The Emergent Deception—the evolution factor
What every pastor and every Christian needs to know about the Emergent Church movement
Brian McLaren Credit: Images from stock.xchng and Wikipedia
by Lita Cosner
Published: 31 March 2011(GMT+10)
“Brian McLaren: Christians in denial over evolution of faith,” screamed
one headline.1 Another reprint
of the same article quoted him as saying, “Evolutionary Christianity has freed
me.”2 When we wrote
about the Evolutionary Christianity teleseminar
series, we said it was unclear what exactly the ‘rockstar of the emergent
church’ (not our moniker for him) had to add to a discussion about evolutionary
Christianity. Given the favorable press his teleseminar session received, it seemed
worth revisiting it.3
What is the Emergent Church? And who is Brian McLaren?
The Emergent Church is one of the fastest-growing movements in American Christianity
today. They are hard to ‘nail down’ with definitions, as definitions
are one thing they work studiously to avoid. Generally, they emphasize social justice
and acting in the community over ‘dogma’ and doctrinal correctness.
They look for new ways to engage in postmodern culture, and embrace the culture
themselves to varying degrees (though some in the Emergent Church would strongly
disagree with this characterization, or any characterization, of their views). This
“Lest we offend approach” has much appeal to Christians wanting to engage
the culture, but many would also not realize that they value dialogue and draw heavily
from Eastern and Catholic influences on spirituality. It smacks of a ‘many
ways to God’ type religious views.
Widely hailed as a ‘rockstar’ of the emerging church, McLaren is controversial
for, among other things, fasting during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan a few years
ago.
Brian McLaren describes himself on his website as an “author, speaker, activist,
and public theologian.” He is a former pastor and has authored many books
on various topics, including A New Kind of Christianity and Naked Spirituality,
most recently. He was included in Time magazines “25 Most Influential
Evangelicals”, and was described there as an “elder statesman”
of the emerging church. Widely hailed as a “rockstar” of the emerging
church, he is controversial for, among other things, fasting during the Muslim holiday
of Ramadan a few years ago.
McLaren’s faith
McLaren several times referred to his “fundamentalist” upbringing. He
said that as he was naturally interested in science and art, and as a natural learner
and questioner, he “was on a collision course” with the sort of Christianity
he was brought up to believe. He described himself as “on his way out”
of the Christian faith by the time he was a teenager. He ultimately found a form
of Christianity he could accept in the Jesus Movement. In faith, he values experience
over dogma and ‘right belief’.
He expressed a negative view of people who ‘had all the answers’. He
seemed to think of that as a narrow and dogmatic way to view the world. Instead,
we should question, and learn from other views. This all seems very noble and open-minded,
but it becomes problematic if we dig a bit deeper. Questioning isn’t supposed
to be an exercise in and of itself—at some point, ideally we would come to
some sort of answer. That answer might be refined over time as we gain access to
new insights and a deeper understanding of the dynamics involved, but at some point
we should be able to define a fundamental truth and say with some certainty “This
is the answer.” And to be able to say this confidently is not a mark of arrogance
if it is grounded in our conviction of scriptural truth.
Developing religion
In religion, he claims, “People are looking for the next step in their development.”
And depending where they are in that progression, answers and explanations that
seem to make sense to one person may seem ridiculous to someone else. In illustration,
he gives the story of a Cambodian woman who came to faith after Pol Pot’s
genocide. When she spoke of hearing the Gospel, he asked her what that Gospel was.
She replied that really what it was is that there was a God who created the universe,
and that maybe if there was a God there was some hope in the midst of all that loss.
Great, but what about some instruction on how to find that God, or how to be saved
from her sin?
While we would argue that the Gospel is in fact that Jesus Christ came to earth
to pay the penalty for man’s sin, that He was raised on the third day, and
that salvation is only through Him (to give the barest outline—see our
Good News statement for a more full explanation of the Gospel), God as Creator
is certainly the basis for the Gospel. McLaren, however, seemed to think
of that as a primitive belief that was useful insofar as it gave the woman hope,
but one gets the impression that he thinks of it as something one would ideally
outgrow.
One central idea in McLaren’s argument several times is that we’ve got
more knowledge today, and that changes how we interpret Scripture. This is relatively
misleading. Biblical creationists could also argue that the wealth of scientific
knowledge we have today actually supports biblical creation. He says, “For
the first time in history we have access to all the feeling states that humans have
always needed to thrive.” These states include trust, gratitude, and inspiration.
