Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! (Isaiah 5:20-21, ESV)

Know Who These Men Are

We now finish up our look at Emergent Church theologian Tony Jones’ post “Is Emergent the New Christian Left 2: Tony Jones takes on Chuck Colson and ‘true truth’ ” which appeared on Leadership Journal’s blog Out of Ur. In Part One the critical point I make is that no true preacher sent by God is going to dare argue against people’s ability to receive the very message His Master has sent him with. The fact is that in this particular Isaiah 6:9-10 generation, we are already distressed enough that our Lord is now so fed up with mankind’s flagrant and blatant disregard for His Word that He has sent us forth with this ministry:

He said, “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9-10)

Yet bringing confusion into our Lord’s Church is specifically what divisive spirits like Tony Jones and Brian McLaren and Living Spiritual Teacher Richard Foster in the highly schismatic neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church are doing as these men argue against our ability to perceive God’s absolute Truth all the while spreading their own brand of Gnosticism. And since we know that God is not the Author of confusion (see–1 Corinthians 14:33), then they are speaking for the only other spirit there is, the Devil himself, which reveals that these men are among the:

people [who] have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ…relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority…these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them!

These are blemishes on your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, looking after themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted… These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. (4,8,10-12,16-19, ESV).

The Seeker Sensitive Model For The Rebel

It needs to be loudly pointed out to the Church community that ministers like myself–and we praise the Lord for a growing number of others–are not the ones who are actually causing division within the Body of Christ. You see if the Emergent Church hadn’t come “emerging” out of the Church of our Lord in the first place then we would have no criticisms to be defending ourselves against. Never forget that it is these men who have run with their disparagement of the Reformed faith of true Biblical Christianity. Men and women, look up the word emerge and you’ll see that this seeker sensitive model for the postmodern rebel against authority has come out of, and therefore away from, the historic orthodox Christian faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3, NKJV). And if you don’t think the EC is simply another branch of the Church Growth Movement, then consider that it was in fact begun through Leadership Network, and that the book The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball has running commentary throughout from his “friend” Rick Warren the Purpose Driven Church Guru himself. And Kimball was there at the very beginning, and despite my personal interactions with him, he continues to be a leading voice for this warped and toxic Emergent philosophy (see–Colossians 2:8).

This now brings up a final point I wish to address before we return more specifically to Tony Jones, Dan Kimball’s friend and National Coordinator of Emergent-US. How many times I hear Emergents proudly announce that the churches involved in the EC are so diverse that it’s really impossible to cover “the Emerging Church Movement” itself. Men and women, if you are not ready for this red herring when you dialogue with people in the EC you will quickly find yourself “wrestling with the serpent.” This is because, like anything Satan does, there is always an element of truth within his lies that he then twists and mangles. So here’s the bedrock issue: Yes, now the EC is quite diverse, however, it had a beginning prior to becoming “diverse.” This is what we focus on. The leaders who began this movement were at best neo-orthodox in their view of the Bible. Essentially this means they were already predisposed to subjective “feelings” about what they think that God is saying in Scripture and not necessarily going by specifically what the text says. And this doomed the EC from the beginning because once you turn your back on God’s Word He will in turn abandon you to your own reprobate ideas (see–Romans 1:28).

As such then this movement itself, no matter how many “nice” and “sincere” people may now have become a part of it, began as a rebellion against the absolute Truth and final authority of Holy Scripture. This brings it under the following judgment from the LORD God Almighty Himself – “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit” (Matthew 7:18). Therefore, no matter how “good” this Emergent Church may appear on the surface the Master is now expecting those men He has elevated to leadership within the evangelical community to – “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment” (John 7:24). And the correct “judgment” in the case of the spiritually corrupt “tree” of the EC of the new evangelicalism is to act upon what Jesus has already told us, a bad tree – the Emerging Church rebelling against the correct Reformed view of the Bible, which just happens to be the same view Christ our Lord has – cannot bear good fruit. The reason God has allowed this EC movement into His Church is to test us as to what we are going to do about it. The very fact that it is so ecumenical–in direct defiance of Reformed theology–should have alerted evangelical leaders long ago that we are not dealing with a move of the Holy Spirit.

“Thy Word Is Truth”

Now there are those who take umbrage when the Truth is pointed out this bluntly, but if this is how you feel then the time has arrived for you personally to grow up (see–Hebrews 5:11-14). We must come to realize this spiritual war is not a game and those with eyes to see know that it has now escalated into a battle for Truth within the Body of Christ itself. In A Storm Is Coming I have done what I can to alert those who will listen that the time in which we live requires that we must now cry out to the Lord so He will send us warriors with the spiritual backbone to take the fight right back to these enemy forces who now brazenly mock our God from within His Own Church. It was our Great God and Savior–Christ Jesus Himself Who said – “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (Matthew 11:12). Tony Jones, Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt, Dan Kimball, pick up your Bible and refute me if you can! For you Christian agnostics say that truth is relational (read: relative) and therefore not perceivable as an absolute. This is because through the practice of the Gnostic mysticism known as contemplative spirituality you now have your “missional” views of praxis precedes doctrine exactly backward.

