Sola Scriptura vs The Emergent Church

I have read about the Emergent Church. I have listened to their leaders. I have read some of their books. I have thought to myself how can these guys even be believed? Is anyone really following them, challenging everything that I believe to be true and right? My question has been answered with a resounding yes. There is a following and it frightens me to death.

Are these guys smart, yes. Do they know how to present their case, yes. Do they care about people and social injustices, yes. Do they seem to be concerned about fixing the church, yes. Do they truly believe scripture, NO? It is a resounding no. I have not met read or seen a single emergent follower who holds onto scripture as Sola Scriptura.

Scripture alone is a totally foreign concept to their ideas. Many of them say they hold a high esteem for scripture but they question it. They make the claim we can’t know it. They claim it is a bunch of stories that may or not may be true. So what do they claim is truth, the community, tradition, reason and then scripture mixed in. I keep wondering when there is a conflict between any of these who decides what is right and wrong. One emergent told me it is always the community. I wonder can the community ever go against God? I believe this emergent community is going directly against God and His word.

What is Sola scriptura? This is the Latin term for scripture alone. It asserts that the Word of God is self evident, self authenticating, clear to Christians who read it, supports itself (scripture interpreting scripture) and sufficient for the final authority of Christian doctrine.

I believe the emergent church is one of the most dangerous forms of religion that looks very close to Christianity but it is apostate. Are there authentic Christians in the emergent church today? Probably, but what I have seen and read makes me believe there are a lot who are not.

First, if we go back to the very beginning with Adam and Eve in the garden, what is the very first twisting of truth? It is the challenge of God’s word. When I hear someone question the word of God the first thing I think about is Genesis 3:1

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

How much more of a red flag do I need then this? Here it is in black and white the very first deception of God’s word. Did God really say that? How do people in this movement not see that this is what they are saying when they question the authority of the Bible. It is the very lie from the father of lies and they are buying into it.

John MacArthur writes an excellent 5 part series on the attack of TRUTH. MacArthur writes: “The doctrine of the clarity (or perspicuity) of Scripture (that the central message of the Bible is clear and understandable, and that the Bible itself can be properly interpreted in a normal, literal sense) has been a cornerstone of evangelical belief ever since the Reformation.”

The dominant Roman Catholic idea had been that the Bible was obscure and difficult to understand. But the Reformers disagreed, arguing instead that anyone who could read could understand biblical teaching. Rather than limiting biblical interpretation to the clergy or the Magisterium, the Reformers encouraged lay Christians to study and interpret God's Word on their own. All of this was premised on the Reformed belief that the Bible itself was inherently clear, and that God had been able to communicate His message to men in an understandable fashion.

Here is a link to the full 5 part article and it addresses the primary leader of the emergent church Brian McLaren and his attack that we just can’t be certain about the Bible.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Wes Porter
Galatians 2:20