The Tragedy of the Submergent Church
by Bill Muehlenberg
Error leads to error. Rebellion leads to rebellion. Heresy leads to heresy. Apostasy leads to apostasy. That is how things usually go when deception is allowed to take a foothold in the Christian camp. And we see all this perfectly reflected in what is known as the emergent church.
This progressive, trendy movement within Christianity takes pride in being cutting edge, with-it, and cool. But it is achieving this mainly at the expense of biblical orthodoxy. Indeed, it prides itself in decrying and dismissing the importance of truth, of doctrine, and of orthodoxy.
It foolishly thinks that if it jettisons the old biblical verities, and experiments with the new, the radical, and the hip, it will somehow bring in the masses and reinvigorate Christianity. Well, it may attract the masses, but it is not attracting them to biblical Christianity.
Indeed, all it is doing is leading a whole new generation away from the faith once delivered for all the saints. But I have written about this worrisome movement often before, eg:
www.billmuehlenberg.com/2008/06/27/on-emergents-and-false-dilemmas/
www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/04/16/on-emergents-postmoderns-and-epistemological-suicide/
www.billmuehlenberg.com/2012/10/16/emergents-and-the-importance-of-doctrine/
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In fact, so problematic is this movement that I have already written 30 articles about it. And as I have shown, when they start playing fast and loose with biblical doctrine, they soon enough start playing fast and loose with biblical ethics. Heterodoxy, in other words, usually leads to heteropraxis. Bad beliefs will result in bad living.
Recently I highlighted the example of Steve Chalke from the UK. His dismissal of basic Christian beliefs has led to his dismissal of basic Christian ethics. Thus he has come out championing homosexual marriage. I discuss all this here: www.billmuehlenberg.com/2013/01/19/no-surprises-here-from-the-emergents/
Now another big cheese figure in the emergent church movement has gone and done likewise. I refer to US mover and shaker Rob Bell. Sadly, he has been quite influential, but not in a helpful fashion. He has gone off the deep end far too often in terms of basic Christian beliefs.
I have written about Bell previously as well…
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The Tragedy of the Submergent Church » Bill Muehlenberg’s CultureWatch
RECOMMENDED APOLOGETICS RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:
Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be
Truth and the New Kind of Christian: The Emerging Effects of Postmodernism in the Church
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Hi, Bill. This is a timely and poignant article that showed up on my fb timeline right now just as I was checking out how an art piece I had done was faring at a large art competition in Grand Rapids, MI called “Artprize Competition.” Depicted in my piece is the dual sided negative sword of radicalism and heresy in the realm of mainstream atheism and Christianity. On the dogmatic and decidedly hateful side of atheism is a sort of Mt. Rushmore formation of the staple proponents of that mentality, i.e. Dawkins, Hitchens, Tyson, Seth Macfarlane, Maher, Sagan…etc. On the heretical or non-scripturally legalistic and sham-faith side of “Christianity” are: Fred Phelps, Joel Osteen (ala the success gospel and not teaching to turn away from sin or really addressing it), Rob Bell and Benny Hinn. I incorporated Bible verses written in the Latin Vulgate relating to avoiding the teachings of false prophets, and to beware the yeast of the pharisees…etc. Anywho, it might interest you. This link leads to the heretical Christian side https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151882994360090&set=o.73607267339&type=3&theater . If you click back one picture, you can see a bit of the atheistic side near the bottom with Dawkins, Hitchins and Bill Maher near the bottom. The rest of the drawing is actually totally unrelated since it is supposed to be a surrealism exercise of random objects and people known as an “exquisite corpse art exercise” but parts of it kind of morphed into depicting some of my theological perspectives. If you’d like to see more of the piece and see a part with ricky gervais…etc, the main profile page for my piece is as follows: http://www.artprize.org/ron-kersey/2013/time-and-chance-a-deliberate-exquisite-corpse.
Unfortunately I don’t have any good pictures of the lower half of the atheistic side which has Ricky Gervais and Seth Macfarlane kind of “vomiting” their philosophy (as they are fed via straws from the previously mentioned atheists) into the eyes of a chained up smiling world’s eyes, unknowing that it it is in shackles along with the blindly hateful and condescending militantly atheistic proponents. Whew, that was a mouthful. It is still being showcased in Grand Rapids until oct. 6th, but if it interests you at all, I can take better pics and send them to you once the competition is over. That’s all, thanks for your time. 🙂