that the scriptures were preserved uptil then. Christ believed the scriptures and he tells us to believe the scriptures.
Galatians 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

2.
In reaction to abuses by the church, a group of believers during a time called the Reformation claimed that we only need the authority of the Bible. But the problem is that we got the Bible from the church voting on what the Bible even is.
I love this statement "during a time called the Reformation", who is he talking to here? Idiots? I'm sorry but if you don't know what the reformation is and your studying Christianity (which I assume you would be doing if you read Velvet Elvis) then you need to start over. But the thing is this is the crowd that Bell is trying to reach, the uninformed or the untaught. He talks like the reformation is no big deal ( if you do not know much about the reformation you can start study here http://www.lepg.org/religion.htm ). Just to let everyone know when Bell uses the word "church" in this sentense he is referring to the Catholic Church. Again he purposefully does not make that clear. He makes it sound as if the Catholics made the Bible as we know it. That is not correct. The first official Bible was made by protestant England which was the King James 1611 authorized version. Before that we had the Geneva Bible, Wycliffe (translated the Bible into the commone tongue and his books were burned by the Pope at least the ones he could get his hands on,Wycliffe lived before the reformation), and Tyndale (martyred of translating the Bible into the common tongue of the people, also lived before the reformation).

3.
So when I affirm the Bible as God's word, in the same breath I have to affirm that when those people voted, God was somehow present, guiding them to do what they did.
Wow, has he read 2 Tim. 3;16? Oh wait thats right he doesn't believe in the Bible. He makes truth up as he goes. This is the movement we are dealing with here, "there is no truth so your guess is as good as mine".

4.
When people say that all we need is the Bible, it is simply not true.
How much more heresy do we need?
How bout Matthew 4:4??

5.
"In affirming the Bible as inspired, I also have to affirm the Spirit who I believe was inspiring those people to choose those books."
I guess we needed more.

I thank God everyday we have Pastors that are willing to stand up for the AUTHORITATIVE WORD OF GOD! Men that come into my mind are John MacArthur, the late Jerry Falwell Sr., Ergun Caner, R. Albert Moehler jr., James White,Charles Spurgeon 1834-1892,John Calvin 1509-1564, John Wesley 1703-91, etc. Now these men may have their doctrinal differences in some areas but they all give ultimate authority to the word of God, the Holy Scriptures. Do not take the Bible lightly, its the difference between Heaven and Hell.

Truth is Under Attack
Big Jimmy

more will come on this topic like: what does the Emerging Church promote or push? or What Biblical teaching does it disregard but others it holds on to? and What scares the Emerging Church?