Jeff Ling

Before anyone jumps to conclusions, no, I am not suggesting that Brian is the Anti-Christ. (But the headline did get you here didn’t it?) This post was actually motivated by an article from World Net Daily.  Joel Richardson, a regular contributor to World Net and apparently an expert on end time events, posted some extensive comments on Brian McLaren’s observance of Ramadan.  To understand Brian’s reasons for observing the Muslim holiday, you are best served by reading his own words on his blog. I’ll come back to this later but first some thoughts concerning Mr. Richardson.

Joel’s article features references to his latest book entitled “The Islamic Antichrist” and subtitled “The Shocking Truth about the Real Nature of the Beast.” Now, I will give Mr. Richardson props. It takes brains and brawn to research and write. I believe that he is probably sincere in his efforts in the same way that I am sure McLaren is sincere in his. Still, sincerity is never the final measuring rod of an idea or book’s value and I consider both men to be misled in their approach. One misleads by playing on our sympathies and the other by playing upon our fears.

"I feel much freer now that I am certain the pope is the Antichrist." Martin Luther

Richardson is one of a large number of those who have written books concerned with the end times and specifically on the identity of the Anti-Christ. I’ve been around long enough to have seen this go through several versions but, let’s go back a bit further. Most early church and post-nicean writers were zeroing in on Rome and eventually, the Pope as the Man of Sin and the reformers made no bones about it! Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, John Knox  and John Wesley all promoted the view that the Papacy was indeed the guilty party. Over the years the culprit has been identified as Hitler,  Kissinger, even Ronald Regan! Type in “Who is the Antichrist?” into Google and you’ll get 3,410,000 results. Look up Antichrist on Amazon and  you will find a mind boggling collection including: The papacy, the anti-Christ of scripture: A sermon, delivered before the Synod of the German Reformed Church, in Philadelphia, October 18, 1853, by John F Mesick; Mussolini, is He The Antichrist? With Introductory Chapters on Nebuchadnezzar’s Image by Charles S Price (1929); Gorbachev! Has the Real Antichrist Come? – (Jun 1988) by Robert W. Faid (He even had that red “mark” on his head!) and A Palace for the Antichrist: Saddam Hussein’s Drive to Rebuild Babylon and It’s Place in Bible Prophecy (Oct 1996) by Joseph Chambers This represents just a sample of thousands of books on the subject. All of these writers were very sincere in their intentions but the simple fact remains that the identity of the Anti-Christ, if indeed is a guessing game even for the most educated.

I found a book written by Ernest Angley of televangelism fame called "Raptured! A Novel on the Second Coming of the Lord" from 1950. So LaHaye wasn’t the first on the market..

So what do we make of current writers on the subject? I will give them the benefit of the doubt on their sincerity, but I also think we have to admit that these types of books predictably turn into bestsellers at Christian bookstores. The question asked by the disciples: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) fascinates us. Websites, books, seminars, charts, graphs and diagrams abound. Let’s face it, there is money to be made off that which fascinates us. Bookstores love end-times books and Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins and Hal Lindsey are rich because of it.  Add to our fascination and worry the element of fear rising from the threat of Islamic fanatics and the well intentioned and not so well intentioned capitalize on the alarm and create for themselves a steady stream of income. Mr. Richardson may be sincere but he taps into fear while adding yet another chapter to the unanswerable question of who or what the Antichrist may be.

Brian McLaren taps into something different. He taps into our sympathy, into our longing to be compassionate.

Brian attended the church I worked at in Fairfax between 1980 and 1985. I didn’t know him on any kind of personal level but being the worship leader of the church I discovered he remembered who I was when I emailed him a few years ago and suggested getting together for coffee. I had read some of his books and at the time I was wrestling with issues related to the church and postmodernism. I was interested in bouncing some ideas off of him and he graciously offered to meet but due to circumstances and my ADD, that appointment, regretfully, never materialized. Over the years I have watched Brian become a lightning rod for controversy. His books have provoked no small amount of dissension and due to his visibility and popularity, especially within emergent circles, much has been written both lauding and attacking him. In his efforts to reshape Christianity for a postmodern culture I believe he strays on to some very thin ice and in seeking to build bridges between belief systems, sacrifices the uniqueness of Christ crucified and risen as the only hope of the world.

Brian wrote the following wrote the following concerning his observance of Ramadan:

“Our main purpose for participating will be our own spiritual growth, health, learning, and maturity, but we also hope that our experience will inspire others to pray and work for peace and the common good, together with people of other faith traditions … as Christians, we want to come close to our Muslim neighbors and to share this important part of life with them. Just as Jesus, a devout Jew, overcame religious prejudice and learned from a Syrophonecian woman and was inspired by her faith two thousand years ago, we seek to learn from our Muslim sisters and brothers today.” (Matthew 15:21 ff, Mark 7:24 ff)

I appreciate Brian’s heart. Those who know me have heard me say repeatedly that the church has lost it’s influence because we have chosen to be prophetic without being compassionate. Our “coming close” to our neighbors, Muslim or otherwise, is vital. It is Biblical. It is the right thing to do. Assisting the poor, caring for the sick, caring for the environment and seeking justice are indispensable to any honest approach to Biblical living. But Brian’s comments give me pause.
Brian uses the term “faith tradition” in referencing Islam. Would he refer to Christianity as one of many “faith traditions?”  If so he would be technically correct but does he not run the risk of validating other traditions as being equal with Christianity? Let me be clear, I am not suggesting a society which treats people of other faiths as non equals with people of Christian faith. Civil rights belong to all people regardless of race, gender and creed. But I do think we need to be faithful to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3) The Apostle Paul’s insistence on defending the gospel is unavoidable (Galatians 1:6-9) and cannot be set aside simply in the interest of conversation. Don’t we need to be open to conversation? Of course! But, the discourse should help us understand one another as we represent our gospel with integrity.

