One of the biggest waves in Christianity today is the rise of what is called the “emerging church.” These are churches which attempt to connect with the culture through conducting services and teaching theology which is relevant to the mindset of modern young Americans. A number of large and growing churches fall into this category, such as Mark Driscoll’s Mars Hill in Seattle and Erwin McManus’ Mosaic in Pasadena, CA.
However there are some inside of the emerging church movement whose attempts to connect with the culture lead to gross Biblical negligence. They begin to equivocate and compromise on certain unbecoming doctrines, such as the status of homosexuality as a sin, the existence of Hell, or God’s knowledge and control of the future. This includes teachers such as Brian McLaren and Rob Bell, both of whom have successful books on the market to go along with the megachurches they pastor.
What I have included below is a link to a recent message from Mark Driscoll concerning the specific trends and beliefs of those who have been given the label of emerging. I found this to be a very enlightening survey of the prominent American pastors and what they are truly teaching in the pulpits and book pages that are influencing the rising generation of young Christians. I believe that this is a worthwhile listen for anyone interested in current trends of the American church. Enjoy!
March 28, 2008 at 11:50 pm |
It’s no different then the Church’s past practices: seeing as how I never recall hearing scripture in church of God endorsing the early wartime practices of the Hebrews, such as child killing, and rape; but those verses are in the Bible. Point is this: the message will always evolve with the times, or fall into obscurity.
March 29, 2008 at 4:48 pm |
Joe Zus,
Thank you for taking the time to read my posts and leave comments. I am currently out of town but I will have a reply posted for you on Monday or Tuesday. Have a nice weekend.
April 1, 2008 at 1:34 pm |
Joe, I beg to differ. First, any acts of war that God commanded were permissible, but to my knowledge He never commanded rape as a means of conquering. Yes, there are verses where He instructs the Hebrews to take the women of the people as their own, and yes, occasionally the Hebrews acted beyond what god called them to (see Genesis 34, for which acts the offenders were punished in chapter 49), but if one takes a look at the whole canon of scripture they see God’s full purpose and consistency in all that He commanded.
That said, there are plenty of good churches left in America which are unafraid to teach from those verses. And let’s be honest, it is those which are “unafraid.” The problem is that too many churches have made a decision to be “relevant” even to the point at which they throw out the Bible and start making a god which fits their own subjective desires (see a theme forming with before?). Sure, the methods can change, but the message, if it is the true Bible teaching, is always the same.
May 8, 2008 at 4:09 am |
“permissible”…that’s where on a fundamental level I must differ. I cannot accept that right or wrong can be/ or should be dependent on divine sanction. I would argue that right/wrong or good/evil exist outside divine arbitration. The basis for this argument even exists within the bible Gen 3:5 from the serpent and Gen 3:22 from the divine host??? Never really had a good explanation for the plurality in the yahwehist texts.