He argues that for most of human history, mythic beliefs were the only way to instill
these feelings, because there wasn’t the knowledge of ‘deep time’
and billions of years. The host, evolutionary evangelist, the Reverend
Michael Dowd, made the comparison to how ancient people made up gods when
they didn’t understand phenomena like lightning and thunder, but now we know
what causes lightning and thunder. In the same way, it is implied, what we’ve
learned about how the universe actually works, now that we know that everything
evolved over billions of years, the Genesis ‘myth’ is, if not outmoded,
in need of a serious reappraisal to see where it actually fits in an enlightened
postmodern outlook.
McLaren says that these evolutionary beliefs that couldn’t have been known
prior to the modern age are “so much richer than the mythic beliefs we had
before.” “Mythic” beliefs like God’s creation of the world,
His providential love for humanity that caused Him not to abandon us even after
we rebelled? “Mythic” beliefs like God coming to earth in the Incarnation
of Jesus Christ, and then dying the most ignominious, horrific death that the people
of that day could dream up to pay for our sin? “Mythic” beliefs like
Him rising on the third day? If one is a myth, how are the others historical? Because
the same ‘science’ that says the earth is billions of years old and
that all life evolved says that dead people don’t come alive again on the
third day. One wonders what is McLaren’s logical basis for accepting one ‘myth’
(and I hope that he does accept the Resurrection, because one must
believe that to be a Christian) while rejecting the other. Where does the truth
begin, after all?
‘We know more today’
Dowd points to the scientific knowledge of how the world works that has been revealed
in the last 200 years “that couldn’t have been revealed to the Apostle
Paul, that couldn’t have been revealed to Moses.” One almost expected
him to continue “that couldn’t have been revealed to Jesus,” but
thankfully at least he didn’t consciously take that step.
I have no problem with saying that Paul didn’t know about nuclear fission,
and that Moses didn’t know anything about atomic theory. In a sense, we do
know some things that Paul and Moses didn’t know about. But I don’t
think that’s what Dowd was saying here. He’s speaking specifically of
the evolutionary understanding of the world’s history and life. And if that
‘story’ (both participants in the teleconference session were very fond
of the word ‘story’) is correct, then it’s not just that Paul
and Moses didn’t know some stuff, it’s that they thought some stuff
was true that actually wasn’t. And if that’s true, then that
throws a spanner into the whole of Scripture, because if they could be wrong about
something that important, if God could have misled them, or if He could
have been misinterpreted there, then how can we believe Scripture when it says that
Jesus is the only way to salvation? “If I tell you of
earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you of
heavenly things?” (John 3:12).
But do they believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation? In a series
called Evolutionary Christianity,
one could be forgiven for expecting some semblance of Christian thought, and at
least nominal acceptance of some of the really core beliefs. But if they believe
that the Bible is revelation from God in any meaningful sense that puts it on a
plane above, say, The Code of Hammurabi or Mastering the Art of French
Cooking, it certainly doesn’t show in their statements. They talk
about ‘ancient Genesis myths’ and ‘Egyptian creation myths’
without differentiating any substantial difference as far as inspiration is concerned.
These stories, along with apparently everything else, “emerged in conversation”
with each other and other creation myths, each trying to solve problems in the others.
In this view, we’re asked to view the myths not in terms of ‘true’
and ‘false’, but how ‘helpful’ or ‘unhelpful’
they are. They claim that ‘from this standpoint we can see the deep wisdom
in virtually all of them.” But I would argue that this view actually disrespects
the texts themselves, which make truth claims, and so should be evaluated on that
level. And it almost goes without saying that this is certainly not a biblical
way to view them.
They claim that even in these stories, there’s a sort of “evolutionary
unfolding.” But the stories still haven’t evolved completely. McLaren
makes the statement that we don’t yet have a unified statement that allows
us to see each other as brothers and sisters worldwide, or one global family; our
creation stories are apparently still at a level that “facilitates cooperation
at a smaller scale.” But we do have a better, more unifying creation
story that allows us to see ourselves as one human family—the creation account
in Genesis proclaims that every single human being is descended from Adam and Eve,
and everyone alive today is descended from Noah and his three sons. This is a very
recent common ancestor, which makes us all very closely linked, as modern
genetic evidence suggests. But this creation story would not allow us to see each
other as brothers and sisters if it was not based upon actual history.
