From the loins of Just This Side of Heresy, a second project has begun. In my most recent newsletter, I explained my intentions. Here's the essay:
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Go onto YouTube.com and type in Brian McLaren's name, or Doug Pagitt's, or Rob Bell's. Before you ever reach a video featuring one of these three men, you'll find several videos or soundbytes by John MacArthur, denouncing them. McLaren, Pagitt, and Bell are three of the leading teachers in the emergent movement, a mini-reformation within Christianity which, at it's conservative end, believes that the Gospel is good news, rather than just an alternative to damnation. It believes that Christ's ministry to the poor consists of helping them socially, lifting them up from their shame, in addition to helping them in a spiritual manner. And it uses the arts as a medium of truth, placing great value in creativity.
MacArthur goes to great lengths to find and extract random lines that he can excerpt to condemn these men as heretics. Over the past few years or so, Ray Comfort and R.C. Sproul have joined him in his hunt. There's also a rather funny street preacher that stands outdoors and yells at people as they leave Rob Bell's church. Check that out for a laugh.
What I really want to point out is that MacArthur tries so hard to find rope to hang these guys that McLaren actually makes a general note of it in the second edition of his book, A Generous Orthodoxy, stating that he is certain he has included plenty of material that certain preachers will take issue with. He says this without naming names, but sadly, MacArthur has made such a witchhunter of himself that many know exactly who he is talking about.
But MacArthur's poorly titled program, Grace To You, comes on in my area. From time to time, I'll try to listen to it and attempt to not yell at my radio for broadcasting his ignorance. Here's one trend that I've noticed: MacArthur says numerous things on his program that sound heretical if you don't listen to the fifteen minutes of preaching that precede it. He's quite careless with his words, considering how careful he demands others to be. It's a wonder, in fact, that no one has turned the text-proofing sword back on him. McLaren and Pagitt are, admittedly, too meek or humble to do anything of the sort.
I'm not.
I may start a second blog soon, titled Emergent Venom, to pick apart every little detail that comes out of the mouths of MacArthur and his swarm. Think Ann Coulter, but with a sex change and a degree from seminary.
Beyond treating those things that I deem "heresy," I believe I may also spend a great deal of time quoting MacArthur's own contradictory claims. For example: He is very fond of the formulaic phrase, "Any bible believing Christian knows X." Though no one else has ever called attention to it, I've noticed that he uses this phrase most when he has no intention of backing himself up biblically. In one message, he stated that all bible-believing Christians held to the doctrine of Unconditional Election, but followed that up by saying that he is well aware that there are many verses which contradict his interpretation. That, he says, is what bible-believing Christians call a paradox. We shouldn't try to make sense of it, he suggests. The bible is full of paradoxes which will only be solved when we reach Heaven. Oddly enough, those paradoxes only occur when on assumes a Calvinist interpretation of the scriptures, as MacArthur does.
If we are, as the bible says, to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, I can only assume that MacArthur, Sproul, and Comfort want thier errors rubbed in their faces, across the internet, and in print, should anyone ever happen upon them. Point taken, gentlemen. I'll get right on it.
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So there you have it. I'll be back later.
