Deconstructing: “The New Christians”

The Christian Gospel is always enculturated, always articulated by a certain people in a certain time and place. To try to freeze one particular articulation of the Gospel, to make it timeless and universally applicable, actually does injustice to the Gospel. This goes to the very heart of what emergent is and of how emergent Christians are attempting to chart a course for following Jesus in the postmodern, globalized, pluralized world of the twenty-first century. Tony Jones, TNC, Page 96 (emphasis mine)

I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek Romans 1:16

Jesus Christ the same; yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8

The very beauty, in my opinion, of the scripture is the very fact that It is universal in its application to the entire world for all of time. In my study this week of Romans 4:1-13, I see this very clearly, especially in verse 3, and in 9-12:

3What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 9Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Paul is writing to Christians in Rome. They came from many different backgrounds, but could be placed very succinctly in two categories: circumcised (Jews) and uncircumcised (gentiles). These two categories are helpful to understanding to whom Paul was explaining this central doctrine to the Christian faith; Justification by faith. The Jews claimed Abraham as their father, Paul explained that He was father to all peoples who followed in His footsteps of being declared righteous because of their faith. Their faith was in what God said (His Word) and in who He sent (His Son, Jesus) Since Emergents like red letters, here is a quote from the latter:

28Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” 29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:28-29 NIV

Pisteuo is the greek word that is translated belief in this passage, and the meaning is incredibly rich and powerful: 1. to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in 1. of the thing believed 1. to credit, have confidence 2. in a moral or religious reference 1. used in the NT of the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of soul 2. to trust in Jesus or God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something: saving faith So the root of our theology must be in what God has said (The Bible) and in whom he has sent (Jesus Christ).

Herein lies the problems with Tony Jones’ theology, because the Bible is not authoratative, it is like any other literature that can be deconstructed. Also, the Bible is not there to order our steps today, rather it is a grand story in which we see Jesus and we ought to emulate His footsteps (what he did) instead of listening to and obeying what he said. Tony makes the excuse in the next several pages of the book TNC that evangelism and other acts of obedience (including believing upon the Name of Jesus Christ alone for salvation) are not necessary, indeed that God can act outside of our obedience. While that is true, Tony, that God can act despite our disobedience, He cannot act out of His character.

Tony goes on in this chapter ( and so will I ) stating that theology is always changing. That is, our God, who is unchanging, indeed the same yesterday, today, and forever, who claims He is the way, the TRUTH and the life, changes, because our opinion about Him is fluid. Tony states that God does not change, yet he says in the same breath that our view of God changes based upon our surroundings, upbringing, culture, etc. In other words, the unchanging God, who wrote the unchanging word must change to fit in the context of our time and culture through our opinion of Him. (theology)

Tony also claims that this deep deconstructive emergent approach to the Bible and to theology is some blessed spiritual gift that he and other liberal theologians alone possess, as he looks down on we simpleton reformers who take God at His Word, recognizing that His Word, in fact, trancends time, culture, tradition and our opinion.

Our theology, while time-tested and well researched is too limited for our emergent friends. Instead of (heaven forbid) evangelizing the lost, we should spend our time in coffee shops deconstructing every word of scripture, making it fit to the ever-changing cultural mores of today. And then we need to do the same tomorrow, because yesterday in now irrelevant. And it does not matter that we take our time not doing what God has clearly called us to do (make disciples of all nations) because God’s actions are not contingient on what we do anyway. Besides, the emergent theologians are deconstructing Hell right out of the scripture, making Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice about mending relationships with one another, ushering a kingdom of God on this earth that we work together with God to bring about (because God is not capable, apparently) and where God’s generous orthodoxy (it does not matter in whom you believe, or in what you believe, just that you are honest about it) will welcome all people into the hereafter and the forevermore after reconciling and restoring them.

Theology does matter, Tony, and it is not an end in itself, rather a means by which we must see who God is in truth and respond in obedience. Theology is not created in a vacuum, rather, it recognizes solid truths about who God is by what He has had inspired to be written (the Bible), the creation (order, certainty, patterns) and the living Word, Jesus. It must be based on the rock, and not on the shifting sand of cultural changes and the intelligence of man.

To be continued . . .

I was a young adult when the classic movie “The Karate Kid” came out. It was great fun watching the underdog succeed. I appreciate it more, however, for the funny yet wise sayings of Mr. Miyagi.

One came to mind while I was reading chapter 2 and 3 of TNC. “You walk down the street. Right side, safe. Left side safe. You walk in middle; squish like grape.” The moral of the story? The third way that Tony speaks about regularly in this book is stinking dangerous!

Tony tries desperately to compare this third way with the Protestant Reformation, and he is left wanting. During this reformation, he forgets that the true church, that had existed for 1500 years (much of it underground) was the lava that burst forth through the crust which was the Apostate Roman Catholic System.

Martin Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Tyndale, and others, for all their foibles, were men who were not seeking a third way, rather, they were seeking God’s way in coming out of the prison system of the false Church of Rome.

During this ’soul searching’ comparison, a few things come out about Tony and Emergent. First, and one that really calls into question whether these people are really Christians at all is the attack on the truth of the scripture. Tony will say that these are people having a conversation, but on page 19, like Rob Bell does in his book Velvet Elvis, Tony slyly calls into question whether the Bible can be trusted.

