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"Take
Heed" Ministries
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Cecil Andrews, PO BOX 13, Ballynahinch, BT24 8AL, Northern Ireland. Telephone/Fax 028 9756 5511. E-MAIL - takeheed@aol.com WEBSITE - http://www.takeheed.net |
‘REFLECTIONS’ on ‘emerging’
IKON:
‘God in the hands of angry
sinners’
Last year Pastor Gary Gilley was our invited guest to speak around Northern Ireland on 2 subjects in particular – (1) The ‘Purpose Driven’ Movement and (2) The ‘Emerging Church’ Movement.
In the
run-up to Gary’s visit he mentioned to me that there was a local [in
Belfast] ‘Emerging
Church’ group called IKON that was headed up by a man called Peter Rollins.
Gary asked me if I knew of him and I said ‘no’. Subsequently I did a web search
and came across a website for this group called IKON and as I browsed their
site I saw a web page listed under a subheading of ‘The Last supper’ and that
somehow ‘rang a bell’ for me. On further investigation I found out why.
This is
how ‘The Last Supper’ is described on that web page – ‘The Last Supper is a monthly gathering in which twelve
people gather informally over food and wine to question an invited guest about
what they believe and why they believe it. If the guest does not prove
convincing it may turn out to be their last supper’. Listed also on this web page are links to all those who
have been guests at this monthly ‘Last Supper’. Here is a short extract of the
names listed –
Now I
knew why ‘The Last Supper’ heading had sounded familiar to me. From my own
diary records my ‘guest appearance’ at the ‘Last Supper’ had been on 1st
December 1998. In truth my recollections of what took place were not overly
detailed. I had been invited along to meet with students who had an interest in
‘spirituality’ and who were mostly attending Queens Univeristy.
We had
a meal and I was then asked to outline my ‘spiritual pilgrimage’ and so I gave
my testimony and told of how the Lord had brought me to establish ‘Take Heed’
Ministries. This was followed by a question time and it was only at this point
that it began to dawn on me that I was not actually in the company of fellow
like-minded believers. They were certainly not rude to me but their questions
were certainly probing and for me at times they were intellectually and
philosophically rather baffling.
When I
came home I shared with Margaret my ‘confusion’ of mind of how I had been with
people who were friendly and inquiring but who were certainly not dedicated
advocates for the Gospel of Christ and who were at times quite hostile to and
dismissive of the unique claims of Christ and Him crucified. Little did I know
that this group would eventually ‘give birth’ to a ‘Faith Community’ called
IKON.
Today,
according to extracts from their website, this is how IKON describe themselves
under a number of headings –
‘ICONIC At Ikon we endeavour to view our religious beliefs and
traditions as icons rather than idols, not approaching them as some
scientifically correct rendering of Gods mind, but rather as wounded,
worshipful constructions, formed in the glorious aftermath of God, which allow
us to reflect upon our interaction with that which can never be reduced to the
conceptual realm…
APOCALYPTIC The word
‘apocalyptic’ simply refers to the incoming of a singular, unrepeatable event
that is absolutely inconceivable, an event that could not have been predicted
in advance of its coming and which defies all expectations. At Ikon we wish to
reclaim and celebrate the apocalyptic nature of God…By recognising that our
religious traditions and beliefs are icons rather than idols it follows that
these traditions must embrace the pseudo-concept of God as one who cannot be
contained in any concept.. At Ikon we recognise our dark tendency to reduce God
to an object like other objects…
HERETICAL Building
upon the idea of our religious traditions as iconic discourses that recognise
and celebrate the apocalyptic nature of God, it follows that Ikon acknowledges
itself as a heretical community…we endeavour to hold our current understanding
of God lightly, allowing both the Spirit and other people to challenge what we
believe…In addition to this we acknowledge our heretical stance in relation to
the larger Christian community…a heretic is one who comes from the same
tradition but who reads it in a different way…we acknowledge and celebrate the
multiplicity of ways that one can read Christianity…By doing this we also
endeavour to be a place of refuge for those on the edges, or outside, the
traditional church system, yet who desire God…we view this as a creative force
that allows for a critical, two-way interaction with the larger church…
EMERGING Flowing
naturally from the previous statements Ikon does not view itself as having
reached some final destination/destiny but rather as being on a journey…we
would prefer to call ourselves a community becoming Christian rather than a
community of Christians…The term ‘emerging’ should not then be thought of as a
provisional one that will some day be replaced with the word ‘emerged’…By
recognising ourselves as pilgrims and sojourners we endeavour to regularly
meditate upon the direction of the movement and be open to the divine call that
would draw us down paths we have not yet discovered…
FAILING Finally Ikon
acknowledges that it constantly fails in its desire to be an icon of the
invisible…our community is deeply committed to interacting with the mystical
realm and demonstrating love in the world…it would be inauthentic for us to sit
back and declare that we have accomplished what we have set out to do…we remain
mindful of the fact that our attempts at forming a community of individuals who
radiate divine love are, at best, the forging of a poor icon through which
people can dimly perceive God’.
