The Emerging Evangelical Apostasy

Evangelicalism in the american context originally referred to the faith preached in the 1st and 2nd Great Awakenings by Whitefield, Wesley, Edwards, and others. It differed from reformation theology in its emphasis on the New Birth (regeneration) as necessary for salvation. It called for a return to a living faith more closely resembling New Testament Christianity than the dead orthodoxy that commonly prevailed. Looking back, we today imagine great crowds thronging to hear the words of these evangelists. But we seldom learn that all these men were persecuted and driven from the churches because of the gospel they preached.

Gradually the theology of Evangelicalism became dominant in America, if not its living substance, and became a driving force behind the social gospel of postmillenialism and changing the world and bringing in the Kingdom through political as well as spiritual means. Evangelicalism's failure to grasp the biblical doctrine of two opposing kingdoms, our heavenly citizenship, and our being strangers and aliens on earth was in part responsible for the Civil War, and then as the social gospel supplanted the gospel of personal redemption, the rise theological liberalism. A minority of Christians held to the gospel of Christ crucified and the authority of the Scriptures and began to take a stand for the historic orthodox Christian faith in the face of growing modernism in the Evangelical Church. This minority joined hands across denominational lines to stand for a small set of "fundamentals" of the faith that were then under assault. Doctrines like the authority of Scripture, the divinity and virgin birth of Christ, the Trinity, the bodily resurrection of Christ, and the substitutionary atonement of Christ were all defended against the growing dominance of theological modernism. These defenders of orthodoxy were castigated, persecuted, and labeled fundamentalists. Having lost the battle for control of the denominations, they either separated from the apostate churches or were driven out. They then built their own churches, schools, and denominations to carry on the war with modernism, adopting a strategy of separation from everything that was contaminated by apostasy.

The problem with Fundamentalism is that it emerged as a reaction to nineteenth century American Evangelicalism's apostasy into theological Liberalism. It was never truly a return to New Testament Christianity. It defined itself too much by what it was against rather than simply standing for the gospel. It started by crusading for the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible, the virgin birth, and the substitutionary atonement. Then went after demon rum, card playing, movies, and tobacco. Today some fundamentalists still crusade against long hair, wire-rim glasses, and women's pants, and don't forget the great King James Only crusade, condemning all other translations and the earliest Greek manuscripts and their readers to eternal hellfire. "If the King James Bible was good enough for Jesus and the Apostles, it's good enough for me" is almost guaranteed a hearty "Amen" in most fundamentalist churches, being a sorry measure of the Biblical ignorance of the average church-goer and his preacher. Fundamentalism began as an ecumenical defense of orthodox Christianity but transmuted into a crusade against liberalism and modernism in all its forms, Jesus and His words often finding little place in the sermon, and only given a tip of the hat during the altar call.

[The above of course is a generalization. This is not true of all who are labeled fundamentalists. There are yet some who truly seek to hold to Christ and His Word.]

Then in reaction to reactionary Fundamentalism, Neo-evangelicalism [new Evangelicalism as opposed to the american Evangelicalism of the 1st and 2nd Great Awakenings) emerged in the post WWII years as an attempt to make biblical Christianity more attractive to the American public. It seems that fundamentalism was perceived by America as being too separatist and divisive, anti-intellectual and uncompromising. It was determined that in order for the gospel to receive a hearing and broad acceptance in America, the Church would need to change her ways and become more like mainstream America, which is to say, more worldly.

Men like Billy Graham, Harold Ockenga, and others were convinced that the way to win souls to Christ was not to remain separate from the mainstream culture, but to enter it and bring Christ into the market place, the university, the government, and the world of entertainment. The idea being that when sinners came to see that Christians were really no different than they were, they would then feel the gospel was no threat to their way of life and would feel free to accept Jesus Christ as Savior. So the seeds were sown for the church growth movement and the seeker friendly church.

Men, who claimed the Bible to be the authoritative and infallible guide, turned away from the Word of God to seek the wisdom of men. Having now discarded the New Testament Church as the assembly of the Saints, they reduced it to a theater from which to preach a message to an audience. Church was now an institution, a corporation, an enterprise whose mission was to attract as many paying customers as possible. If evangelical salvation was once the new birth, now it became little more than church attendance. Indeed, the common distinction today is made between the "churched" and the "unchurched" as opposed to the saved and the lost. And to facilitate the mission of attracting customers, the product would need some alteration to increase its attractiveness to the masses.

First, the church had to become a friendlier place for the worldly. Expectations of living a life of holiness and obedience to the Lord was not regarded as a welcoming environment. Nor was the fact that Church is an assembly of redeemed Saints, not sinners, and the New Testament requires that those whose lives demonstrated they were not regenerate be put out of the Church. So besides discarding the manmade "holiness" rules of no drinking, no dancing, no movies, and a dress code; New Testament Church discipline and a regenerate membership also had to go.

But there was another problem: the gospel itself is profoundly counter cultural and antagonistic to the world and the American Dream. No sinner can survive unchanged in a genuine encounter with the risen Lord Jesus. Under the glaring light of the Holy Spirit he will either fall to his knees in repentance or flee into the darkness. Becoming a Christian had to become a friendlier experience. A little manmade fear was OK, but true Holy Spirit conviction was too life shattering to be welcomed by the general public, and the name of the evangelical game is numbers, body count. So it was determined that shaking the preacher's hand, signing a card, or coming forward at an altar call and saying the sinner's prayer was all that Jesus could reasonably expect if He really wants to save the world. After all, being Born Again is the same thing as believing in Jesus, right? If I believe Jesus died for my sins I'm saved, born of the Spirit, right? Faith alone, right? Just a sinner saved by [cheap] grace!

