The Dangers of the Emergent Church
Genesis 3:1-5 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
First we must ask what is the Emergent/Emerging Church?
The emerging church is a Christian movement of the late 20th and early 21st centuries that crosses a number of theological boundaries: participants are described as Protestant, post-Protestant, Evangelical, post-Evangelical, Liberal, post-Liberal, Conservative, post-conservative etc. At this point somebody might say – “I don’t get it, what is it, what does all that mean?” In some ways that’s the point, the emergent church doesn’t really make sense except to say they are doing their best to re-invent Christianity into whatever they want it to be!
I can’t help but to automatically think of the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:33 “God is not the author of confusion”
Proponents say the movement transcends such labels as liberal, conservative, evangelical etc.. They describe the movement as a "conversation" to emphasize its developing and decentralized nature. There is no Emergent Church denomination, there is no official organization, there are no set standards or creeds and you will probably never see the word emergent on a church sign or billboard. They rarely if ever advertise “Hey, we are an emergent church!” Not only do they not advertise it they likely would never even admit it for if they did that might scare people off! That being said they do share certain things in common.
So they describe the movement as “a conversation”, and they are commitment to dialogue. I was told of one particular church that was described as “emergent” so I went to their website. On their website it said “when you come to our church you can expect to be greeted warmly and offered a cup of coffee, or you can select from a variety of snack and refreshments. You will find people discussing such topics as “the existence of God” etc…. I about fell over! Doesn’t it seem strange that the existence of God would be a topic of conversation in a church? If you don’t have that issue settled you got issues! The existence of God is declared in a local church not discussed as if its open to debate. You would expect a debate like that in on a college campus or among a group of agnostics but NOT in a local church!
Participants and proponents of the Emergent Church seek to live their faith in what they believe to be a postmodern society. What those involved in the conversation mostly agree on is their disillusionment with traditional Christianity. They support the deconstruction of modern Christian worship, modern evangelism and the nature of the modern Christian community.
In reading up on the definition of the Emergent Church Two words stand out – Postmodern & Deconstruction – what do they mean?
Postmodernism involves a radical reappraisal of modern assumptions about culture, identity, history, or in this case the Christianity. On the surface it appears the post-modern Christian or the emergent church member believes that words do not convey any type of certainty. Practically everything is open to debate or quote “conversation”! This seems strange since the essential doctrines of the Christian faith have been in place for 2000 years, and now they want to reexamine everything?
The idea that we need to rethink or reappraise our approach to Biblical truth seems to deny that Biblical truth actually exist! Or at least if it does exist we cannot actually be sure of what is true and what isn’t. At the very least it leads to doubt in the literal interpretation of the Word of God. In other words the emergent church asks the question “Hath God Said?”
Listen we know what the Bible says, some people don’t like it, some don’t believe it but we know what it says! One of the founders of the emergent movement was asked about his view on homosexuality and he said “I am reluctant to comment on this because no matter how I answer I will end up offending somebody”, and that was the end of his answer. You see He knows what the Bible says but he doesn’t want to say it because it’s not popular and somebody might be offended.
Of course in saying that he offended many Bible believing Christians but you see that’s different. That’s what the emergent church often does, they conform to the world, they pander to unbelievers, they do whatever they have to do to be viewed as relevant, modern, hip, if that offends a traditional Christian that doesn’t matter so much because they are the ones they are trying to move away from!
Let’s take another look at Genesis 3:1-5 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Is that what God said? Genesis 2:15-17 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Satan said did God say you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? What God said was Of every tree of the garden YOU MAY freely eat, but you may not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What Satan said sounded similar to what God said but it wasn’t exactly the same, it sounded similar but different. It was just enough to cast the seed of doubt.
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. Most commentators will point out that God didn’t say “you shall not touch it”, it at least appears that Eve added to what God said, it appears that maybe she isn’t even sure of what it is exactly that God said or didn’t say. Satan has her right where he wants her – questioning the word of God – THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THE EMERGENT CHURCH DOES! They question the word of God! They don’t come right out and deny it most of the time, but they don’t always affirm it either! Well once people start questioning the Word of God that’s when Satan steps in, and that’s what he did here in Genesis 3:4
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. If Satan started out with the outright denial he probably would have failed in tempting Eve, that’s why he is more subtle, more crafty, more cunning. He starts with casting doubt, then you get the outright denial, then you see Satan casting doubt on Gods character.