Having read
this self-description of IKON you can perhaps understand a little why at times
at my visit to the ‘Last Supper’ I found some of their questions to be, as I
put it, ‘intellectually and philosophically rather baffling’.
Just a few
brief comments from me on the above description of IKON. I find them to be
quite open and honest about their situation and intentions and I believe they are reacting to what they perceive to be the
hypocritical failing of much of professing Christendom to be what Christians
ought to be and I will comment more on this later as I come now to
give details of my latest encounter with Peter Rollins of the IKON community –
a community that meets on a monthly basis in ‘The Black Box’ that is apparently
a small theatre with coffee bar facilities in the Cathedral quarter of Belfast.
The Belfast
Telegraph 9th June alerted me to a seminar being held at the Irish
School of Ecumenics in Belfast on 13th June. The speaker was Dr
Peter Rollins and his topic was ‘IKON. A Local Theology in Northern
Ireland’. Another handout given to me when I attended the seminar also
referred to ‘IKON: Forging a faith community
with/out God’ and again I will comment further on that description
shortly.
Peter Rollins
spoke for 40 minutes and early on he identified what was a motivating factor
behind IKON’s search for a form of Christian spiritual reality – it was their
observation of a failure by professing ‘Christians’ within professing Christendom
to demonstrate a life-style clearly different from the ‘non-believing’ world
round about them. As a result of this I believe that Peter Rollins has an
understandable misconception of what
Biblical Christianity is really all about and in consequence he tends to present
a caricature of genuine Biblical Christianity. For most of the 40 minutes
or so he churned out at great speed ideas and quotes from a vast range of
philosophers and philososphies, theologians and theories. He was very conversant
with ‘tales from the Talmud’ and ‘myths from the Midrash’ and he certainly
held the attention [if not
always the understanding] of
the dozen or so of us that were present. It was very clear that Peter Rollins
identifies with the ‘Postmodern’ generation – in his book ‘The TRUTH
War’ Pastor John MacArthur made this very succinct comment on page 24
- ‘Postmodernism is simply the latest expression of worldly unbelief’.
How
have we come to such a situation as this. Well I do believe that
‘Professing Christendom’, many of its leaders in particular, have a
great sin to answer for. Over decades they have slowly but surely eroded confidence in
the Bible as being the inspired, inerrant and infallible living Word of the
living God. Year upon year, men who at their ordination affirmed such belief
concerning the Bible, have then proceeded to shamefully deny and to
sermonically shred the great historic and foundational truths of Biblical
Christianity.
They
have poeticised and back-tracked on belief in the truth of the literal 6-day
creation by God. They have acquiesced to the elimination of God from education
classes in favour of Darwinian theory and speculation. They have allegorised
away man’s ‘fall’ into sinful depravity, preferring instead humanistic,
psychological excuses for aberrant behaviour. They have peddled the lie of
‘we’re all God’s children”. They have in essence denied the deity of the Lord
Jesus Christ by equivocating on His virgin-birth and bodily resurrection. They
have with philosophical pride questioned the gracious atoning value of His
sacrificial, substitutionary death. They have paid derisory and scant attention
to the wonder of imputed righteousness. They have adopted sinful
immorality-tolerant attitudes and actions and their singular ‘God is love’
mantra has virtually extinguished the fires of everlasting hell. They have bowed to political expediency and
have ‘pinked’ at bowing to scriptural authority. They have recanted of the
blood-stained Reformation gospel-truths and have pursued paths of pagan
ecumenical compromise.They have sought to incorporate worldy, unbelieving
notions such as ‘evolution’ into God’s scheme of things and perhaps without
realising it have in consequence totally undermined the foundation of all God’s
biblical truth about Himself and His creation. In short, preferring “the wiles
of the devil” they have failed to declare ‘thus saith the Lord’ for fear of
appearing foolish in the eyes of ‘the world’.
