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Emergent Church Ideophrenia

  

—General James Green, Jan. 9, 2012—

 

According to Webster’s New Standard Dictionary, “ideophrenia” means “madness characterized by disordered ideas”. “Disordered” means “irregular, disreputable, loose and unruly” (“disorderly” = “confused, unmethodical, unruly”). “Disreputable” means “having a bad reputation; not respectable”.

 

MADNESS characterized by DISORDERED IDEAS! Ideophrenia certainly defines today’s Emergent Church. The core belief within the Emergent Church is the denial of Christ’s substitutionary atonement for the lost, and places Jesus Christ in the category of a “moral” example pointing the way in man’s quest to IMPROVE society and the environment. Along with this is the denial of God's Word being totally inspired, thinking it contains many errors and therefore is not reliable and can’t be trusted. They believe the Bible is not infallible, not inerrant.

     God is not the author of the (few) errors found in our Bibles, men are. Since God created the world and the people who occupy the world, He is / was capable of communicating errorless truths.

     We believe that the Scriptures of both the O.T. and the N.T. were / are verbally inspired by and of God, and are inerrant in the original writings, and that they are of supreme and final authority in faith and the Christian life.

     These Emergent Church-ites complain that the Bible contains errors, that men tampered with the originals off the originals. Well, by the same token, these modern “scholars” and “theologians” go about changing what they don’t like and fossilizing what they do like. Is God the author of all this? NO!!

  

Failing to Stand!

THERE IS A MOVEMENT AWAY from the inspiration / inerrancy of Scripture, the virgin birth of Christ (though some still hold to this), Christ’s substitutionary atonement, His bodily resurrection, and the authenticity of His miracles. Those who once held dear these (and other) beliefs HAVE FAILED, as the Emergent Church advances within (too many) of their organizations / churches. Hence, slowly but surely organizations / denominations have lost ground to these demons. The ones who still hold to the “fundamentalist” propagation are called “cultish”, “intolerant” and “exclusive”. So what? Better to hold fast our profession of faith than to join the camp of BASTARDS—BACKSLIDERS— BULLHEADS!!

  

It Has Been Said...

CARL. R. TRUEMAN, VICE PRESIDENT of Westminster Seminary Academic Affairs and Professor of Church History and Historical Theology made the following observation (in fact):

     “It has become something of a proverb in evangelical circles that most conservative or confessional theological institutions have about 75 years of life in them before they evidence significant changes in theological direction…” Professor Trueman brings up Princeton Theological Seminary (founded in 1812), enjoyed orthodoxy for a season, then in 1929 orthodoxy vanished; Fuller Seminary (founded after WW2) was another one that was orthodox and very rigorous academically, yet in two generations its commitment to inerrancy, and other cardinal doctrines vanished. Today Fuller is sickeningly liberal.

     Prof. Trueman continued to say:

     “…members of the first generation (of an institution) were often bound together by common struggles…they knew who they were and what they believed; the second generation lived in the intellectual and cultural space carved out for them by the first generation but lacked the controversial context which bound their fathers together. The third generation has little or no contact with the struggles of the first and, in almost Freudian fashion, can actually find the behavior of their institutional founding fathers to be somewhat embarrassing”. Wow! (see WTS, “A Message From The President”, “Knowing The Times: Recent Controversies in Context”).

  

Ideophrenia’s Impact

AS STATED IN MANY OF MY ARTICLES, the Emergent Church is inclusive. We see this at every turn, apologizing to the sinners for God's Word being exclusive. The following is a prime example:

     “Several months ago, four local pastors and churches from the Metropolitan Washington, DC area, held an open forum meeting, in which they, in essence, apologized to the gay community. It was reported, in the local, national and international news media that they did just that: “Churches’ APOLOGY TO THE Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Community & Their Loved Ones. For too long the Church has been JUDGMENTAL to those who experience same-sex attraction and to their loved ones.”

     This has opened the Church door even wider for the inclusion for the gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender-queer crowd…and we see the impact = the “perverting” and “pink-twisting” of God's Holy Word.

     NEXT, MY FRIENDS, IT WILL BE APOLOGIZING TO PEDOPHILES!

     It is one thing to bear witness to sinners, yet another to invite them WITH THEIR SINS into the Church / churches etc.

  

Agendas

BUT, YOU SEE, I am aware of both the Emergent Church and the political camp’s agendas—to destroy genuine Christianity! But these two anti-Christ camps have not counted on God's agenda—to PUNISH!!! Wait and see.

  

To Be Like Jesus?

ALL THESE CRYBABIES who accuse us of being hateful, unloving, judgmental, intolerant, bigoted, blah, blah, blah, are always pointing to Jesus as their “perfect” model. “Don’t judge us, just love us” they cry. They try to tell us that Jesus never turned anyone away. Really?

