Anyone who reads my blog, rupeba.se, regularly can not have failed to notice that I am not particularly enamored with what is called the Emerging Church movement. In fact it's even worse than that. I see the preaching in the Emerging Church as a major threat to Bible-based authentic Christianity in our time.
Well aware that I generalize, I would still highlight some salient features of the Emerging Church to clarify why I see it as a great danger.
The Bible is not the prescriptive (authoritarian) book in the Emerging Church. The Bible is a supplemental addition equated with other viewpoints and comments in the discussions. The result is that the Christian lives in a quagmire which consists of what I think, feel and hear others say.
The concepts of sin and salvation is almost non-existent in the Emerging Church. If there is no right or wrong or sin, there is no need for salvation and forgiveness, which makes Jesus' death on the cross completely meaningless.
The talk about heaven and hell is mostly focused on our living conditions here on Earth. In the end, all people will be saved, some prior to their earthly death and others subsequent to death. This naturally lessens the Christian zeal to win others for Christ.
The different religions can be perceived as different paths to God.
I see the Emerging Church as the old liberal theology in modern garb. The intention of both liberal theology and the Emerging Church is positive. The intent is to make it easier for people to believe, and to remove or reinterpret those parts of the Bible and Christian doctrine that’s deemed offensive to modern man.
The risk is obvious. In their eagerness to presents the Gospel to today’s generations they find it simplest to do so by presenting a completely different gospel than what is in the Bible, and consequently it becomes a devious heresy.
Peter Baronowsky
Translation into English Sven Ljunbholm
Peter Baronowsky
Translation into English Sven Ljunbholm
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