John MacArthur - Interview on the Emerging Church Movement

Grace to You, the ministry that broadcasts the teaching of Dr. John MacArthur, has an interview with Dr. MacArthur concerning the Emerging Church Movement available on their site. The interview was conducted by Phil Johnson (not sure when it was done), and is available on CD for free to those who have never contacted Grace to You before (the form is here, though the offer may be for a limited time), can be purchased on CD or as an MP3 download, or you can read the transcript of the interview for free.

The following quote is MacArthur's answer to a question asking how one could recognize the Emerging Church. The entire interview is worth reading - or listening to - if you have the time.

The Emerging Church Movement is an amorphous sort of loose-knit association of churches that have decided that there is value, there is even virtue in uncertainty about Scripture. The bottom line in the movement is they believe that we aren't even suppose to understand precisely what the Bible means. And to me, that's the big issue. It is an attack on the clarity of Scripture and they elevate themselves as if this is some noble reality. They have finally risen to say we're honest enough to say, "We don't know what the Bible really means. We can't be certain. We are...we're the truly spiritual ones." It has overtones of spiritual pride, a false kind of spiritual pride which they call humility. They say, "We're too humble to say that we know what the Bible means."

The bottom line, I think, in the movement is that it is a denial of the clarity of Scripture. It is a denial that we can know what the Bible really says. And as I said, it's amorphous because there's a mish-mash of approaches to this and a mish-mash of styles and things like that. But they have embraced this mystery as if it's true spirituality. And so, it becomes celebration of mystery, a celebration of ignorance, a celebration that we can't really know. I think it's just another form of liberalism. I think it's just another form of denying the clarity of Scripture. And I think there's a motive behind it.

Technorati Tags:
Emerging Church, Post-modernism, John MacArthur, Phil Johnson