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the emergent conversation: a professor s reflections

Outline. I. Theological Strengths of Emergent ChurchA. MysteryB. CommunityC. Cosmic/Holistic RedemptionII. Overplayed Strengths may become WeaknessesA. Mystery1. questions about revelation2. questions about ScriptureB. Community. Outline. C. Cosmic/Holistic Redemption1. relative unimportance of the afterlife2. questions about the substitutionary atonement3. nature and existence of hell4. other religionsIII. A Calvinist CritiqueA. Common Grace > AntithesisB. Why Our Beliefs Matter9456

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the emergent conversation: a professor s reflections

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    1. The Emergent Conversation: a Professor’s Reflections Michael Wittmer

    3. Outline C. Cosmic/Holistic Redemption 1. relative unimportance of the afterlife 2. questions about the substitutionary atonement 3. nature and existence of hell 4. other religions III. A Calvinist Critique A. Common Grace > Antithesis B. Why Our Beliefs Matter C. What About Hell? D. The Relation Between This Life and the Next

    4. Theological Strengths of the Emergent Church 1. Mystery 2. Community 3. Cosmic/Holistic Redemption

    5. Overplayed Strengths may become Weaknesses A. Mystery: so much mystery that we don’t know anything? 1. Questions about Revelation

    6. Mystery 2. Questions about Scripture a. Its role in our web of beliefs 1) God’s existence: grants confidence in the deliverances of reason. 2) Scripture: grants access to the truths which transcend reason. b. Inspiration and Inerrancy “Interestingly, when Scripture talks about itself, it doesn’t use the language we often use in our explanations of its value. For modern Western Christians, words like authority, inerrancy, infallibility, revelation, objective, absolute, and literal are crucial….Hardly anyone knows about the stories of Sir Isaac Newton, Rene Descartes, the Enlightenment, David Hume, and Foundationalism—which provide the context in which these words are so important” (Generous Orthodoxy, 164).

    7. Inspiration and Inerrancy Dan Poole’s confession states that “Words like inerrancy, infallibility, and authority are related to a philosophical approach to belief systems that I used to hold but no longer do. I believe that the Word of God is inerrant, but I do not believe that the Bible is absolutely equivalent to the phrase ‘the Word of God’ as used in the Bible….I would prefer to use the term inherency to describe my view of Scripture: God’s inerrant Word is inherent in the Bible….” (The Last Word, 111).

    8. Overplayed Strengths may become Weaknesses B. Community: so much community that doctrine does not matter? “One feature of what is sometimes called the ‘emerging church’ is a turn from doctrines to practices; unity is built less around a list of things one professes to believe and more around how one pursues truth and puts beliefs into action through practices. In this way, churches and other similar organizations…see themselves as communities of practice” (The Last Word, 197).

    9. Community Dan summarizes Jesus’ take on the gospel: “It wasn’t ‘hold the right beliefs,’ ‘affirm the right doctrines,’ or anything like that. Instead, Jesus was clearly interested in action, in what we do, in how we treat others especially, and in whether we trust him enough to follow his teaching even if it means difficulty and persecution” (The Last Word, 121). McLaren describes the wrong, fundamentalist view: “On judgment day, all God will care about is opening up our skulls and checking our brains…to see if we had the right notion of salvation by grace through faith in there somewhere” (The Last Word, 136).

    10. Overplayed Strengths may become Weaknesses C. Cosmic/Holistic Redemption: so much focus on this life that we forget about the next? 1. Relative unimportance of the afterlife Focus on the afterlife ? preoccupation with doctrine (what do I have to believe to go to heaven?) ? legalistic view of God (how can I overcome my original sin and go to heaven?) ? disregard for others in my present life. The Last Word, 85, 134-36, 166; Generous Orthodoxy, 100.

    11. Cosmic/Holistic Redemption 2. Questions about the substitutionary atonement 3. Nature and existence of hell a. Pharisees used hell to intimidate sinners. b. Jesus used hell rhetorically, turning the Pharisees’ threat back upon themselves. “Our problem is that we use the idea of hell precisely the way the Pharisees did, exactly the opposite of the way Jesus did. We say everyone not of our elite party—the party of people who believe in certain doctrines, however they’re defined—are excluded and will face not only our rejection in this life but also God’s eternal rejection and scorn forever” (The Last Word, 163).

    12. Hell c. Everyone must stand before God to be judged. Whatever is bad will be burned away in painful loss and whatever good that remains will enter the new earth. “You know, if God judges, forgives, and eliminates all the bad stuff, there might not be much left of you—maybe not enough to enjoy heaven, maybe not enough to feel too much in hell either” (The Last Word, 137).

    13. Hell d. The traditional view of hell makes God into “a petty human being, full of anger and revenge,” who commands us to forgive our enemies but is “unwilling to do the same” (The Last Word, 40). “…our way of talking about hell sounds absolutely wacky. ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,’ we say, ‘and he’ll fry your butt in hell forever unless you do or believe the right thing.’ ‘God is a loving father,’ we say, ‘but he’ll treat you with a cruelty that no human father has ever been guilty of—eternal conscious torture’” (The Last Word, 75).

