Who are the Leaders in the Emerging Church Movement?

I'm great to he is voices of the emerging church the topic that we are to face Christianity today is not a magazine I would recommend but it does tell you what is happening more it authenticates the horrendous apostasy which it did quite recently when it spoke about the emerging church the article in Christianity day was called the emergent mystique and they said quotation not since the Jesus Movement in the early 70s has a Christian phenomenon been so closely entangled with the self-conscious cutting edge of the u.s. culture frequently urban disproportionately young overwhelmingly white and very new very few have been in existence for more than five years a growing number of churches are joining the ranks of the emerging church Christianity today telling you what is new and what is now influencing different parts of the world quite new and quite emphatically inundating society as did the Jesus Movement back in the 1970s we have to understand the modus operandi what is the agenda and who are the voices who are the leaders of this movement Brian McLaren is recognized as the main leader of the movement for all intensive and purposes Time magazine has named him as one of the most influential of 25 most influential evangelical leaders in the US of A he is a prime example of where the whole movement is headed mystical direct contact with God through contempt of Prayer is becoming more and more widespread with influences such as Brian McLaren the grandfather of it all is a man who has been a long time introducing evangelicals to this purported direct contact with God is Richard foster his movement called ray Navarre comprising a website when Avari dot-org introduces people to Catholic mysticism the charismatic experience unto the experiences that Quakers have had it is subjective and is a sugar-coated deadly poison to the minds and hearts of believers his so-called Bible study Ren Avari Bible study is Laden down with lies to get back to the main leader Brian MacLaren's main book is entitled a generous orthodoxy he has bowed the title from the Catholic G K Chesterton orthodoxy and he calls his book generous orthodoxy there's nothing Auto Doc's are biblical about the book it is altogether denying the faith once delivered to the Saints he altogether denies what was biblical faith and he puts before people the reason why we should accept all in this emerging church movement for example in his book he differentiates between God a and B he tries to put before you different types of gods God a and God B this is on page 76 of the his book a generous orthodoxy he says for example think of a kind of universe you would expect if God a created it a universe of dominance control limitation submission uniformity and coercion think of the universe you might expect if God be created it a universe of interdependent relationships possibility responsibility becoming novelty unfreedom he has two imaginations of God and he wants to get you to give up any previous notions you had of God so you can accept his definition of God so he has dared to redefine who God is whom Christ called the holy father righteous father in John 17 telling us who God is in his righteousness is with holiness McLaren thinks that is too limiting so he goes to God be that's only a tiny example we have a whole article on our webpage about Brian McLaren marketing mysticism and leaving a signed biblical Christianity one of the other leaders in modern emerging church movement is a man called Dan Kimball his book the emerging church explains how post modernists think and feel different from all other previous Christian generations Kimball holds that the basis of learning has shifted from the rational and illogical into the realm of experience and he insists that we desire the mystical rather than the evidential that is based on facts he tells you that upfront but this is the new way of finding God is by experience it's the same old lie of Satan hats God set and going back to the receipt of even the garden but that's what's done Kimball explicitly teaches in his emerging church book Mike perskin from Alberta Canada writes in his famous book disciples mystics and the contempt of life quotation I started using the phrase listening prayer when I talked about my own experiences and meditation I built myself a prayer room a tiny sanctuary in a basement closet filled with books on spiritual disciplines contempt of prayer in that space I lit candles burnt incense hung rosaries and listened to tapes of Benedict and monks I meditated for hours on words images and sounds I reached the point of being able to achieve alpha brain patterns the state which occurs in dreams while still awake and meditating he tells you what is the honey he is presenting to you it is deadly infected with the disease that Satan would have you to imbibe and take into your system rosaries hanging and icons and incense and mystical monks singing so that you can reach out for consciousness Oh mom that's the sample of the emerging church and what they are teaching what he is teaching in his book we mentioned already Tony Jones and he is really dangerous for youth as he influences youth across the USA and the world but besides that we have Dallas Willard Calvin Miller Priscilla Shearer Beth Moore and the former Roman Catholic priest Brennan Manning whom I confronted to the face at a conference he was giving him in the south of Portland Oregon because he would not repent of his mysticism on his stage-managed way of presenting it we have these different infamous authors Christian publications are claimed to be Christian publications are producing the books DVDs and