The Dangers of the Emergent Church...

Chapter Sixty-six:

Many believers want more out of their relationship with God. And while this is natural and entirely understandable, this desire is leading many down the wrong path, the path of the Emergent Church. We are being told that we need a new kind of Christianity, which can only come about through drastic changes, because the old ways of the Church are no longer effective.  Emergent leaders want us to break away from what they view as the dead, traditional church with its varied doctrines. They are telling us that new ways and methods are needed, and that Christianity needs to be redefined and transformed.  

And there are plenty of preachers and leaders only too happy to help this change come about. Not only are these people in leadership open to many anti-Biblical practices, but they actively teach them and bring them into the House of God, disguised as ways to get closer to God.  And since most people tend to be trusting, and have not been taught adequately on how to be discerning about false teachers and teachings, these leaders are seldom questioned or challenged about the new direction they are taking their church.  

 

They are bringing in practices from other religions and belief systems (i.e., contemplative meditation, centering prayer, labyrinth walking, breath prayers, mantras), encouraging us to integrate them into our lives so we can finally have that close relationship with God we have wanted.  What needs to be realized is that these people are wolves in sheep's clothing.  Second Corinthians 11:13-15 warns us, "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works."  

Many are being taught in their churches how to have an "experience" with God, in order to reach oneness and feel a mystical union with the divine God.  Evidently, just following the Scriptures and praying to God should no longer be enough to satisfy us.  We are told that all of our five senses need to be used in order to really experience true unity with God, and anything less means we are not reaching our true potential or are settling for less. Sadly, even a fast-growing number of evangelical and Protestant colleges, seminaries, and universities are integrating  emerging ideologies into their schools' curriculum as they have bought into the deception of the emergent philosophy.

One acronym that you may hear in the emergent church is SBNR, which means "Spiritual But Not Religious."  This identifies someone who feels connected to the divine in some way but does not practice or worship in the traditional sense. The emergents' philosophy is that God is already in all people, therefore accepting Jesus Christ as Savior is not necessary. They believe that all religions are just as valid as Christianity, that there are many ways to God, and that all religions contain some wisdom but no one religion contains all wisdom.  

They will not acknowledge that Christianity is uniquely different from all other religions in that it does not agree with the idea that man is basically good (or divine) and consequently can earn his way to Heaven.  Jesus is simply viewed as being a good role model of servant hood and sacrifice that should be followed, and nothing more. This totally contradicts Second Corinthians 5:21 which tells us, "God made him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God",  and Ephesians 1:7 which says, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace".  

And some of the emergent leaders go so far as to deny the Atonement because they do not believe that a loving God would ever put someone on a cross to die. Simply put, the emergent belief system does not believe that man is sinful and in need of a Savior. They do not believe that Jesus Christ came to atone for mankind's sins and a God who would require such a thing is barbaric and cruel, and not the loving God in which they believe. Atonement is not part of this new reformation because all creation is already being saved and unified with God.

They are teaching that there is a need for a change in how we get closer to God.  However, God has not changed how He interacts with mankind, nor has our ability to have a close relationship with Him changed.  There are many places throughout the Scriptures that talk about our natural need to draw closer to Him, and that we hunger and thirst after Him (Psalm 42:1).  It is not the desire for a closer relationship with God that is at question here, but it is the methods and the beliefs behind them. 

We cannot bring in the practices of Eastern religions, mysticism or any other belief system that is contrary to the Scriptures and expect God to look the other way.  In the Old Testament God repeatedly warned the Israelites to stay away from those who held different beliefs  because He knew how detrimental it would be to them if they incorporated them into their lives and the same is true for us today. Following these unbiblical methods and practices will cause distance between us and the true living God as He will not honor them and will have nothing to do with them. By following these false practices we will, instead, open ourselves up to the works of the enemy.

What can be confusing is that these anti-Biblical practices feel so real and convincing.  Those who have experienced them reportedly say that the state of deep meditation they can acquire is wonderful and they enjoy it and feel so much closer to God.  Some have gone so far as to say that what they experience is beyond anything they have ever known, that they feel a sense of ecstasy and so they return to these deceitful practices, desiring more "experiences" of feeling close to God.

Any religion or belief system that does not openly confess our need to accept Jesus' sacrifice for our sins, and does not teach that no one gets to the Father except through Him  (John 14:6), is against God.  Any experiences we have will not be coming from God but will be coming from the great counterfeiter, Satan, who will do whatever he can to make us believe we are experiencing a closer walk with God. I believe this is one reason why Scripture warns us that we are to walk by faith (Second Corinthians 5:7) , because God knows that our feelings can easily mislead us. And, interestingly, the emergent leaders focus a lot on warm feelings and excited emotions as being proof that one is attaining his/her goal of getting closer to God.  

The enemy absolutely hates the message of the Gospel and is doing  whatever he can to distort it and cause people to question it and even walk away from it.  The challenge that faces us, as believers, will be to not allow ourselves to be taken in by these false teachings and seemingly new, innovative ways to get closer to God.  As Ecclesiastes 1:9 reminds us, "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun".  These supposedly new means of getting close to God are simply old, revamped ungodly practices from other religions and belief systems that have been brought into the House of God in the pretext of helping us develop a closer relationship with God. 

If you are in a church or in a small group that has brought in any of these methods of getting you closer to God, you need to run, not walk, away from them and find a church that has not accepted these erroneous teachings. You will need to do your homework, because sad to say, many of these erroneous emergent teachings have infiltrated many churches, and you will be shocked when you start to find out what churches have fallen into this deceptive trap of the enemy. And if you question those who promote these erroneous ideas, you will find them to be very tricky or evasive in how they answer you.  

There will be enough Scripture in what they say so that they sound Biblical in their answers, but if you press them on the important Scriptural teachings (i.e., mankind's need for a Savior, Jesus' atonement on the Cross and  resurrection, and His bringing an end to the enemy's influence over the earth when He returns a second time), that is when you will realize that these people are full of deception.  

What we are experiencing is the result of the watered down Gospel and the new openness to other spiritual beliefs and practices being brought into the House of God.  Psalm 40:4 reminds us, "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods."