Welcome to another Friday Night Apologetics open live study discussion. In this discussion we are starting a series on examining and exposing the deceptions of the Emergent Church (some have called it the Emerging Church) and the influence of the various leaders leading this movement. Starting off the series we will be examining and exposing the teachings and beliefs of Brian Mclaren, one of the main voices within the Emergent Church movement.
In this discussion let me say this for the record that this is not a personal attack against Brian Mclaren, but rather a deeper examination exposing what he believes and teaches that are unbiblical, false, heretical, and dangerous. Below are some quotes of Brian Mclaren concerning his beliefs on the second coming of Jesus, on hell and eternal judgment, the cross being a false advertisement, and his universalism type of gospel message.
If you have any comments or questions from this live audio discussion or the references below feel open to share them with us here.
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•Brian Mclaren says the view of Jesus’ Second Coming being in righteousness and wrath is ignorant, immoral, wrong, and dangerous
“Far from being an esoteric and speculative distraction, our beliefs about the end toward which things are moving profoundly and practically shape our present behavior. This is especially true in regard to violence and war, and is one of the reason many of us have been increasingly critical in recent years of popular American eschatology in general, and conventional views of hell in particular. Simply put, if we believe that God will ultimately enforce his will by domination, then torture and domination become not only permissible but in some ways godly. The implications for, say, military policy (not to mention church politics) are not hard to imagine.
The phrase “the Second Coming of Christ” never actually appears in the Bible. Whether or not the doctrine to which the phrase refers deserves rethinking, a popular abuse of it certainly needs to be named and rejected. If we believe that Jesus came in peace the first time, but that wasn’t his “real” and decisive coming – it was just a kind of warm-up for the real thing – then we leave the door to envisioning a second coming that will be characterized by violence, killing, domination, and eternal torture. This vision reflects a deconversion, a return to trust in the power of Pilate, not the unarmed truth that stood before Pilate, refusing to fight. This eschatological understanding of a violent second coming leads us to believe (as we’ve said before) that in the end, even God finds it impossible to fix the world apart from violence and coercion; no one should be surprised when those shaped by this theology behave accordingly.
If we remain charmed by this kind of eschatology, we will be forced to see the nonviolence of the Jesus of the Gospels as a kind of strategic fake – out, like a feigned retreat in war, to be followed up by crushing a blow of so – called redemptive violence in the end. The gentle Jesus of the first coming becomes a kind of trick Jesus, a fake – me – out Messiah, to be replaced by the true jihadist Jesus of a violent second coming.
This is why I believe that many of our current eschatologies, intoxicated by dubious interpretations of John’s Apocalypse, are not only ignorant and wrong, but dangerous and immoral.” (Everything Must Change, p. 144)
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•Brian Mclaren’s says the doctrine of hell teaches that the cross is a false advertisement about the gsopel in an interview he had with Leif Hansen
Brian McLaren: This is, one of the huge problems is the traditional understanding of hell. Because if the cross is in line with Jesus’ teaching then—I won’t say, the only, and I certainly won’t say even the primary—but a primary meaning of the cross is that the kingdom of God doesn’t come like the kingdoms of the this world, by inflicting violence and coercing people. But that the kingdom of God comes through suffering and willing, voluntary sacrifice, right? But in an ironic way, the doctrine of hell basically says, no, that that’s not really true. That in the end, God gets His way through coercion and violence and intimidation and domination, just like every other kingdom does. The cross isn’t the center then. The cross is almost a distraction and false advertising for God.
Leif Hansen: Oh, Brian, that was just so beautifully said. I was tempted to get on my soap box there and you know—Because as you and I know there are so many illustrations and examples you could give that show why the traditional view of hell completely falls in the face of—it’s just antithetical to the cross. But the way you put it there; I love that. It’s false advertising. And here, Jesus is saying, turn the other cheek. Love your enemy. Forgive seven times seventy. Return violence with self-sacrificial love. But if we believe the traditional view of hell, it’s like, well, do that for a short amount of time. Because eventually, God’s gonna get’em.
Brian McLaren: Yeah. And I heard one well-known Christian leader, who—I won’t mention his name, just to protect his reputation. Cause some people would use this against him. But I heard him say it like this: The traditional understanding says that God asks of us something that God is incapable of Himself. God asks us to forgive people. But God is incapable of forgiving. God can’t forgive unless He punishes somebody in place of the person He was going to forgive. God doesn’t say things to you—Forgive your wife, and then go kick the dog to vent your anger. God asks you to actually forgive…. And there’s a certain sense that, a common understanding of the atonement presents a God who is incapable of forgiving. Unless He kicks somebody else. (this can be heard online)
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•Brian Mclaren’s beliefs on the gospel, hell, is Jesus the only way for salvation, universalism
McLaren doesn't just want to turn the doctrine of election upside down (or, as Newbigin argued, right side up)—he has questions about other cherished words in the evangelical vocabulary.
