1. religion and spirituality
2. christianity

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Book Review:
Why We’re Not Emergent
by DeYoung and Kluck
Defenders Series #10
2/17/2013
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The Emerging Church:
It’s Something We’ll Have to Deal With
n  James
S. Bielo, Assistant Professor of
Anthropology at Miami University:
n  “In
short, between 1995 and 2005, a new, viable,
amorphous form of Evangelical identity
appeared.”
n  “…the problems Emerging Evangelicals have
internalized and introduced into public discourse
will powerfully shape American Christian
subjectivities and institutions well into the
future.”
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The Emerging Church:
In a Nutshell
n  The
Emergent Church is a movement that:
Has developed from within Protestant Evangelical
Churches.
n  It began as a movement of churches re-examining their
practices to attract a younger generation and address their
perceived grievances with the Evangelical Church,
n  but has now developed into a new form or sect within
Christianity altogether, rejecting or modifying many
traditional Christian doctrines in unacceptable or heretical
ways.
n 
n  Based
on these doctrines and the growing popularity of
the movement’s leaders, the Emergent Church is an
incredibly dangerous sect.
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Leaders of the Emergent Church
Rob Bell
Brian McLaren
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Leaders of the Emergent Church
n  Other
Leaders or Figures of Note:
n  Chris
Seay, Pastor, Ecclesia (Houston, TX)
n  Doug Pagitt, Pastor, Solomon’s Porch (Minneapolis,
MN)
n  Tony Jones, Theologian-in-Residence, Solomon’s
Porch (Minneapolis, MN)
n  Spencer Burke, Fmr. Pastor, Mariner’s Church
(Irvine, CA)
n  Peter Rollins, Founder, ikon Spiritual Commune
(Belfast, Northern Ireland)
n  Steve Chalke MBE, ordained Baptist Minister,
church.co.uk founder (London, England)
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Defining the Emergent Church
n  You
might be an Emergent Church member if you
hear these buzzwords frequently:
n  Conversation/Dialogue/Discourse
n  Community/Living
Communally
n  Missional/Living Missionally
n  Incarnational/Living Incarnationally
n  Mosaic
n  Holistic
n  Narrative/Text/Deconstruct(ion)
n  Relevant
n  Mystery/(Radical) Uncertainty
n  Praxis/Orthopraxy
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Defining the Emergent Church
n  The
Emergent Church’s value priority appears
to be:
n  Mysticism
> Certainty
n  Experience/Emotion > Truth/Knowledge
n  Social Activism > Individual Growth
n  Community > Individual
n  Belonging > Believing
n  Being part of the “community” is more
important than what you believe.
n  They have reacted to culture to the extent that
they are now both “in” and “of” the world.
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Why We’re Not Emergent
by Kevin DeYoung and
Ted Kluck, Moody Pub.
(2008)
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Authors
n Kevin
DeYoung
n  Pastor, University
Reformed
Church (East Lansing, MI)
n  Author of Why We Love the
Church (2010 CT Book
Award), Don’t Call it a
Comeback: The Old Faith for
a New Day & 10 other titles
n  Member of The Gospel
Coalition
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Authors
n Ted
Kluck
n  Began
as a Sportswriter
n  Published in ESPN The
Magazine
n  Coached High School
Football,
n  Trained as a Pro Wrestler,
n  Taught College Writing
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Emergent Church Issues Exposed
in WWNE
n 
Is God Knowable?
n 
The Celebration of Doubt
n 
Is Truth Knowable?
n 
The “Irrelevancy of Inerrancy”
n 
Emphasizing Practice over Belief
n 
The Historical Jesus
n 
Rejecting Substitutionary Atonement
n 
Rejecting Hell
n 
Rejecting the Uniqueness of Salvation in Christ Alone
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Emergent Church Issues Exposed
in WWNE
n 
Is God Knowable?
n 
The Celebration of Doubt
n 
Is Truth Knowable?
n 
The “Irrelevancy of Inerrancy”
n 
Emphasizing Practice over Belief
n 
The Historical Jesus
n 
Rejecting Substitutionary Atonement
n 
Rejecting Hell
n 
Rejecting the Uniqueness of Salvation in Christ Alone
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The Emergent Error Concerning
Salvation & The Cross
n  “God’s
grace, God’s forgiveness…the free
gift of salvation…[is] a footnote to a gospel
that is much richer, grander, and more alive,
a gospel that calls you to become a disciple
and to disciple others, in authentic
community, for the good of the world.” McLaren
n  The
emphasis here isn’t on you or God but on
“authentic community” and “the good of the
world.”
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The Emergent Error Concerning
Salvation & The Cross
n  Steve
Chalke (in a book favored by many
Emergent thinkers, including McLaren):
n  Theory
of Penal Substitutionary Atonement
constitutes “cosmic child abuse.”
n  This theory is “twisted…morally dubious…makes a
mockery of Jesus’ own teaching”
n  Tony
Jones: “this version of atonement theory [is]
neither intellectually compelling, spiritually
compelling, nor in keeping with the Biblical
narrative.”
n  Instead, the
cross is a picture of the failure of God’s
love and His disappointment in the fact that we
don’t live “incarnationally.”
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The Emergent Error Concerning
Salvation & The Cross
n  Biblical
n  Isaiah
References Answering this Heresy:
53:5 – Substitutionary Atonement
n  Isaiah 53:10 – God was pleased in the
crucifixion
n  John 15:13 – Jesus laying down His life for His
friends is the greatest love (He wasn’t “abused”
by God the Father)
n  Romans 5:8 – “God demonstrates His love for
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us.”
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Conclusion
n  This
book was published in 2008.
n  There
has been a substantial amount of movement
the last 4 years.
n  Bell’s
Love Wins – an out and out rejection of the
Doctrine of Hell.
n  The Voice
– the Emergent Bible