SOUTHERN BAPTIST EMERGENT CONTRASTS HUMILITY WITH JUDGMENTAL PREACHING
SOUTHERN BAPTIST EMERGENT CONTRASTS HUMILITY WITH JUDGMENTAL PREACHING – J.D. Greear is a Southern Baptist preacher associated with the Acts 29 network. In 2002 Greear became senior pastor of Homestead Heights Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina. He led it to adopt the emergent philosophy, changed the name to Summit Church, and attendance has grown from 400 to 2,400. Mark Driscoll, head of Acts 29, claims to be “theologically conservative and culturally liberal.” Driscoll’s church in Seattle, Mars Hill, sponsors secular rock concerts, reviews R-rated movies, and hosts a New Years Eve dance party complete with a champagne bar. Greear says he strives for “humble orthodoxy” and contrasts this with the image of the Baptist preacher as “the angry guy with coifed hair and an out-of-style suit who likes to pick at things” (“Young Baptist Preachers Chart Different Courses,” Christian Post, June 20, 2008).
Jesus Christ was humility incarnate, yet He was very bold and “judgmental” in his preaching. He preached more about hell than heaven, at least 14 times in the four Gospels, and He preached it red hot and terrible (e.g., Mark 9:42-48). Christ rebuked error in the severest terms (Mat. 23:13-33). He scalded the Pharisees because they perverted the way of the truth and corrupted the gospel of grace, calling them hypocrites, blind guides, fools and blind, serpents, generation of vipers. Roman Catholic priests and theologically liberal Protestant ministers corrupt the truth at least as much as the Pharisees did, yet the emerging church does not speak out against them after the fashion of Christ. He told the Pharisees that they were of their father the devil (John 8:44), and a more “judgmental” statement has never been made! After forgiving and healing people Christ warned them, “… sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:14).
That is the type of thing that people in the “emerging culture” do not want to hear. They want to be forgiven and healed and encouraged, but they do not want to be told how to live and warned about what will happen if they don’t. Christ’s message cut against the grain of society in His day, and it still cuts against the grain of society, and the apostles preached after exactly the same fashion. One thing is certain. Christ’s type of preaching would not be at home in any branch of the emerging church.
CONCLUSION: Friends in Christ, do not be discouraged by what is happening today. It is God’s will that we know the times
Matt.16:3… And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
Rom.13:11… And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
And these are the SIGNS OF THE TIMES………
