Disturbing Letter

I haven't had time to post for a while so I'll make up for it with a long one...

I received a copy of a letter sent from someone outside PazNaz to some members within this week. I have battled internally to say or post anything about it but I have decided to address the comments made in the letter because, (a) I don't know if the letter was only sent to one family or to many and (b) I think the letter points out some questions that often get asked and I think they are worthy of addressing.

The letter begins:

Dear - , Even though I am not there anymore, I treasure you as firends and those who share in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of this, I cannot keep from writing to you about a matter which has come to my attention and is a great grief to my heart, which I want to share with you.

I know that you believe that all scripture is inspired by God and is infallible so I am writing this to you because there is a very dangerous teaching afoot under the title of The Emergent Church. The reason I am saying this is because I received (an email from someone at PazNaz) on the bottom of which were listed two books related to this movement. One of them was entitled: The Life You've Always Wanted by John Ortberg and the other was: The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard. I have researched both of these books and find that they are an attempt to bring in Roman Catholic mysticism and new age teaching into the church and to pervert the truth of the gospel. They are, in essence, a complete denial of the finished work of the cross...

I will hold off commenting on the Emergent Church for a moment because it is brought up explicitly in next section of the letter, but let me respond to the comments about both Ortberg and Willard. Although I'm sure that, like myself, John and Dallas appreciate certain aspects of the Emerging conversation, neither of them are members of the Emergent Village (which is the only formal Emerging/Emergent group that I know of), nor do I suspect they consider themselves spokespersons for anything Emergent. Dallas is a longtime professor of philosophy at USC (with I believe a Baptist background) and John is a Presbyterian pastor who for many years served as the teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community.

To call their books Roman Catholic mysticism or new age is perhaps the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard. Dallas and John's books are on the practice of spiritual disciplines, every one of which Jesus himself practiced. I am so weary of disciplines like prayer, fasting, bible reading, confessing our sins to one another, etc. being labeled as Catholic and especially as new age. There may be some Catholic practices that as Protestants we have stopped participating in, but I guarantee you that the shared practices of preaching, prayer, Eucharist, silence, contemplation, meditation upon the Word of God, etc. are not on that list! Calling those things New Age is just silly name calling that doesn't have a clue about what the New Age movement even is. The same logic that says we should stop practicing spiritual disciplines because the Catholics also practice them is like saying Christians should stop praying because Muslims pray. Perhaps since Mormons read the Bible, we should stop that. Jehovah's Witnesses live out their sexuality in covenantal monogamy, maybe we better stop performing marriages because to do so is to deny the the finished work of the cross.

[Continued] I also read Pastor Daniels' blog where he recommends a book by the head of the Emergent Church Movement, a man by the name of Brian McLaren. Brian McLaren denies openly the necessity of the atonement, and mocks Jesus Christ going to the cross. In Mr McLaren's book entitled: A Generous Orthodoxy, he says, "I must add, though, that I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts." This, as you can see, does not sound like the Jesus who says, "I am the truth." I do not know why the pastor would advocate such books as these...

Saying that Brian doesn't believe in the atonement and mocks Jesus going to the cross is simply a lie. I have read every book Brian has written, and although he does question some of the ways Christians understand the atonement - for example, Brian denies that God needed to have Jesus killed in order to appease his wrath (an idea that nearly every Wesleyan I know fully agrees with) - he does not deny the purpose or efficacy of Christ's atoning death, and he certainly doesn't mock Jesus going to the cross. In Brian's book The Secret Message of Jesus, his whole point is that the cross IS the message of Jesus and if we want to be his followers we too have to take up our cross and follow him. That IS NOT mocking the cross.

The quote from A Generous Orthodoxy is taken out of context. But even out of context I think most Christians would agree with him. Brian is saying that God did not send his Son into the world to start a new religion, he sent him to form disciples or followers of Jesus. Thus if someone living in a Hindu or Buddhist community becomes a follower of Jesus, Brian is saying that they don't necessarily have to leave that community to live as a Christian. For example, when Jews in the NT became believers they did not stop becoming Jews. As followers of Jesus many parts of the Jewish faith were redefined, left behind, or fulfilled, but they were able to be Jewish followers of Jesus. Brian may be trying to push our thinking here a bit by including Hindus and Buddhists on the list, but his point is that Jesus came to make disciples of himself not Nazarenes, Presbyterians, or Methodists. Jesus came to save the world not form a new religion.

I realize that there are some people who get nervous about the Emerging/Emergent conversation. Some people think of it as a new church - which it is not. It is really just a kind of renewal movement across denominational lines, not a new theology or a new denomination. People who are participating in this emerging conversation don't even agree with one another - so to say "The Emergent Church believes..." doesn't even understand that it isn't really a "thing" at all. I don't consider myself a full-fledged Emerging Church person in part because I pastor a large church and most emergent folks are highly critical of mega-churches and aren't sure that mega-churches are good for the gospel, but nevertheless there are many parts of the conversation that I think Christians need to hear and wrestle with.

