On 5 June, Michael Corley posted How do you make a heretic whine?...., a post I found consistent the with MacArthur/Pyro crowd. The post contained a video of Brian Mclaren at a press conference along with this commentary.
The answer….you give him a mic at a press conference. I have been critcized many times for the use of the term heretic, but in the case of Brian McLaren, it certainly applies. To describe McLaren as a liberal is being unkind to liberals. In this YouTube, McLaren, along with other free-swinging “progressive Christians” such as Jim Forbes, speak at a press conference to whine about how they are not getting their fair share of attention. Boo-hoo!
My comment was that I didn't find any heresy in the remarks nor did I find any whining in the remarks. I found that McLaren makes several fair statements that lead me to the right conclusion that we should stop considering our faith equal to the Republican party. As a side note, I'm not changing my political position but I am willing to say that being a Republican does not equal being a Christian and visa-versa.
I further commented that the remarks made in this post say much more about Corley (and those that applaud this kind of expositing) than it does about McLaren - and it is not positive.
Coincidently, Pulpit Magazine (which I generally find good because of Nathan Busenitz) just posted Scripture and Plain Reason. This is yet another deceptive attack on the true Gospel. While the thesis seems right, pay attention to the details.
"Authentic spiritual discernment must begin with Scripture-revealed truth." This sounds correct in the context it is written but if you have read MacArthur, you know it is written exactly as he means. But the truth is not quite as MacArthur wrote. To rightly understand the Scripture, the truth contained in the Scripture must be revealed by the Holy Spirit, i.e., spiritual discernment or better, Spirit-revealed truth. This may sound like the same thing but in the world of MacArthurism, beware.
He also writes, "Contrary to what a lot of people these days assume, discernment is not a mystical or intuitive ability to know the truth as if by magic." Again, in context this sounds correct but given the author's body of work, it is clear he also refers to the Holy Spirit's ability to speak today in his reference to magic and mystical. The gist of Scripture is that God has and continues to interact with creation. That's not magic nor mystical, it's the nature of God revealed by Him through Scripture.
I have several friends who continue to think they can "dabble" in reading these blogs, books, etc. and somehow glean some truth. I find that ironic because one of the many charges against Charismatics, Emergents, etc. is our willingness to dabble in resources lacking credibility or a Biblical base. Reading these authors I guess proves the point.
Technorati Tags: Emerging Church, Scripture
2 comments:
I appreciate your antenna being up, Rick. I decided a while back to stop reading any Bible-sufficient-cessationist blogs. I need a little more Spirit in my daily food. More than that - I needed less time reading things that I did not find helpful or true so that I could spend more time in the Scripture.
And kudos to you in disparaging the equation of "Christian" with "Republican." I am a conservative but certainly do not think I am because that is the only allowable Christian political perspective.
I'm with you and Robert as well. Only very rarely do I even look at any of those blogs, and certainly wouldn't waste my money on a book. Thanks for saying it.
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