“MAN LIVES, AND MAN THINKS about the life he lives. This is the essence of his constitution as man.” Man (he/she) is under the constraint of his/her nature to re-think the life they live.
Philosophy, speaking broadly, is “the activity of thought brought to bear on experience as a whole; unity of thought, reason, or spirit.” Actually, as we see within the Emergent Church (EC) currently, the quest for “unity in diversity” has to be “resumed with a deeper, sadder insight,” for their projected outcomes just aren’t working; and it must be reassessed with “a larger, more patient wisdom, seeing that no speculative system is final.” This must depress them. Their speculative system will actually never work. Why?
The Bible makes it clear that Jesus is the First and Last, and that God is “willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel…” (Heb 6:17). Immutability means “unchangeableness.” So we can trust God and His Word. In fact, this is the only thing we can trust. It is no “speculative system” that is ever changing and never final.
“Want of finality in philosophy is true; the inability to comprehend the variety of experience in one formula is inescapable; the ‘success of the quest’ for a synthesis of life is impossible.”
Biblical Christianity, I firmly believe, provides the salvation which philosophy seeks. On the other hand, true philosophy vindicates the validity and reasonableness of Christianity.
Religion (Christianly) “reveals the principle for which philosophy has been seeking, and exhibits it as a POWER unto salvation (as Paul wrote), an originality of actual life, transforming character and inspiring Godly service.” Christianity rejuvenates; philosophy is more intellectual. Christianity is spiritual (our human spirit being born again by God’s Spirit). Read Ephesians 2:1-11. Paul makes it clear that sinners are DEAD (spiritually), but by accepting Christ Jesus, the sinner/dead-man can be “quickened” (MADE ALIVE!). Philosophy can never accomplish this.
Greek Philosophy
GREEK PHILOSOPHY peaked during the beginning of the Christian era. Greek philosophers asked a question to which Christianity brought the only adequate answer.
The early Greek thinker looked out upon nature with curiosity, and asked, “What is the principle which underlies these multitudinous phenomena?” The Greeks had 4 basic schools of thought: “1) logic: The explanation of all things with one element in nature” (see Thales, 640-550 BC; Anaximander, 611-547 BC; Anaximenes, 588-524 BC). 2) Pythagorean: This school passed from substance to the ‘proportion which all things bear to one another,’ and taught that ‘all is number.’ 3) Eleatic: School passed further on the path of abstraction, from ‘substance’ and ‘number’ to ‘being’ (see Xenophanes, 576-480 BC – “all is one”). 4) Physicists: In reaction to the abstractness, these men sought to analyze existence into its material elements. This period closed with Anaxagoras (500-428 BC). His great distinction as a thinker is that he relied on the principle of reason as the principle of explanation.”
Thus the first stage in the great movement of Greek philosophers brought us to the necessity of a “spiritual principle.”
Second Stage
IN THE 5th century BC, the interest of thought turned from “the outer world of nature to the inner world of the human soul/spirit, thus becoming anthropological.”
The Sophists taught that there is no absolute standard either of truth or right: nothing is good or bad by nature, but merely by statute (Protagoras of Abdera, c. 440 BC). Gorgias (c. 427 BC) taught a rigorous individualism which he summed up in a series of paradoxes. To him, nothing exists; or, if something does exist, it cannot be known; or, if it can be known, it cannot be communicated. It is said that the Sophists were often “ethically mischievous,” to put it nicely.
Socrates (469-399 BC) was in one sense a Sophist. “He occupies the position of subjectivity, and was a keen critic of conventional customs, institutions, and dogmas.” But his aim, as they say, was always “positive.” I don’t have to say much about him, for most who know history, know of his “theology.” To make it short, his method was induction-the process whereby is discerned, “in a mass of particulars,” what is universal, and therefore fundamental and true. “Virtue is knowledge”-a Socratic phrase. His “gospel” was “salvation by wisdom.”
Plato (427-347 BC) and Aristotle (385-322 BC): It was the work of both of these men “to take the Socratic primacy of thought, and from this standpoint, to frame systems of knowledge.” Their systems have been called “splendid digressions.”
