EMERGENT MCLAREN: The Secret Message of Brian

Denny Burk's title ('Da Vinci' not as dangerous as 'Left Behind') angered me till I found out the secret meaning left behind it!

Burk is joining a growing group of Christian leaders who see Brian McLaren a new-age gnostic, some labeling him a dangerous heretic. I can't go that far, but I am now concerned about the "emergent" and "missional" movements with McLaren in the lead. Are they connected in some ethereal way?

For the time being I'm going to treat them like Labrador Spar, a kind of spar crystal found in and around Labrador.

At first sight, it is dull and without luster; but if turned round and round, it will come to a place where light strikes in a certain way, and it will reveal its flashing beauty.

Christians are like that, if indeed they are who they say they are. And those who take leadership positions are seriously like that. They may seem to be unlovely, but, when we turn them this way and then that way, we may find their "flashing beauty."

So there I am, turning and turning, every turn is the same as the one before ... still no flashes and still no beauty. But I'm not ready to condemn ... not just yet.

For the moment I'll leave that to Denny Burk, assistant professor of New Testament at Criswell College in Dallas.

The more I hear from emerging church leader Brian McLaren, the more I fear he is not competent to be a leader of God's people. Recently, he commented on the error-ridden "The Da Vinci Code" by saying, "Frankly, I don't think it has more harmful ideas in it than the Left Behind novels."

Burk also culls this quote from the record to add to the questions concerning McLaren ...

McLaren also says, "We need to ask ourselves why the vision of Jesus hinted at in Dan Brown's book is more interesting, attractive, and intriguing to these people than the standard vision of Jesus they hear about in church.... Is it possible that, even though Brown's fictional version misleads in many ways, it at least serves to open up the possibility that the church's conventional version of Jesus may not do him justice?"

Ouch! That's a mouthful looking for I did go to Amazon and read the reviews of McLaren's latest book, "The Secret Message of Jesus," and discovered he isn't receiving a lot of support for his views from what appear to be orthodox reviewers.

I intend to see how many of my people have heard of McLaren or read his books before I bring any attention to him ... if they have then warnings are in order.

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TAGS: Brian McLaren, Christianity, Church, Dan Brown, Da Vinci Code, Emergent, Heresy, Left Behind, Missional, Religion