With ‘Christian’
leaders such as this we should therefore not really be surprised that unbelievers
looking on see no visible difference between their lives and the lives of
many professing ‘Christians’. In recent decades the ‘downgrade’ within perceived
‘evangelical’ Christianity has gathered breath-taking speed as movements such
as ‘Ecumenical Crusades’, the ‘Health and Wealth’ movement, the so-called
‘Toronto Blessing’ and ‘Pensacola Revival’ movements, the ‘Alpha’ and ‘Purpose
Driven’ movements have produced a harvest of professing ‘Christians’ whose
lives, although perhaps ‘cleaned up’ in some areas, are at heart still as worldly ‘as the day they
were born’ and who may well one day hear the chilling words of Matthew 7:22-23.
Easy-believism
has reduced being a Christian down to a simple prayer-formula that many are
told will guarantee the best this life has to offer.
With such a
scenario it is not at all surprising that a ‘Postmodern’ generation has
sprung up and is seeking to find a new ‘way’ when it comes to understanding
what it means to be a Christian. Having lost all conviction that divine truth
is available and understandable communities such as IKON are springing up to
explore ‘the divine’ from a loosely ‘Christian’ perspective. For many ‘emerging’
groups, ‘behaviour’ takes total precedence over ‘belief’ because they perceive
that those who claim Christian ‘belief’ [according to the bible] do not actually exhibit Christian
‘behaviour’ [according to the bible].
I recently had
an exchange of emails from a professing Christian father who was concerned at
my article on the upcoming ‘Summer Madness’ event in Belfast where ‘emerging
guru’ Brian McLaren will be the main speaker. The very way he signed off his
first email spoke volumes – he wrote – Yours In Christ [the guy less
concerned with doctrine and more with his children's needs]
You
can see from that, that where his children were concerned, ‘doctrine’, in
other words, ‘belief’ was very much a secondary issue. I wrote back and sought
to explain and share my convictions about how ‘from the beginning of time in
the Garden of Eden there has been an ongoing 'Truth War'. I received a very
gracious and at times open response to this email and at one point, this
professing Christian father, who is involved in church-plant work, wrote – ‘I
guess I have started believing that God may be as good as his Word [as in
scripture] but we only see this in action and not in written word. But here is
the crux of the matter: I don't have a clue. I am
stumbling in the dark. I believe certain things about God and Christians and
they might be justifiable but they might also be by-products of a distancing
from God. I just don't know…’. This, for me, was a very
real example ‘in action’ of the widespread loss of confidence, within
professing Christendom, in the Bible being the inspired, inerrant and infallible living Word of the living God.
You have
already read extracts of how IKON conduct their spiritual journey, their
spiritual pilgrimage and their search for spiritual reality. So what is the
biblical Christian answer to these ‘Postmodern seekers’?
I think we can
learn some very simple truths in Acts 17 from how Paul addressed the
philosophers of his day on Mars Hill in Athens. Amongst his hearers were the
deep philosophical thinkers of his day, the Epicureans and the Stoics. Did Paul
try to preach some ‘hard to grasp’ convoluted philosophy? No, he kept it simple
and biblical.
He proclaimed
the God of creation in verses 23-24. This creator God he declared to be the sustainer
of all life in verse 25. From verse 26 we learn that this creator and
sustaining God views all manking as ‘sons of Adam’ and that He sovereignly
controls rulers and nations [in their rise and in their
fall]. This revealing
evidence for
His existence is explained in verse 27 as being designed to compel man in
conscience to “seek the Lord”. Man’s ignorance in the search, where he was
prone to fashion idol ‘gods’, was
graciously “overlooked” for a period of time by God but not any longer declares
Paul [verse 30]. Why was that? Because
of God’s ultimate and supreme revelation of Himself through the life, death and
resurrection of His beloved Son, “the man whom he has ordained to judge the
world in righteousness” [verse 31]. Paul’s message to his listeners from God
was short and to the point – “Repent” [verse 30].