The ‘benefits’ of an evolutionary outlook
McLaren spends a lot of time talking about what Genesis doesn’t mean, but
he doesn’t actually get around to saying what it does mean. He says
that it’s a really good story that explains what’s fundamentally wrong
with us, why we want to do things but we don’t, why we break our word, let
people down, etc. But unless one takes a literal historical view of Genesis and
the Fall, one wonders how one can define what is morally wrong or right? But he
has an answer for this. Lest we think for a moment that he’s actually taking
a high view of Genesis where it really explains why we are the way we are,
he quickly says, “But now we understand that we have instincts that
don’t match our world.” He argues that the instincts that we have now
helped our ancestors to survive, but those instincts are not appropriate for the
modern world in which we live. But if they were appropriate in ancient times, why
do we have ancient codes that condemn those tendencies? All this view does is make
man, not God, the ultimate authority of what is wrong or right.
He says that we should be grateful for those tendencies, because they helped our
ancestors to survive; without them, we literally wouldn’t be alive, in that
view. But then, is he calling sin good, just hundreds of thousands of years
ago? McLaren derides the view that we are the way we are because our great-great
… grandmother ate an apple, saying that it has “no explanatory power,
no gratitude.” Well, for starters the Bible doesn’t say it was an apple,
but nonetheless the event actually has a great deal of explanatory power, if you
believe that’s what actually happened. It would certainly take some “explanatory
power” to justify a God who created us with impulses that would allow us to
survive and evolve, and then to say that those very things He created us with are
sinful.
McLaren claims that since he realizes this, he doesn’t struggle with his sinful
nature, and that he doesn’t feel guilty like he used to. He uses the example
of seeing a beautiful woman, and says, “Of course I think that woman should
be carrying my child!” But he says the understanding of evolutionary psychology
means that he knows why he’s attracted to the woman, and simultaneously
allows him to reject those impulses. Dowd agrees, saying that the view that certain
behaviours consign people to Hell while others get people into Heaven is a very
“pre-moral” way of looking at things that may help some people at a
primitive moral state, but that this way of perceiving right and wrong creates an
“inner world” of shame, hypocrisy, and leads people to be unacceptable.
Sexual attraction (not always directed appropriately) is one part of our makeup
that was advantageous as we evolved, but that isn’t always now. But that seems
to be trivializing and justifying the sin of lust, which Jesus certainly didn’t
just shrug his shoulders at and say, “Oh well, you evolved to be that way”
(cf.
Matthew 5:27-28).
The claim itself that a Christian isn’t struggling with their sin nature is
problematic, because even with all of its definite calls to holiness and rejection
of sin, the Bible is very candid about the human propensity toward sin. 1 John 1 says that if we claim to be without sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us, and that if we claim we have not sinned, we
make Jesus out to be a liar and His word is not in us (vv. 8, 10). Is this what
McLaren and Dowd are claiming? Perhaps, but I think it is more likely that they
are redefining the problem until it is practically impossible to call any
propensity towards wrong action sinful.
An underlying problem
He referred to creation as one might refer to a crazy old aunt—he had to acknowledge
it was there, but wanted to change the subject as quickly as possible.
As disturbing as some of these comments were, the underlying attitude toward Scripture,
and Christianity in general, was far more serious in my opinion. One waited in vain
for any statement that was unapologetically and specifically Christian. He seemed
to be apologizing for Scripture rather than presenting an apologetic; he referred
to creation as one might refer to a crazy old aunt—he had to acknowledge it
was there, but wanted to change the subject as quickly as possible. Even religious
terminology was apologized for with phrases such as “if I can use such faith-based
terms”, etc.
Not everyone who becomes an evolutionist will go down the slippery slope to liberalism
and eventually unbelief. But examples like McLaren and Dowd show that the slope
is not simply hypothetical. Simply because some theistic evolutionists are otherwise
evangelical and orthodox does not make that an ‘okay’ view for Christians
to hold. We’re not saying you can’t be a
saved evolutionist—we’ve never said that. But we see over and
over again that how one takes Genesis can be indicative of one’s view of Scripture
in general. What was demonstrated in this teleconference was not just disbelief
in Genesis, but a rejection of a biblical view of sin (sin becomes things that we
evolved to help us survive several hundred thousand years ago) and salvation (there
are good things in other faith traditions, other ‘myths’). In its place,
they’ve embraced the evolutionary worldview and a ‘many ways to God’
approach while retaining some ‘Christianisms’ to make it easier for
evangelicals to swallow.
Unfortunately, many lay Christians are eager to appease the world and make Christianity
more acceptable and appealing in the hope that many more will accept the faith.
