In the Wilderness of a Perishing World » Liberal Pragmatism

Through The Lusts Of Their Own Hearts

reburris — Sun, 18 May 2008 16:08:59 +0000

How many so-called Christians think that the Bible is a good book with flaws? There must be quite a few. Consider the Moonies, the Mormons, the Anglicans, the Roman Catholics, the Quakers, the SDA’s, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Emergers… I’d better stop before I offend somebody.

Paul tells us, in Romans 1, that God gives people up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts.

We live in a sex-obsessed culture. Heterosexuals are just as guilty of sin as homosexuals. The flesh is exalted in our mega-churches. Corruption thrives everywhere else men add philosophy or tradition to the plain teaching of the Holy Bible. That guilt conditions people to turn their ears toward reprobates like Gene Robinson.

It’s interesting how nuanced attitudes toward sexual perversion can become. I was just reading an article on Wikipedia that cites the opinion of an ASPCA doctor. He said that no evidence exists to show that beastiality leads to sexual deviation. That’s right, what was once deviation has been reclassified. The Anglicans reclassified homosexuality a long time ago by reclassifying God’s Word prohibiting it. Those parts of scripture became errant and the deviation became acceptable.

The Bible says homosexuality is deviation. Gene Robinson says it is blessed.

The Nine Cracks in the Emergent Pillars – Crack #2

reburris — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:54:48 +0000

We’re examining the Nine Pillars that the Emergent church is founded on. The list of foundational points comes from Brad Cecil.

2. Language is limited

I said that I agree with this point in my first post on this subject. I must now eat crow, because I don’t agree with this point at all. This second excuse is also a matter of pragmatism.

God seems to think language is sufficient enough. The Bible comes to us through words. The LORD used language as the primary means to communicate His will and purpose to men for the last 6,000 years. Take a simple phrase like “the LORD spoke”. That phrase appears 143 times in the Old Testament. Revelation came to men as “the word of the LORD” 242 times in the OT and that phrase can be found 13 times in the New Testament. Paul tells that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10:17).

Satan tempted Jesus after the LORD fasted in the wilderness, telling him to turn a stone into bread. Jesus answered him saying, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4).

Conversation, which Emergents seem to worship, is dependant on language! So, if we concede to this point about language being “limited”, then what is to be accomplished by conversation?

Regressive Churchianity and Homosexual anti-Jesus

reburris — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:44:45 +0000

The Center for Regressive Progressive Churchianity Christianity represents an unbiblical view of Christianity. Their view of Christ is very low. They don’t mind promoting a homosexual anti-Jesus. How is that possible? Well, it’s like Tony Jones says in his latest book, it’s the theology. Tony ought to know, because his theology one of existentialism and doubt.

Let look at the 8 Points of Regressive Churchianity and see what they say about Jesus. Bear in mind that this crowd supports government sponsored abortatoriums and a homosexual anti-Jesus.

