On September 11, 2008, seven years to the day of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, we learned that Brian McLaren and other Emergent / Higher Criticism NON CHRISTIAN speakers are slated to headline the upcoming October “Reclaiming the Imagination: The Exodus as Paradigmatic Narrative for Preaching” conference at Lipscomb University.
(See: http://preaching.lipscomb.edu/default.asp?SID=205 )
Men who do not believe in the veracity of Scripture are going to instruct many hundreds of preachers of the church of Christ. These preachers, in turn, will return to our various congregations carrying the baggage of the error of Thomas Aquinas who taught that truth is exclusively discovered through…NOT REVELATION…but by man’s own reason / senses, one of which he falsely identified as IMMAGINATION. Aquinas “discovered” this “truth,” not by the study of Scripture, but by a lifelong obsessive study of the pagan Aristotle. Aristotle's philosophy is summed up thusly; "Nothing is in the intellect that is not first in the senses."(1) Here is what Aquinas had to say regarding the foundational theme embraced by this upcoming Lipscomb conference:
In his Commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sentences (III, 9, 2, 3), Aquinas says that there are three reasons to introduce images [imagination – RM] into the worship of the church:
"First, to give instruction to the ignorant, to recall the Mystery of Incarnation and examples of the saints by their everyday representation; to nourish feelings of devotion, better excited by vision than by audition."(2)
Such a “celebration” of “imagination” replaces the Revealed Word of God with the foolish speculations of a Dark Ages monk who likely imagined he had actual conversations with Jesus Christ.(3) The star of Lipscomb’s “imagination tour” is a man by the name of Brian McLaren. Brian McLaren is not a Christian in the New Testament sense of the word. In fact, theologically, his teachings are further away from the truth than the teachings of Benedict XVI!
Brian McLaren personifies, embraces and aggressively promotes Origen’s allegorization and multiple meaning of Scripture, the “imagination is truth” of Aquinas, the obsessive contradictions of Kierkegaard’s existentialism, the endless questioning with no answers of John Dewey, the anarchy of sensus plenoir, the “irrational is rational” deconstructionism of Friedrich Nietzche, the denial of Biblical inerrancy of Wellhausen, the “truth is but an illusion” of Derrida, the “relevance trumps truth” of Barth, the “mythology is truth” of Bultmann, the “humans are in charge of their own interpretation” of Croatto, the “truth in interpretation is a matter of personal taste” of Gadamer and the nearly agnostic “liberation theology” of Alan Jones, Here is where McLaren stands in his own words through documented sources:(4)
ON THE ESSENTIAL MESSAGE OF JESUS: “The essential message of Jesus is compassion for yourself and for your fellow neighbor.” – March 2006 comments to a United Methodist Church conference in Nashville. For what Jesus Christ says is the essential message see Matthew 22:37-39.
REGARDING THE 2ND COMING OF CHRIST: “The gentle Jesus of the 1st coming becomes a kind of trick Jesus, a fake-me-out Messiah, to be replaced by the true jihadist Jesus of a violent 2nd coming.” – From McLaren’s book, Everything Must Change, pg. 144. For what Paul says concerning the 2nd coming of Christ see II Corinthians 5:10.
REGARDING SALVATION: “What does it mean to be “saved?” When I read the Bible, I DON’T (emphasis mine – RM) see it meaning, “I’m going to heaven after I die.” - Quoted by Andy Crouch in a web article entitled “The Emergent Mystique,” 2004. For what Jesus has to say regarding salvation see Mark 16:16.
REGARDING SALVATION: When asked to explain how conversions work in his home church, McLaren replied: “Very, very rarely does someone have the date and time experience of conversion. Typically, a person comes to us because they’re spiritually searching. They participate in our services, they get to know some people, build relationships, join a small group or maybe even start volunteering. At some point, they connect with God. The gospel makes sense to them. They know that God loves them, and they just say, “I’m in.” – Brian McLaren in Outreach Magazine, July-August 2005. For what Peter has to say regarding salvation see Acts 2:37,38.