But, in the process, McLaren and his ilk have defined Christianity out of any true
meaning or purpose. Their imaginative ‘cleverness’ have made them nothing
more than willing dupes for the true religion of evolution, which is atheism. As
such, atheists must be rubbing their hands with glee. If the world was to think
that this is what Christianity means, then the church is on the fast track to nonexistence.
Christians should not be surprised that the Gospel will be rejected by many. There
is no need to redefine it. Man’s nature is to be rebellious to His Creator
and evolution provides a great excuse to ignore God. True Christians need to make
a stand for the truth claims of Scripture and its big picture, which has been totally
lost in this almost complete reinterpretation of the Gospel. We should take heed
of the admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ (the Creator God revealed in the flesh)
when He said:
“If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its
own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:19).
History shows us that appeasement has had little
success when dealing with sin.
Readers’ commentsColin M., Australia, 30 March 2011
This article reminded me of the G K Chesterton quote:
“Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”
Richard L., United Arab Emirates, 31 March 2011
Let us also remember Brian McLaren’s childhood. In an online transcript of a radio interview—which I cannot currently locate—he mentions that he eagerly asked a lot of questions about science when young. Very unfortunately, he had a Sunday School teacher who crushed those questions—saying that he had to choose between science and the bible. One or the other. So sad! What a horrible response! His walk away from true faith seems to have started there. A reminder of the importance of our reaching the young with the truth that God knows what he’s talking about—even in those areas of the bible that talk about science.
Greg D., USA, 8 April 2011
Great article. FYI, some people make a distinction between the “Emergent” church and the “emerging” church. Some participants do not consider themselves to be about revising doctrine at all, only methods. However, the culture at large seems to consider the terms synonymous, so it’s almost impossible to nail down whether there’s really a distinction, and, if so, what exactly that distinction is.
Alan H., Australia, 8 April 2011
The idea of still using Christian terminology while denying the basic beliefs that are foundational and critical to any realistic claim to be a follower of Christ is actually by design. Alice Bailey, the occultist who coined the phrase ‘New Age’, wrote in her channeling of her ‘spirit guide’, that the way to bring all the world into the New Age belief system would entail doing exactly that; using Christian terminology, but with different meanings to the historically accepted ones, so that people in the churches would be lulled into accepting unbiblical ideas, which would eventually bring them to a New Age worldview, as opposed to a biblical one. These are VERY dangerous people and their teaching is the doctrine of devils.
David H., Australia, 8 April 2011
It is always good to read an article that exhibits sustained logic as it moves through its arguments. This contrasts with the illogical arguments produced in the pursuit of syncretising two opposing faiths-faith in evolution and faith in biblical authority. Sadly, the arguments for biblical authority have to be repeated over and over again in a world damaged by sin and deceived by the evil one.
The young think evolution is right because many scientists say it is and the old add the desire not to offend the establishment in case it discredits Christianity. Sadly, it is forgotten that Jesus Himself offended as his message was one of repentance for sins and he did not shy away from calling some people by nasty names (“hypocrites”, “vipers” etc.). He didn’t seem to think that this was harming his ultimate work or message.
This article clearly and skillfully develops it arguments of truth and thus brings encouragement to the believer in truth.
Thank you.
Jason B., USA, 8 April 2011
Thank you for making a statement about these “rockstar evangelicals”. It is blatantly clear that they have not placed their faith in the Word of God, but have placed their faith in the wisdom of man, which is foolishness. I pray that they will repent from leading souls away from the truth and causing them to sin, for Jesus said, “It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves.” Luke 17:2,3 It is also instructive to read the preceding passage in Luke 16:19-31. |
Related articles
Further reading
References
- Katherine T. Phan, “Brian McLaren: Christians in denial
over evolution of faith,” The Christian Post, 27 January 2011, <http://www.christianpost.com/news/brian-mclaren-christians-in-denial-over-evolution-of-faith-48703/>,
last accessed 22 March 2011. Return to text.
- Katherine T. Phan, “Evolutionary Christianity has ‘freed
me’, says Brian McLaren,” Christian Today, 31 January 2011,
<http://www.christiantoday.com/article/evolutionary.christianity.has.freed.me.says.brian.mclaren/27439.htm>,
last accessed 22 March 2011. Return to text.
- Brian McLaren, “Naked Spirituality and a New Kind of
Christianity,”, evolutionarychristianity.com, 21 December 2010.
Return to text.
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