Point	Which Jesus?
1. Proclaim Jesus Christ as our Gate to the realm of God	Jedi Mind-trick Jesus Rather than assuming that Jesus is a sacrificial savior, or “The Savior,” this first statement suggests that one can be a Christian by considering oneself a follower of Jesus’ teachings and using his life, as we know it, as a model. It can also be implied that for those Christians Jesus and Jesus’ teaching provide a way to experience, relate to or approach that Energy, that Force or that Presence we choose to call God.
2. Recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the gateway to God’s realm	Space Cadet Jesus Today with our awareness of black holes, post quantum physics, multiple dimensions and multiple and expanding universes, it is impossible to believe that any one religion could have the whole picture or the correct understanding of God, let alone have an exclusive path to that God. To suggest anything else would be at best, arrogant. More importantly, many Christians today find that learning about other religions and even encompassing some practices from these traditions has enhanced their understanding of their own religion, has augmented to their personal religious experiences and deepened their faith.
3. Understand our sharing of bread and wine in Jesus’s name to be a representation of God’s feast for all peoples	Do This to Forget Me Jesus Progressive Christians then assume that we are following the instructions and the model of Jesus when we practice open communion. We are acting out of a long tradition and a fundamental expression of God’s love, the heart of the original Jesus movement. Of course the real challenge is to continue to live our daily lives with that same attitude of openness, or in Dr. Crossan’s words, with radical egalitarianism, after we leave the safety of our sanctuaries.
4. Invite all sorts and conditions of people to join in our worship and in our common life as full partners, including (but not limited to): believers and agnostics, conventional Christians and questioning skeptics, homosexuals and heterosexuals, females and males, the despairing and the hopeful, those of all races and cultures, and those of all classes and abilities, without imposing on them the necessity of becoming like us	Go and Sin More Jesus Progressive Christians take a different approach. From our reading of the gospels, we have come to the conclusion that the followers of Jesus are to welcome all people without imposing on them the necessity of changing their attitudes, their culture, their understanding of the faith, or their sexual orientation. To take this position a step farther, we would also say that the established members of a church should always be alert to the possibility that they are the ones who must do the changing. They always must be ready to adapt themselves to the people they hope to welcome.
5. Think that the way we treat one another and other people is more important than the way we express our beliefs	Whatever You Believe Jesus Because progressive Christians do not demand that new members change to mirror the existing core beliefs of the membership of a church, some people have accused them of having no moral standards. Their accusers, however, may be confusing cultural norms with morality. By putting behavior ahead of belief in a hierarchy of values, progressive Christians are insisting that followers of Jesus are bound to treat their fellow human beings with kindness and respect. … The changes that are required in people who want to follow Jesus would include giving up greed, coercion, exploitation, and oppression as behavioral norms both in the church and in society.
6. Find more grace in the search for meaning than in absolute certainty, in the questions than in the answers	Confucian Confusion Jesus According to the gospels, Jesus rarely gave a straight answer to a straight question. Instead he responded with another question or told a puzzling story. At the risk of disappointing his questioners, Jesus put them in a position of having to think for themselves. Rather than offer his disciples answers to life’s most perplexing problems, Jesus introduced them to deeper and deeper levels of ambiguity. Matthew’s collection of Jesus’s aphorisms, known as the Sermon on the Mount, shows how Jesus confronted his disciples with contradictions.
7. See ourselves as a spiritual community in which we discover the resources required for our work in the world: striving for justice and peace among all people; bringing hope to those Jesus called the least of his sisters and brothers	No Mercy for the Fetus Jesus Jesus experienced God in a profoundly intimate way as the “Parent of all of creation.” As a result of this extraordinary relationship it seems that Jesus, like others who have had such experiences, had a clear vision about the interconnectedness of all life. As part of that reality, Jesus recognized every human being as a child of one God. For him, one’s identity began and ended by simply being God’s child. Any other identifying factor was secondary to this truth and likely a distraction (e.g., family, wealth, status, position). As a child of God, every human deserves dignity and justice regardless of status in this world. Anything less would be an affront to God or sin against God.
8. Recognize that our faith entails costly discipleship, renunciation of privilege, and conscientious resistance to evil–as has always been the tradition of the church	Pick Your Evil Jesus Genuine concern for other people includes resisting any forces that would drain them of energy, deny them sustenance, rob them of dignity, or destroy their hope. Progressive Christians believe that the resistance to evil in society, rather than the enhancement of our social position, has always been both an obligation and an opportunity for those who follow Jesus.

The Nine Cracks in the Emergent Pillars – Crack #1

reburris — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:15:32 +0000

Brad Cecil presents nine pillars that the Emergent church is founded on. The pillars are cracked!

1. Post modern refers to the period after modernity. It appears to “us” that a significant epistemological shift is occurring – the likes of which we haven’t seen in 400 years.

Crack 1. Paul spoke about the present generation of vipers in 2nd Timothy 3. Note that they resist the truth and want to redefine God as being weak. They never come to the knowledge of the truth. They are reprobate concerning the faith.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. (2Ti 3:1-9)

I don’t hear believers disputing the power of God, or being ashamed of biblical truth and faith. I hear practically nothing but those things from Emergers.

My experience in conversing with Emergers is that they refuse to read their Bibles in context. They push their Bibles aside and resort to pragmatism when I show them where they deal with the text deceitfully. They make self-refuting statements and get angry when I point out their error. And when their poor handling of scripture and their fallacious statements are exposed, then they claim that they are being slandered.

That kind of inability to read and process Scripture with integrity points to a corruption of their mind as the problem. The epistemological shift is one away from knowledge grounded in truth toward knowledge grounded in belief. In other words, opinion and pragmatism trump the Word of God. Postmodernism merely tries to validate that shift away from the Holy Bible (truth) as good and progressive. The Word of God says it is bad and regressive. I side with the Word of God, because postmodernism leads away from rationality and not toward it. That much is clear to me from my experience with Emergers.

Disengaging the Bible

reburris — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:18:09 +0000

Brad Cecil has started blogging in defense of the Emergent church. He has a list of points that the Emergent church is founded on. I’m copying them here for discussion.

