“Emergent” or “Emerging”? Makes No Difference – Going in the Same Direction – Away from Truth toward Deception

Excerpts from

Lighthousetrailsresearch.com

“Emergent” or “Emerging”? Makes No
Difference –

Going in the Same Direction – Away from Truth toward
Deception

Editors at Lighthouse Trails  –
June 2, 2009

INDEX of previous
reports from Lighthouse-Trails

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It was
Shakespeare who said a rose by any other name would smell
as sweet. In the case of the “new spirituality” that has
pervaded so much of Christianity, emergent church by any
other name is just as harmful. While some are saying
they are not “emergent” but are emerging, the overall
beliefs (and mission) of each–emergent and emerging–are
the same.

A perfect example of this can be found in Mike Erre’s book,
Death by Church: Rescuing Jesus from His followers;
Recapturing God’s Hope for His people. Erre is the
teaching pastor (and “lead theological architect”1) at
RockHarbor Church in California and was the featured speaker
at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa (Calvary Chapel’s mother
church) on Friday May 29th for a large youth rally called
Movement 2009.

RockHarbor Church says it is not an “emergent church” but
rather is an emerging church. What exactly does it
mean when a church says it is emerging but not emergent?
From their point of view, they mean that they are not like
some of the hard-core emergent leaders such as Brian
McLaren, Doug Pagitt, and Tony Jones. These men were part of
the original late nineties group (birthed through

Bob
Buford’s Leadership Network) who went by the name of
“Emergent.” Today, McLaren has renounced the biblical view
of atonement, calling the doctrine of hell and the cross
“false advertising for God.” Jones and Pagitt have also
clearly crossed the line from biblical to New Age type
teachings. Thus, when a church, such as RockHarbor Church,
says they are not emergent, they mean they do not agree with
some of the more extreme views such as McLaren’s view on
salvation. But these churches will often readily say, “We
are an emerging church.” They say that means they are merely
being relevant to the culture so they can reach the
post-modern generation.

On the outside, it can sometimes appear that these “emerging
churches” are just as orthodox as any other Bible-believing
church. Online doctrinal statements and many sermons will
sound no different from a Bible-based church. But more often
than not when the outer layers are peeled back from these
“emerging churches,” a mystical-based, kingdom-now,
panentheistic view of “God” is revealed. And this, dear
friend, is no different from the view of “God” that the
Emergent leaders (McLaren, Jones, Pagitt, etc) hold to as
well. And this is why we say emergent and emerging are in
fact kindred spirits–and they are going in the same
direction, even if at times, it appears they are on
different paths.

In Mike Erre’s book, Death by Church, he echoes the
emergent view of God and truth, as we have shown in our
recent article,

“Death by Church” – Emergent New Paradigm Pastor to Speak at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa . If you closely examine that
book and are familiar with the teachings and beliefs of
Brian McLaren and Tony Jones, for example, you will see the
same components: universalism (God is saving all creation), panentheism (God is in all), kingdom-now theology (the
church will usher in the kingdom of God BEFORE the return of
Christ), an exaltation of the mystics, replacement theology
(no prophetic significance for Israel or the Jews at all), a
touting of uncertainty and doubt when it comes to truth and
Scripture, and finally, a “deep theology” (the kingdom of
God includes all people and religions).

Interestingly, in

an online video , where Mike Erre recently addressed
about 700 people from his church for a forum on whether
RockHarbor is an emerging church or not, he mentions a
number of figures (Dan Kimball, Leonard Sweet, etc) who have
supposedly distanced themselves from Emergent figures
(McLaren, etc). Erre says that

Leonard Sweet is helping to form a new “sort of deal” of
emerging that has a “centerpiece” which has a “very high
view of the Scriptures.” This statement is rather incredible
given Sweet’s obvious New Age/New Spirituality
theological propensities (of which Lighthouse Trails has
frequently written about and documented). What these
supposed reformists miss is that the mystical/New Age
attributes that caused McLaren and the others to go in their
wayward direction are the same mystical/New Age
attributes the reformists have retained themselves!

It was Alice Bailey (the channeler who coined the term New
Age) who said that the age of enlightenment (when man
finally sees that he is God) will come through the Christian
church, not around it. Ray Yungen explains in his book, A
Time of Departing:

“In light of the many who will be coming in Christ’s
name, I also believe the Alice Bailey prophecies
can provide further insight into what the apostle Paul
called in II Thessalonians the falling away. Bailey
eagerly foretold of what she termed “the regeneration of
the churches.” Her rationale for this was obvious:

“The Christian church in its many branches can serve
as a St. John the Baptist, as a voice crying in the
wilderness, and as a nucleus through which world
illumination may be accomplished.”

“In other words, instead of opposing Christianity, the
occult would capture and blend itself with Christianity
and then use it as its primary vehicle for spreading and
instilling New Age consciousness! The various churches
would still have their outer trappings of Christianity
and still use much of the same lingo. If asked certain
questions about traditional Christian doctrine, the same
answers would be given. But it would all be on the
outside; on the inside a contemplative [emerging]
spirituality would be drawing in those open to it.” (ATOD,
p. 123)

Today, we are watching Bible prophecy unfolding before our
very eyes.

---

Notes:
1. from RockHarbor postition paper (and video):

“Is ROCKHARBOR Becoming an Emerging Church?”
2.Alice Bailey, Problems of Humanity (New York, NY:
Lucis Publishing, 1993), p. 152.
3. Alice Bailey, The Externalization of the Hierarchy
(New York, NY: Lucis Publisihing, 1976), p. 510.

From:

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com

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