other materials and making them available to the public such as baker books that has released books by Calvin Miller James Wakefield and Robert Weber the last two to other new names but they are old in this field in the last five six years of the emerging church movement in the in 2007 this year Baker books released a book called emergent manifesto edited by dog Padgett and Tony Jones and it has been released on the world it is loaded down with deception and guile to the save people Zondervan publications increasingly published books by the emerging church movement and they are one of the big funders they give a lot of money to support financially emerging church leaders Christian colleges seminaries and Christian high schools are increasingly incorporating these books DVDs and videos into their curriculum so it's a it's becoming widespread and so-called Christian colleges one of the more damaging men the voice from the merging Church is a man called Robert Dell he has written a book that is quite famous called Velvet Elvis and he is producing what has become very popular in Christian high school than other high schools across the nation and in other parts of the world a mini film series called numa's and double omes that is from a Greek word meaning spirit or breath he's teaching about spirit and breath in this film series it is horrendous just before coming here I was reading on June the 16th the New York Times accounts you can get it online where it was showing pictures of young people in Christian schools and other schools and colleges as they were meditating and looking at different movies to teach them how to contact the spirit world and just to look online and see some of the picture from the New York Times of the 16th of June was horrifying that is the type of influence that Robert Bell is having he's getting in there with boom and of course they were made into DVDs and put out on the Internet to in case people want to see them on their computers so this is one of the more dangerous voices being heard in modern-day America and across the world Robert Bell another of their famous leaders is Edwin McManus he tells you in his book the Barbarian way what his goal is quotation to destroy Christianity that's his own words and then he talks about being awakened his reality that he's been awakened to is the following quotation a primal longing that awaits to be unleashed within everyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ the greatest enemy of the movement of Jesus Christ is Christianity he says the greatest enemy to Jesus Christ movement is Christianity that is Christianity as was traditionally known before the emergent church movement he tells you explicitly McManus that they're out to get Christianity and bring them into this Jesus movement the emerging church movement Mark McConnell II he is another voice and he has written a work called ancient future ministry he is a director of youth ministry special project of the Presbyterian Church you as a he has a huge influence and it is sometimes just called the project the project to make known that a person can have direct contact with God by using certain disciplines and ancient practices and silence in solitude and in spiritual formation these are his own words now it's not just that we have this man bringing out his wares to give to the world but we have the Wall Street Journal writing about him mica Nellie's work in the Wall Street Journal in Nightrider News Service CBS Radio has had a series of on him an ABC World News Tonight have featured him and what he is saying so we have major newscasts bringing out what these people are saying that it's going into people's homes on sources like ABC World News Tonight speaking about this as if it was world news so this is how serious is this issue that these voices are being heard because of the drive-by media the so-called mass media television on the ABC NBC and these people you wouldn't expect the Wall Street Journal but they're one of the people who have written about this as well as the TV stations we could continue to give many names leonard sweet is one that is quite on a par with brian mclaren he is written together with Taron some work Gregory Boyd Andy Crouch Chris Shea Shayne Claybourne when I was in Canada I mentioned him explicitly because Shane Claiborne had spoken in Toronto before I've spoke there recently authenticating the emerging church to the Baptist churches of Canada and he was accepted by them as of an authentic voice and they officially said on their internet web page that they recognize the emerging church movement as orthodox now they were some type of Baptist Association of Canada but obviously gone downhill and accepting such as Shane Claybourne besides giving all these names and I could continue to give names after names because of many of them the mostly young the very handsome looking men on the other side and they are parading across the internet and in videos and DVDs and getting wide publicity for their material but I want to zoom in on one in particular that I think shows what they are all about and I want to give some examples and this leader is Alan Jones he is the Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and he is the author of the book reimaging Christianity reconnect your spirit without disconnecting your mind that is the subtitle of the book he's having a huge influence on the internet and in the DVDs of his sermon Tony Blair was announced this morning you know in the newspapers here States this most possibly going to become a Catholic in the next few days but when Tony Blair was visiting San Francisco as prime minister from England of course as an English Anglican