"I don't think we've got the gospel right yet. What does it mean to be 'saved'? When I read the Bible, I don't see it meaning, 'I'm going to heaven after I die.' Before modern evangelicalism nobody accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, or walked down an aisle, or said the sinner's prayer."
It's not that McLaren is interested in joining the liberal side of modern Protestantism. "I don't think the liberals have it right. But I don't think we have it right either. None of us has arrived at orthodoxy." (endorsed from Brian Mclaren’s site called the Emergent Mystique 2004)
“It is one of the questions I am asked most frequently: “Do you think Jesus is the only way?” Sometimes Christians ask it as a test question, to see if I give the right answer. Sometimes nonChristians ask it, hoping to hear the opposite answer as the right answer.
The question raises another question, actually: “The only way to what?” If you want to learn about the eight noble truths or the four-fold path, Buddha is the way, not Jesus. If you want to learn about submission to Allah, Jesus can’t help you, but Mohammed can. If you want to talk about the triumph of the proletariat over the controlling elites, or the relation of id, ego, and superego, talk to Marx or Freud, and if you want to learn about how to get rich quick (without work) or healthy immediately (without diet or exercise) through faith and prayer, there are some prosperity televangelists who make bold promises, but not Jesus. If it’s the way to wealth through no-money-down real estate that you’re seeking, or the way to marriage without risk, or the way to world domination through terrorism or military conquest, Jesus is not your man. Nor does he want to be.
But if you are asking about the kingdom of God coming to earth, what that means, how that can happen, and how we can participate in it, Buddha, Mohammed, and all the others will step back and Jesus will step forward…
This is the verse that is frequently quoted to defend an idea called the “exclusivity of Christ,” namely, that all who do not consciously and decisively accept Jesus as their personal savior will burn forever in hell. That phrase raises concerns for me, because based on the Scriptures, I believe Jesus primarily came not to proclaim a way out of hell for some after death, but rather a way into a better life for all before death. His message was not about going to heaven after history, but about the kingdom of heaven coming to earth in history…
With our time-tested propensity to twist Scripture in mind, I have noticed that John 14:6 is often quoted out of context so that it seems to say, “I am in the way of your getting to truth and life. I will keep everyone from getting to the Father unless they get by me first.” One would think that the context reads like this:
You should be very troubled, because if you believe in God, but not me, you will be shut out of my Father’s house in heaven, where there are a few small rooms for the few who get it right…. Then Thomas said to him, “Lord, what about people who have never even heard of you? Will they go to heaven after they die?” Jesus said to him, “I am the only way to heaven, and the truth about me is the only truth that will get you to life after death. Not one person will go to heaven unless they personally understand and believe a clearly-defined message about me and personally and consciously ask me to come into their heart.” (Not John 14:1-6)…
But what of “No one comes to the Father except through me?” Clearly, taken in context, these words are not intended as an insult to followers of Mohammed, the Buddha, Lao Tsu, Enlightenment rationalism, or anybody or anything else. Rather, the “no one” here refers to Jesus’ own disciples, who seem to want to trust some information – a plan, a diagram, a map, instructions, technique – so they can get to God or the kingdom of God without or apart from Jesus, since he has just told them he is leaving them for a while at least…Taken in its original and proper context, John 14:6, I hope it is clear, isn’t addressing that question at all, not even close. The backdrop for any speculation is the awareness that God is exactly like Jesus in his perfect integration of compassion and justice, perfectly wise and completely dependable to make good judgments, and we (obviously!) are not. That’s where I think it best to leave things.
Is Jesus the only way? It depends on where we’re trying to go. If we want to abandon the earth as a lost cause and evacuate upward to heaven as soon as possible, I suspect we’re going in a different direction than Jesus. His movement has been downward, and as the Father sent him, so he has sent us…” (from Brian Mclaren’s article on John 14:6 Is Jesus the only way?)
“Isn’t hell such a grave ‘bottom line’ that it devalues all other values? It so emphasizes the importance of life after death that it can unintentionally trivialize life before death. No wonder many people feel that ‘accepting Jesus as a personal Savior’ could make them a worse person — more self-centered and less concerned about justice on earth because of a preoccupation with forgiveness in heaven. Again, although I believe in Jesus as my personal savior, I am not a Christian for that reason. I am a Christian because I believe that Jesus is the Savior of the whole world." (Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy, p. 109)
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•The Bible warns against false gospels and false teachers who twist the Word of God and mislead people. The Emergent Church (some call it the Emerging Church) is a false and heretical movement teaching heresies contrary to the Gospel. In this study discussion on examining and exposing Brian Mclaren we addressed the question, Is Brian Mclaren a heretic, a false teacher? Yes Brian Mclaren is a heretic and false teacher because he has twisted the gospel message and is deceiving many with his influence.
6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Galatians 1:6-9 NASB)
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:2-4 NASB)
13 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. 15 "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves...21 "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 "Many will say to Me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' 23 "And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.' (Matthew 7:13-15 & 21-23 NASB)
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-15 NASB)
