Liberalism, Emergent Church, and
the “New Age” Christians
The Twelve Main Issues
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Intellectual Freedom
Rejection of Absolute Truth
Inventing Your Own Faith
The Miracles In The Bible
The Uniqueness of Christ
The Authority of Scripture
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Free Sexuality
Questioning Holiness
Cultural Accommodation
Universal Salvation
Incorporation of Paganism
Christian Gnosticism
Liberals: Came after the Enlightenment, Reason more important than Faith,
strongest in late 1800s and 1900’s to 1970 or so, very skeptical regarding
Scripture, miracles, the supernatural etc. Unbelieving Christianity.
Emergent Church: Trying to reinvent Christianity and make it ‘more
relevant to the culture’. Tolerance and acceptance are very important,
opposed to ‘fundamentalism’. Shares many doctrinal points with the Liberals.
Worldly Christianity.
Faith, Doubt, Unbelief….
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Faith = Believing What God Has Said
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Doubt = Being Hesitant To Act On What God Has Said
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Unbelief = Refusing To Believe What God Has Said
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Rebellion = Doing The Opposite Of What God Has Said
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Presumption = Making Up A “Word” From God
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Rebellion often masks itself as doubt or as an ‘alternative faith’
Liberalism: Faith and Reason
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Faith lays the framework of our mind
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Reason does the ‘thinking’ within that framework
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Logic is only as accurate as its starting assumptions,
axioms, propositions and presuppositions.
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Faith enables us to access information that is ‘outside the
box’ of formal reasoning – we call this information
revelation: Matthew 11:25-27, 16:13-19, Luke 2;26,
Luke 10;21,22 John 1:18, 14:21-26, 17:6, Romans 16;26
1 Corinthians 2:9-16
The State Of The Mind…
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Adam’s mind was good – his faith framework was intact but it
was ‘empty’
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After the fall the mind of man became distorted and was
hostile toward God and inventive of evil: Genesis 6:5,6
Colossians 1:21, Romans 1:30
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Now we need to ‘renew our mind’: Romans 12:1,2
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This is done by ‘setting it on the things of the Spirit’ :
Romans 8:4-6
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The renewed mind will be powerful in reasoning, logic, and
thought e.g. Paul, Augustine, Luther, Spurgeon, C.S. Lewis but
it will do so out of godly faith
Liberalism: Questioning Miracles & The
Resurrection
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By saying that miracles are impossible you are reducing the
possibilities in the Universe to the limits of your own
imagination and knowledge
You are saying that there ‘is nothing outside the box’
You are also invalidating the testimonies of many people who
claim to have experienced miracles both large and small
If a Christian decided not to believe in the Resurrection then
that has SERIOUS theological and spiritual consequences:
Mark 12:18-27
1 Corinthians 15:12-19
2 Timothy 3:1-7 (esp. verse 5)
The “Right” To Invent Your Own Faith
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While this is a constitutional right, that does not mean that
the faith which you invent is TRUE
The fact that you like your ideas does not mean that they will
work, or that they will bring eternal life.
True = Aligned With The Facts
Objective Truth = Inter-subjectively Testable (Resurrection)
You cannot just play ‘cut and paste’ with the Bible and your
favorite philosophers and get something that is true. It must
also match with reality
There are still individual facts that are absolutely true
Functioning in everyday life requires the recognition of
absolute factuality and truth and its appropriate use
But Is The Bible Reliable?
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The fulfillments of the OT prophecies
The very specificity of it e.g Tyre to be a place where
fishermen spread their nets
The hundreds of prophecies fulfilled in Christ
The return of Israel to the land
The Gog and Magog coalition that we can see assembling
now for the first time in history
The deep teachings and morals – that work and have
proved themselves a good foundation for society
Historical and archaeological accuracy
Josh McDowell – Evidence That Demands A Verdict
The Question Of The True Religion….
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What is the True Religion of the One Creator God?
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Since God is One and He is the Creator then His true religion
will be in harmony with His Creation. His true religion will
also not make statements that are completely contradictory to
the well established facts about His Creation.
