Brian McLaren Wants End Time Believing Christians Robustly Confronted

Excerpts from

Lighthousetrailsresearch.com

Brian McLaren wants end-time believing Christians 
“robustly” confronted

Lighthouse Trails Editors –
May 4, 2009

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“[B]eloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir
up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be
mindful of the words which were spoken before by the
holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles
of the Lord and Saviour: Knowing this first, that there
shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after
their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his
coming?” II Peter 3:1-4

If you are a Christian who
believes that the Bible is God’s inspired Word and believe
that Jesus Christ will be coming again, you are being
marginalized. And you might not even know it. It may
surprise you to know where this marginalization is coming
from. We’re not speaking of the world today . . . we are
talking about people who say they are Christians and who
happen to be very influential. In fact, one of them, Rick
Warren, was just named by Time magazine as one of the 100
most influential people in the entire world.1

In an
April 2009 article in Sojourner’s magazine by emerging
church leader, Brian McLaren, McLaren clearly has targeted
Christians. But not just any Christians. McLaren is talking
about Christians who believe Jesus Christ is coming back
again, suggesting that these type of Christians are the
reason there is no peace in the Middle East. He says what
these end-time believing Christians are doing is “terrible,”
“deadly,” and “distorted.”

McLaren says that he grew up with a dispensational view (the
belief that Jesus Christ will return and establish his
kingdom on earth) but has come to realize this view is
“morally and ethically harmful.” He likens this belief
system to racism in the 50s and 60s and says:

“These doctrinal formulations often use a bogus
end-of-the-world scenario to create a kind of death-wish for
World War III, which — unless it is confronted more robustly
by the rest of us–could too easily create a self-fulfilling
prophecy.”

Anyone who is familiar with the writings of occultist
Alice
Bailey or New Age author and futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard
knows that they believe this very thing. In fact, McLaren is
sounding more and more like them all the time, and his
article in Sojourners is further proof of that.

It isn’t just Bible-believing Christians who McLaren is
upset with – he’s also angry about Israel and the very idea
that she is a special nation in the eyes of God. This is why
he names Christian Zionists and Dispensationalists in
particularly, because they tend to be two groups who hold
fast to the belief that Israel is indeed a special nation to
the Lord.

It is ironic that just a week ago, the House of
Representatives
passed the HR1913 hate crimes bill,
which is supposed to deter hateful behavior toward others.
Here, McLaren, who was chosen to be an advisor to Obama (a
strong proponent of hate crime legislation), is speaking so
hatefully about those who hold to biblical beliefs saying
they must be robustly confronted by “the rest of us” [all
human beings except the biblical ones].

Others have joined McLaren in this effort to silence and
marginalize biblical Christians. Rick Warren’s chief
apologist (and we were told, a staff member at Saddleback)
recently posted an article on the Internet that said
ministries that defend the faith (he referenced Lighthouse
Trails) were like mentally unstable cultists, “who are not
normal people, average complainers, critics and typical
dissidents who are generally unhappy about life itself . . .
they are deadly.” (Please contact Saddleback Church if you
wish to verify this: (949) 609-8000.)

Tony Campolo, in his book
Speaking My Mind, says that
“‘rigid’ Christians who believe in the possibility of Jesus’
soon return” are “the real problem for the whole world.”
According to Campolo, they are to blame for wars, and a host
of other evils in the world. This is what Alice Bailey and
Barbara Marx Hubbard believe–and their obvious hostility
towards believers shouts out from the pages of their
writings.

There are others too who speak in derogatory language about
Christians who believe Titus 2:13, which is: “Looking for
that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” In Mark Driscoll’s book

Vintage Jesus, he ridicules Christians who believe there
will be an Armageddon and a rapture (pp. 44, 157).

Perhaps one of the more serious attacks on Christians
waiting for Christ’s return (serious primarily because of
his huge influence) comes from Rick Warren where he states
in The Purpose Driven Life that those who study Bible
prophecy are not fit for the kingdom of God. Most readers
may have missed this because of the way the passage is
organized, but if one studies this carefully, with a Bible
by their side, it is not difficult to see. Roger Oakland
explains:

“Warren tells readers to think about something other than
Bible prophecy: ‘If you want Jesus to come back sooner,
focus on fulfilling your mission, not figuring out
prophecy.’

“Warren ends this section of his book by stating that Satan
would have you ‘sidetracked from your mission’ and by
quoting Jesus out of context, Warren says, ‘Anyone who lets
himself be distracted [by studying Bible prophecy] from the
work I plan for him is not fit for the kingdom of God’
(Living Bible). But Jesus was not referring to His return
when He made that statement, which in the King James Version
says: ‘No man, having put his hand to the plough, and
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God’ (Luke 9:62).
The Purpose Driven kingdom of God leaves no room for Bible
prophecy, and in fact, condemns those who study it. The
apostle Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, had a different
view. He writes:

 ‘We have also a more sure word of prophecy;
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day
star arise in your hearts.’ (II Peter 1:19)

“Christians are called to witness and be watchmen. No
Scripture exists that tells us to ignore the events that
have been pointed out as signposts indicating the return of
Jesus. If we do, we might be like the foolish virgins who
fell asleep waiting for the bridegroom” (Matthew
25:1-13).(from Faith Undone, pp. 154-157

In Warren Smith’s book,
Reinventing Jesus Christ, Smith
discusses something Barbara Marx Hubbard calls the Selection
Process. This is a process that New Agers believe in which
Armageddon will only have to happen if those who believe in
it (biblical Christians) remain on the earth for thus there
would be a self-fulfilling prophecy. She believes, as does
Alice Bailey (the woman who coined the term New Age), that
the world cannot evolve, and there cannot be peace until it
is rid of these kind of people. If it is, then there can be
what is termed an Alternative to Armageddon. Sound
far-fetched? Just keep in mind that Barbara Marx Hubbard is
a respected author — in fact, she was instrumental in the
early stages of what is now the lobbying group for the
soon-to-be Department of Peace that over 60 Congressmen are
supporting.

We believe that this effort to put labels like cultist on
believers will only grow. Another example is emerging church
writer Thomas Hohstadt, who asked in a recent article: “How
Do We Know We Are Not in a Cult?” He answered this question
by basically saying that you are a cult if you believe you
have all the answers and if you believe truth can be
contained or absolutely defined. You see, in emerging
spirituality doubt and uncertainty are exalted, and the
opposite “virtues,”–certainty and faith —
are condemned.
Incredible as it seems, those who stand on the Word of God
will, in the end, be called evil, deadly, and cultish.

The growing hostility against Bible-believing Christians
continues. And yet, in Matthew 24:6, Jesus comforts us with
these words:

“[S]ee that ye be not troubled: for all these
things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

Let us
remember and take heed to the words Jesus told his
disciples:

“I must work the works of him that sent me, while
it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work” (John
9:4). As believers we will stand for the truth, but we will
continue to love those who persecute. We are inspired by the
many saints who have gone before and courageously, by His
grace and strength, stood. “Therefore, brethren, stand
fast.” (II Thessalonians 2:15)

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