     But what does the Bible really tell us? “Let love be without dissimulation” (Rom. 12:9). “Dissimulation” means “hypocrisy, false pretense”. It is THEM, not US that are hypocrites! We teach and preach God's full counsel—they, only one-sided. Why do they avoid the dozens and dozens of verses that condemn sin and judge the workers of iniquity? Why do they neglect ALL those O.T. / NT WARNING Scriptures?

     Not only is love to be without hypocrisy, but we’re to “Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good (or righteous)”—Romans 12:9.

     If we’re going to use Jesus as our PERFECT model, then don’t be hypocrites about it!

     It says of Jesus in Hebrews 1:9: “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity…” And don’t tell me that Jesus did not know of and stand for the Holiness Code (Lev. 18-20) that pointed out sinful actions, e.g., homosexuality and heterosexual sins.

     To dismiss judgment from Christianity is to slay orthodoxy. We can’t say we love God / Jesus while denying their character—loving righteousness and hating evil (see Prov. 8:13; Ps. 94:16; 97:10; Amos 5:15; Rom. 12:9; 1 Jn. 2:15 and Rev. 2:6 etc.).

     Sure, we’re to love the sinner, but to follow up with this love we must point them to the door of salvation—Jesus IS THAT DOOR!! Jesus says in Jn. 3:3,5 that we MUST be born again. We don’t get born again by joining a religious organization. We do it by confessing and repenting of our sins and accepting Jesus’ Lordship into our lives.

          

Solus Christus

WHAT OF SOLUS CHRISTUS, salvation thru Christ Jesus ALONE? Apostate Brian McLaren devotes several chapters to this subject in his BLASPHEMOUS book “A Generous Orthodoxy”. This book deserves the FIRE!

     “Repenting” to the Emergents (especially McLaren) means making society and the physical world a better place—not turning FROM sin TO faith in Christ (or ongoing repentance thru the operation of the indwelling Spirit). “Evil” to these apostates is the oppression of the poor and disadvantaged. Well, this can be a form of sin, but the Bible spells out for us what “sin” is: it = sin nature and the eternal death sentence passed on the entire human race thru Adam the first.

               

Obituary of the American Church

A SHORT ARTICLE WAS SENT TO ME BEARING THE ABOVE TITLE. The writer points out three “demons” he feels that has caused the death of the American Church: 1) appetite; 2) affirmation; 3) ambition. He explains that “appetite” has birthed a culture of “consumerism”. “Affirmation”, a culture of “celebrity”; and “ambition”, a culture of “competition”. These demons are sure enough there.

     Old time Christians combated all the above—they saw them as the enemies they were (are). Did not Jesus get tempted with these same demons? Now these 3 have become American!! Now these 3 are all part of today’s Church!—consumerism, celebrity and competition. Now the Church, according to the Backsliders Brigade and Emergent Apostates, can partake of anything…everything is tailored to fit their desires, lusts, and personal preferences…the sights, the sounds, the SINS of Sodom and Gomorrah. And yet the “consumer” mentality is antithetical to the Gospel of Christ and Discipleship.

     The idea of “celebrity” is woven deeply into the American culture and values. I can expect the world to have their celebrities, now the Church has theirs—look at these pathetic souls, drug / alcohol / sex / $$ addicted! They perform and flaunt their particular brand of perversion…all in the name of God / Jesus / Christianity. Mega-Church growth, Hyper-competitiveness, where Biggest—Best—Most rules! Now the Church has competition on who can look and act the most weird—bizarre—sexy etc.

     All this boils down to: REPROBATE!!

           

Paradox

PARADOX IS ORIGINALLY a Greek word which meant “that which is against common opinions”. The word has been variously used, however, to refer to: (1) the strange and unbelievable; (2) an expression which is at one and the same time both true and false; (3) a proposition that has mutually contradictory subjects and predicates thru appearing to be intelligible.

     We can certainly see that the Emergent Church is a paradox; the Emergent Church-ites claim to be “Christian”, even quote Scriptures (always out of context!), yet they deny most of the Bible’s contents.

     In “Adventures in Missing the Point” (co-authored by heretics McLaren and “Evangelical left” spokesman Tony Campolo), they do not hesitate to tell us in this book (which reflects their fatuous belief) that the Bible-believing Christian Church has “missed the point” on just about everything. Thank you, guys, for setting us Bible-believers straight! We really appreciate your strange/QUEER evaluation.

     Heretic McLaren asserts, “Not even one-hundredth of one percent of the Bible” presents “objective information about God” (p. 262). Well, the Bible is not supposed to be a book just about God, but about man, his/her fall, God's redemptive act in bringing them back to Him (through reconciliation) and how man should live thereafter. God does not have to prove that He IS!

