Detecting Emergent Churches Soteriology Part 3

Detecting Emergent Churches Soteriology
Detecting if your church is an Emergent Church
By David Cox

This is our continuing examination of the Emergent Church movement, looking at what are the signs of the Emergent Church, so that we can detect if our church is going emergent.

What is a “gospel”?

A “gospel” means literally in Greek a “good news”. This good news concept is that single most important thing that you and your life constantly focuses on. For a true Christian, their gospel is that Jesus died on the cross to save them from their sins and from the penalty of their sins. Christ’s work removes sin actually from our lives (santification) as well as removing the guilt and punishment of sin in eternity so that we may live forever with God in eternal bliss.

A gospel is something that centers a person on this gospel. When you meet somebody new, this is what you want to communicate to them, and that is because it is truly “good” to you, and you want to share that “good”.

One of the key concepts of this “gospel” is that everything is set aside to the importance of “being born again.”

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

Nothing else in Scripture is of the same priority as a man being saved.

Matt 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

There is a forceful repetition or re-presenting of the Gospel message, over and over again in any biblical NT church. Moreover, this importance is seen in almost everything they do. How a person acts “in church” and “in the world” are outworkings of what that new life in them is doing.

This Emergent Church movement has moved and removed the true gospel to be something else. Paul warns us…

Gal 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Gal 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Gal 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Gal 1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

No other “Gospel” can be accepted

It is extremely clear in Scripture that as Christians, we already have our Gospel, and we must live our Gospel given to us in Scripture. By that I mean that we must focus our life on communicating that Gospel to others.

For the Emergent Church, they teach that everybody is already or will be saved, so there is no good news to be received nor treasured as Christianity has always taken it. Furthermore they work forcibly to oppose the extension of the Gospel because they consider incorrect the condemning of those religions and people with opposing religious beliefs. Since (to them) everybody will eventually end up in heaven, why insult others by saying that their beliefs about salvation “don’t work” or “are wrong” when in fact (according to the Emergent Church) they will get to heaven having those beliefs we would condemn as being wrong.

You cannot have it both ways. Either we have the true and only gospel, or any belief about salvation and eternity will work. They would even say “no beliefs” (agnosticism really) will also get those people to heaven.

Emergent Church Salvation and Gospel

What the Emergent Church espouses as their plan of salvation is very simple humanism. This is a man centered thinking instead of a God centered thinking. It ignores to denies God as the center of power and importance and refocuses on man. By means of a social gospel, they think that this is the essential form of salvation.

In a social gospel there is really no sin as the Bible presents it. Sin is God’s fault because sin is simply people having needs. Salvation becomes the giving to these people their needs.

Have buzzword phrases like “Missional Christianity,” “Incarnational Christianity,” “Conversational Christianity” and “Relational Christianity” been attached to the identity of your church? Barger

In other words, by you being friendly to somebody, you become their Messiah, their Savior. Sounds good at first, but it is not. You are not pointing them to Jesus as an evangelist or a giving of a testimony, but rather, that is it. Only what help you give, in bringing them a box of food, that is salvation, and there is nothing besides it. Well, maybe next week all over again.

Being in or out?

Notice that in the Emergent Church’s leaders, they are really messed up about what is “church”. Church by definition is a group of truly saved people who meet for the purposes of God, which are to do God’s work of evangelism (and missions) and mutual edification.

But the Emergent Church leaders want to mix into this large numbers (which is equivalent to “good”) of people that are not necessarily saved. These people mixed into the church are not to give up their heathen ideas, and the church is not to evangelize them. They just “co-habit”. To get these people, the church has to change to be like what these people want. If they are night club / disco type people who drink, the church has to become that for them.

If the biblical gospel is not anywhere in sight here, just why is the church sacrificing and serving heathen in their sinful heathenism? It makes no sense. The biblical gospel has to have a priority, and be an essential aspect of everything the church does. To force it out of activities, out of the structure of the church, out of the doctrines and teachings and preachings of the church is wrong. It is spiritual suicide. But this is essentially where this movement wants to take every single church. They want to destroy biblical churches off of the planet.

Being a Seeker Friendly Church

On a final note, the Emergent Church likes to use the concept of a “Seeker friendly church.” By this they mean that they want somebody unsaved coming to Christ to feel comfortable with them. No shoes required, no tie, no coat, come as you are. This concept is based on the idea that God has to make us comfortable or we will not come to Him. This is so wrong on so many levels. We must confess our sins, repent, and abandon them, or we will not be saved. This concept of being seeker friendly does not go with biblical salvation nor evangelism.

If from the beginning a person is not coming to God on God’s terms, then something is very wrong, and that person will never be saved. We do not “clean ourselves up” to be presentable to God, we come as we are. But at the same time, once we confront God, and God confronts us with his objections to our life (our sins), we give up everything God says is sin. If that is not in the equation, you are not saved.