Reconsidering Emergent Theology

February 22, 2005 Posted by Roger Overton

Folks in the Emergent Church (ECM) have decided we need to “deconstruct” our theology. This means different things for different people, as does much of what flies around Emergent circles. For Brian McLaren, recently listed in TIME's 25 Most Influential Evangelicals, this means giving up Christ's substitutionary atonement and the exclusivity of salvation through Christ alone. Only within the past few months has there been much of any academic response.

Today it was announced that the Kentucky Baptist Convention decided to drop McLaren from their conference next weekend…

Dr. Bill Mackey, KBC executive director, and Dan Garland, Church Development and Evangelism Team leader, said they made the decision after reviewing McLaren’s position on salvation.

“I respect Dr. McLaren greatly and have appreciated his insights on reaching people in today’s culture,” Mackey said. “We try to bring dynamic speakers to the Evangelism Conference who will challenge and inspire their listeners. I felt that in this instance, however, Dr. McLaren’s position diverges too greatly to be appropriate for this conference.”

Garland, who had invited McLaren to speak more than a year ago, agreed, saying that reading McLaren’s most recent book, A Generous Orthodoxy, led him to reconsider.

In the book, McLaren says that while there is no assurance that there is salvation to be found outside of Jesus, Christians should not jump to the conclusion that Jesus is the only way to salvation.

"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,” McLaren says in the book.

It's nice to see someone out there realizing that what McLaren teaches should not be accepted within orthodox Christianity. We should no more accept him as a teacher as we would a Muslim or Taoist. Of course, most Emergent Church folk would accept them as teachers, and that only shows the problem more plainly. ECM despises dichotomies, including ones that draw lines between what we should and shouldn't believe. For them there is no longer “orthodox” and “heresy”, which is why McLaren believes in a “Generous Orthodoxy” (the title of his latest book). The Bible makes it clear that some beliefs are right and some are wrong, and we need to stand behind those who stand firm in the Bible, and pray others will follow step.

Here's the news article: McLaren Withdrawn From Evangelism Conference Lineup

Here's a new book coming out in a couple of weeks critiquing ECM: Becoming Conversant with Emergent: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications by D.A. Carson