Emerging Influence?

"It's more mystery than mastery," I heard him say. I heard these words on a recent segment that one of our local Christian radio stations played over the air; a piece that is designed to help listeners become more familiar with the personalities of the Christian artists they listen to. Two men were featured from a well known Christian group and I have to admit that these words quickly took my attention.

Maybe it is because so much attention has been given to the emerging church movement by evangelicals in recent months, or maybe it is because I read The Truth War a few weeks ago, but for whatever reason I thought to myself, "That sounds emergent." These words were this artists description of the Christian life and admittedly there is an element of truth in what he said. There is an element of mystery to God, Christ, and redemption; Paul himself said, "Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness" (I Tim. 3:16). But the reason my ears perked up when I heard these words is because they represent a popular trend in the emerging church movement. It is a trend that fits in well with our post-modern times and is descriptive of the spirit of this age. Many believe today that truth is beyond our grasp, that no one can be sure what the Bible means by what it says. Many embrace the thought that Christianity is more mystery than mastery.

It is a popular notion for one to think that doctrine is beyond our understanding and that it expresses true humility to say that we do not grasp it. Many would say, "I am too humble to say I understand what the Bible means by what it says." Instead, many would rather say, even of historic orthodox Christian beliefs, that I would rather be humbly unsure than to declare that I know what the Bible means by what it says. Mystery and ambiguity equal humility.

But as others have pointed out, it is a more humble thing to submit ourselves to the logic of truth given to us in Divine revelation than to say we couldn't possibly understand what, Paul for instance, means by justification by faith alone, or on the clarity of the Gospel itself. There is great mystery in the Bible, there are things that are hard to be understood, and of course we would admit that there are things we cannot understand because God's thoughts are higher than ours, but there are truths in Scripture that are unmistakably clear, especially the Gospel.

That is exactly why I take the time to express this concern. Before I am labeled as hypercritical or as a heresy hunter I should inform you of what another member of the group had to say. I listened as he said that the group's practice at their concerts, is to tell a story. He said that they could do one of two things: they could tell the story of Jesus and hope that it is the Gospel and hope that it will effect people, or they can tell their story. The latter is their practice. I listened in utter shock as he went on to even question the existence of God and placed "their story" above the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "Their story" became the good news, and the Gospel of Christ became unsure, unclear, and doubtful. They trust that "their story" is the Gospel and communicate that truth to their audience.

Once again, objective truth (the Gospel) is downplayed and subjective truth (experience) is crowned king. With this logic my experience defines what it true, not facts. What saddens me is that this group would consider themselves mainstream evangelicals when they hardly fit the description of Christianity. The truth is that Gospel is outside of us. It is objective truth. What Christ accomplished happened regardless of how we feel about it. My experience is not the Gospel; the Gospel is Christ crucified bearing the wrath of God for guilty sinners, and rising from the dead. The subjective (experience) only comes to play a part when we believe the objective (the Gospel). Though our experience may provide a helpful testimony to the work of Christ, let our message be the Gospel of Christ, His story, and the faith once for all delivered to the saints.