     The following is taken from The Trinity Review (by Paul M. Elliot, Ph. D., 2004):

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Orthoparadoxy and Paradoxology

How, according to Emergents, are we to approach this “inspired” but humanly-originated, non-inerrant, non-infallible, non-authoritative Bible? Emergent spokesman Dwight J. Friesen, a professor of practical theology at Mars Hill Graduate School (Seattle) and a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the ultra-liberal National Council of Churches, says that Christ was not interested in orthodoxy but in “a full and flourishing human life.”18 What must develop, says Friesen, is not orthodoxy—correct teaching—but a piece of Emergent doubletalk called orthoparadoxy or “correct paradox.”  Friesen writes:

  

     Orthoparaxody represents a conversational theological method that seeks to graciously embrace difference while bringing the fullness of a differentiated social-self to the other. Through the methodology of Orthoparadoxy, competing ideas, practices, and hermeneutics are seen as an invitation to conversational engagement rather than as something to refute, reform, or revise.19

      Current theological methods that often stress agreement/disagreement, win/loss, good/bad, orthodox/heresy, and the like set people up for constant battles to convince and convert the other to their way of believing....20

     Orthoparadox theology is less concerned with creating “once for all” doctrinal statements or dogmatic claims and is more interested in holding competing truth claims in right tension.... Orthoparadox theology requires a dynamic understanding of the Holy Spirit. 21

     ...see conversation starters where you once saw theological disagreement. 22        

  

     Emergent Church spokeswoman Nanette Sawyer has added another term to the Emergent lexicon of confusion and doubt: paradoxology. Sawyer is an ordained Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) minister with degrees from both Harvard and McCormick divinity schools. Sawyer, like most of her fellow Emergents, takes refuge from the light of truth in the caverns of paradox. Those who believe the Bible’s categorical, prepositional truth claims are arrogant and superficial, she says. They have not ascended to the lofty realms of higher knowledge that can only be attained by embracing paradox:

  

     There is a beauty in paradox when it comes to talking about things of ultimate concern. Paradox works against our tendency to stay superficial in our faith, or to rest on easy answers or categorical thinking. It breaks apart our categories by showing the inadequacy of them and by pointing to a reality larger than us, the reality of gloria, of light, of beyond-the-beyond. I like to call it paradoxology—the glory of paradox, paradox-doxology—which takes us somewhere we wouldn’t be capable of going if we thought we had everything all wrapped up, if we thought we had attained full comprehension. The commitment to embracing the paradox and resisting the impulse to categorize people (ourselves included) is one of the ways we follow Jesus into that larger mysterious reality of light and love.23

         

     The Gnostics, who sought to destroy the Biblical faith of the early church by leading it to a “higher” mystical knowledge beyond Scripture, would be proud of Nanette Sawyer. So would the Church of Rome, whether 16th- or 21st-century. This is how we must approach the Bible, according to Brian McLaren:

  

     Drop any affair you may have with Certainty, Proof, Argument.... The ultimate Bible study or sermon in recent decades yielded clarity. That clarity, unfortunately, was often boring—and probably not that accurate, either, since reality is seldom clear, but usually fuzzy and mysterious....24

     Find things to do with the Bible other than read and study it [and McLaren then suggests several that are forms of medieval, mystical meditation commended by the Roman Catholic church].25

     In the recent past we generally began our apologetic by arguing for the Bible’s authority, then used the Bible to prove our other points. In the future we’ll present the Bible less like evidence in a court case and more like works of art in an art gallery. 26

     In the recent past we talked a lot about absolute truth, attempting to prove abstract propositions about God (for instance, proving the sovereignty of God). 27

  

     That approach, McLaren asserts, is passe in the postmodern world. Protestants have gotten it all wrong about the Bible, by using concepts of truth and error to “lay low” their Catholic “brethren” —

  

     Protestants have paid more attention to the Bible than any other group, but sadly, much of their Bible study has been undertaken to fuel their efforts to prove themselves right and others wrong (and therefore worthy of protest)...the Bible does not yield its best resources to people who approach it seeking ammunition with which to lay their [Catholic] brethren low.... How many Protestants can’t pick up their Bibles without hearing arguments play in their heads on every page, echoes of the “polemical preachers they have heard since childhood? How much Bible study is, therefore, an adventure in missing the point?28

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18. Dwight J. Friesen, “Orthoparadoxy: Emerging Hope for Embracing Difference” in An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, 204. 19. Friesen, 207. 20. Friesen, 208. 21. Friesen, 209. 22. Friesen, 212. 23. Nanette Sawyer, “What Would Huckleberry Do? A Relational Ethic as the Jesus Way,” in An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, 48. 24. Brian D. McLaren and Tony Campolo, Adventures in Missing the Point (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 84. 25. Adventures in Missing the Point, 85. 26. Adventures in Missing the Point, 101. 27. Adventures in Missing the Point, 102. 28. A Generous Orthodoxy, 138.