With both Plato and Aristotle, it is pointed out that the “unity” is “magnificent,” but incomplete. Now, when that “unity” is reached-which most philosophers seek after-it will not be merely intellectual.
The Bible also speaks of the “unity of the (Christian) faith” in Ephesians 4:3, 13. Here Paul beseeches them (us!) to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye (we) are called” (v. 1), “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (v. 3). What the philosophers strove to do, only the Holy Spirit within the born again believer, can do. Spiritual unity, not mere intellectual unity, is maintained by being loyal to God’s Word-something the Emergent recreants WON’T do! Neither will they walk after the Spirit (vv. 1-3, 14, 15; Gal 5:22-26), for the Holy Spirit has left them because they left the Holy Spirit. Just as the world’s philosophers walk after (or by) “the flesh” (Gal 3:3), so do the EC-ites.
Third Stage
IN THIS, the closing period of Greek philosophers, a great change came over the ancient world. It was the age of worldwide empire, “crushing out the earlier civic life.” It is therefore also the age of individualism. This post-Aristotelian philosophical age has an affinity with our modes of thought and our general attitude toward life. The philosophy of this period was occupied with the “needs of man.” The EC carries on with this “needs of man,”-not in the Biblical way, but in a biased philosophical way.
“Inclusive Community”
THE EC movement is, in their own phrases, all about “our community” – “building our tradition” – “telling our story.” These folks-some of them definitely serious!-see themselves as carrying out “God’s agenda to remake and restore all of creation.” This is their “good news,” that is, “the gospel according to their philosophies.”
During the third stage of Greek philosophy, as it advanced, it became more “religious” till, in the end, in Neo-Platonism, it was avowedly “religious”- believing it would save!
Emergent spokesman Mark Scandrette, a self-styled “spiritual teacher,” summarizes the Emergent Agenda in An Emergent Manifesto of Hope (p. 34). Scandrette uses phrases like “an open-source approach to community [i.e., inclusive, which = all are welcome no matter if you are Christian or not),” “Community development, earth-keeping, global justice, and advocacy,” “A renewed emphasis on creation theology, that celebrates earth [whatever that means!!??],” “Cultivation and appreciation of artful living,” and “Reexamination of vocation, livelihood, and sustainable economics.” All these things are part of philosophy (apart from Christ)-very little about what the Bible teaches. This is all about man “saving” man AND PLANET! Not a word about being saved from an eternal Hell, though (that is considered “Bad News”).
Blair and Warren
AS ALREADY stated, these two recreants are humanistic dreamers who are more concerned about awakening the sinner to “social consciousness” than to their need to be born again (as shown in Jn 3:3). This “DYNAMIC DUO” has a New Age philosophy of building a new world thru “interfaith harmony.” What is standing in their way is a “great evil”-Bible absolutism and Christian intolerance (WE WON’T ACCEPT THEIR STUPID PHILOSOPHIES!).
Skepticism
SKEPTICISM WAS common and alike to Stoicism and Epicureanism (covered already); it held that “no absolute truth of knowledge, no authoritative rule of action, is possible.” Listen up, EMERGENT CHURCH! Here thought and life are “reduced to the mere play of opinion and impulse.” Are you listening, EC-ITES? Here the only possible attitude toward reality is mere suspense of judgment. Hear this, FOLKS?
Such a position is paralysis both mentally and spiritually. You see, philosophical skepticism “makes articulate the DESPAIR which is brooding over the hearts/minds of man.” It is said to be “the last utterance of philosophy.” It is actually the demand to RETURN BACK TO THE BIBLICAL GOD OR SEEK HIM IF YOU’VE NEVER KNOWN HIM. Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door (of the heart), and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door (his heart), I will come in to him….” (Rev 3:20).
Men in their self-sufficient prosperity and lostness-men NEED a Savior, not mere philosophy. Some of you reading this are LOST even though you think you are saved. REPENT and BELIEVE the Gospel.
Fourth Stage
THE NEOPLATONISM stage is where the life of man becomes hopeless. “The demand of the age, therefore, is not now wisdom for the conduct of life, but salvation, that is, escape from the ‘hell’ of this life”-“emergence” into a “higher sphere.”