They were
commanded to repent of their foolish philosophies and with a repentant heart
and mind embrace the redeeming truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Paul was pleading with his listeners to believe in and have
confidence in the God who had revealed Himself in and through the Old Testament
scriptures and who had fulfilled all that was prophesied in the Old Testament
scriptures in and through the life and person of His beloved Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Today’s
philosophical seekers are no different from those of Paul’s day. They too are
‘sons of Adam’ and so, because of ‘original sin’ they are alienated from the
creator/sustainer and coming judge/God
that Paul preached about. Their minds are blinded by the ‘god’ of this world [2nd
Corinthians 4:4].
In a
recent article dealing with ‘The God Delusion’ views of evolutionist, Professor
Richard Dawkins, I examined this question of ‘the mind’ and I will now quote
extracts from what I wrote as they have application to the ‘Postmodern
seekers’.
What process has the devil
used to stop him from believing? We find the answer I believe in 2 Corinthians
4:3-4 where we read “But if our gospel be hidden, it is hidden to them that
are lost, in whom the god of this world [the devil] hath blinded THE
MINDS of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them” and then in verse 6,
rather appropriately seeing that we are considering a man who is opposed to the
idea of biblical creation, Paul writes “For God, who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, hath shone in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”.
Why do believers possess “the
knowledge of the glory of God”? In 1 Corinthians 2:14 the apostle Paul
explains why the natural/unregenerate man [like Richard Dawkins] does not
understand God’s truth – Paul wrote “But the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither CAN he
know them because they are spiritually discerned”. Paul then goes on to
talk about the ability of believers to know the mind of the Lord and he writes
in verse 16 “But we have the MIND of Christ”. In Romans chapter 7 Paul
outlines the struggle that he has as a believer between obeying or disobeying
God and he writes in verse 25 “So then, with the MIND I myself serve the law
of God”.
When appealing to the
Christians in Philippi to be humble just as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was,
Paul wrote in chapter 2 verse 5 “Let this MIND be in you which was also in
Christ Jesus”. When appealing to Christians to live holy lives the Apostle
Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:13-15 “Wherefore, gird up the loins of your MIND,
be sober…As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the
former lusts in your ignorance…be ye holy in all manner of life”.
The bible shows clearly that
the devil seeks to ‘deceive, mislead and beguile’ the MINDS of
people. We read in Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was cast out, that
old serpent called the Devil and Satan, who DECEIVED the whole world; he was
cast out into the earth”. Setting forth the various meanings of ‘deceive’
Vine’s Expository Dictionary says on page 151 of the New Testament section ‘to
deceive by leading [to mislead] into error. In John 7:12 the Lord
Himself was even falsely accused of deceiving people and Vine’s comments on
this particular usage are ‘leadeth astray’ [misleads].
According to God’s truth,
the bible, the devil clearly ‘deceives’ and ‘misleads’ people. He
also seeks to ‘beguile’ them for Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth
in 2 Corinthians 11:3 “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent
beguiled Eve [again how appropriate that this is a reference to God’s
creation] through his subtlety, so your MINDS should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ”.
The full article can be
accessed on http://www.takeheed.net/DeludedDawkins.htm
Paul
in his 2nd letter to Timothy 4:2 outlined the divine prescription
for such situations – he didn’t tell Timothy to organise a debate and try to
reach some consensus; he didn’t encourage him to put on a bit of a show with
trendy music, dancing and drama The command was to “Preach the word” just as he
himself had done on many occasions and faithful preaching is the antidote for
today’s ‘Postmodern seekers’. They have no confidence that the Bible is
the inspired, inerrant and infallible living Word of the living
God and who would blame them when they hear what some modern-day preachers are
trotting out as ‘preaching’ [and a recent broadcast ‘sermon’
from East Belfast on Radio Ulster springs immediately to mind] and
when they see the ’Christian’ lives of many who profess to belong to Christ.