God knows if you eat of it, you will be like gods yourself, God is holding back something good, God doesn’t want you to be happy! Listen to me and you will be happy, you will be satisfied, you will be fulfilled. This is the biggest lie Satan ever told.
So the Emergent Church seems to embrace postmodernism, that is everything that we used to accept and believe is now open for debate. There is no absolute truth or if there is we are not really sure what it is and who’s to say what it is? Jesus stood before Pilate and said "I come to bear witness of the truth!" Pilate replied and said "What is truth?" What does this lead to? Confusion! I am absolutely convinced Satan is behind the Emergent Church movement, he is going back to page 1 of his playbook by adding confusion.
The other word that was used to describe the Emergent Church was deconstruction, the dictionary describes it this way - a theory used in the study of literature or philosophy which says that a piece of writing does not have just one meaning and that the meaning depends on the reader.
To put it in other terms the Emergent Church plays a game where the Bible means whatever a person understands it to mean. Interpretation depends on the reader. Maybe they never read the Apostle Peters words in 2 Peter 1:20-21 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In other words the Scripture is from God and it is absolute truth, it’s not of any private interpretation where people all come to the table with a variety of differing views and idea’s.
Now I know there are bound to be a few people who walk away this morning not really sure what the Emergent church is all about. Someone might ask you “what did the Pastor preach on this morning?” You say “The dangers of the Emergent Church”. The they say “what’s the Emergent Church?” And you say “I have no idea!” In some ways I think that’s their strategy, to fly under the radar so nobody can really identify them.
It’s been said the biggest trick Satan ever pulled was to convince mankind that he doesn’t exist. If nobody knows how to identify the Emergent Church they are free and clear to fly under the radar free from examination and scrutiny. So what is the Emergent Church?
Again the Emergent Church is very hard to define but If I had to put it in the most simple of terms I would explain it this way – They are trying to reinvent the wheel but unfortunately the wheel in this case is Christianity. If you step into one of their churches it probably will not look like a church! In fact they might not even call it a church! Our Church is “Moores Corner Church”, if we were emergent we might call ourselves the “Moores Corner Community of Faith” or “Moores Corner House of Grace”. You have to ask, if somebody starts a church but they intentionally leave the word church out of their name, what’s the motivation?
There are exceptions of course but often they do their best to make church not seem like church. Remove the pulpit, remove the pews, no stained glass, replace the organ for a rock band etc… One reason they do this is to attract young people as well as non-church goers.
One emergent leader said “The people who attend our services are quite often people who would never consider darkening the door of a traditional church. I think in that statement we see the problem. You have heard of the “Seeker Sensitive Movement”? There is a lot of overlap between these two groups and the goal is often times to work hard to bring in the unbelievers. Now I think it’s good to invite unbelievers to church after all we want them to hear the Gospel and be saved but to cater to unbelievers shows an ignorance of what the true Church is all about. Church is all about believers coming together to worship God.
Why should we be concerned with the Emergent Church movement? Because it is a subtle attack on the truthfulness of God’s word.
2 Timothy 4:1-4 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
We need to pray for our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord that they would not be deceived and turn their ears away from the truth. Is the Church of Jesus Christ perfect? No, we are not perfect, but we have a perfect Savior, who is the perfect Word of God incarnate. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever!
Let’s close in prayer!
Extra material to fit in - One of the founders of the movement said he was uncomfortable with the assumption that the primary message of Jesus was to tell us how to get to Heaven.
-Luke 9:56, Luke 19:10, John 3:17
He also said we should take a 5-10 year moratorium on the subject of homosexuality and then come back and see how we feel about it.
Emergent Church leader Rob Bell seriously questioned the doctrine of hell in his book "love wins". He has since teamed up with new-age guru Oprah Winfrey. When she asked him how he spends his Sunday Mornings he replied by saying "he usually goes surfing!"
-It has been said if your church feels more like a coffee shop than a church you may be in an emergent church!