and going into Catholicism he was welcomed by Alan Jones at Grace Cathedral as have some Muslim leaders being welcomed there as well so it's a it is quite interesting to see how influential Alan Jones has been politically as well as so-called spiritually Jones is speaking in the aftermath of the 1960 Cultural Revolution where people got into relativism and irrationalism and until working together with Catholicism and he is redefining in his book what it is to be Christian he's giving you a snapshot of what he himself thinks and I'll give you some quotations later on but I want to emphasize how important it is that we study Alan Jones Alan Jones is no relative to Tony Jones by the way to just happen to have the same surname Alan Jones has very strict political influence through his ministry he comes in the shoes of the one who was there in that same Cathedral as a bishop before he came along as a Dean and that was Bishop's wing bishop swing introduced a new concept back in 1993 was called United religious initiative and he purported that just as we have the United Nations we could have an equivalent called the united religions where religions would get together now this has in actual fact taken off to a certain extent we already have it in place they have a webpage where you can go and see their activities and they now have 202 different chapters throughout the world called cooperation cycles and they have initiatives whereby they lay out dogmatically what their goal is I want to quote from the preamble of their Charter this is on their webpage United Nations for religion you and our others the letters where you'll find their webpage calm no it's quite interesting because they say in their Charter that their purpose is to support freedom of religion and spiritual expression and the rights of individual people's are set forth in international law they want their conclusions to become international law so they are not just setting this for to the world they want things like the the world Criminal Court and other say European institutions as the European Union finally works out this constitution and there are laws made for Europe and the world trying to bring the USA in as well whereby an international law freedom of religion is recognized and of course the opposite that if people speak against any religious faith such as Catholicism or Islam or Hinduism that you can be taken up for a hate crime and there are many laws in place already you can find that on the government page for Parliament in England and we have a lady in Texas who's introduced it before our Congress in the United States so this is serious business this is trying to make these things into international law we're not talking about merely religious concepts of freedom but it should become international law and it already has become law in the United Kingdom some extent in Canada and there are efforts going on in this year 2007 and the Congress of the United States Alan Jones is known for his association also with militant feminists in June the second in 1994 at his Cathedral he had the Renee sons of the Sacred Feminine conference where he attended as Dean and he talked about his delight he shared his delight of our post traditional culture and new ways and forms to express the spirit he met with militant feminists and praised them for their movement his work has had a launching pad because he's worked together with Brian McLaren and they've actually met together at his Cathedral to plan out the strategy for their working together to advance the reimagining of Christianity that we are rethinking what Christianity is all about so McLaren has helped launch the popularity of Allen Jones I want to read some of what Alan Jones says he says that from the very beginning when he was an Anglo Catholic he read by the stories and then he says that he had given his heart to Jesus he had trusted in Jesus but he tells you that the way in which he believed on how he came to trust in Jesus quotation from the very beginning when I heard Bible stories I believed them in a mystical way a way of communicating deep truths by way of images I instinctively read the Bible as allegory and metaphor not as literal truth man is telling you he never accepted God's Word like Christ said scripture cannot be broken not literal truth Oliver II and in a mystical way so he's telling you that he never really knew the truth and he is telling you just how it was in his own life page 209 going in to page 110 he says about the stories of the Bible are they be trusted if not in what way are the words of Jesus in the New Testament really his my approach has always been skeptical with regard to the text and open regard to tradition I don't believe we can know of Jesus what is confined by the New Testament we have 2,000 years of experience and worship to draw on we can get to the truth only through inference through myth and poetry through metaphor and storytelling there is no such thing as what really happened that's why history is always being rewritten and that's why he calls his book reimaging Christianity has to rewrite Christianity you would wonder how anybody would even open the book with such a title but that's what he says he's doing and that's just what he is about to posit that we can get truth only to inference and there's no such thing as what really happened is to say that God has not spoken to us in his word all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction writers that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped unto all good works in verse Timothy chapter 3 it's sufficient for everything God's Word is truth Christ jesus said not simply that your Bible contains