Brian’s reference to the Syrophonecian woman that suggests she somehow educated the Messiah is more than a stretch. The person overcoming their religious prejudice was the woman herself.  She was placing her faith in this Jewish man over and against the gods of her background. I’m not sure what Jesus learned from her. Being God incarnate, he was aware of what was in men’s hearts and being the Truth, there was no insight to be gained from her. Now, I am not the truth and I don’t know all things. I can learn from others and I should but using this encounter to sanction the observance of a religious festival and inadvertently endorsing beliefs that run contrary to God’s revealed truth, is a misguided notion.

I have come to a place of rest in God’s sovereignty and in faith that while my flesh may resist it, God’s wrath and justice are revelations of His love in the same way that the sacrifice of Christ is on our behalf. I make no apology for believing in the penal-substitutionary atonement of Christ and that it is by faith alone in Christ alone that we are saved. This is not the only truth about the atonement but it is the heart of it and can’t be removed without compromising the Gospel. That being said, I can identify in desiring a theology shaped by compassion rather than the other way around. I would love for there to be no hell, no eternal punishment, no lake of fire. I would love for all paths to lead to the same place. It would be great if all good folks went to heaven and only the really evil people had to live in a “hell” of their own making. I get it that people don’t want to be bothered with the cross as anything other than a symbol of Jesus showing us the lengths that love will go to in order to be, well, loving. In our pride He sits better as an example rather than a redeemer. Ultimately I believe that the theological positions of many within the emergent movement will lead to a universalism that betrays the gospel in favor of sympathy. Being generous in our orthodoxy is good if we mean generous of heart and humility but not when it comes to the sacrifice of foundational Christian belief.

“The older I get, the less impressed I am with flashy successes and enthusiasms that are not truth-based. Everybody knows that with the right personality, the right music, the right location, and the right schedule you can grow a church without anybody really knowing what doctrinal commitments sustain it, if any. Church-planting specialists generally downplay biblical doctrine in the core values of what makes a church “successful.” The long-term effect of this ethos is a weakening of the church that is concealed as long as the crowds are large, the band is loud, the tragedies are few, and persecution is still at the level of preferences. But more and more this doctrinally-diluted brew of music, drama, life-tips, and marketing seems out of touch with real life in this world—not to mention the next. It tastes like watered down gruel, not a nourishing meal. It simply isn’t serious enough. It’s too playful and chatty and casual. Its joy just doesn’t feel deep enough or heartbroken or well-rooted. The injustice and persecution and suffering and hellish realities in the world today are so many and so large and so close that I can’t help but think that, deep inside, people are longing for something weighty and massive and rooted and stable and eternal. So it seems to me that the trifling with silly little sketches and breezy welcome- to-the-den styles on Sunday morning are just out of touch with what matters in life.

Of course, it works. Sort of. Because, in the name of felt needs, it resonates with people’s impulse to run from what is most serious and weighty and what makes them most human and what might open the depths of God to their souls. The design is noble. Silliness is a stepping-stone to substance. But it’s an odd path. And evidence is not ample that many are willing to move beyond fun and simplicity. So the price of minimizing truth-based joy and maximizing atmosphere-based comfort is high. More and more, it seems to me, the end might be in view. I doubt that a religious ethos with such a feel of entertainment can really survive as Christian for too many more decades. Crises reveal the cracks.

I think we have enough churches being planted by means of music, drama, creative scheduling, sprightly narrative, and marketing savvy. And there are too few that are God-centered, truth-treasuring, Bible-saturated, Christ-exalting, cross-focused, Spirit-dependent, prayer-soaked, soul-winning, justice-pursuing congregations with a wartime mindset ready to lay down their lives for the salvation of the nations and the neighborhoods. There is a blood-earnest joy that sustains a church like this, and it comes only by embracing Christ-crucified as our righteousness.”

- John Piper

I was very moved by this question and answer from The Heidelberg Catechism. Normally the idea of “Prophet, Priest and King” is something that I attribute only to the the Lord Jesus, but here the emphasis in on our role as those anointed by the Spirit. All who know Christ have responsibility as prophets, priests and kings!

Why are you called a Christian? (Question 32)

“Because I am a member of Christ by faith and thus share in His anointing, so that I may as prophet confess His Name, as priest present myself a living sacrifice of thankfulness to Him, and as king fight with a free and good conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and hereafter reign with Him eternally over all creatures.”

-

Dwayne Moore has done the church, particularly those in the ministry of worship leading, a service with the publication of “Pure Praise: A Heart-Focused Bible Study on Worship.” This nine week study guide is a rich collection of not only solid instruction but interactive material that will take an individual or group into a deeper understanding both of the God we worship and ourselves as well.

The daily studies mix insights from God’s Word along with reflective questions and journal options that can help turn information into transformation. The sub-title of the book is spot on. While there is much here that most seasoned and well read worship leaders might be tempted to just skim through, the focus of Dwayne’s material is solidly rooted in sending us into the presence of God for some honest assessments regarding our heart’s condition the Father. I don’t know any worship leader that doesn’t need that kind of “check-up” regularly.

His material on identity – “ministers through music” and Asaph’s “divine elevation” is very helpful and I was glad to see his emphasis on honoring the kaleidoscope of styles within music, resisting the efforts of those who would strip lyrics of those themes which some might consider offensive, and the need for “planned spontaneity” He encourages us to impress people and his take on the word “impress” is a gem.

Above all, I come back to the strong even relentless effort Dwayne makes to steer readers toward the scriptures and into the place of prayer for repentance and revival. This is truly a “heart-focused Bible study.” A great tool for personal study or as a praise team.