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Emergent Church leaders are into the social gospel of the early 1920s, a failure and departure from the Word now as then. One of the EC leaders admitted that the EC is a protest movement, so what do they protest? Many EC leaders would consider Bible-believers as Neanderthals because of our positions on abortion, homosexuality, death penalty, etc. (What is the Emerging Church? Protest by  Scot  McKnight.)

A professor of religious studies at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago and EC leader expressed the social activism of EC leaders aptly when he wrote, “I tell my friends that I have voted Democrat for years for all the wrong reasons. I don’t think the Democratic Party is worth a hoot, but its historic commitment to the poor and to centralizing government for social justice is what I think government should do.” (Scot McKnight, Talk:Main Page website,  1/19/2007.)

Someone should inform Scot that government should not be centralized and there is no constitutional mandate for “social justice” as perceived, promoted, and preached by EC leaders. Moreover, for sure, there is no biblical mandate for government to do so, although individual Christians are responsible to help the poor, treat people fairly, visit the sick, feed the hungry, etc.

So, according to McLaren what was Christ’s purpose? Brian says it was “to proclaim the Kingdom of God, which is God’s will being done on Earth.” And what is God’s will on earth? Brian confirmed that the Emergent Church was more focused on “social action than trying to convert people to Christianity.” (Impact News, “Sojourners Chairman: Jesus Cared More About Earth Than Heaven,” 6-4-07.) Well, he is correct about the EC social action; however, the Apostle Paul disagreed with McLaren: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15). So whom do we believe, Brian McLaren or the Apostle Paul?

McLaren posits an “evangelical” vision that emphasizes tolerance and social justice more than sinners repenting and believing the Gospel of Christ. He and other EC leaders are more interested in universal health care, elimination of global poverty, the environment, the minimum wage, etc., than getting men to know Christ in the forgiveness of sins.

Brian is on the board of Sojourners Magazine and its mission statement is left wing social action: “Our mission is to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.” (Sojourners’ website.)

Sojourners promotes immigration reform and seems to justify illegal aliens in a press release that began: “When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the stranger.  The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you.  You shall love the stranger as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” (Lev. 19:33-34.)

No Christian can object to that passage; however, EC devotees overlook two salient facts: Illegal aliens have broken US laws and are here unlawfully. Furthermore, the above Scripture instructs individuals how to respond to strangers. It does not instruct nations how to deal with lawbreakers. On the Sojourners’ website, they promote a CD sermon titled, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Of course, as individuals and as a nation we welcome visitors but not lawbreakers.

Rick Warren’s global plan is pure social gospel. He told a crowd of 30,000 on the 25^th anniversary of his Saddleback Valley Community Church at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, “I’m looking at  a stadium full of people who are telling God they will do whatever it takes to establish God’s Kingdom ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’ ” Rick knows better than that.

Samir Selmanovic, EC leader in New York, recommended by Brian McLaren, Tony Campolo, etc., says his ministry seeks “to bring progressive Jews, Christians, Muslims, and spiritual seekers of no faith to become an interfaith community for the good of the world. We have one world and one God.” (from Faith House project website.)

That’s where we are headed—into a one-world religion led by aberrant, arrogant, asinine, and apostate “Evangelicals” who don’t know or believe the true Gospel and babble incoherently about a discredited, deviate, and deadly social gospel.

Tags: Emergent Church, emerging church, new age, social gospel