truth it is truth which Aaron teaches Ortoli different we do not know truth except by inference and tradition and he goes on to say nonetheless Anglicanism is the one tradition that enables me to call myself Christian nonetheless he still calls himself Christian what is his reason his reason is that this is the terminology from the tribe and that's his own word from which he sprang quotation the church was a means of upward mobility he speaks about his Anglican Church as a way that he could move upwards to his mystical concepts he has embraced madness that he says is his redefining of Christianity and he demonstrates just what he is up to he says quotation it is not difficult for me to embrace contradiction I can be Protestant Catholic agnostic and a devout believer all at the same time talk about a confused mind but that's what he he explicitly tells you in his book he talks about liberating freedom and let's read this is on page 19 it's given in Roman numerals at the beginning of the book and he says the following what he talks about his liberating experiences as a romantic what did I want I didn't want either to be a victim of my emotions or enslaved to dogma early on I realize that the name of the game is freedom but these early battles have still to be fully resolved and have affected my deepest relationships at any rate the world began to slip away from me about 20 years ago that was when he was about age 45 I have never fully recovered I believe that the slipping away of the world was the true beginning of my spiritual journey there was a breakdown and true they break through and looking back an experience of therapy was central and helping me to face that inner on integrated world I joined the growing crowd of pilgrims who realizing that their inner work was not a private trip but a way of helping to heal the collective psyche oh he's on the way to heal the collective psyche telling you that he went mad in his own search you had a breakdown but nonetheless he is a teacher now too up the collective psyche whatever that is but that's what he speaks about he tells you he never fully recovered and that's pretty obvious if you read the book but not so many people have been fascinated by the book and fascinated by his public speaking from San Francisco if you want to go on this internet web page I ask that you pray for protection because it's lethal stuff that you see there besides the written material he has a unintegrated inner world Francis Schaeffer's spoke about this on integrated inner world is one of Francis Schaeffer's books if you're not aware of his books but a small small little book and I would really urge you to get it you can still get it easily on the Internet escape from reason by Francis Schaeffer he speaks about how all of this happened how the world became disoriented originally and he gives the roots of what has now been seen in the emerging church where did all this stuff start of this merging into the psyche and on integrated world being the real world in which you find freedom where did it all start it really starts and this is analyzed in detail in that book escape from reason with Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century now I know this well because I studied Thomas Aquinas for four years in the original text of the Summa Theologica we studied and memorized as exact words in Latin that he wrote and I finished off at the angelicum University dedicated to the angelic doctor Thomas Aquinas that's where I finally graduated from in 1964 so in eating francis schaeffer it's something that I know well because he was my star boy for many years when I was a Catholic student for the priesthood and then as a Dominican he was our leading Dominican authority he was the one that spoke about how we understand knowledge Thomas Aquinas removed authority from underneath Scripture that it was no longer thus says the Lord thy Word is truth scripture cannot be broken Thomas Aquinas changed that and the basis of truth was to become something quite different it was to be derived through knowledge and understanding the intellect and he quotes Aquinas from Aristotle the pagan philosopher about the wonder of the intellect and there's nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses your five senses first of all pick up truths and then the intellect takes from the five senses and so knowledge is now obtained through the five senses Aquinas was emphatic the same Summa Theologica that I studied is found on the internet and I actually have the physical books on my shelf and I want to quote from it where he speaks about the intellect thomas aquinas quotation the intellect is always right as regards first principles since it is not deceived about them for the same reason it is not deceived about what a thing is for self known principles are such as are no owned as soon as the terms are understood from the fact that they predicate that what they predicate is contained in the definition of the subject you'll find that exact quotation on the printed page and as we have this talk on the internet later on but their certainty in the intellect is regarding first principles and so your intellect becomes the way of knowledge and of truth and the intellect is not deceived it obtains its sources from the five senses and you can prove by your intellect such things as the existence of God so Aquinas says and so this irrationality that we find no demonstrated and such as Alan Jones and Brian McLaren in his generous orthodoxy this madness of irrational thought really started with the Roman Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas because he tried to have a platform or certainty about truth by the