“Emergence” is “an outgrowth from beneath the outer layer of a plant.” This is the way Webster’s Dictionary interprets it.
In my first article I pointed out that language is important to the EC movement. The words “Emergence” and “Emergent” are often used synonymously; however there is a difference. “Emergence” refers to the larger context of global change. “Emergent” is “The new Christian reaction to this global shift.” In reality, “Emergence” is when all religions/faiths emerge into a “new way of life, outgrowing the old way” (e.g., the Biblical Way of Life). The old philosophers called it “growing into a ‘higher sphere.’”
The Bible
THE BIBLE speaks of this “higher sphere” or “Emergence” as “the perfecting of the saints….till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect (Gk., mature) man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:12-13).
There is much talk (BABBLE!) within the EC about “unity,” but God’s Word uses phrases like “unity of the Spirit” (v. 3) and “unity of faith” (v. 13). These are maintained and perfected by: “a) accepting only the faith and message of the N.T. apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers (vv. 11-12)-the real ones, not these backslid, recreant hypocrites I’m wiring about/against; b) growing in grace, advancing toward spiritual maturity, and GROWING UP in all aspects into Christ (v. 15), and being filled with all the fullness of Christ and God (v. 13 cf. 3:19)-not like these apostates who have been FILLED WITH RELIGIOUS DEMONS (I believe this to be true!); c) being no longer children who believe and accept ‘every wind (FOUL odor!) of doctrine’ but who instead have saving knowledge of the truth, by which we can REJECT FALSE TEACHERS (vv. 14-15); d) holding and speaking the revealed truth of Holy Scripture in love (v. 15; not humanistic, philosophical love!); and e) walking in “righteousness and true holiness” (v. 24, cf. vv. 17-32).
After Neoplatonism
BARBARISM FOLLOWED, and would have followed more disastrously than it did, had not Christianity succeeded to the place vacated by Greek philosophy.
The old Greek “Dualism of Form and Matter” was transformed into that of “God and the world; the Infinite and the finite; Good and evil.”
GOD! vs. No God!
SOME PHILOSOPHERS of the past said “There is no God; or, if there is, He cares for no one but Himself.” This view was expressed by Epicurus and Chrysippus, as Theophilus wrote (c. AD 180, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2, pp. 95, 110).
Tertullian (c. AD 210, Ibid., vol. 3, p. 183) wrote: “I am not unaware of what a vast mass of literature the philosophers have accumulated concerning the subject of the soul. Nor am I unaware of what various schools of principles there are, what conflicts of opinion, what prolific sources of questions, and what perplexing methods of solution.” Tertullian elaborates on the schools of philosophy, like that of Epicurus, Seneca, Pythagoras, Empedocles and the Platonists concerning the immortal soul (see p. 545).
The “moral” philosophers are Socrates and Plato, the pupil of Socrates, who combined three systems of philosophy. Among the “logicians” is Aristotle, a pupil of Plato. He systematized the “art of dialectics.” Among the Stoics were Chrysippus and Zeno. “But it was Epicurus who advanced an opinion contrary to almost all philosophers” (see Hippolytus, c. AD 225, Ibid., vol. 5, p. 91).
Dionysius of Alexandria penned, “Is the universe one coherent whole? It seems to be in our own judgment, as well as in that of the wisest of the Greek philosophers-such as Plato, Pythagoras, the Stoics, and Heraclitus. Or is it a duality, as some may possibly have conjectured?” (c. AD 262, Ibid., vol. 6, p. 84).
Lactantius (c. AD 304-313, Ibid., vol. 7, p. 14) wrote of the philosophers, “whose authority is of greater weight and their judgment more to be relied on….For they paid attention, not to matters of fiction, but to the investigation of truth….Pythagoras defined the being of God in this manner: ‘as a soul passing to and from, and diffused through all parts of the universe’….Anaxagoras said that God was an infinite mind, which moves by its own power.”
