Sep 14 2006
Emerging to the Immanent Eschaton
Um, yeah. Okay.
Actually, “immanentizing the eschaton” is what Brian McLaren and the rest of the “emergent church” are trying to do - create heaven on earth. The problem is that want to manage it without Christ.
Alan at Theosebes does a great job deconstructing one of the patron saints on the post-postmodern church movement. The first paragraph is from a Washington Post puff piece on McLaren’s latest work and the rest is Alan’s commentary.
[WP writes:] McLaren, 50, offers an evangelical vision that emphasizes tolerance and social justice. He contends that people can follow Jesus’s way without becoming Christian. In the latest of his eight books, “The Secret Message of Jesus,” which has sold 55,000 copies since its April release, he argues that Christians should be more concerned about creating a just “Kingdom of God” on earth than about getting into heaven.
[Allen writes:] There is nothing more insidious than Christianity without Christ (or is that Christ without Christianity?) and salvation without heaven. This is nothing more than Eric Voegelin’s definition of liberalism, ‘immanentizing the eschaton’, that is trying to make heaven on earth. To be somewhat more charitable, it is the old nineteenth century post-millennial approach, which sought to establish a perfect society–the Millennium–in order to hasten the return of Christ. Of course, these people aren’t really interested in Christ returning. Christ is only relevant as a selectively edited starting point for their preconceived notions of social justice.
The central message of the New Testament is the redeeming death and life-giving resurrection of Jesus. Jesus said many vitally important things, but those teachings are relevant only if Jesus died and was raised again. In other words, the teachings of Jesus are only critical insofar as they are linked to salvation and resurrection. If you sever that tie, then Jesus is not a good teacher, he was a liar or madman.
Paul was very clear about that point when he wrote to the church at Corinth, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” (1 Cor 15:17-19, NIV)
This is the dangerous trap that McLaren, Andrew Perriman, Donald Miller and the rest of the emergents fall into - they seem to hate “the Church” and seek to recreate it in the shape of a social organization solving the social ills of society, unencumbered by a risen, atoning Christ or the need for Christlikeness.
As a wiser man than I once said, “Church-less Christianity is like sex-less marriage—it can only last one generation.”