intellect that's what we used to boast as comas we call ourself Thomas educated by Aquinas Thomas Aquinas and we could down anybody because we would understand and we would divide and make distinctions by which we could overcome all our position by our intellect if the intellect acquired something you had power over it because that was the basis of fruits it is important that we understand Catholicism not only as the highroad that Alan Jones is going into like buying McLaren and these other voices but the basis where they got their madness or it in rationality was that they were exalting the human mind and intellect and psyche as ways of understanding truth and ways of contacting God there's no such thing Christ said it all John 10 and 35 scripture cannot be broken it cannot be gainsaid God's Word is truth but this is what is permeating now to the numa's miniseries until the teaching of such as Alan Jones it is the irrationality that is creeping into modern-day America and influencing the world was really sad when I was in Eastern Europe in Romania in Hungary the Czech Republic and in Slovakia that the different leaders of the churches that I went to all said we are looking to United States of America England for the most part has fallen to Roman Catholicism and to falsi cuman ISM we look to the United States of America and I was amazed at how many of these men who were poor lived in houses that we would not consider really any way place to live with their computers and their access to the Internet and watching on the internet what is going on in the United States this is the last battlefield as it were for truth but why you have to make a stand and make your voice heard and write your own analysis and do your own speaking of these things and make your own voice heard on different blogs and internet webpages and CDs this is why we have to get the word out because the United States has got to be the United States that The Pilgrim Fathers brought here and the Puritans it has to be a nation of true biblical faith and we have to regain the true biblical faith nobody can take us out of the father's hand we cannot even take ourselves out we are kept by the power of God through faith as the Apostle Peter said it is for us now to contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints the goal of the book alan jones tells you is to reinvent Christianity in his own words religion is broken and something needs to be done to fix it it needs to be in reinvented many of us feel that the old story of religion the way it makes sense of our place of creation is in serious need of revision human beings have always told themselves stories about their longings in fact this need for stories binds us together we need a new way of telling the great story that's on page nine going in to page 10 he tells you that he is trying to reinvent Christianity we say no Christianity is as Christ Jesus declared it by the Holy Spirit on to the Apostles the written word of God once delivered unto the Saints it is not that it was delivered so that it could be reinvented in the 21st century it was once delivered and we stand for that fruit emphatically and confidently Jones is not just teaching this but he is articulating that we need that he calls apart five of his book methods of dialogue we have to work together with other Christian sources on page 548 he says the partners will work together towards a constructive synthesis in such a way that every legitimate contribution is made use of in a joint research aimed at complete assimilation of revealed datum this research involves an effort to return to the sources to go back to Christian origins before the appearance of subsequent disagreements it is also called for a few to the future solutions that will transcend present historical differences difficult to read because he is saying that we have no future ways that will take away the differences we've had in the past we are all going to become one in this new reinventing of Christianity a new synthesis he is saying that again to use his own words there must be a global soul of course he is speaking about his enchantment with Catholicism and working together with the Roman Catholic Church what is possibly the most horrendous part of Allen Jones is his declared hatred for what we call the very gospel his hatred for the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that he calls a cult on page 132 he says the following quotation the church's fixation on the death of Jesus as the universal saving act must end the place of the Cross must be reimagined in the Christian faith why because the cult of suffering and the vindictive God behind it so he wants to do away with the cross of Christ Jesus because it says it portrays a vindictive God it gets worse on page 168 he says the following the other thread of just criticism addresses a suggestion implicit in the cross that Jesus sacrifice was to appease an angry god penal substitution was the name of this vile doctrine he called penal substitution a viral doctrine what is penal substitution it is Christ Jesus substituted for sinners dead in trespasses since he substituted by living a perfect life and dying a perfect sacrifice before the old holy God that is the whole meaning of the gospel Allen Jones is utterly blasphemous in calling the name of our glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ this viral doctrine how can he not burn in hell for such an apostasy if he ever was or ever knew any real Christianity this is what has been portrayed to the world and against which we must stand to defend the truth the truth of Christ Jesus the Apostle Paul speaks about being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Romans