One In Jesus

Scot McKnight’s fourth point deals with the hypocrisy of much of popular evangelicalism —

Fourth, emergents were burned by the lack of integrity among popular evangelical media figures. They watched or heard the stories about Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart and the fall of leader after leader both national and local. Knowing what the Bible says and what leaders are (perhaps) doing behind closed doors creates irony, if not cynicism. For some, the lack of integrity among leaders casts doubt on the whole institution of the church. Emergents compare what Jesus had in mind and what Paul saw come to pass with what is going on, and decide to start all over again as if for the first time—this time with authenticity.

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McKnight continues explaining the mindset of the emerging movement:

Third, exposure to science in public education, universities, and personal study has led emergents to disown the traditional conclusion that when science and the Bible conflict, science must move aside. Although they refuse to give the Bible the trump card in this game, they remain committed to it, but now with a different view of what the Bible actually is. The Bible, so many emergents will openly admit, employs various literary genres and shows an ancient perception of how the cosmos works. So they are both left-wing and right-wing, committed to the Bible and open to new ideas. Continue reading →

McKnight continues his article on “Ironic Faith” by discussing the emerging churches’ attitude toward the Gospels —

Second, emergents believe that the gospel they heard as children or were exposed to as teenagers is a caricature of Paul’s teaching — what McLaren sometimes calls “Paulianity.” The discovery of Jesus, the Gospels, and his kingdom vision creates an irony: “If we are followers of Jesus, why don’t we preach his message?” Emergents I know are sometimes wearied or put off by Paul, yet enthusiastic about Jesus and the Gospels. When McLaren describes the message of Jesus as a “secret message,” he speaks of the emergent discovery of the radical kingdom vision as really new. The political vision and the global concerns of emergents flower from the discovery of Jesus. Continue reading →

Well, I just stumbled across another article about the Emerging Church Movement by Scot McKnight, a leading intellectual within that element of the evangelical churches. The article, “Ironic Faith,” recently published in Christianity Today, raises some tough questions. I wasn’t going to talk about it, but then the Christian Chronicle published two reviews of the Transforming Word, a book from ACU Press that raises questions about the inerrancy of scripture.

I guess we have to talk about it now, and I’d really rather talk about something that’s interesting, that is, that matters to the work of Jesus. Continue reading →