When it comes to undermining the truth, false teachers are more dangerous than Richard Dawkins. I mean who would ever believe that an angel of light is really the devil (2 Cor. 11:13-14)? Amazing what can be done with a little camoflage, and amazing what can be done to a naive audience.Here is a pastorally astute observation from Millard Erickson:
"...it is important that evangelicals ask not only for the formulas of belief but for the actual content of those formulas or expressions.Millard Erickson, The Evangelical Left, p. 6
Sometimes lay persons are so conditioned to respond to particular expressions to which an emotional conditioning has been attached that they fail to determine the real meaning. In a day in which meaning is thought by some to reside, not objectively in the words and expressions themselves, but in the person who receives them so that its meaning is what it means to the recipient, this concern is especially appropriate."
3 comments:
I hope you don't mind me commenting on your blog, as I am not a theologian or a guy. I'm just a simple Texas mom.
I couldn't help myself though, as I just got off the phone with my mother in law.
She is unsaved and now following an "Oprah Winfrey" gospel.
I wonder if this isn't part of a "Great Dilusion". She was saying that God is whatever you make him. That we are all God.... uh, no we aren't....
She went on to say that she didn't understand those who fear death because we will all go to God because he is love....
I asked her then, why in Scripture did Christ say, "don't fear man who can kill the body, but God who can cast your soul into hell?" What about Jesus saying, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life and NO MAN can come to the Father Except through ME?
She said, I need to read my bible more. She is right. I do. I need to read it more and cling to it more and love it more, rather, I need to cling to HIM MORE< HIS WORDS MORE< HIS TRUTH more.
But she is under a great dilusion that tells her that she is God and she can make up her own reality.
AND... she is a regular church attender. :(
Dawkins is a clear wolf. We KNOW he is anti God, anti Christian. But those who claim to Know Christ and don't, those are the ones I fear.
They will be the ones to whom He says, "Sorry, I never knew you, depart from me".
Not at all, comment away. It is amazing how Scripture keeps on striking the same note about the plausibilty of error and the danger of being deceived.
Hi Martin,
Just found your blog and this was the first post. Recently I had the dubious honor of engaging someone in my family who is very emergent in what could loosely (very) be termed a debate.
What became obvious to me is the vocabulary the other person used was the same as mine but the meanings were way different. One of the quotes that they said was "You have your experience which helps you define Jesus and I have mine..."
When someone makes such a statement, you know you are facing the enemy. By that I mean not the person you are speaking to but the teaching. Yes, there is a lot more danger in the church than out of it.
Great blog, will be a regular from now on.
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