The word
‘preach’ is quite unique when it comes to Christianity. A ‘preacher’ is one who
is meant to ‘proclaim’ or to ‘herald’ and be ‘bold’ in his speech as he
delivers divine truth. I jotted down my own ‘definition’ like this – to
preach is to proclaim with conviction “the truth of God” and “the God of
truth”. As Biblical ‘truth’ is
preached and proclaimed it has, through the sovereignly controlled and
determined energising power of God the Holy Spirit, the dynamic ability to
demolish “strongholds” [2nd Corinthians 10:4]. Some of these “strongholds” are identified in
Colossians 2:8 as “philosophy and vain deceit” [worldly
wisdom and spirituality that is devoid of divine truth] and
that is precisely what many of today’s ‘Postmodern seekers’ are held
captive by.
At the end
of Peter Rollins’ presentation there was a short question and answer session.
It was interesting that the first lady who spoke and who claimed not to be in
the ‘evangelical’ Christian tradition stated that really what she had listened
to was not new and in that she was correct – we had listened to much
‘philosophy and vain deceit’ [worldly wisdom and spirituality
that is devoid of divine truth].
I was able
to say to Peter Rollins that his observation about the inconsistent ‘Christian
behaviour’ of many who profess to be ‘Christian’ was a fair comment but I said
that if a genuine conversion to Christ has taken place then there will be clear
evidence of a changed life and that converted/changed person will be ‘salt’ [a
non-corrupting influence in the world] and also ‘light’ [an
illuminator of divine truth to those in spiritual darkness.]
I then had
the opportunity to ask Peter Rollins if he viewed the biblical truth of what
God’s people understand as ‘penal substitution’ [that
Christ suffered at the hands of God the Father as their substitute to save them
from sin’s condemnation] in the same light as Brian McLaren
and Steve Chalke, namely that in their opinion, that constitutes ‘cosmic and
divine child abuse’.
I was
pleased to hear Peter Rollins say that he did not share their views on ‘penal
substitution’ and he then proceeded to say that within IKON there were a
variety of understandings about what did or did not happen on the cross. I
pressed him to state whether he believed that Christ’s death was an atoning,
redeeming substitutionary sacrifice to save sinners. He was honest enough to
admit that he had not come to a final conclusion on that – ‘the jury was still
out’.
The chairman
of the meeting wanted to end proceedings at that time but I was able to make
one final point and it was that when someone is genuinely converted to Christ,
God reveals to their mind and understanding the biblical propositional truths
about the deity and death of Jesus Christ.
Privately
afterwards I spoke with Peter Rollins and encouraged him to ‘de-clutter’ his
mind of much of the philosophical ‘baggage’ that he is currently carrying
around as it is ‘blinding’ him to the truths [“the
simplicity that is in Christ” 2 Corinthians 11:3] contained
in the bible – a book that he regularly quoted from in his talk. I mentioned to
him that I was hoping to write something in response to 2 “REFLECTION’ articles
posted on the IKON website – one written by Peter himself and the other by a
Ricky McQuillan.
Peter’s
short article is called ‘Sins Of The Father’ and Ricky’s is
called ‘The Sins Of The Father’. Here is what Peter wrote –
On judgement day a summons went forth to the sea, commanding that she give
up her dead, and a voice called out to Hades that the prisoners be released
from their chains. Then the angels gathered up all humanity and brought them to
the great white throne of God. All creation waited as a great angel opened the
books. The first to be judged stood up and approached the text. As the accused
looked at the charges all humanity spoke as one, ‘When we were hungry you gave
us nothing to eat. When we were thirsty you gave us nothing to drink. We were strangers
and you did not invite us in. We needed clothes and you did not clothe us. We
were sick and in prison and you did not look after us’.
Silence descended upon all of creation
as the people pronounced their judgement on God.
