“If I were a betting man, I’d bet - my life or one dollar - that the tomb was not empty. Or that there was no Tomb.” Marcus Borg quoted in “The New Christians”, page 154
The modern skeptic attacks Christianity on three fronts:
1. Creation and the Fall of man
2. The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth
3. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the Final Judgment of the World
The door of the Gospel swings on these three hinges. Take away one, and the Gospel will cease to have any meaning. Why? Because God has revealed in His Word that the Gospel is good news for one reason, and one reason only.
That reason is that Jesus of Nazareth paid the penalty for man’s sin at a specific geographical location, at a specific time in history, and that His sacrifice accomplished exactly what God intended. Sin was the problem from the fall, it was the problem in Jesus time, and it is the chief problem of mankind in our day.
Creation & The Fall of Man
Creation lays the foundation for an understanding of the problem of sin. God has revealed in His Word that He created the universe, and all that is in it, in six literal solar days. If you don’t believe that, your argument is with God, not with me. That creation was declared by God to be good, but man rebelled, and by that man sin entered into the world. Every man, woman, and child is born with a nature bent by sin, and every thought an imagination of their heart is only sin continually. (Gen. 6)
Creation and the fall of man into sin explain the need for a savior. If the account of creation is false, why should we believe the rest? If the beginning of the Book cannot be trusted, why should there be any talk of a church, let alone an emerging one? What a man believes about creation is crucial to understanding where he stands on the orthodox doctrines of the Christian faith. If he rejects the account of creation, one can only wonder how genuine his faith is, or how he apprehends the God who has revealed Himself in a written Word.
The Crucifixion & Resurrection
The second point of attack for the skeptic is the cross and the empty tomb. The emergent view of the cross is that it is symbolic of the suffering of humanity, and “the co-suffering of God with us.” (Pg 14 
It is interesting to note that Moltmann, Volf, and “many of the liberation theologians of the late twentieth century” have admittedly influenced the author’s view of the crucifixion.
What is missing, and should be noted by anyone examining the truth claims of the emerging church, is that the author and many of his contemporaries do not get their theology from the scriptures, but from the philosophy of men, from the academy, and from their own musings about their experience. In fact, most of the emergent system is built as a response to some negative experiences of its leaders, as is presented in the chapter on the formation of the emergent movement, as well as the four case studies that are presented as evidence of the inner workings of emergent churches.
The orthodox view of the crucifixion is that it is the moment in time where the payment for sin that came into the world at the fall of man was satisfied. Only Jesus, God in the flesh, could have made a satisfaction for sin. And He did it for you and for me, who are unable and unwilling to save ourselves.
The resurrection then is God’s statement to the entire world unto all eternity that He was indeed satisfied, and that the free gift of salvation from our sin is available to all who will but call upon the name of the Lord, asking for and receiving forgiveness and reconciliation with God Himself.
It’s not about you getting along better with your neighbor, or a supposed envelope of friendship. The cross is about you being reconciled to God, and the empty tomb is about God raising Jesus from the dead in victory over sin and death, so that those who believe in Him will have eternal life that starts in the here and now.
While the cross and resurrection are mentioned briefly, it is clear from the author that the views of many in the emergent church are decidedly not orthodox. They should be rejected outright. And while the author’s view of the resurrection is purposefully unclear, there is nothing to be gained by having a conversation with those who knowingly try to subvert the Gospel in a denial of the resurrection, and a revision of the meaning and purpose of the cross. To consider those who hold these views as brothers in Christ, when they openly deny fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith, is neither wise nor profitable. Call me a ‘foundationalist’ if you like, but I prefer to align myself with the Scriptures rather than mislead people into a false sense of security by accepting false teachings and teaching others to do likewise.
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ
The third point of attack is on the Final Judgment, preceded by the second coming of Christ. The emergent view changes the focus away from an eventual return of Christ for judgment, and toward an enterprise engaged in making the world a better place. Rather than see the “narrative” as a revelation of God’s plan to save man from sin, it is the call to “a new way of life”. (Pg 154)
And yet, it should be noted that the emerging church has unhitched itself from the narrative. By denying the truth claims of Scripture, by denying the account of creation, by denying the reality of the empty tomb, and by redefining the purpose of the cross, the emerging church has abandoned all rights to comment on the narrative from which they supposedly get their inspiration to live this so-called “new life”. One has to ask; a new life based upon what?
What value is the new life, if life itself has no meaning? Strip away the empty tomb, and Christianity rings hollow. Take away the need for a savior, and one loses the need to live a new life. As Paul reminds us, “If we have hope only in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.” (1 Cor. 15) Fortunately, the Biblical view on the Second Coming is quite different.
Eventually, on the day that God has chosen, a specific day in the future, God will settle the matter of man’s sin once for all time, in a judgment that every man, woman, and child who has ever lived will experience in their own flesh.
Because that specific Day of Judgment is coming at a moment that no one can predict, it is incumbent upon every human being to come to terms with Jesus. That is, Jesus the Christ, the Jesus that was present at creation, who made all things, who came to live among us, who died in our place, who rose again, who lives forever more, and who is coming again in judgment on a day that God has fixed. (Acts 17)
Conculsion
These three truths: Creation, Crucifixion & Resurrection, and The Second Coming are all foundational to Christianity. They are essential to the Gospel, and without just one the whole system crumbles. That is why skeptics attack on these three points, and all who would examine the claims of men in matters of faith should examine where they stand on these three points.
A careful examination of “The New Christians” reveals a movement that is weighed and found wanting. Anyone who would follow in the footsteps of the emergent church is warned against following the teachings of men like Brian McLaren & Tony Jones. If they call men who deny the basic tenets of Christianity “brothers”, considering them to be of the same faith as them, then one can only wonder what it is that they themselves believe. Any belief system that presents the meaning of Scripture, as a prescription for a “way of life” is a works based, or merit based, system of performance that will lead to eternal destruction.
Sin is your problem. Salvation is available only through the death of Jesus Christ in your place. He was raised in victory over sin and death, and is coming again in judgment. God now calls all men everywhere to turn from their sin in repentance, and to embrace the free gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Repentance is the same message that Jesus preached, it is the same message the apostles preached, and it is the same message the church is called to preach to the culture in our day. The men of the world stand condemned, and all who would seek to be friends with the world (culture) make themselves the enemy of God. Reject the culture of the world, “be saved from this perverse generation”. (Acts 2) Which will you chose?
May you find peace in Christ alone,
~ Doug
Doug
pastorboy
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