Friday, April 21, 2006

Spurgeon vs. Emergent

Words of wisdom from Spurgeon, writing against (ironically enough) proponents of 'modern thought' who would 'fiddle' with doctrine, always looking to change the theology of the church.
Our 'modern thought' gentry are doing incalculable mischief to the souls of men, and resemble Nero fiddling upont the top of a tower with Rome burning at his feet. Souls are being damned, and yet these men are spinning theories. Hell gapes wide, and with her open mouth swallows up myriads, and those who should spread the tidings of salvation are 'pursuing fresh lines thought.' Highly cultured soul-murderers will find their boasted 'culture' to be no excuse in the day of judgment. For God's sake, let us know how men are to be saved, and get to the work: to be for ever deliberating as to the proper mode of making bread while a nation dies of famine is detestable trifling. It is time we knew what to teach, or else renounced the office. 'For ever learning and never coming to the truth' is the motto of the worst rather than the best of men.
Something like this helps me put my finger on exactly what it is (at least one of the things) that bugs me so much about emergent. The more time we spend re-inventing the wheel, the more people live and die without ever hearing the plain gospel truth from a Christian. The more Satan keeps Christians busy arguing over how seriously we should take warnings of hell for all who don't consciously put faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, the more people die convinced they are fine because even a Christian wouldn't tell them their sin is sin.

5 comments:

Son of Man said...

wowzas.

Ian Hugh Clary said...

Ironic indeed.
Shouldn't you be studying for Greek??

DErifter said...

Hey, are you "posting like usual" again?

I haven't figured out yet the extent to which the EC (NOT the European Community, I have that figured out) bugs me. On one hand, "Iron sharpens iron", and in that context I welcome the new persectives- "pursuing fresh lines of thought" as Spurgeon put it. On the other hand, is it accurate to call something as fluid as EC "iron" and do they sharpen us or erode us?

I don't mind "forever learning" and coming to deeper truth, or coming to know the truth more fully. But then, as you pointed out in different words, it's not all about "me". At some point we need to take a break from the discussion and get on with the business of bringing the truth to those who don't know Him. If our energy is spent on the discussion at the expense of ministry, does that make the discussion a bad thing? Could be. Or the discussion itself could be considered ministry.

Do you think it could be compared to spending so much time at seminary that you never get out into the world to preach?

Sorry if I'm rambling a bit, but like I said, I'm not sure where I stand yet. But that doesn't make me emergent, okay?

Nathan said...

Amen brother. Nothing better than a good ole' Spurgeon quote.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. I couldn’t disagree with you more.
You disagree with emergent because it “re-invents the wheel.” That’s like saying “well I have a horse and buggies, why ever upgrade to a car when I have a reliable mode of transportation with my horse.” It’s like your strength for modernity and avoiding emergent is based on the fact that emergent is asking more questions and continuing on the question.