The emergent/ emerging (emergxxx) church has one unifying doctrine the Kingdom of God. “Our principle desire is to see God’s Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. We believe this happens when God’s people are renewed around God’s mission of love and justice in the world.” [1] This statement of course promotes the idea that God’s people will bring in the kingdom. “For Jesus the question wasn’t how do I get into Heaven? But how do I bring heaven here? The goal isn’t escaping this world but making this world the kind of place God can come to. And God remaking us into the kind of people who can do this kind of work.”[2] It is unfortunate but this type of kingdom theology will eventually destroy all areas of theology because as has been stated in earlier posts all theology is a tapestry.
It is necessary that we follow this epistemology to its logical end. The idea that the kingdom is here now but not fully materialized has lots of baggage. The first issue is that there is clearly a hermeneutical problem with the interpretation of passages. This hermeneutical irregularity among emergxxx men is what is so alarming when fundamentalist blindly grab emergxxx methodologies and run wild. There is a theology behind their methods. Biblical fundamentalist theology and emergxxx mixes like oil and water.
What is the will of God for the believer in this age? The will of God for the believer is found in Romans 8:28-29 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; The Holy Spirit is using the word of God in the life of the believer to conform him more into the image of Jesus Christ. That is what is known as progressive sanctification. The will of God for the local church is found in 1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. In addition to that the local church has the same will of God as the Body of Christ which is Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” In Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll he makes the point in his chapter on the missional church that the church is to be carrying out the great commission which entails: making disciples, evangelizing, and planting the churches that reproduce. Well as Fundamentalist we would agree on that.
Ray Anderson says that when the church prays “thy kingdom come” it reveals that its nature is open to the coming of the kingdom and thus is a witness to the reality of the kingdom already manifest through the Holy Spirit. He goes on to say that the church must be willing to be divested of cultural forms and practices in order to be an authentic missional community.[3] The problem is that the disciples’ prayer is in the dispensation of the law looking forward to the kingdom not the church age. The withdraw of the kingdom offer takes place after teh rejectionof the kingdom and its king and the first mention of the church is in Matt 16:18. Furthermore the push to have an emphasis on changing the church, continual improving of society, and need for cultural authentication is not a cry for better methodology which no biblical fundamentalist would depose; but a calculated shift away from biblical ecclesiology.
In closing people drinking from the emergxxx streams will quickly find themselves drinking from fire hydrants. The “conversation” is quickly fleeing from the doctrine of the local church, which in their case had a sandy foundation at best, to this kingdom theology that now has a vehicle to take it to a place that we have not seen before. The desire for cultural authentication will soon lead to the transformation of emergxxx churches into nothing more than socio economic improvement societies. Their push to bring in the kingdom will lead to more of an already lackluster evangelism and exegesis to more and more “experience” of the good life of the kingdom.
[1] Sherry Maddock and Geoff Maddock, “An Ever-Renewed Adventure of Faith, An Emergent Manifesto of Hope,” 80
[2] Rob Bell, “Velvet Elvis” Grand Rapids; Zondervan, 2005, 109-110.
[3] Ray Anderson, “Emergent Theology for Emergent Churches” Downers Groves; IVP 2006 99.
