What's So Dangerous About the Emerging Church?

Selected Scriptures

Hi, I'm Phil Johnson and I'm here in the studio with John MacArthur.    And we've set aside the next hour or so to discuss a movement known as the Emerging Church.  Now, John, that's going to be a familiar topic for a lot of our listeners, I know, because we get lots of questions about it.  It's been about two years since Christianity Today featured a cover article about the Emerging Church Movement, they called it, I think, The Emergent Mystic.  And for many evangelicals, I think that was November of about 2004 and for many evangelicals that was their introduction to this movement and this phenomenon known as the Emerging Church.  And ever since that article was published, we have been getting a steady stream, an increasing stream of questions from listeners about this movement.  It's become the number one thing we are asked for.

Now here's a sample of what we get, and I'll read this to you and then let you respond.  This came to us by e-mail.  "Dear Pastor John: I would like to know if you have any opinions regarding the so-called Emerging Church Movement.  This movement seems to espouse a doctrine of Christian post-modernism.  As this would seem to be a major contradiction to biblical truth, I'm concerned as to the effect of this philosophy on the church as a whole.  Additionally, it seems many young people today are embracing this movement, including my own son.  I'd like to know what you think and if you can suggest some resources for us that might help shed some light on the subject."

I know you've been watching this movement, John.  In fact, last year you participated in a faculty lecture series at the Master's Seminary, evaluating the movement for students there and then some of the seminars at the Shepherds Conference for the past two years have dealt with the movement and its ramifications for church leaders.  Today I want to give you an opportunity to answer some of the questions about the Emerging Church Movement that have come to us from our radio listeners because we want you to talk about this movement in laymen's terms for the average Grace To You hearer. And so we're going to give you an opportunity to say in the simplest possible terms what is wrong with the movement, what if anything is right with it, and what you think about the goals and the strategies of those who are at the forefront of this movement.  And, as always, we want you to shine the light of Scripture on this movement and let's see how it fairs.  So I've collected some of the questions our listeners have sent us and I've even prepared a few questions of my own.  And if you're ready, we'll start with the first question I'm sure is on the mind of many of our listeners...what is the Emerging Church Movement and how can I recognize it when I see it?

JOHN:   Well, I'd like to give a simple answer to that, I'll do my best to.   The Emerging Church Movement is an amorphous sort of loose-knit association of churches that have decided that there is value, there is even virtue in uncertainty about Scripture.  The bottom line in the movement is they believe that we aren't even suppose to understand precisely what the Bible means.  And to me, that's the big issue. It is an attack on the clarity of Scripture and they elevate themselves as if this is some noble reality.  They have finally risen to say we're honest enough to say, "We don't know what the Bible really means.  We can't be certain.  We are...we're the truly spiritual ones."  It has overtones of spiritual pride, a false kind of spiritual pride which they call humility.  They say, "We're too humble to say that we know what the Bible means."

The bottom line, I think, in the movement is that it is a denial of the clarity of Scripture.  It is a denial that we can know what the Bible really says. And as I said, it's amorphous because there's a mish-mash of approaches to this and a mish-mash of styles and things like that. But they have embraced