When Love Divorces Doctrine and Unity Rejects Truth: A Response to End-Time Ecumenism

It is evident that leading neo-evangelicals believe that our main goal is to eliminate doctrinal distinctives and to emphasize unity among those claiming to be believers.

One of the basic ideas of today’s philosophy of ecumenical evangelism is that love is more important than doctrine. Ecumenical evangelists say that doctrine divides, whereas love unifies. What does the Bible say? Is it true that in the New Testament love is more important than doctrine, or truth?

In the so-called “love chapter,” we are told: “Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love [agape]” (NKJV, 1 Cor. 13:13). Some say—“That settles it: love is supreme!” But when we examine this chapter more carefully, we discover that truth is also mentioned. In v. 6 we are told that love “rejoices in the truth.” In other words, faith, hope and love are virtues, but truth has an altogether different status. It is the frame of reference, the foundation, the atmosphere without which virtues such as love cannot exist at all.

Love “rejoices in the truth.” Why? Because without truth to define, interpret, protect, guide and channel it, love can become a total disaster. We dare not place truth on the same level as virtues. Virtues would shrivel up and die if it were not for truth.

Here is an example from the natural world. We cannot imagine life on this planet without water. Water is absolutely essential for life—as long as it stays within proper channels, such as canals, aqueduct and pipes. But when water gets out of control, it is the second greatest catastrophe that can happen to this planet—second only to fire. On the one hand, it is an absolute blessing, but on the other hand it can be a total disaster. So it is with love.   Keep Reading...

Would You Want a ‘Generous’ Orthodontist?

Brian McLaren could comfortably wear the moniker Granddaddy of the Emergent Church, and not just because of his grey whiskers and genial disposition. His books are seminal, pioneering works, kinda like when Thomas Midgley (d. 1944) pioneered adding lead to gasoline and later, putting CFCs into all things aerosol. It was a generation before anyone realized that one man had bequeathed two of history’s most devastating contributions to environmental calamity, namely perforating our Ozone layer, and poisoning a civilization. Thanks Tom.

Similarly, Brian McLaren is deconstructing orthodoxy with all the vigor and verve of a punctured canister of bug-spray. McLaren’s bailiwick is ambiguity, which makes him a poster boy for all Postmodernist emergent types. The emergencia’s unorthodox angle on orthodoxy is “articulated,” as clearly as a slippery tongue can, in A Generous Orthodoxy. Here’s a tidbit of the movement’s signature obfuscation: “I have gone out of my way to be provocative, mischievous, and unclear, reflecting my belief that clarity is sometimes overrated, and that shock, obscurity, playfulness, and intrigue (carefully articulated) often stimulate more thought than clarity” (p. 27).   Keep Reading...

Moralism vs. Gospel Virtue

The object of the gospel is both to pacify the sinner’s conscience and to purify the heart, and it is of importance to observe that what mars the one of these objects mars the other also. The best way of casting out an impure affection is to admit a pure one …. Thus it is that the freer the Gospel, the more sanctifying the Gospel. The more it is received as a doctrine of grace, the more it will be felt as a doctrine leading to godliness].. ..

On the tenure of “do this and you will live”, a spirit of fearfulness is sure to enter: and the jealousies of a legal bargain chase away ail confidence of intimacy between God and man: and the creature striving to be square and even with his Creator is, in fact pursuing all the while his own selfishness instead of God’s glory. With all the conformities which he labors to accomplish, the soul of obedience is not there, the mind is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed under such an economy can it ever be. It is only when, as in the Gospel, acceptance is bestowed as present, without money and without price, that the security which man feels in God is placed beyond the reach of disturbance. Only then can he repose in Him as one friend reposes in another … the one party rejoicing over the other to do him good…in the impulse of a gratitude, by which is he is awakened to the charms of a new moral existence. Keep Reading>>>

The Poison of Quaint Moralism

Our churches are full of good-looking, upright, moral people. The tragic irony is that our goodness is our poision. A great many Southerners claim Christianity as their religion, mimicking righteousness on the surface while their hearts remain unchanged by the gospel of Jesus. I understand the gravity of that statement and do not make it hastily. Here in the South, the gospel has either been ignored or foolishly assumed. We have satiated our desire for God through quaint morality, allowing people to ignore their need for Jesus.

The outcome is disastrous; we are witnessing an exodus out of the local church and away from faith in Jesus. The words of Jesus to the church of Laodicea haunt me, "I know your works: you are neither hot nor cold…for you say, I am rich, I have prospered and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked" (Rev. 3:15–17). Read the rest HERE