Ah, but the world moves on, going deeper and deeper into the darkness. No longer can a Christian just moderate his position and be acceptable. Now he must openly reject the Bible for the Bible makes claims of truth and righteousness, sin and judgment; and such thing are no longer acceptable to the postmodern world. No longer is a Christ crucified for the sins of the world tolerable, for His very sacrifice testifies of the awful evil of the world that necessitated such a terrible sacrifice of God's Only Begotten Son.

Now what shall evangelicals do if they are to be heard by the world? Why, we are told, they must also move on in step with the world in order to save it. If the text of the Bible is not acceptable to America, publish the Message Bible. If the idea of truth is no longer acceptable to the postmodern man, discard propositional truth and rely on conversation, spiritual environment, and contemplative spirituality. Is a God who created Hell and sends sinners there no longer welcome? Why, don't you know, the new improved emerging god of the emerging church will save everyone, we will all go to heaven, or better yet, we will all build a perfect world here and now! Rick Warren has a P.E.A.C.E. plan for that. Brian McLaren will lead the worship liturgy and prayer, and Joel Osteen will provide the inspirational "gospel" message.

Question: why do we believe the gospel must be adopted to the world and to society? Why do we believe that the situation is any different today than it was in the days of the Apostles?

The majority of the Jews refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah because of the stumbling block of the cross. And the majority of the gentiles refused Him because of the "foolishness" of the gospel. Yesterday we were told the gospel had to be adopted to the needs of modern man or he would not hear it. Today, it is postmodern man we are told we must cater to. Modern man believed he could find truth apart from God. Postmodern man realized modern man failed in his quest so he decided objective truth must not exist. But how is postmodernism any different from Pontius Pilate when he scoffingly asked Jesus, "and what is truth?" The more things change, the more they stay the same.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void. For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE." Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,8 and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, "LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD."

And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
(1 Corinthians 1:17-2:5 NAS)

The Emerging Church, like the Purpose Driven Church, and the Seeker Friendly Church have decided along with many of Paul's day that the raw unprocessed gospel is too unpalatable to preach or believe. Yet it was not the seeker friendly gospel, nor the purpose driven gospel, nor the mists of the emerging gospel that delivered me (and Paul) from sin and death. Not one of the ministers of those movements entered my dorm room to show me the love and sacrifice of Christ for me, the chief of sinners. It was the Spirit of Christ Himself that revealed first Christ crucified for me, and then revealed Christ in me. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16 NAS)

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-4 NAS)

Is this the gospel according to the emergent church, the purpose driven church, or the seeker friendly church? By that I do not ask if they occasionally mention this gospel but rather is this gospel of first importance among them. Go to their web sites and read their books. Is Christ crucified for our sins their great theme? Is the New Covenant purchased for us with His own blood? Do they declare the following to the lost? "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." (Acts 17:30,31 NAS) Or do they preach another gospel as their primary message? Is it a gospel of self esteem? A gospel of finding one's purpose? A gospel of church growth? A gospel of transforming society and world peace? A gospel of prosperity? A gospel of poverty? A gospel of politics? A gospel of civility? A gospel of inclusiveness? If it is any other gospel than that which was delivered once for all to the saints then it is another gospel, a false gospel, an accursed gospel. And those who preach such gospels abide under the curse of God (Galatians 1:8,9). It is a serious thing to presume to teach and preach the gospel.

This is the third time the american evangelical church has fallen into serious heresy and apostasy. Most are not aware that the first time began before the lifetime of Jonathan Edwards. Prior to 1662 the Congregational (Puritan) churches had held to the Church as a assembly of the Saints and required evidence of regeneration for church membership. Many began to grumble at this and the "half-way covenant" was introduced to make a place for the unregenerate in the church. In the churches of Edward's day it was also becoming fashionable to open communion even to those who could not attest to conversion. Jonathan Edwards opposed this and held to the necessity of a Church composed only of those born of the Spirit (converted). He was driven out of the church where he was pastor. Soon some of the congregational churches were drifting into unitarianism, denying the deity and atonement of Christ. It is an interesting exercise ot read Edward's famous Sinners in the hand of an angry God and then try to imagine if today's leading lights of evangelicalism would preach that sermon. Would Joel Osteen, or Rick Warren, or Brian McLaren, or even Billy Graham preach it? I think not, yet Jonathan Edwards has been called America's greatest theologian.

Why does American Evangelicalism repeatedly fall into heresy and apostasy? Because, inspite of all the Bible talk, there is a preference for the wisdom of men over the Word of God. Once the Church decides numbers are more important than purity, or children of believers are Christians even without being converted, the Church ceases to be the assembly of the Saints, that is, it ceases to be the Church and becomes a religious club. Soon the carnal and the unsaved seek and obtain positions of power, for real Christians shun carnal power and honor and choose the humbler positions of service. Finally, the righteous are persecuted and driven out.

There is an alternative to American Evangelicalism and that is true New Testament Christianity. But that requires the real gospel of Jesus Christ that brings a person into the fulness of the New Covenant. Jesus requires us to follow Him as disciples, to abide in Him and His words to abide in us. This is only possible for those whom He has redeemed and transformed from sinners into saints. All others will sooner or later fall away to follow a wider and smoother way, led by a piper playing a tune soothing to their flesh.

Until we are willing to die to ourselves, our families, our nation, and our opinions, we cannot serve our Lord, for He is not yet Lord of our lives.