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     “The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire” (by Edward Gibbon, a six-volume magnum opus printed in 1776) presents Gibbon’s “theory of MORAL DECAY”, that a nation’s prosperity can lead to its eventual DEMISE. HELLO AMERICA!!!

     I’ve done enough research to know that the DECLINE of any nation was / is the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. As one informed Church pastor says so aptly “Prosperity ripened the principle of DECAY” (quoting Gibbon). In the case of Rome, the cause of the DESTRUCTION multiplied with the extent of CONQUEST; and, as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight, hence, the fall!

     Prosperity in abundance = lots and lots of SINS!! (homosexuality being one of them, not a small one either). You see, as I have written dozens of articles in which I said that God used (uses) pagans to punish His erring people, the Jews / Hebrews; in time He raised up other pagans to punish those pagans.

     H.G. Wells (Outline of History) pointed out Rome’s DEMISE also: “…The great Roman Empire was ruined not only from outside by the storming barbarians; but also by the internal financial difficulties, by the indebtedness of all social classes, and by the heavy burden of taxation, until, under these financial burdens, the whole scaffolding of imperialism broke down.”

     The “storming barbarians” referred to Attila and his barbarous hordes. This brutal leader was called by Rome “The Scourge of God”. Rightly so, for he made war against Rome in her last days. Attila hated Rome for her abuse of prosperity, sex sins, etc.

     Was God repaying Rome for her abuse / war against God's Christians? Forward to 2012 — Will God at this time allow (even promote) pagans to PUNISH this nation for her SINS?—especially the SINS of the CHURCH?   I think so.  God is just.

     Not that prosperity ($$$) is evil in itself, only because the LUST of it brings trouble. This cycle of prosperity, decay, decline is as old as history. Will man ever learn from history?

     Has not America come to the pinnacle of success, not giving God any glory? Now she is decaying, declining; constant war, indebtedness, taxation, sexual, moral rot, mockery of God etc., etc. America’s dream has become its nightmare. Depression, despair, defeat,...DEATH!!! Yet, the things I write are mocked. The warnings we put forth are called “fear-mongering”.

     To be sure, America has LOST its fear of God, its authenticity. Snakes, fakes and flakes rule this nation. Actually America has become irrelevant. While there is a renewed “seeking God” stirring, this nation has TONS of SINS to be dealt with. By and large, America does not want to hear about judgment. Well, you’re going to hear it from us anyhow.

     Away with all these “pink” perverted commentaries, sermons, lectures and systematic Theology bull from the Emergent Church, or any other religious quarter. This nation needs a re-acquaintance (with God / Jesus / Bible / Christianity) movement. All this “we apologize to the queers” stuff is really sickening—BARF!!! To HELL with men’s feelings. We need to REPENT and do it sincerely.

     Intolerant!! That’s what I am. The Bible is intolerant of sin. To preach a “different gospel” is tolerant, even praised these days. But to warn the sinner is construed by our opposites as Bad News, not The Good News.

     With this all said, I think the following snippet from Johnny Dodge is a good way to finish up my article (JD is a good friend, a thinker, and a defender of the Christian faith):

  

Separation of RAUNCH and STATE!

[IT’S STILL LEGAL—AND ALWAYS GOD-HONORING—to air messages like the following. See Ezekiel 3:18-19. In light of government backing of raunchy behavior (such offenders were even EXECUTED in early America!), maybe the separation we really need is the “separation of RAUNCH and state”!]

     In Luke 17, in the New Testament, Jesus said that one of the big “signs” that will happen shortly before His return to earth as Judge will be a repeat of the “days of Lot” (see Genesis 19 for details). So queers (a term applied by queers to queers) are actually helping to fulfill this same worldwide “sign” (and making the Bible even more believable!) and thus hurrying up the return of the Judge! They are accomplishing what many preachers haven’t accomplished! Queers couldn’t have accomplished this by just coming out of closets into bedrooms. Instead, they invented strange new architecture—you know, closets opening on to Main Streets where little kids would be able to watch naked men having sex with each other at festivals in places like San Francisco (where their underground saint—San Andreas—may soon get a big jolt out of what is going on over his head!). Thanks, same-sexers, for figuring out how to bring back our resurrected Savior even quicker!

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[Study material has been adapted from its original sources.]