On the show Who’s Line Is It Anyway? There is a game where they end each sentence with, “…if you know what I mean?” This phrase suggests sexual innuendo in any type of conversation. I cannot help but believe this is what emergent thinking is doing to the doctrines of the church. No, it is hopefully not making them sexual but it is tagging them for heretical innuendo.
What I mean is that the approach to theology that has, as its core values tolerance, relativism and pluralism will change the historically concrete terms of Christianity into impotent jargon. These terms can divide people and humble, offend, exasperate, and crush certain beliefs or ideas. If that is so then these terms are no friend to tolerance, relativism and pluralism. Yet this emergent thinking is saying, “I believe in the cross… if you know what I mean?” Or better yet, “I believe in the cross… in the way that no one is offended and people can feel good about themselves.”
In this campaign to devalue truth and elevate peace and unity the whole foundation of peace and unity is destroyed. What gives us peace and unity? A feeling? Tolerance? Relativism? Pluralism? Absolutely NOT! These things ask for people of different ideas, different feelings, different experiences, different desired, different realities and different convictions to rally around being different. What happens when these differences confront each other?
Can people agree that both are right and go on respecting and approving of each other? Agreeing to disagree may work in some cases but not in issues that hold eternal consequences. Salvation contains terms such as: sin, hell, wrath, condemnation, propitiation, justification, redemption, reconciliation and atonement. These words come from the Bible which is either truthful in speaking about these issues or is just one misguided option or opinion. Emergent thinking wants both. These terms are defined by experience and presuppositions that use them as another piece in life’s journey or quest.
If one approached their employment this way it would be thought silly. “My boss fired me but since terminating my employment is mean and makes me feel bad then, “fired” must mean that my boss is just cranky today. Hopeful people haves learned that thinking in a postmodern way may sound nice but it is contradictory and fantasy. The truth is hard but is real.
How can a myth about God becoming a man, dying on a cross and raising from the dead give any hope or healing. Concrete historical truth about God becoming man, dying on a cross for man’s sin and raising from the dead can bring hope and healing. The fact that there is a God, the fact that he died because of my sin, that fact that God’s wrath against sin and injustice is pacified, gives hope and healing because it deals with the real issues in my soul not just coddling my feelings. People know the hatred, pride, selfishness, jealousy, envy and strife within them and no myth or gimmick will remedy it.
A treaty drawn under the values of tolerance, relativism and pluralism cannot bring lasting peace because they are just ideas not reality. Only the real God, dying a real death, paying for my real sins, can bring real peace. Otherwise, my real guilt is just redefined and my real desire for the divine is just redirected to that which makes me feel good for the moment. Christianity will only be an impotent spiritual innuendo… if you know what I mean?
Posted by David on July 7, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I agree, if you know what I mean…
Posted by Dan on January 16, 2009 at 10:11 pm
I found your blog
… wanted to comment, this reminded me of a joke I heard in a debate I was listening to this week… The joke goes… Two Churches right across the street from each other (that never really happens, if you know what I mean )… but anyway, the punchline follows… One of the Pastors says “There aint no Hell”…. the other Pastor said “The Hell there aint”