Tony argues that emergents desire to question the foundations, even the Bible. In doing so, He calls God a liar. He also opens the door to deconstruct the Bible like it is some normal book of literature. In fact, Tony does not see the Bible as a Holy Book, rather, He sees it as propaganda. Page 45 is very telling, where Tony compares the Bible to Mao’s little red book. Is the Bible really to be reduced to this type of propaganda?

Back to the third way. On page 45, he sets the stage, calling into question reading the Bible in a healthy way, saying that most evangelicals read the Bible to prove their views to be right concerning homosexuals and women in leadership. These would be those on the right, both politically and religiously, those rotten fundamentalists. Then those on the left, both religiously and politically, those mainliners, who view the Bible with skepticism. These groups fight a continual tug of war. They fight between church polity, political parties, right interpretation of scriptures, social issues, and cultures. These wars between right and left have turned off these emergents, causing them to want to drop out. Then there is the third way.

The third way is to not be beholden to any one church- the church is organic, and as we cultivate our way through life we find different places in our culture that we can see God, and therefore those things are right and good. There is no sacred and secular- everything is sacred! We do not want to impact culture, nor do we want culture to impact us. Really, there is no culture. We want to do things in the way of Jesus, how he loved and accepted anybody.

The thought of wrath and judgement does not align with their view of Christ, so they leave that part out. Those in the third way do not hold to any political parties, rather, they pick and choose which planks are important to them. They don’t like the parties, (but they will vote for Obama because of a sense that he is anti-establishment, and brings a subjective feel of hope) Of course the Bible is a sacred text, but the third way stays away from terms like inerrant and sufficient, they do not believe that it is sufficient for doctrine.

They believe that it is living, not in the way that it says, but in the way that culture (which does not exist) can help us understand that Paul did not really mean that women shouldn’t be leaders in Church, or that homosexuality is a sin that will separate from God. No, homosexuality is to be honored and understood, and we should be accepting. After all, Jesus is a welcoming guy. He is our good buddy in the sky. He is not going to judge us, because we are joining with him to bring our picture of his kingdom here to earth.

Mr. Miayagi had it right. The emergents Third way is unsafe (just the way they like it) Unfortunately, they will wind up being squished like the proverbial grape when that truck of judgement and wrath that they do not believe in runs them over.

~ Pastorboy

In this dispatch, John makes a poignant observation about Tony’s observation of a passenger on a flight, and her observance of a religious ritual, asking a question that is sure to generate some dialog among those observing this conversation.

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I find it fascinating in this text that the Emergents are trying to break out of the old church mold, out of the patterns and the pretexts of the modern and into the postmodern. But some of the language and the rituals belie this very clearly in the book.

Chapter one, page one and two there is the story of Tony fumbling around an ‘elite’ New York editor, coveting her mac book pro as he takes out his dell dinosaur. He hides the fact that the book he is reading is the Bible. And he does not talk to her- only observes. He notices her as she slips the mac book away and takes out her prayer beads- a rosary- and notes that she is praying to the ‘Blessed Virgin’ He confesses that this does not compute.

What does not compute to me is the fact that there is at least three open doors of conversation in this little story that could have been walked through to open a conversation about the Gospel. I am always looking for these open doors to walk through, to be fair. But the one that is painfully obvious to me is that she takes out the rosary and begins to pray.

To this, Tony responds as if this is something that is perfectly okay, to pray to a human, creating a idol in the mind and giving worship to one who is not God. At the very least, he could ask her how she prays and why, and lead to the Gospel. But you see, this is the synchronicity pablum and problem that emergents have. They must find truth in the other, and in doing so, they make God a liar.

Fast forward to chapter two, where Tony claims that emergent lands between the Scylla of secularism and the Charybdis of fundamentalism, a postmodern posture where emergents are open to the identity of the other. The other is defined as those who are in different cultures and practice different faiths, and have different lifestyles.

This is why the emergent village supports and praises movements like Faith House in Manhattan, an attempt to bring together all the worlds monotheistic religions under one roof. It is why Tony’s own church (and his wife) practice Yoga on Sunday Mornings at Solomon’s Porch (while the rest of us are at church). It is why Solomons Porch fellowship area is plastered with sayings, not from the scripture, but from Christian, Hindu, and Muslim mystics. It is why open homosexuality and women pastors and elders are openly embraced there despite clear Biblical teaching. It is why there is never a standard mentioned, why there is no Statement of Faith, why there is nothing but open-ended conversation.

The Bible is not even considered to be truth to be believed by faith, rather it is literature that is to be deconstructed as any other literature. And while they are trying to break free of the modern, they have this belief in the ancient-future movement where they take practices of the Roman Catholic church and use them in their communities. The Iconography, candles, incense, even the sign of the cross are used regularly. Throw in practices of contemplative prayer, and other disciplines that seek by experience and practice to draw closer to God, and you see why with Paul we scream “are you so soon following a different Gospel?!”

There is no standard in the Emergent conversation, no rock solid foundation. Only the bedrock of shifting sand which they gladly accept and embrace. Only problem is, you cannot embrace sand very long before it all slips through your fingers.

~ Pastorboy