Brian
McLaren
Brian
McLaren Calls Hell and the Cross
"False Advertising for God" Listen
to Interview
"[T]his is one of the huge problems with the traditional understanding of hell, because if the Cross is in line with Jesus' teaching, then I won't say the only and I certainly won't say ... or even the primary or a primary meaning of the Cross ... is that the Kingdom of God doesn't come like the kingdoms of this world by inflicting violence and coercing people. But that the kingdom of God comes thru suffering and willing voluntary sacrifice right? But in an ironic way the doctrine of hell basically says no, that's not really true. At the end God get's his way thru coercion and violence and intimidation and domination just like every other kingdom does. The Cross isn't the center then, the Cross is almost a distraction and false advertising for God." Brian McLaren speaking, From the Interview
Time Magazine names McLaren one of 25 most influential evangelical leaders. Maybe the New Evangelicalism, but not a leader to the body of Jesus Christ.
Brian
McLaren's Book, The Secret Message of Jesus
by
Berit Kjos
Who Defines the Kingdom of God?
Where
is the Kingdom of God? How inclusive is it? Who defines
the terms? Today'semerging church has already moved the boundaries of HisKingdom.
It has redefined God's Word and is fast embracing the latest versions
of the old Gnostic quest for secret knowledge (gnosis)
and self-actualization, whether through mystical experience or
collective imagination.
Stamping out faith in Biblical absolutes is central to this transformation. A mind anchored in God's Word won't compromise, but when that anchor is removed, the current of change can carry that mind anywhere. As Jesuit scholastic, Mark Mossa, wrote in his endorsement of Brian McLaren's latest book: "The Secret Message of Jesus, challenges us to put aside our sterile certainties about Christ and reconsider the imaginative world of Jesus stories, signs and wonders." Read Entire Article, Who Defines the Kingdom of God (a critique of The Secret Message of Jesus)
McLaren
Redefines Christianity
"After
Brian McLaren of the 'Emergent' brand of neo-evangelicalism was
named one of the top 25 most influential Evangelicals in America
today by TIME magazine (Feb. 7, 2005), Homiletics Online published
an interview with him entitled 'A
Generous, not Suspicious, Orthodoxy.' In this interview McLaren
discusses a new term that he has invented: post-colonial."—Emergent
"Post-colonial" Disingenuousness
An Enemy
of the Cross?
Is
Brian McLaren becoming an enemy of the Cross of Jesus Christ?
While his signature and endorsement on the back of such books
as Tony Campolo's Speaking My Mind
and Dave Fleming's The Seeker's Way, was horrible enough, that
was mild compared to what he has now done.
In
the midst of the Purpose Driven craze and an apparently sleeping
church, Brian McLaren has endorsed a book that calls the doctrine
of the Cross a vile doctrine.
(p. 168, Reimagining Christianity - Alan Jones)
That book? None other than Alan Jones' new book, Reimagining Christianity. Alan Jones is an interspiritualist and mystic. Take a look at the Living Spiritual Teachers Project, of which Jones is involved. This group of about twenty-five includes Zen and Buddhist monks, New Agers and even Marianne Williamson and her Course in Miracles.
"Brian McLaren wants us to learn more about 'meditative practices, about which Zen Buddhism has said much. To talk about different things is not to contradict one another; it is, rather, to have much to offer one another' (A Generous Orthodoxy, p. 255.) Can Zen Buddhism have something to offer that would improve a Christian's spiritual life when the Bible teaches us that we are already partakers of Christ Jesus' divine nature? (2 Peter 1:3-11) McLaren cites contemplative meditation promoter Richard Foster as one of the key mentors for the Emergent movement."—Spiritual Fusion: East comes West, Mike Oppenheimer, Let Us Reason Ministries
and Brian McLaren have a new book.
A is for Abductive:
The Language of the Emerging Church
"McLaren reveals his true stripes when he goes on, in the same article, to make this uninspiring judgment: 'I don't think the liberals have it right. But I don't think we have it right either. None of us has arrived at orthodoxy.' What else can this mean but that McLaren denies the teachings of the conservative Christian community of which he pretends to be a part? What else can this mean but that those who ascribe to the faith’s historic fundamentals are just as doctrinally retarded as those who mock the fundamentals?"
—Anthony Paul Mator, Postmodern Antiquity: "Emerging Church" Claims Pre-Modern Roots
Brian
McLaren: Christianity is Limited? |
"A seeker admits the limits of particular belief systems and acknowledges that God is far bigger than any human being's conceptions."
"The path of Jesus does not lead so much to assurance as to adventure and transformation."
Read more of Dave Fleming's book,
"The Seeker's Way."
In The Seeker's Way, Dave Fleming writes favorably
about the following panentheist authors:
Wayne Teasdale
Alan Jones
Joan Chittister
Marcus Borg
By McLaren's endorsing of this book, he is helping to lead countless young, seeking people right into the arms of a New Age spirituality and away from the arms of Jesus Christ.
mentor for the movement.
Christianity Today, November 2004
"[H]e (Brian McLaren)concludes that the emerging church must be "monastic"—centered on training disciples who practice, rather than just believe, the faith.... He cites Dallas Willard and Richard Foster, with their emphasis on spiritual disciplines, as key mentors for the emerging church"