The Nine Foundational Pillars of the Emergent church

1. Post modern refers to the period after modernity. It appears to “us” that a significant epistemological shift is occurring – the likes of which we haven’t seen in 400 years.
2. Language is limited
3. Human concepts are limited
4. There is no place of irreducible certainty (foundation)
5. Considering the above it would be very difficult to convey absolute meaning using language and human concepts
6. Christian theology has become enslaved to the 1^st order assumptions of modernity and is far more Cartesian than Christian and has become ashamed of faith
7. A Reformation of recognition and repentance is needed
8. New theological thought is needed to free Christian theology from the enslavement of modernity and enlightenment assumptions and conversation and friendships would be more productive than developing imperatives.
9. This is just the beginning of the transition and a great deal of work and theological thought lay ahead for those who desire to join the conversation.

Being a Cartesian rube, I don’t get it. I’m sure the postmodern schoolmen will disagree, but my rejection of this is not based on ignorance. My rejection of it is based on the Holy Bible.

I can agree with points two and three, but I don’t don’t agree with points one and four. So point five doesn’t follow. And the remaining points are not supported. In other words the last four are founded on the fifth, which is founded on the first four. You’ve got about one-half of a foundation there, and the walls are unsupported. (Please accept my apology for mixing metaphors. Pillars, structural elements, …)

Jesus Christ is Truth and He is The Foundation. So this attempt to reduce him to a weak god does not fly.

Resurrection without Atonement?

reburris — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 15:53:33 +0000

Lighthouse Trails (LT) has in interesting article about so-called churches that celebrate Easter while denying the purpose for which Christ died.

Given that today is Easter 2008, I thought I should add as much as I can to the LT article. The list of names cited by LT is not comprehensive, by any means.

Other names come to my mind when I think of men who deny the atonement. Jeffrey John comes to mind, for instance. He compares penal substitutionary atonement to "divine child abuse". Marcus Borg comes to mind. Borg, a Jesus Seminar fellow, doesn’t think that most of the Bible is literally true. John Shelby Spong comes to mind. Spong, another Jesus Seminar fellow, believes that modernism and postmodernism calls for Christians to embrace universalism and existentialism.

So, I have but a few names to add. I could add many more. Just follow the links, dear reader. Who is at the root of the latest "progressive Christian" movements? Who are their influences? How does secular philosophy enter into it? What are they really saying about the Holy Bible?

He that hath an ear, let him hear!

Forced Ecumenism in Canada

reburris — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:15:46 +0000

Lighthouse Trails has an article on a Canadian ministry that has been pressured to quit defending Christianity against attacks by other religions. Keith and Lori MacGregor refused to bow to government threats to compromise their teaching, or lose their tax exempt status. This is good news to the those who have been in the business of compromising biblical truth for decades.

Worldnet Daily has more on this story. Other people, like Dawn Stefanowicz, speak of Canada’s repressive hate crimes laws. Stefanowicz claims that people can be charged with hate crimes in Canada for simply speaking honestly in their own homes about behavior or “lifestyles” that they find to be harmful. It sounds as though a spiteful child could accuse their parents of hate speech, and stir up a lot of trouble for Mom and Dad.

The MacGregor’s were “forced out” of Canada in the sense that they felt they had been targeted for persecution.

Pragmatism as the "new" test of truth?

reburris — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:12:22 +0000

Relevant Christian has a post by Joe Martino. He makes a whining argument for pragmatism as a basis for letting heretical teaching go unchallenged.

I get tired of the Bible being used as the final shock and awe weapon to win the battle. I just don’t believe that when God wrote this love letter He intended for us to use it as a battering ram to win arguments. Anybody can claim that what they believe is backed by the Bible. Anybody can say their way is the most Biblical way. They are the one’s defending the truth. Heck, there is an even a Blog where some one has decided to call themselves the “Keepers of Christ’s Truth.” They tell us, Right now, Truth is under attack, and much is at stake.” So I just want to get this strait: The same God who created the entire universe, who has kept the Bible preserved through countless attacks. The same God who reconciled all men to Himself through the sacrificial death, burial and resurrection of His Son needs some guy with a BLOG to defend the Truth? That’s retarded. That goes beyond any sane, reasonable train of thought. It bugs me to no end.

Martino clearly alludes to Doug Pagitt and Rob Bell as “godly men” who are being unfairly attacked by bible-thumpers. Brother Joe is under the tutelage of Seminary professors. That explains quite a bit!

Sorry, Joe. You should study up on these guys before you defend them.

****

UPDATE: 03/21/2008

Be sure and read the comments. Brother Joe stopped by to demonstrate his fruits of the spirit. Joe likes to run house churches and demonstrate his contempt for youth ministry.

UPDATE: 03/24/2008

Brother Joe Martino dropped by again to lecture on repentance and tell us that Rob Bell is his pastor.