Liberalism, Emergent Church, and the New Age Christians

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Liberalism, Emergent Church, and the New Age
Christians
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The Twelve Main Issues

• Intellectual Freedom
• Rejection of Absolute Truth
• Inventing Your Own Faith
• The Miracles In The Bible
• The Uniqueness of Christ
• The Authority of Scripture

• 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 1900s 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.
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Faith, Doubt, Unbelief.

• Faith Believing What God Has Said
• Doubt Being Hesitant To Act On What God Has
  Said
• Unbelief Refusing To Believe What God Has Said
• Rebellion Doing The Opposite Of What God Has
  Said
• Presumption Making Up A Word From God
• Rebellion often masks itself as doubt or as an
  alternative faith

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Liberalism Faith and Reason

• Faith lays the framework of our mind
• Reason does the thinking within that
  framework
• Logic is only as accurate as its starting
  assumptions, axioms, propositions and
  presuppositions.
• Faith enables us to access information that is
  outside the box of formal reasoning we call
  this information revelation Matthew 1125-27,
  1613-19, Luke 226,Luke 1021,22 John 118,
  1421-26, 176, Romans 16261 Corinthians 29-16

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The State Of The Mind

• Adams mind was good his faith framework was
  intact but it was empty
• After the fall the mind of man became distorted
  and was hostile toward God and inventive of evil
  Genesis 65,6 Colossians 121, Romans 130
• Now we need to renew our mind Romans 121,2
• This is done by setting it on the things of the
  Spirit Romans 84-6
• 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

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Liberalism Questioning Miracles The
Resurrection

• 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 1218-27
• 1 Corinthians 1512-19
• 2 Timothy 31-7 (esp. verse 5)

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The Right To Invent Your Own Faith

• 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

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But Is The Bible Reliable?

• 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

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The Question Of The True Religion.

• What is the True Religion of the One Creator
  God?
• 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.
• His religion should be able to be pursued by all
  people - not just an elite few.
• 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.
• Since God is the Creator of life then His
  religion should make people more fully alive in
  their inmost beings

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Jesus As The Only Way To God

• 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 146
• Acts 412
• John 107,9
• 1 Peter 318
• 1 John 223, 511,12
• 2 John 19
• Revelation 58-10, 79-17, 137,8 2015

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Inconvenient Morality

• 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 316, 59-13
• 1 Corinthians 612-20,
• 1 Corinthians 927, 108
• 2 Corinthians 616, 1221
• Ephesians 2 21-22 , 53-5
• 1 Thessalonians 43
• 1 Timothy 19-10, Hebrews 134
• 1 Peter 25

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The Pursuit of Holiness

• Justification occurs at conversion just as if
  Id never sinned admitted into Gods presences
  as a son
• Sanctification after conversion, being
  dedicated to God and being made progressively
  into His image
• Grace is given to help us to become holy grace
  is NOT a license to sin
• Ephesians 14, 314-21, 51
• 1 Peter 113-25
• 2 Peter 11-8
• Hebrews 1214

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Cultural Accommodation

• Version 1 Evangelical Christians are just
  intolerant fundamentalists who need to be more
  accepting
• Version 2 We need to dress like the world and
  act like the world in order to reach the world
• 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.
• Romans 121-2, Ephesians 21-3, 417-24, James
  127, 44

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Universal Salvation?

• They believe That God is Love so everyone is
  saved.
• But Jesus says a lot about Hell
• Matthew 529,30 1028 2315,33 Mark 943-49
  Luke 125
• The need to be saved Mark 1616 John 316-21,
  534, 109
• Jews not saved Romans 101-3
• Eternal judgment John 524-29
• Revelation 1920 2010-15 218
• 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

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Pagan Elements / Blended Religions

• All paths ultimately lead to God
• But Christians, even in the NT are told to flee
  from idols
• 1 Corinthians 511, 69, 101-14
• 2 Corinthians 616
• Galatians 520
• Colossians 35
• 1 Thessalonians 19
• 1 John 521
• And going back to the Jewish religion was falling
  away from grace Galatians 51-11

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Christian Gnosticism

• Saved by knowledge / awareness - Gk. Gnosis
• Varies a great deal but enlightenment is the goal
• John, 1 John, Ephesians and Colossians plus
  Apostles 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 28-23