|
The latest issue of The
Trinity Review features an article I
wrote titled The Emergent
Church's Retreat Into Pre-Reformation Darkness.
You can read it
online or download a
printable copy.
Reader response has been
interesting —
especially from people who apparently had no
idea that this apostate movement is exerting a
deadly influence on young people attending reputedly conservative
colleges and seminaries. An administrator at one
college named in the article asked me how I
could make such a claim about his school. So I
told him just how bad things are in his own
house.
On March 25, 2009 this particular
college sponsored a full-day Emergent Church
Conference featuring Emergent spokesman and
author Tony Jones. Advertising for the
conference (examples
here and
here) was completely favorable toward Jones
and the movement he represents. During a chapel
service (see below) a spokesman for the college
reported that “dozens of local area pastors”
attended, and the student body was invited to
attend as well.
Jones is a thorough apostate.
Among his many doctrinal deviancies, he
denies the doctrine of original sin,
has favorably publicized an Emergent homosexual
website called
Queermergent, and has
endorsed same-sex marriage. He believes
that the terms
“unbiblical” and “high view of Scripture” must
be removed from the Christian vocabulary
because they imply that a person or group can
hold a “right” view of the Bible or of a
specific passage of Scripture.
Despite these things, Jones was
also this college's
chapel speaker on March 25, 2009. At the
beginning of the service, the man who led in
prayer asked God to “give us new direction”
through the “word” they were about to hear from
Tony Jones. The man who then introduced Jones spoke of
none of his doctrinal deviancies, but spoke
glowingly of his credentials and alleged
accomplishments. He then had the audacity to ask the
chapel audience to “welcome Tony Jones as he
comes to share from God’s Word with us”
— which it then did
with warm applause.
What happened at this college is not an isolated
example. It is happening not only all across
America, but around the world.
Where are the Watchmen?
How a reputedly conservative
Christian college could do these things is
beyond comprehension or explanation, except in
the light of passages such as 2 Timothy 3:13:
“But evil men and imposters will grow worse and
worse, deceiving and being deceived.” How an
administrator in such a school could be unaware
of what is going on is baffling to say the
least.
Christian parents trust the faculties and
administrators of reputedly conservative
colleges and seminaries — and pay them tens of
thousands of dollars — to teach their young
people Biblical truth and guard them against
apostasy. But Christian academia's response to
the Emergent Church movement demonstrates that
those who are supposed to be watchmen on the
walls of Christian schools often fail to do the
job.
This leads us inexorably to the question: Where
are the faithful watchmen on the walls of
Christian academia, guarding against such
attacks by the devil? Who is protecting the
spiritual well-being of the young people
Christian parents are entrusting to their care?
Who is warning them against apostasy? Sadly, in
many colleges and seminaries today, the answer
is, "No one."
Jehovah's words to Ezekiel apply equally to the
leaders of Christian academia today:
Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
“Son of man, speak to the children of your
people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword
upon a land, and the people of the land take a
man from their territory and make him their
watchman, when he sees the sword coming upon the
land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the
people, then whoever hears the sound of the
trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword
comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on
his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet,
but did not take warning; his blood shall be
upon himself. But he who takes warning will save
his life. But if the watchman sees the sword
coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the
people are not warned, and the sword comes and
takes any person from among them, he is taken
away in his iniquity; but his blood I will
require at the watchman’s hand.’ So you, son of
man: I have made you a watchman for the house of
Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My
mouth and warn them for Me. (Ezekiel 33:1-7)
Christian parents, exercise great discernment in
choosing the place for your children's higher
education. Make sure the faculty and
administrators are watchmen on the walls who
will guard them against error and apostasy, not
allies of the evil one who will encourage them to welcome
the enemies of Christ and His Word with open arms.
|
