This episode of the radio program in the UK called Unbelievable with Justin Brierley is a discussion between James White and Brian McLaren on the Emerging Church and postmodernism. It aired in 2011 and I just now got around to listening to it. Good stuff. They both outline their positions very clearly and respectfully. Worth the listen:
http://media.premier.org.uk/unbelievable/7684e862-dcf2-4bd2-a1f3-aceb16f2f17c.mp3 (MP3)
“Brian McLaren and his ilk of the emerging church [i.e. Rob Bell] … all it is is 19th, 20th century liberalism in a postmodern dress. There isn’t anything new in it at all. And the only reason they can get away with it is because people are so a-historical and ignorant of theologies of the past.” – David Robertson, Emergent Calvinism (MP3). One of the biggest surprises with this Rob Bell universalism/inclusivism controversy isn’t that Bell is affirming universalism. The response of evangelicals, particularly younger generations, including mine, and their response has been the most surprising aspect.
However, I shouldn’t be that surprised. It’s what happened to J. Gresham Machen in the 1920’s and 30’s in which he received the most push back from the moderates of theological liberalism who were willing to tolerate individuals who wholesale rejected anything resembling Biblical Christianity. We are now back at one of those points.
Why Do Evangelicals Dislike Me So Much? – Brian McLaren
“Brian McLaren and his ilk of the emerging church … all it is, is late 19th century protestant [theological] liberalism in a postmodern dress. There isn’t anything new in it at all. And the only reason they can get away with it is because people are so a-historical and ignorant of theologies of the past.” – David Robertson, Emergent Calvinism (MP3)
Notice how McLaren doesn’t defend his orthodoxy (or lack thereof), he pleads the victim card and calls out the majority of evangelicals for essentially being separationists, you know, where seperationism actually matters. He clearly doesn’t see what is at stake. I mean even one of the New Atheists sees what’s at stake and knows where the dividing lines are! Christopher Hitchens is quoted as saying in a debate against a theologically liberal Christian, “I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.”
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