Here is what Ricky wrote –
I was hungry for love, and you ignored me
I was thirsty for encouragement
but all I received was criticism
I was naked - ashamed with no self worth;
you couldn’t even look at me
I felt like a stranger in a strange land –
you did not make me feel at home
I was sick with depression,
and all I felt was your condemnation
I was in the prison of the soul, and you were silent
I tried to sing, but my songs did not touch you
I spilt out my inky soul onto pages,
but you would never read a word
You were there, but all I felt was absence
Your presence was my desert
The image of you tormented me,
for it became a memorial
A reminder of love’s privation
The absent father, who was there, but was not there
Cursed are you in your abstraction –
for there you can mean nothing to me
I remember that day I sat down in front of you
And asked you to say that you loved me
For any father should love his child
But you just looked back at me blankly…
…you made a bastard out of me.
I’m sure, like
me, many of you will be somewhat shocked by the ‘punch-lines’ in these 2 pieces
and wonder how on earth anyone ‘spiritual’ could hold and express such
judgmental views of the God of all creation. Old Testament Job endured a
catalogue of heartbreaking disasters and, unlike these modern-day responses, we
read of Job in Job 1:22 “In all this Job sinned not nor charged God
foolishly” [‘with folly’] and in Job 2:10 “In all this did not Job sin
with his lips”.
As I considered
what might have driven Peter and Ricky to write such pieces I was persuaded
that they are apparently the victims of flawed thinking [or even
teaching or preaching] that
expressed itself in the very titles of their pieces. Both of them would appear
to have imbibed the unscriptural view that ‘God is THE FATHER of everyone’
– something that I referred to earlier as often being a mark of
scripturally-illiterate ‘Christian’ leaders.
If it were true
that God was ‘the Father’ of everyone then perhaps there might be a just case
for the views expressed in these pieces but the reality is that such a view is
neither scriptural nor true.
God’s ‘family’,
those who can truly refer to Him as “Father” is restricted to those who have
been brought into a saving, eternal living relationship with Him, grounded on
the atoning work of Christ on the cross and brought about through the
regenerating work of God the Holy Spirit. When someone undergoes a genuine work
of Holy Spirit regeneration one of the many “spiritual blessings” with which they
are “blessed” [see Ephesians 1:3] is that they are then “adopted” into God’s family
and can rightly call Him “Abba – Father” [see Ephesians 1:5,
Romans 8:14-16 and Galatians 4:4-5}. It is only those who have been truly “born again” [see
John 3:3-7] who can joyfully
and confidently affirm “Beloved, NOW are we the children of God” [1 John
3:2].
Overall today
there is virtually a universal failure on the part of the unbelieving,
unregenerate world to accept the truth of God’s creative work as told to us in
Genesis and to understand or accept the damning ramifications of ‘The fall’
brought about through Adam’s sin.
On the
following link http://home.att.net/~sovereigngrace/ruin.remedy.3.html#tragic.results
an article entitled ‘Man’s
Ruin – God’s Remedy’ states the following under a sub-heading of ‘The
Tragic Results of the Fall of Man’ – ‘Adam's sin corrupted human nature,
both mind and body, and poisoned the whole race of mankind contained in his
loins. The streams of all mankind, which have flowed from Adam, are corrupt,
because the source or fountain was poisoned by sin. Adam naturally transmitted
that sin, guilt and corruption to all his posterity, for, "Who can bring a
clean thing out of an unclean?" (Job 14:4). Children are not born
innocent, as many believe, but come into this world with a sinful nature, which
discovers itself very soon by attitudes and actions. Fallen Adam begot a son,
not in the moral image of God, but in his own corrupt moral image and likeness,
according to Genesis 5:3 and 1 Corinthians 15:22,49-50. Adam naturally fathered
a race of guilty sinners, all of us under the sentence of death and destruction
(Romans 5:12-19; Ezekiel 18:4).
