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Part 2 - What to Watch For
Though the list below is far from exhaustive, here are some points to consider about the new Postmodern/Emergent "Evangelicals." Points to look out for are:
1) The downplaying of the ultimate authority and importance of the Bible.
Most heretical teachers won't come right out and flatly deny the Bible, but countless liberals, Emergents, and those of the Postmodern mindset use differing techniques to redefine the Bible.
Some merely bemoan biblical inerrancy, accepting only part of the Bible as accurate and teaching a limited soteriology. To them I ask: How do we know the Bible is accurate on salvation if it's not on creation or history? Others use the popular tag "Let's not argue about the Bible. After all, it's all about Jesus, right?" Really? How does one accept what Jesus said and what the Bible teaches about Him and then try to deny portions of Scripture? According to John 1:1 and 1:14, Jesus is the Word of God incarnate! They are inseparable.
Then others simply want to fashion Christianity into an unrecognizable religion yet call it Christianity.
Popular author, Phyllis Tickle, states: "Now, some five hundred years later (after Luther), even many of the most die-hard Protestants among us have grown suspicious of 'Scripture and Scripture only.' We question what the words mean - literally? Metaphorically? Actually? We even question which words do and do not belong in Scripture..." (The Great Emergence, p.46).
Along with his affinity against Israel, his opposition to biblical eschatology, his pro-gay marriage position, and his belief that there is no Hell, Brian McLaren contends that being orthodox is "how we search for a kind of truth" (i.e., it's all about "the journey," where nothing is absolute, and not actually the truth itself. He believes that right behavior trumps right beliefs (see A Generous Orthodoxy, p.28).
Emergent/Postmodern so-called theologian Tony Jones says, "The emerging church is a place of conversation and movement. Where that's going to go, we don't know. We're figuring this out together. We don't have an agenda of what it looks like at the end of the road. We just want to gather up people who are on this road, who want to go together on it" (PBS Special, July 15, 2005).
Perhaps as disturbing is McLaren's contention that "Missional Christian faith asserts that Jesus did not come to make some people saved and others condemned. Jesus did not come to help some people be right while leaving everyone else to be wrong. Jesus did not come to create another exclusive religion (based on beliefs)" (A Generous Orthodoxy, p.120).
2) Redefinition of previously Orthodox terms
When my friend Pastor Chris Bayer and I attended Brian McLaren's "Everything Must Change" tour stop at Nampa, Idaho, February 7-9, 2008, he stated that:
a.) Jesus' use of the term "Kingdom of God" was political and not spiritual. Calling it a "peace network," "eco-system of God," or God's "global love economy," he said that it is up to us to bring it to pass.
b.) The word salvation means us saving the planet!
c.) McLaren intimated that when passages like John 3:16 refer to the word "world," it really means physical Earth and not the lost humans on it!
McLaren confirms this outlandish idea in his book A Generous Orthodoxy, stating, "For the first time, through the EASTERN JESUS, I began to have a glimpse of how Jesus could indeed be the Savior of not just a few individual humans but of the whole world" (A Generous Orthodoxy, p.65).
He further confirms this notion in a footnote relating to this statement on page 66, stating, "By the 'whole world,' I do not necessarily mean every individual in it, but rather, I mean the cosmos, creation, the earth in history...."
3) Abandonment of orthodox doctrines
This is usually selectively and, again, with redefinitions. I caution particularly that you not look just for errors in what is being taught but carefully watch for essentials of the Faith that are being ignored and left out of the overall teaching of those who claim to be evangelicals. Omission - to ignore what one doesn't like - is part of our fallen Adamic nature and is an important key to understanding what is happening in evangelicalism today.
4) Redefine the Mission and Purpose of the Church
The term "evangelical" previously meant bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ. Now, at least to some, it's defined as bringing people into a setting that claims to be the Church in order to experience the journey of their earthly lives, including the notion that by their participation they are thus extended salvation. We could expect this from outright liberal heretics such as Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who began her tenure by announcing to the 2009 General Convention that the teaching of personal salvation is "the great Western heresy: that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God" (Associated Press, OneNewsNow, July 9, 2009).
Tragically, numerous "new evangelicals" ascertain that the Church has never previously had it right and now teach this idea of collective, corporate salvation. Perhaps you have never encountered this heresy, but it is now circulating through once truly evangelical circles; the Scriptures soundly refute it concerning repentance (Mark 1:15, 6:12; Luke 5:32, 13:3-7; Acts 2:38, 3:19, 8:22; II Peter 3:9; Rev 3:3), and belief, confession, and acceptance of Jesus' redemptive sacrifice for our own sins (I John 4:15, 5:1-5, 5:10-13; Romans 10:9-10, 13; Acts 4:12; John 3:3-7, 3:16, etc.).
The Results
a.) Corrupted Theology
b.) Corrupted Christology
c.) Corrupted Pneumatology
d.) Corrupted Ecclesiology
e.) Degraded standard for behavior, conduct, and practice
f.) Blurring of the lines between religions (i.e. ecumenism, universalism)
g.) Perverted view of or no interest in Bible Prophecy
The entire problem facing the Church today boils down to our willingness to accept the supremacy and ultimate authority of the Bible. Unless we and our leaders are wholly submitted to its teaching we are surely headed for shipwreck.
Evangelicalism is experiencing nothing less than a "Satanic Redo" mirroring the liberal destruction and apostasies of 100-150 years ago. Just as a century ago, the battle is over the Word of God. But that's really no surprise when one considers Lucifer's first communication to mankind: "Hath God Said?"
Resources:
Understanding The Times Radio, "The 'New' Confused Evangelicals" June 22, 2013 edition. Listen at: http://www.olivetreeviews.org/radio/complete-archives
"The Errors of the Emergent Church" http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs018/1102797716062/archive/1103598980519.html
"How to Spot Emergent Church in YOUR Church" (article and downloadable pamphlet)
Follow Eric Barger on Twitter @ericbarger77 and
on Facebook at Eric Barger/Take A Stand! Ministries.
Get it all at www.ericbarger.com. | 
