Southern Baptist theologian Jim Hamilton doesn’t write a lot of parables. But he recently posted an original one on his blog in a bid to delegitimize a popular author who Hamilton says is falsely advertising himself as an evangelical.
In the parable, author Brian McLaren transforms a Whole Foods Market into a McDonald’s, yet misleadingly retains the “Whole Foods” name. Hamilton says that’s exactly what McLaren is doing in his new book, “A New Kind of Christianity.”
"Christ created the first seminary. The twelve apostles were his first class."
Ah Jim, that is hardly the same as the medieval & modern seminary. Most importantly, Christ is not among us right now except in Spirit, so who should be headmaster? The pope? Gil? You invested little thought in this analogy. And if I wanted your advice, I'd ask for it (which is not likely, since after yrs. of experience with your tedious platitudes & unrepentant misrepresentation, I value it little).
Randy, you are correct - the Emergent movement has discarded rationality completely. They have completed what more "mainstream" evangelicals have started.
Brian McLaren and the Emergent movement is so appealing to kids and adults with ADHD. It's such a hodgepodge of contradictions that people who were taught to think logicaly would have never embraced it. For one of the most comprehensive treatment on the subject, go to http://www.takebackcanada.com/emergingchurch.html
Ah, Neil, you seem to have missed the point. Christ created the first seminary. The twelve apostles were his first class.
No one can help there are bad seminaries, not one that anyone has known of has not deteriorated. It seems to me, Christ had an apostle name Judas who was corrupt.
Corruption within church bodies has always been a problem, the following verses describe a man that I would call the first "pope" or metropolitan.
3 John 1 9 I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say. 10 For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words; and not satisfied with this, neither does he himself receive the brethren, and he forbids those who desire to do so, and puts them out of the church.---NASB
As I pointed out before, Neil, if you can't find a church to your liking in your area, get together with like-minded Christians and start one!
And you evidently missed the point of my post, Jim; I said nothing about church membership, did not condemn independent (Anabaptist) church polity, nor have I ever denied there should be organized churches with teachers. Bear truthful witness, for a change.
Maybe I pushed your buttons by the term "pastor cult." I sure hope so, anyway.
You seem to miss the whole point of the article about teachers who at least say they are Christian, such as McLaren,
3:1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.---NASB
The number of times that teachers are mentioned shows that churches are to exist.
Seminaries are but one example of organized Christianity's tendency to self-destruct.
There is no Scriptural precedent for denominational schools anyway; the original purpose of the university was to train Catholic priests, and tragically, the Reformers, being products themselves of that system, failed to see this, despite their teaching "Sola Scriptura." Scholarship need not & should not be a monopoly of bureaucratic institutions.
In any case, there is a collapse of discipline every place I look - local churches, denominations, pseudo-denominations or pastor cults (e.g. Calvary Chapel), as well as seminaries. People do not love truth enough to take painful corrective measures.
"""In his book, McLaren, who says he comes out of a fundamentalist background, questions long-held assumptions of Christianity. He bristles at the notion of worshipping a God whose wrath sometimes appears unjustified. He engages the Bible as literature, in which God is a main character, rather than as an authoritative type of “constitution” for the church. And he suggests people need divine salvation from human evil, not from a sovereign God."""
Sounds like plain old Liberal hypothesis again.
Anything to remove the authority of Scripture - therefore the authority of God!!
TT wrote: Does anyone have any concept of or love for the truth anymore? Thank God for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. willing to stand for the truth and call heresy when they see it.
What about Ergun Caner? Does he not consistently live out a heresy with deceptions and is yet love by the Southern Baptist Convention? Both men are egomaniacs, both men have theologies as a result of their mistakes, yet one is not exposed because of his loyalties. We need more love of truth.
Does anyone have any concept of or love for the truth anymore? Thank God for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. willing to stand for the truth and call heresy when they see it.
This encourages me because the absolute silence from Christian leaders when these self-promoting, false people push their books etc. on Christians is one of the most disappointing facts about Christianity. I remember the deafening silence about Jordan Rubin a few years ago - as far as I know, zero Christians ever spoke out against his false medical credentials. Many hopped onto his bandwagon to get some money from his deception of Christians, but no one denounced him.
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