The
article continues under another sub-heading of ‘Fallen Man Is Now In
Spiritual Darkness’ to say – ‘Fallen man now cannot, without
supernatural help from God, understand spiritual truth. In Adam's fall, the
spiritual light went out in his heart, and this is the awful spiritual
condition of every child of Adam's race ever since. God is the all-glorious
Supreme Being in Whom all of us should find our greatest delight, but now,
because of sin, we are by nature utterly lost from that personal knowledge of,
and fellowship with, our Creator… Because all of us, by nature, are in such
spiritual darkness, salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, GOD'S REMEDY, is a
supernatural inward change, wrought by the power of God in our hearts. Listen
to how the Word of God describes this inward change. It is being "called
out of darkness into His marvellous light" (1 Peter 2:9). It is an
"opening of the eyes, and a turning from darkness to light" (Acts
26:18). It is "the eyes of your understanding being enlightened"
(Ephesians 1:18)… The power that God puts forth when He brings a soul out of
spiritual darkness is that same power that He exercised when He commanded the
light to shine out of darkness in creation (Genesis 1:3), according to 2
Corinthians 4:6, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, hath shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
Finally,
from this article, under a sub-heading of ‘Fallen Man Is Now Under
Satan’s Power’ we read ‘Modern man generally regards the
Divinely-inspired record of Adam and Eve and the fall of man in the Garden of
Eden as a myth, a mere fable or tale. The Biblical account of man's creation
and the entrance of sin into the human race is laughed at and scorned by many
today… In the inscrutable and unsearchable wisdom of God (Romans 11:33-36),
Satan was permitted to enter the Garden of Eden, and to utilise his deceptive
methods in an attempt to seduce our first parents to disobedience to God's
command. As we have seen, Satan attacked Adam through Eve, and though she was
deceived, Adam wilfully and defiantly chose to reject the rule of God over him,
and in deliberate rebellion, fell into transgression and condemnation. We have
already learned from God's Word that in his creation, Adam was constituted by
God as the federal head and representative of the entire human race contained
in his loins (Romans 5:12-19). By this one act of rebellion against His Maker,
Adam not only plunged himself and all his posterity into ruin, but he… became,
along with all his posterity, bond-slaves to Satan, who now rules as a usurper…
The shocking and startling truth is that this rule of Satan over fallen man is
SO EXTENSIVE that the Apostle John states in I John 5:19, "The WHOLE WORLD
is under the power of the Evil One" (Amplified New Testament), and in
Revelation 12:9, the same Apostle refers to him as "that old serpent,
called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the WHOLE WORLD."… Since we are all as fallen sons and daughters of Adam born
into Satan's kingdom of darkness, and by nature live out our lives under
his rule and domain in disobedience to God (Ephesians 2:2), as his [Satan’s] spiritual offspring (John
8:44), GOD'S REMEDY is a MIGHTY DELIVERANCE by the power of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and His Gospel… The glorious Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ brings
DELIVERANCE from Satan's power, and [deliverance] out of his kingdom, according to
Colossians 1:13, "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and
hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son."… It is through this
blessed Gospel that the Lord Jesus puts forth His mighty power "to open
their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of
Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins. . ." (Acts
26:18).
As I
mentioned earlier, when I spoke to Peter Rollins I said that I hoped to write
this article and I also shared this with him. I mentioned how several centuries
ago the great ‘revival’ preacher, Jonathan Edwards had preached a famous sermon
entitled –
‘Sinners in the hands of an angry
God’.
I
shared with Peter that I believed these articles on the IKON website could be
titled –
‘God in the hands of angry
sinners’
I
sincerely hope and pray that if Peter and/or Ricky should happen to read this
article that they will readily understand that I am not writing it ‘in anger’
but out of genuine Christian love for their eternal well-being for ‘there but
for the grace of God go I’.
Concluding thoughts.
Peter Rollins and IKON are, according to their own ‘stated aims’, ‘Forging a faith community with/out God’. A true Christian faith community can only be forged by people who possess true Christian belief that does result in true Christian behaviour. Communities with ‘faith’ in the only true God, the God of the Bible, were identified clearly in both the Old and New Testaments. When you read God’s inspired Word in Nehemiah 10:28-29 and Acts 2:42 you see that absolutely central to these ‘faith communities’ was their total confidence in and obedience to the inspired, inerrant and infallible living Word of the living God.
In Old Testament times God’s people
looked forward to their coming Messiah and deliverer – the one promised by God
in Deuteronomy 18:15. Through the sinless life and substitutionary death of the
Lord Jesus Christ, God fulfilled His promise of that Messiah – the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself affirmed this truth when He took the downcast disciples on the
road to Emmaus through an exhaustive study of the Old Testament scriptures and
according to Luke 24:26 He said “Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into his glory” and in verse 27 “He expounded
unto them, in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself”.
