7-28-19 It Starts With the Bible
Israel Watch: It Starts with the Bible - Jim Fletcher -
I'm shocked that some seem shocked at the "rise" of anti-Semitism in Europe (and even here in the U.S.).
Bible believers aren't surprised.
Jeremy Corbyn, a member of parliament in England and a strong candidate to become prime minister after the painful tenure of Theresa May comes to an end, is an outright anti-Semite. He pals around with terrorists.
Europe, of course, has been off the rails spiritually for hundreds of years. One could make the case that "the glory departed" when the Puritans came to the New World. The Continent was left with God-haters in German seminaries, and that's where it started. Darwin & Friends finished-off Christianity in Europe.
Theological failures led directly to the Holocaust.
Today in America, with the rise of radical politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, reality is being bent. There isn't anything remotely resembling biblical Christianity going on in the halls of Congress.
Elsewhere, as I've stated probably too many times, our largest ministries, churches, and seminaries are contributing to the rising apostasy in the country.
Where do the Jeremy Corbyns of the world come from?
It starts with a hatred of God's Word. All this led me this week to re-read Bob DeWaay's landmark book, The Emergent Church: Undefining Christianity. It's one of the most important books on radicalism within the Church that I've ever read.
DeWaay understands the strategies of the enemy. Notice his research into the roots of our Bible problem; it begins and ends with eschatology:
"For my study I carefully read Brian McLaren's book A Generous Orthodoxy. What baffled me about his theology was that his views were nearly identical to those refuted 40 years earlier by Francis Schaeffer, who had called it 'the new theology.' But as Schaeffer so clearly showed, the result of this theology is despair because under it there is no hope of knowing the truth. But the Emerging writers describe their theology as one of hope. If there is no hope of knowing the truth about God, man, and the universe we live in (as they claim), then how is hope the result? It turns out that a theology from the 1960s, first articulated in Germany when Schaeffer was writing his books, is the answer. We shall follow up on that idea later."
Rather than heading toward a New Age "Omega Point" of enlightenment, DeWaay understands that we are headed into apostasy:
"The Bible does not teach social and spiritual evolution into a future paradise without judgment. We are warned to flee to Christ and His gospel in order to escape certain future judgment. We need forgiveness of sins that His shed blood alone provides."
DeWaay's research led him to interact with the leading pied pipers of Emergent theory, including the radical rascal, Tony Jones.
"The fourth providential event was a meeting with Tony Jones of the Emergent Village with the goal of setting up another debate. It turned out that they did not want another debate, but Jones offered to answer any of my questions about Emergent. I responded by e-mail asking about Stanley Grenz, Wolfhart Pannenberg, LeRon Shults, and Jürgen Moltmann and their influence on Emergent theology. Jones replied that Grenz (who, as I will later show, praises the theologies of both Pannenberg and Moltmann) was influential and that Jones himself was studying under a professor named Miroslav Volf who had studied under Moltmann. Also, he helped me with his comment that their hope-filled belief generally leads them to reject eschatologies that 'preach a disastrous end to the cosmos.'"
Oddly, scholars like Motmann and Volf are hugely popular with Millennials, particularly students at ostensibly evangelical colleges.
Eventually, as DeWaay states, radicalism in religion leads to radicalism in politics:
"Theological liberalism and political liberalism are hardly different. When we hear the term 'progressive,' we should realize that the definition of 'progress' is that of Hegel and his various followers (theistic or atheistic). The reason for the heated passion we see in political debate is that those who are not joining the progressive agenda are seen to be hindering the process of social and spiritual evolution that will supposedly make the new cosmos a paradise for all."
You see? We are the problem now, my friends. But let's not wonder anymore why things are the way they are.
The world is heading off a cliff precisely because God told us it would be this way. Men would wander from the life-giving water of the Word and have gone after other gods.
At least we have the witness of the saints, including researchers like Bob DeWaay, to show us why support for Israel has fallen off, and why the churches are being emptied of young people.
Maranatha
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