    14. Cosmic/Holistic Redemption 4. Other religions: Jesus includes rather than excludes “It bothered me to use exclusive and Jesus in the same sentence. Everything about Jesus’ life and message seemed to be about inclusion, not exclusion. I couldn’t figure out how anything with ‘eternal conscious torment’ in it could be called ‘Good News’” (The Last Word, 35).

    15. Other Religions “(The Pharisees’) rhetorical use of hell made clear that God’s righteousness was severe and merciless toward the undeserving. Jesus turned their rhetoric upside down and inside out and used hell to threaten those who excluded sinners and other undesirables, showing that God’s righteousness was compassionate and merciful, that God’s kingdom welcomed the undeserving, that for God, there was no out-group.”“…a lot of Christians today use hell to threaten all non-Christians and put them in the excluded out-group, and you can decide which pattern that conforms to most” (The Last Word, 74).

    16. Other Religions “Maybe God’s plan is an opt-out plan, not an opt-in one. If you want to stay out of the party, you can. Nobody will force you to enjoy it” (The Last Word, 138). Dan responds to the story of a Jew who was brutalized by the Nazis. “How am I supposed to believe that after all Shirley’s father suffered, he’s going to burn in hell forever, eternally tortured, because he didn’t believe in Jesus? What kind of God would add his own eternal torture to the obscenity of human torture her father suffered?” (The Last Word, 85).

    17. III. A Calvinist Critique A. Common Grace > Antithesis 1. People do not seem that bad. “Neil, how can I calm down? If people’s lives end in eternal torture, if every good thing they ever did is swept away into insignificance because they weren’t one of the chosen or they weren’t lucky enough to believe the right things, how can I be calm?” (The Last Word, 85).

    18. III. A Calvinist Critique 2. Whether or not they have heard of Jesus, everyone will see their good remain and their evil perish in the fire of judgment. “I believe that God in justice wants to exclude from creation all that is evil and wrong…. I believe that God wants to include everyone and everything redeemable by mercy and grace….God shows no favorites. All will have to stand before God’s merciful and just gaze and will be judged by justice and mercy. In this context, all evil will be judged and excluded, all good saved and included, universally” (The Last Word, 112).

    19. III. A Calvinist Critique B. Why Our Beliefs Matter (Why We Need to Know and Believe the Christian Gospel to Be Saved). 1. We are born in sin, addicted to autonomy (Romans 1:18-32; 5:12-21). 2. Only the Holy Spirit can liberate us (Titus 3:5; 2 Thess. 2:13). 3. The Holy Spirit (internal means) uses the Word of God (external means) to regenerate us (Romans 10:13-15).

    20. Holy Spirit Uses the Word Martin Luther: “Outwardly (God) deals with us through the oral Word, or the Gospel and through visible signs, as Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Inwardly He deals with us through the Holy Spirit and faith…but always in such a way and in this order that the outward means must precede the inward means, which come afterwards through the outward means. So, then, God has willed that He will not give to anyone the inward gifts (of the Spirit and faith) except through the outward means” (WA 18, 136).

    21. Holy Spirit Uses the Word John Calvin, Institutes I.9.1: “Therefore the Spirit…has not the task of inventing new and unheard-of revelations, or of forging a new kind of doctrine…but of sealing our minds with that very doctrine which is commended by the gospel.” Calvin, Institutes I.9.3: “For by a kind of mutual bond the Lord has joined together the certainty of his Word and of his Spirit so that the perfect religion of the Word may abide in our minds when the Spirit, who causes us to contemplate God’s face, shines; and that we in turn may embrace the Spirit with no fear of being deceived when we recognize him in his own image, namely, in the Word.”

    22. Why Our Beliefs Matter 4. If the adherents of other religions are already good people, then they might be able to please God by their own efforts. But if everyone is broken by Adam’s sin, then we need the Holy Spirit to apply Christ’s work to our hearts. And if Luther and Calvin are correct, this requires knowledge of the gospel.

    23. A Calvinist Critique C. What About Hell? 1. The fact that Jesus used hell rhetorically implies that he believed it is real. 2. As with everything connected with the fall, the existence of hell does not fit in God’s story. Because it is evil it will never make sense, but will always remain a mystery (Romans 11:33).

    24. What About Hell? 3. Jesus went to hell, so God has suffered more from evil than anyone. 4. We should wish that God empties hell, but the clearest teaching of Scripture does not give us reason to hope for it (Matthew 7:13-14; Revelation 20:11-15).

    25. A Calvinist Critique D. The Relation Between This Life and the Next 1. Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian 2. Heidelberg Catechism, Question 1: “Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.”

    26. Conclusion A. Mystery: why not embrace the divine mystery with a robust belief in revelation and the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture? Indeed, mystery is the best way to account for the dual authorship of Scripture. B. Community: why not embrace our hunger for vulnerable, authentic relationships with our need for correct beliefs? Indeed, it is the doctrine of the Trinity which supplies the rationale for sacrificial community. C. Cosmic/Holistic Redemption: why not embrace this life without downplaying the next? Indeed, it is precisely our security in the next life which motivates us for this one.

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