chapter 1 verse 24 that is the penal substitution Christ Jesus Redemption is a word for it he is paying the price for your sin and my sin on the cross that is God who is rich in mercy for the great love for any loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace are we saved that is a glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior and that is what the Holy Spirit convicts us off as we come to be true Christians and as we face the horrors of such as Alan Jones now Alan Jones is only one of the many voices that I have mentioned what he is he is a great example of where the others are going I'd like to sum Rhys what are the basic concepts behind the whole movement the whole movement consistently questions the authority of Scripture and the Bible as literal truth truth is determined by experience or tradition and not the written word of God they do not believe in God's judgment and if a person thinks about God's judgment is simply that they're being embarrassed by their feelings or in abilities they will not call homosexuality as sin they deny Christ substitutionary death on the cross they redefine hell they say there's no literal place where souls are damned and they major in telling you what ancient practices are such as imagery fasting contemplative prayer breath prayers which rick warren who is one of the leaders of this movement - and works together with the emergent church breath prayer centering prayer labyrinth walks Lexi Oh Davina and the Ignatian way and Stations of the Cross that's where they major the Apostle Paul warned us the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter days some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits this is what we say before our eyes Grievous wolves not sparing the flock the flock is in danger because leading publications I mentioned already Baker books and Zondervan but they're joined by InterVarsity press that in 2006 released the famous book reimaging evangelism by Rick Richardson InterVarsity press speaks about it on the internet and you'll find it on the cover of the book evangelism outside the box new ways to help people experience the good news that has been widely used by campus ministries by emerging church is and by seminary classes on evangelism are you shocked to know that the book is endorsed by well-known evangelist Louis Palau and it's endorsed also when you find this publicized by InterVarsity press by Brian McLaren the Catholic Voice web page also talks about how important it is to work together with Louis Palau and talks about the archbishop that is now in Omaha leading to bring Catholics together with evangelicals so that large number of Hispanic Catholics who would show up at the Louisville L Conference may make their way back to the Catholic faith that is a exact quote from the Catholic Voice internet web page this is what is happening before our eyes there's mass confusion and we have to make a stand in this world of confusion but we have to have the confidence of the Lord God what does the scripture say the scripture proclaims Alleluia for the Lord God omnipotent reigns he reigns he is in charge God is sovereign he loses not one of his own he is absolutely all-powerful against any movement to bring down the gospel of his son and we stand together in Christ Jesus as brothers and sisters of the Lord contending for the faith once delivered to the Saints with a confidence and a holy boldness from our God to proclaim the gospel that truly saves and truly liberates and sets people to know the God of all grace in the words of the Apostle Peter who is gracious towards all who see themselves as a sinner and look to him for saving grace it is wonderful to take counsel from God's own word I had spoken and our first presentation of the last words of chapter 16 of John's Gospel and now I'd like to read the last words of chapter 17 Christ Jesus praying for the Apostles and for those who would know him through their word that is you and I believers true believers and praying the prayer ends and I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it that the love for and ours love me may be in them and I in them now Christ Jesus prayer was effective 2,000 years ago and it's effective today what did he pray because as he prays his prayers are always heard he prayed that the love and which he is loved by the father as mediator as he prayed as our mediator that that love that the father has for him would be in us the father's love dwelling on you and you and he enough Christ Jesus dwelling in the believer what more confidence do we need what more encouragement do we need to stand strong than knowing the truth of the prayer of christ jesus answered for you and for me sometimes at night and last night I prayed it again I said these words that I could go to sleep with a peace from God that I know that all the love that the father has for the son rests on me and in me as Christ prayed under Christ uses themself is with me and that is the confidence we need as we go forth to the moorish Satan's stronghold and all these so called voices which are the voices of Satan we go forward to demolish Satan and his kingdom so that the true kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and the glorious gospel may be exalted and so that we continue to know and treasure for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast a man and a man praise God you

Channel: ChristianVoice Editor

Views: 33,238

Rating: 4.6656346 out of 5

Keywords: Emerging Church, Church (Type Of Place Of Worship), Brian McLaren (Author)

Id: BAVDmX6xLL0

Length: 59min 25sec (3565 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 25 2014