Brave New World opens with a troop of hyper-malleable students taking a tour through a factory of sorts. Wide-eyed and reverent, they scribble down everything their teacher tells them, no questions asked. Thus begins their indoctrination into the "perfect" society: a society in which children are brainwashed in their sleep and everyone plays God in front of bottles and conveyor belts.
Because the students blindly devour facts, they are unwittingly party to the deception and slavery that has been going on for years.
Bruce Hess--pastor of Wildwood Community Church--preached a sermon on the Emergent Church Movement this morning (links in the face! Bam!). The lesson was an example of good shepherding; I would guess that many in the room had never heard of or understood the movement and the fallacies it can contain. Bruce quoted several well-known speakers and and megachurch pastors: some of the things they said were not only wrong, but heretical! For example, some denied the need for Christ as atonement for sins, the need for preaching and the existence of hell, all under the banner of cultural engagement (Acts 4:11-12,Philippians 3:17 and Matthew 10:28,respectively, refutes those ideas).
It hurts to think of how many people have drunk in the false teaching, unaware of the deadly results!
We may not be able to set everyone straight on immutable biblical doctrine, but there is something we can do as followers of Christ who seek his face.
Now to the Brave New World tie-in. We must not be the students who mindlessly scribble their notes. We are to question what we're told, sifting it through the truth of the Bible. Of course, we are not going to discover some universally uncontested doctrine if we think hard enough, but we will keep our eyes on the right place: the face of God!
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true(Acts 17:11).
Just a warning: the emergent church is not a coherent movement (you do not need an "Emergent Church" membership card to be part of it). Therefore, just because a church may have one of the characteristics of emergent does not mean it is automatically heretical.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/february/11.35.html
Fairly warned, Anonymous. Thanks for pointing me to the article. I'm definitely aware that not every emerging person subscribes to the beliefs that I mentioned. I'll rejoice with the people who are acting in this postmodern culture based on sound interpretation of the Bible.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know about the emerging/emergent difference. I should've stayed true to Bruce's sermon title!
http://www.egodialogues.com/words-language/huxley-orwell.php
ReplyDeleteRelevant. This was posted on my friend facespace not too long ago.
I'd be interested which pastors are a part of the movement.
Here's a list of Emergent leaders, Nicole: Doug Pagitt, Chris Seay, Tim Keel, Karen Ward, Ivy Beckwith, Brian McLaren, and Mark Oestreicher.
ReplyDeleteLoved the cartoon. Thanks for passing it on!