Lactantius, prominent Roman teacher of rhetoric who later converted to Christianity [who, in his old age, was summoned by emperor Constantine to (what is now France) to tutor the emperor’s son, Cripus] went on to state that “Other philosophers say things contrary to the Epicureans and others. They say that the soul survives after death. The chief among these are the Pythagoreans and Stoics” (see p. 88; see also vol. 2, pp. 321-324, 465, 476, 486-488, 518, 559-567; vol. 3, pp. 52-54, 130-132; vol. 4, pp. 183-184; vol. 5, pp. 9-23; vol. 7, pp. 70-100).
(NOTE: Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher who lived in the 6th century BC. He is best known today for the discovery that the universe obeys mathematical laws. He taught the “transmigration of souls,” and he formed a group of disciples who lived by an ascetic rule of life.)
(Stoicism was a philosophical school founded by Zeno [335-263 BC] in Athens. Stoics believed that everything in the universe, including God, is material. They also believed that all things are predestinated. Most Stoic teachers taught the importance of “virtuous living.” In the 1st and 2nd centuries, Stoicism became the dominant philosophy of the Romans.)
Sex Philosophy
LET ME finish Part 4 with a little bit on the philosophy of sex-“same sex.” I won’t push this too far, for I already have 10 “Gay Way” booklets in print dealing with ancient and contemporary sex issues.
Every time you turn around, there is a homosexual issue to be confronted. I predicted in the early 1980’s that both homosexuality and militant Islam would become America’s TERRORISTS…but, as usual, people thought me to be MAD! Well, look around you-HEY!…look at your Prez: he is pushing both of these destructive forces TO THE HILT. (I also have lots of materials on Islam. (Obama)
Sex and the Emerging Church
THE TRUE Church has been aware of this homosexual issue all along, but the contemporary (i.e., worldly) “Church” has been asleep to this threat. However, some even within her sleepy ranks are now waking up!! AT LAST!!
During the past years, the so-called Church has basically been backslid, at least luke/pukewarm. Out of this pukewarm thing called “Church” emerged the “Emergent Church,” while the true Church still remains at her post of duty for Christ. As I write, this “Emergence” is yet happening, so forgive me if I don’t make things too clear.
One thing for sure is that there has been this “paradigm shift in attitude” toward sexuality, both heterosexuality and homosexuality. Straight folk have engaged in their fornications and adulteries, while the lesbian, gay (male homos), bisexual, and transgendered folks have engaged in their follies and GROSS ABOMINATIONS. Many within the so-called Church didn’t seem too concerned as this movement entered their churches.
What Paul penned in his day (Rom 12:1-2) still applies for us today-but the Homosexual Movement (HM) has gone about to change this. They got their “pink” scholars to re-write those “CLOBBER Scriptures” (i.e., Lev 18, 20; Rom 1; 1 Cor 6; 1 Tim 1, etc.). The HM folks get fed up with being shown those Scriptures, which they surely CANNOT refute Biblically (i.e., by proper exegesis), so they have used the old ad hominem (personal attack) tactic. “If you can’t beat them, call them names!” became one of their favorites. For example: “BIGOT,” “HOMOPHOBIC,” “INTOLERANT,” “UNLOVING,” “HATE-FILLED,” etc. These connotations were meant to TERRORIZE us. Well, I don’t frighten too easily. As a matter of fact, I’m none of the above, for we have worked with many gays, lesbians, bisexuals, fornicators, etc. over the years have even seen some come to salvation and CHANGE!
In order to get the Church and society in general to accept their ABOMINABLE lifestyles, they created many networks ad hoc all across the USA and world. Hence all their pushing of their agenda ad nauseam (literally, to continue “to seasickness”). It has all continued to make society SICK!! I mean this, too.
They have gone about writing books on what the Bible “really says,” not what old fools like me “believe it to say.” One of their ad absurdum beliefs (“carrying [it] to such lengths that it becomes ridiculous indeed”) is, “God created me this way!” Let me ask a homosexual this: “Why would God make two males or two females for homosexual ‘love’ when it is IMPOSSIBLE for them to procreate and fill the earth, which He commanded man to do?” (See Genesis 1:27-28 for the ONLY sex approved by God!)
Homophobic!