REGARDING SALVATION: In a 2003 interview with Bro. Greg Taylor of New Wineskins Magazine, McLaren argues that people are saved with AND without baptism. For what Peter has to say regarding baptism see I Peter 3:21.
REGARDING RADICAL LIBERATION THEOLOGY: McLaren praises liberation theologians Sobrino and Boff in an interview with John Stanley of Mars Hill Seminary. Regarding the politicization of religion, see what Jesus has to say in Matthew 22:21.
SALVATION IS FOR THE “HERE AND NOW” AND NOT THE “HERE AFTER” : “But I’m more interested in a gospel that is universally efficacious for the whole earth BEFORE death in history.” – A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren, pg. 114. Discover what Christ has to say as to whether His kingdom is of this world or the next in John 18:36.
REGARDING THE POWER AND THE PURPOSE OF THE CROSS AS WELL AS THE REALITY OF HELL: “…in the end, God gets his way through coercion and violence and intimidation and domination, just like every other kingdom does. The cross isn’t the center then. The cross is almost a distraction and false advertising for God.” – Brian McLaren as quoted in bereanbeacon.org. See what Paul says about the power, the purpose and the effect of the cross in I Corinthian 1:18.
There are many leaders in the so-called “emerging church.” Brian McLaren is but one. However, Brian McLaren is the ONLY one that is making a continual habit of lecturing on our campuses, traveling with our preachers, visiting with our writers and attempting to infiltrate the church of Christ in every major city in the United States where she exists.
NOT SINCE THE TIME OF CONSTANTINE HAS ANY NON-CHRISTIAN HELD THIS MUCH SWAY WITH THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear Lipscomb Board, Faculty and Staff: for the sake of Jesus Christ and His church…remove this man immediately from this conference schedule. Cancel and replace the conferences dubious title. Replace these outsiders with faithful brethren who will teach truth and not just “imagine” it. Our appeal is not speculative, it is biblical. Our appeal is not irrational, it is sincere. Our appeal is not philosophical, it is scriptural. Our appeal is not “off the cuff,” it is documented. Our appeal is not subjective, it is objective. Our appeal is not self-serving, it is for the long term survivability of a great and historic Christian university…Lipscomb University! Most importantly, our appeal is not a mere intellectual exercise, it is an appeal for the real souls of real men and real women for “knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.”
Endnotes:
(1)Aristotle, De Anima, 3.8 as quoted by Richard Bennett in "Alan Jone's Reimagining Christianity: The Way Back to Rome," p. 5, as published on www.bereanbeacon.org/AlanJones/pdf.
(2)See www.arsdisputandi.org. Roger Pouivet, “Religious Imagination and Virtue Epistemology,” page 2. Type in the title of the article on the “Search Page” to read the article. (Emphasis added – RM) The Scripture CLEARLY teaches that “FAITH comes by HEARING and hearing by the WORD OF GOD.” (Romans 10:17) In complete and absolute opposition to the Word of God Aquinas asserted that FAITH comes by SIGHT and sight comes by IMAGES & IMAGINATION. Upon this foundation of sand and straw comes…“Reclaiming the Imagination: The Exodus as Paradigmatic Narrative for Preaching.”
(3)It is reported that Aquinas believed that Jesus Christ actually spoke these words to him, "You have written well of me, Thomas, what reward will you receive?" Supposedly, Thomas replied, "None but yourself." See: Everett Ferguson, Church History – Volume One: From Christ to Pre-Reformation, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), pg. 488. On the same page, Bro. Ferguson’s “Thomistic Triangle” shows that Revelation follows faith which follows “reason.” Were that Bro. Ferguson was on the marquis instead of Brian McLaren! It is not too late to ask him Dr. Lowry!
(4)For more documentation and direct links, contact Russ McCullough.
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