Religious leaders and philosophers at the
time of Christ were in ignorance of both His person and His mission and the
Lord identified why this was so – He said to them in Matthew 22:29 “Ye
do err not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God”.
When the first
lady to speak after Peter Rollins had finished his presentation said that ‘really what she had listened to was not new’ she was in effect
identifying the same ‘thinking’ that Christ encountered in his own day and His
diagnosis then still ‘holds water’ today – I would say with the Lord to Peter
Rollins and to those associated with IKON - “Ye do err not knowing the
scriptures nor the power of God”.
What is ‘emerging’ in IKON and in many other ‘emerging’ faith communities around the world is the latest expression of Satan’s challenge to Eve in the Garden of Eden – “Yea; Hath God said” [Genesis 3:1]. In response to this challenge I will begin to close by quoting what the Lord said to the disbelieving of His day – “If ye believe not that I am he [God’s promised Messiah] ye shall die in your sins”. To expand what it is necessary to “believe” about Christ, let me quote an extract from the email exchanges I mentioned earlier that I had with a Christian father. I wrote –
In John 3:36 we read that "He that BELIEVETH on the Son hath everlasting
life". When it comes to "believing on the Son" God's Word clearly
identifies some non-negotiable, propositional truths that are embraced by true
converts when they "believe on the Son". [in] 2nd Corinthians 5 we find 2
absolutely core essential and non-negotiable truths concerning The Gospel of
The Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wrote in
verse 21 "For he [God the Father] hath made him [God the Son] to be sin for us [suffered, at the
hands of The Father, as prophesied in Isaiah 53, as our substitute] that we might be made [have
imputed/credited to us] the
righteousness of God in him". Put
simply, Christ's 'substitutionary death' is accepted by God for true
converts as 'their redemption' and Christ's 'sinless life' is
imputed/credited to true converts as 'their righteousness'
A regenerated sinner who truly believes
this about Christ will evidence clearly a change in his behaviour for “If
any man be in Christ he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold
all things are become new” [2nd Corinthians 5:17].
I made reference earlier to the famous sermon of Jonathan Edwards entitled – ‘Sinners in the hands of an angry God’ and I can think of no better way of drawing to a conclusion this article than by quoting these words from that sermon preached on 8th July 1741. Taking as his text, Deuteronomy 32:35, which reads, “To me [God] belongeth vengeance and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time. For the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste” Jonathan Edwards said –
‘Whatever
some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural [unregenerate]
men's earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and manifest, that whatever
pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he
believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep him a moment
from eternal destruction…natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit
of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and
God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them…the devil is
waiting for them, hell is gaping for them…The use of this awful subject may be
for awakening unconverted persons…You probably are not sensible of this; you
find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it…if God
should withdraw his hand…your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead,
and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell…and your own
care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have
no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web
would have to stop a falling rock…The wrath of God is like great waters that
are dammed for the present…The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made
ready on the string…The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one
holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is
dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you
as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes
than to bear to have you in his sight…but…God's hand has held you up. There is
no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell…O sinner! Consider
the fearful danger you are in…Consider this, you that are here present, that
yet remain in an unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of
his anger, implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity…he will not
forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand…And now
you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door
of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a loud voice to poor
sinners…many that were very lately in the same miserable condition
that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love
to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood…How
awful is it to be left behind at such a day!… Are there not many here who have
lived long in the world, and are not to this day born again?… Oh, sirs, your
case, in an especial manner, is extremely dangerous…let
every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether
they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children,
now hearken to the loud calls of God's word and providence…Therefore,
let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come.’
I do pray the God will be pleased to graciously enlighten many ‘emergents’ with His saving truth so that they will in consequence ‘emerge’ from Satan’s grip and Kingdom into the ‘faith community’ of those redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s promise to His redeemed people reads –
“Fear
not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the
rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou
shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the
Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour”.
Cecil Andrews –
‘Take Heed’ Ministries – 15 June 2007