The Emergent Submergence into Shallow Water

In last night's message, we discussed the importance of truth & the word. For many Christians, rigorous study of God's particularly the 'seeker-sensitive' and 'Emergent' varieties, there is a passion for doing the ministry of God, but noticeably absent is the desire for 'thinking the thoughts of God'. Evangelism is pitted against Discipleship.

I showed the congregation a video clip of a young, emergent pastor who openly ridiculed Christians for desiring to study the Bible. He mocked the concept of expository preaching, knowledge of doctrine, understanding of key points of faith like "propitiation" and "justification", and the desire to know what light the original language sheds on understanding a passage. Those things, he said, are for "fat, lazy Christians" who "just want to stuff their faces" and "eat and eat and eat". His response was for Christians to stop their Pharisaical desires of such things and "get out and help someone meet Jesus". He even went so far as to claim that Jesus would tell such people to "shut up" and get out and do something for Him.

While I appreciate the conviction this young (angry) man has for ministry, I can't help but notice Jesus' own convictions are very unlike this young pastors. When Jesus looked out upon the crowds (that he would later feed, cf Mark 6, John 6 & Matthew 14), scripture says that He felt compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

What is the primary jobs of a shepherd? (1) Protect the flock, (2) feed the flock. In other words, Jesus felt compassion for them because (1) there was no one powerful enough to protect them and (2) there was no one to spiritually feed them. As John 6 makes clear, the issue was never giving them physical bread. The central issue, and the main conviction of Jesus, was to offer them spiritual bread: namely, Himself and the teaching of His holy word. Mark 6:34 records that Jesus began to "teach them many things". In fact, earlier in Mark he sent out the 12 disciples and commanded them to preach (i.e. teach). The very last commandment he gave the disciples in the gospels was the order to "teach" the people to obey his commands (Matthew 28).

I think the seeker-sensitive and emergent movements have done some good. They have rightly pointed out the need to stop holding on to 1950 styles of doing ministry. We would do well to heed their call to allow the newer generations to 'incarnate' Christianity into their own cultural styles. However, these movements have in effect checked their brains at the front door. They have systematically abandoned systematic, thorough teaching of God's word.

I mentioned before that this summer at Bible camp a mother began screaming at me during (and also after) one of my messages. I was speaking to high school and college age students, and she was furious because I was teaching theology. She claimed that "this stuff doesn't help these kids" and "this information won't help them in their walk with Christ". Odd, then, that the apostle Paul begins nearly every one of his letters with a lengthy theological discourse, and only afterwards does he make direct application to our life.

Scripture is crystal clear: Holy living is possible only through knowledge of His word.

Yet many of these new-styled churches produce thousands of people "excited about Jesus", but knowing next to nothing about him. One such leader, Rob Bell, is an example of a man who peddles shallow biblical teaching. As a result, his congregation lacks the biblical maturity to recognize his heretical teachings (and yes, I attended Bell's church on-and-off for the first few years of its existence, and have listened to scores and scores of his sermons). For example, look at these two quotes from Bell:

On the Virgin Birth:
"What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archaeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births?

But what if, as you study the origin of the word “virgin” you discover that the word “virgin” in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word “virgin” could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being “born of a virgin” also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse?"
-Velvet Elvis, p. 26

On the Inspiration of Scripture:
[The Bible is a] “human product...rather than the product of divine fiat"
- Emergent Mystique, Christianity Today

Of course, the last thing these pastors want is for their people to thoroughly know the word of God. It would rob them of their power and influence over them. People would begin to hang onto every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (the Bible), instead of every word proceed from the lips of these pastors.

Their is nothing wrong with shallow water. Someone new to Christ was never meant to do "deep sea diving" in the Word of God. Shallow water is wonderful to have fun in, to get cooled off, to feel refreshed. We can even see some amazing things in shallow water. But the true riches are found deep on the ocean floor. Over and over again, Jesus (and the apostles, prophets, patriarchs, and poets of scripture) call us to a deeper, more substantial knowledge of God and His Word.

In the end, shallow knowledge of the word produced shallow spirituality, shallow holiness, shallow ministry, shallow discipleship, & shallow conversion.

Pastors - preach the word of God. Never be ashamed of it. Never believe it is antiquated and outdated. Never believe you need to "jazz it up" for it to have power. It is the POWER. Your not to be innovative or creative. You are simply to preach & teach it and let its power work in the lives of the hearers.

People - learn from the word of God. Study it, memorize it. Read good books and commentaries. Pick up a systematic theology textbook. Buy a highlighter and pen and mark up your bible. Make notes and underline. Research the background of Galatians, and research Herod online. Make scripture the center of your life, and insist on attending a church where teaching the Bible is a priority.

...all Scripture contains life. Yet the deeper we go, the richer we become, and the more useful we are to the Kingdom of God.