WELL, IF we’re homophobic, they are HETEROPHOBIC!! Author Dan Kimball’s book, They Like Jesus but Not the Church, is a good case and point. This Emergent darling has a chapter called “The Church is Homophobic.” We don’t “fear the queer”; we feel compassion for them, knowing that if they persist in their unlawful sexing, they will be excluded from God’s Kingdom (see 1 Cor 6:9-10). Now let me take a minute to point out the ridiculous stand these recreant people are making.
There is just no way one can miss the implication of verse 9-the vice list. We’ve got (I’m reading the AMP version): the impure and immoral, idolaters [note: perverts worship their sex perversions, i.e., the way they “do it”!], adulterers [applies to both heterosexuals and bisexuals, as well as homosexuals who, by the way, are now “allowed” by men, not God, to “marry”], and homosexuals-all in verse 9. It is foolish to try and argue, as most do, that “homosexuality” (a new word foreign to Paul’s day) is not mentioned specifically, therefore is not meant. Others see that it is meant, and instead, argue that it is referring only to temple prostitution, not homosexuality in general, and blah, blah, blah. I cover all this in our “Gay Way” booklets.
Dropping down to verse 10 we see another “vice list” dealing with things besides sexual immorality. My point is this: Why do the homosexuals whine about mistreatment, like their homosexuality is “divine” or sacred, and the heterosexuals are left to deal with their sins?
Do we ever hear of, say, adulterers, whining about their sins as being “divine”/sacred? NO! Yet the homos throw a “PINK fit” about 1 Corinthians 6:9, while we straight-folks have to deal with, say, lust, porn, adultery, fornication, incest, etc.
These “PINK whiners,” like Kimball and dozens and dozens like him, tell us straight- folks that Christians need to reinterpret what we’ve thought the Bible says about homosexuality. He writes:
“Because this is such a huge issue in our culture, and because all of the tension and discussion on this issue is over what the Bible says about it, we can no longer just regurgitate what we have been taught about homosexuality….We cannot do that any longer….We must approach the Bible with humility, prayer, and sensitivity, taking into consideration the original meaning of Greek and Hebrew words and looking into the historical contexts in which passages were written….[and] we can no longer with integrity merely quote a few isolated verses and say ‘case closed”” (p. 137). Pure BS!!
Kimball elaborates: “Quite honestly, and some people might get mad at me for saying this, I sometimes wish this [homosexuality] weren’t a sin issue, because I have met gay people who are the most kind, loving, solid, and supportive people I have ever met. As I talk to them and hear their stories and get to know them, I come to understand that their sexual orientation isn’t something they can just turn off. Homosexual attraction is not something people simply choose to have, as is quite often erroneously taught from many pulpits” (p. 138).
We don’t just get mad, Dan; we feel sorry for your arrogance and your bad theology! Notice the tear-jerking plea in reference to “the most kind, loving, solid, and supportive people I have ever met” stuff. AS IF HOMOSEXUALS ARE THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT HAVE TRAITS LIKE THAT!
Comme il faut! (-A French expression meaning “as it should be.”) It describes what is properly or correctly performed according to some code of manners.) Manners, like showing “love,” did not originate with homosexuality. GOD IS LOVE! But within that sphere of “love” is His CORRECTION and PUNISHMENT. It would be hateful for God (or the true Christian Church) not to point out to man what damns him. Yet this is exactly what the Emergent Church and the HM are guilty of. They tell us it is hate to condemn homosexuality. Sorry, I’ll stick to God’s Word: He calls it an
ABOMINATION!!!
Kimball has a bleeding heart over these sex perverts who can’t “turn off” their sexual orientation. Here is a man that knows little if nothing about God’s Word.
Am I to whine about me being a straight male, who was a fornicator in the world (I loved to have sex with the ladies!), just because I might have trouble now and then with lust? NO! I must “Fight the good fight of faith,” I must “FLEE FORNICATION,” I must “die daily”-the Bible is full of “Thou shalts” and “Thou shalt nots.” We can’t change it. It is really sickening to hear these LGBTQs whine about what the Bible says, and they get urped at the true Christians for adhering to God’s Word.
If We Allow…
IF WE allow every sin to become “protected,” think of what kind of society we would have. INSANE!