There are many Christians (and Christian leaders), unfortunately, who are not just trying to keep the boundaries of orthodoxy secure but in my opinion they are muck rakers. Like the 24-hour news media that has to create stories or keep a story stirred up in order to keep people watching, there are some Christian leaders who move from conspiracy to conspiracy in an attempt to keep the saints stirred-up, tuned in, and buying books. I believe that we must always be on our guard against the schemes of evil, but I also know that beginning with the prophets, well intentioned religious people have persecuted and held in suspicion a long list of reformers - Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jesus, Peter, Paul, Polycarp, Luther, Calvin, Meno Simons, Wesley, Edwards, Wilberforce, King Jr., etc. I don't know that Brian or any of the Emerging church leaders belong on that list, but I am going to be mighty careful not to light the torches against anyone too quickly.

[Continued] I was reading what the Apostle Paul himself says about such teachings as these in Gal. 1:8-9: "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before and now say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed." Love and blessings...

Since the letter was about me, I assume that the prayer of Paul is being used to invoke my accursement (I think I made up a word). I realize that a person who writes this kind of letter really is trying to do the right thing, but there are so many texts that go through my mind about how to handle conflict, warnings about creating division in the church, how to avoid gossip and slander, etc., that I don't have time to look them all up and list them here. I will just close by saying that I am always shocked by people's lack of concern for telling the truth even as they are trying to defend it.

Secondly, I am often asked what I think Jesus meant when he talks about the unpardonable sin. Jesus talks about the unpardonable sin in the context of the Pharisees saying that he is not casting out demons by the power of God but by the power of the evil one. So Jesus describes blaspheming the Holy Spirit essentially as calling something that is of God - not of God. I don't think this sin is unpardonable because the God full of steadfast love and mercy won't forgive us for it, but because those who commit it rarely recognize that they are doing it. For the Pharisees their problem was that God was standing right in front of them and they were busy calling him Satan.

I'm not going to die on the cross defending Brian or the Emerging Church conversation (although I would happily take lumps for defending spiritual disciplines), but I'm also going to be very cautious about calling something that seems (to me) to have an awful lot of God within it - not of God. There is an old church statement that says, "When we don't evangelize, we cannibalize." This well intentioned letter reads to me like it has more potential for division than unity to me. I want to be a uniter.

Blessings - Scott

Comments

[James Diggs]

Scott,

Great, fair minded post. Thank you for sharing this.

Peace,

James

[Jared]

Scott, I agree. Great post. I'm in a fairly large church on the other coast and we're dealing with the same sort of thing.

Jared

[Mark, an Emerging Nazarene in KC]

Scott,

Blessings on you and your church's ministry, brother. During the course of my District Licensing one year (I'm now Ordained in the Ch. of the Naz and hold 2 Masters Degrees in Theology), I was asked the following question: "Why isn't the Church of the Nazarene a Fundamentalist denomination?" Bless their hearts, some folks (who, for the most part, seem to get their theology from LifeWay Christian Bookstore and the Bible Answer Man) don't realize that we AREN'T fundamentalist.

Seems to me that in the Gospels, whenever Jesus goes to an established, "Fundamental Jewish" place of worship, he winds up making everyone angry.

Be blessed, man.

[Chris Johnson]

Thanks for sharing--people who write letters like that in secret can do a lot of damage when the recipients don't discuss it openly and honestly--they're trying to frame the debate with false premises, so thank you for helping us with the research to show where they're wrong.

I suppose it's true of any group, but it hurts to see Christians attacking other Christians and bypassing the conflict resolution given to us in Scripture. Lately I've been embarrassed to let people know I got my degree from Wheaton College. Yet another of their "Quien es mas holy?" debates (a professor not being public enough about the reasons behind his divorce) has made it onto the Chicago Sun-Times cover and ABC national news, and it seems the end result will be fewer people in the Christian community.

I appreciate your work and helping us find the truth.

[Mark]

Scott - Thank you for your great response to this divisive letter. I would add - that if the author is part of a Nazarene fellowship - they should be called into discipline for being outside the biblical outline for conflict resolution. It saddens me that some that wear the banner "Christ Follower" confuse His words and heart as much as the words and heart of the authors mentioned. I am reminded of last weeks text in Matthew of Jesus saying - "you don't know me or the one who sent me" Grace upon you this day brother! (or brother-in-law)

[David]

Scott - I have been truly grateful over the past few years of following your spiritual leadership in ministry (albeit at a distance). I've been listening to your sermons and reading your blog over the last few months/years. If anything, the CON is and should be proud of your ministry. Your theological insight and integrity far surpasses most in your small denomination. No doubt you will be dealing with theological "non-sense" and "disturbing letters" the rest of your life. It is a "disturbing commentary" when someone in the church is unable to discern the truth of an authentic Christian practice informed by a deeply rooted "generous" orthodoxy. It is unfortunate that it comes at such a time when you are trying to strengthen the unity of your local church and building on the incredible heritage that is PazNaz. May God continue to richly bless the ministry to which God has called you. And keep preaching with confidence and boldness. You are one of Nazarene's golden children and your influence "ripples" far beyond her walls. Peace.