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His religion should be able to be pursued by all people - not
just an elite few.
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His religion when fully pursued by all people everywhere
should allow His Creation to fully function and should not
destroy or impair Creation or cause society to collapse.
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Since God is the Creator of life then His religion should make
people more fully alive in their inmost beings
Jesus As The Only Way To God
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C.S. Lewis – Liar, Lunatic or Lord
Jesus’ extraordinary claims about Himself were either true or
untrue (e.g. I and the Father are One…)
If Untrue – then Jesus either knew they were untrue (Liar ) or
did not know they were untrue (Lunatic)
If True – then Jesus is Lord
John 14:6
Acts 4:12
John 10:7,9
1 Peter 3:18
1 John 2:23, 5:11,12
2 John 1:9
Revelation 5:8-10, 7:9-17, 13:7,8; 20:15
Inconvenient Morality
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Many liberals and emergent church folk want to change traditional
morality and to accommodate current social standards
Sex before marriage, legalized prostitution, homosexuality and
alternative sexuality are among the disputed areas:
But the Bible, medical evidence and common sense are in agreement
about the destructiveness of sexual immorality:
1 Corinthians 3:16, 5:9-13
1 Corinthians 6:12-20,
1 Corinthians 9:27, 10:8
2 Corinthians 6:16, 12:21
Ephesians 2: 21-22 , 5:3-5
1 Thessalonians 4:3
1 Timothy 1:9-10, Hebrews 13:4
1 Peter 2:5
The Pursuit of Holiness
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Justification: occurs at conversion ‘just as if I’d never sinned’ –
admitted into God’s presences as a son
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Sanctification: after conversion, being dedicated to God and
being made progressively into His image
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Grace is given to help us to become holy – grace is NOT a
license to sin
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Ephesians 1:4, 3:14-21, 5:1
1 Peter 1:13-25
2 Peter 1:1-8
Hebrews 12:14
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Cultural Accommodation
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Version 1: Evangelical Christians are ‘just intolerant
fundamentalists’ who ‘need to be more accepting’
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Version 2: We need to dress like the world and act like
the world in order to reach the world
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Version 3; Spirituality is constantly evolving as culture is
evolving and we must express our spirituality not in the
confinement of old Christian morals but in the new
patterns of the spirit of the age.
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Romans 12:1-2, Ephesians 2:1-3, 4:17-24, James 1:27, 4:4
Universal Salvation?
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They believe: That God is Love so everyone is saved….
But Jesus says a lot about Hell:
Matthew 5:29,30 ; 10:28 ; 23:15,33 Mark 9:43-49 Luke 12:5
The need to be saved: Mark 16:16; John 3:16-21, 5:34, 10:9
Jews not saved: Romans 10:1-3
Eternal judgment: John 5:24-29;
Revelation 19:20; 20:10-15; 21:8
The Bible does NOT teach universal salvation
There are people who will remain wicked and rebellious
and sinful and unbelieving and they will not go to Heaven
but will suffer eternal punishment
Pagan Elements / Blended Religions
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“All paths ultimately lead to God…”
But Christians, even in the NT are told to flee from idols
1 Corinthians 5:11, 6:9, 10:1-14
2 Corinthians 6:16
Galatians 5:20
Colossians 3:5
1 Thessalonians 1:9
1 John 5:21
And going back to the Jewish religion was falling away
from grace: Galatians 5:1-11
Christian Gnosticism
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Saved by knowledge / awareness - Gk. Gnosis
Varies a great deal but enlightenment is the goal
John, 1 John, Ephesians and Colossians plus Apostle’s Creed
written in response to early Christian Gnosticism
Frequently a mixture of Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism
Awareness is separated from actual holiness, daily living, or
believing the Bible or certain doctrines about Christ
Denies the human nature of Christ, the Incarnation etc.
“Oneness with the cosmos…”
The self may even be exalted into the position of being God
1 John 1, Colossians 2:8-23