As you saw in Part One of this piece concerning Emergent theologian Tony Jones, who continues to become more visible, is arguing that absolute truth isn‘t knowable objectively. Here I ask the reader to be willing to bear with the only way we can deal with this ridiculous argument because it almost reduces us to speaking gibberish. Tony Jones, you say that we can’t know truth with certainty because our perception of truth is “inevitably influenced by the communities in which we find ourselves.” This sounds good to the unregenerate and depraved nature of mankind, but I pick up my Bible and show you 1 John 5:13 – “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. Jesus Christ often began a statement with “I tell you the Truth”; in fact I count 30 times in Matthew’s Gospel alone. In John 17:17 the Master says to the Father – “Sanctify them through Thy Truth: Thy Word is Truth” (John 17:17, KJV), and as the Living Word of God this is why Jesus could say – “I Am the Truth.” All of these things would be pointless if we are unable to understand Truth with certainty. And how does one explain the martyrs who were so willing to give their very lives for the absolute Truth they believed in?

So Tony Jones, like Luther before me I say: “I am prepared to believe a man only when he can prove his position from Scripture, which has never erred.” O that God would raise up leaders in the Body of Christ who adamantly insist we return to doing what God has said in the Bible instead of allowing these fools to preach this skubalon under the guise of Christian ministers. If Jones cannot receive this teaching it may well be because – The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14, ESV). And yet in the post concerning Colson’s CT article we read Tony Jones saying:

But if I can try to surmise Colson’s meaning from the subtitle of the essay, he means to indicate that we in the emerging church have placed too much weight on “relational” or “experiential” theories of truth. The gospel is true, Colson seems to be saying, regardless of your human experience of that truth.

But philosophically, the obvious follow-up question is, Why? What makes the gospel true, especially if those of us in the world have no experience of its truthfulness? Is it true because Chuck Colson says so? Because Augustine said so? Because Paul said so? Is it true because, as Karl Barth might say, God’s revelatory action that breaks into our space-time continuum? But isn’t even that subject to our interpretation of the event?

The Emerging Christian Agnosticism

And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken (Luke 18:34).

Can you believe this? Here is a man who is supposed to be a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ doing his best to present the case for the philosophy of relativism and cast aspersions as to whether or not anyone can ever really know anything for sure. Can you see why I have begun to call this Christian agnosticism, and it is only going to get worse the longer the Lord tarries. Now let me make sure the reader understands that I take very serious issue myself with Chuck Colson for being an integral part of the Evangelicals And Catholic Together document which denies the Reformed theology he says he believes in. However, what Jones is talking about above is an attack on the veracity of the message of the Gospel itself. What kind of discussion are we reading here? Colson is telling the absolute truth in this case, the EC does place “too much weight on ‘relational’ or ‘experiential’ theories of truth.” Those who have read what Jones himself has said already know Colson has accurately assessed this about the EC. And again Colson is right when he says “regardless of your human experience of that truth” God’s Gospel is true. To think otherwise is simply ridiculous because by definition we must let God be true and every man a liar (Romans 3:4).

Tony, you ought to know better, it doesn’t matter one iota whether “subjective human beings, trapped in our own skins and inevitably influenced by the communities” want to believe the Gospel or not, it doesn’t change the absolute and objective fact that it is truly the only way God is going to save anybody. Whatever the Lord says is true, and He is under no obligation whatsoever to offer salvation to anyone anywhere. But herein we hit the crux of the matter with mankind’s sinful rebellion against his Creator in the first place, because of our unregenerate human nature and reasoning, to borrow a phrase: “We want what we want and we want it now.” And here we have also uncovered the very heart of the Emergent Church and its so-called “postmodern” culture: selfishness and wanting the freedom to do things the way they want to do them. Men and women, if Jones and his Emergent Church wants to present a different gospel they are more than welcome to do so, but they have no right to do so under the pretense of being true Christians according to the Bible. The time has arrived for us to wake up and realize that Tony Jones isn’t telling the truth, nor are the leaders in this ill-fated neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church.

If you still need proof of the spirit of rebellion behind these deceiving spirits and their things taught by demons, I close with these words from Tony Jones himself:

We want the church to reclaim its place as the authoritative community of interpretation of scripture, culture, and human existence. We want Christians to be engaged politically and culturally, and we want to provoke robust and respectful dialogue around issues that matter. Many of us think that the polemical nature of the church today precludes just this kind of necessary conversation. So, we’re going ahead and doing it, with or without the imprimatur of evangelical elites like Colson and [Dr. D.A.] Carson.

If that’s a compelling vision for you, then jump on board, we’re glad to have you. If, however, you’d like to first see our doctrinal statement on penal substitution or read a position paper on homosexuality, then Emergent Village isn’t for you.

Here Tony Jones and I are in complete agreement. The absolute truth is that this Emergent Church of antichrist spirit is no place for the true child of the Father, purchased by the blood of the Lamb of God and kept by the power of the Spirit of Truth.

If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord…and obey Him…to obey is better than sacrifice…