Just why are we supposed to feel pity for the LGBTQ crowd and not for those who have the “urge” to LIE, CHEAT, STEAL, KILL, COMMIT ADULTERY, RAPE, KIDNAP, COMMIT INCEST, COMMIT FRAUD, and so on? Why aren’t we to feel sorry for and protect the drunkards, drug pushers/users, revilers, slanderers, extortioners, robbers; the covetous, the prideful, and dozens and dozens of other SINS/SINNERS mentioned in the Bible?
It is the ultimate crime to classify homosexuality as “natural,” even “superior to heterosexuality,” when it is condemned in God’s Word and called an “ABOMINATION”! This “sin” is UNNATURAL and it is SIN to say otherwise. We’re to work at setting men and women free of this “CURSE,” not at sealing them in it.
Jay Bakker
HERE IS another EC darling (tattoos and all!) who says, “I felt like God spoke to my heart and said homosexuality is not a sin” (Interview with Jay Bakker, “Empire of the Son”). This punk-rocker is going from church to church, pleading for the churches to see it “their PINK way.” This is a SICKNESS within their camp.
How would these same crybabies react to someone who went from church to church murdering any and all just because he/she felt that God told him murder was not a sin?…..especially if the murdered were LGBTQs? Or, if one said, “God spoke to my heart that theft isn’t a sin anymore-now, don’t stop me from ROBBING YOU BLIND!”?
And what are we to do with those of your camp who are infected with AIDS who maliciously and purposely spread that “killer” to other homosexuals? This just happened and it has been happening every day, every month, every year-ever since AIDS was discovered in your camp. How many of your kind will DIE prematurely because of sexing the FORBIDDEN way? Get serious, people! It is not love to allow this kind of thing to spread. Homosexuality is a “demon” problem, not a gene problem.
Demons make people do harmful things.
Where are your BLESSINGS from a loving, sex-perversion-allowing god? I don’t see ONE, not ONE SINGLE BLESSING!
Dangerous Movements
BOTH THE Homosexual Movement and the Emergent Church Movement are dangerous. They allow for the breeding of contamination of body, soul, and spirit!
Show me ONE Scripture in the entire Bible where you were “created that way,” where God honors/blesses homosexuality, or where sex perverts (hetero or homo) will enter Heaven. Hey, “Pink” theologians, I’m waiting for an answer! Yes, I’ve read all your twisted/perverted arguments (all mere opinions!)-they fail to hold up under proper Bible exegesis.
Televangelist Bishop Carlton Pearson, another EC homosexual, lauded his “gay friends” as “some of the most sensitive, loving, creative, ingenious, generous people” and touted how he “started preaching the Gospel of inclusion.” Good for you, bishop! There are millions of people out there that are “sensitive, loving, creative, ingenious, and generous” that are very straight! Are we to break God’s laws/standards/ethics for these folks too and condone all their sins? Are we to praise the adulterers? the child molesters? the porn addicts? the sex-serial killers? According to your UN-Biblical “pink” Twist, it sets up the possibility to do so. “Oh, haven’t you heard, Johnny K. raped 10 girls last night and dismembered all of them right in church!” “Oh, a sensitive, loving, creative, ingenious, generous man!”
Praise God! What? “Why he even drew hearts on the sanctuary wall with their blood. And did you see the ingenious way he divided up their lifeless bodies…..placing their heads nice and neat on the communion table? What a creative and artistic man! I think we should make him the children’s pastor; he’s so creative, so loving, too. Why, he even asked the parents of our church if he could lovingly murder all the kids as a sacrifice for the Child Murderers Movement…but his victims (sacrificial offerings) must NOT be over 10- years-old, and they must all be totally naked while he performs his creative sacrifice.” Want to hear more?? This is becoming the philosophy of today’s Emergent-Homosexual-Heterosexual Movement.
“Oh, yes, all that Johnny did was done to the sound of Rock-Rap-Punk music by ‘Christian’ artists who are also sensitive, creative, loving, ingenious, and generous. All this was done under the assumption that ‘God created him that way’; therefore it was and is his creative right to express himself in an ‘artful’ way!” Are you sick yet?