More on Emerging

VI. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word: and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature, and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.

VII. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.

- Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 1, Sections 6 and 7


The above came to mind as I was contemplating some of the things I've heard coming from Emerging folks, particularly on the subject of certainty in knowing and understanding God's word. While I recognize the above statement to be a brief summary of the subject and not comprehensive, I would still regard it as substantially true.

I've found a couple of resources for those interested in considering the subject of the Emerging church. Here is an audio clip from John MacArthur that I found interesting. I disagree with MacArthur on many things, but nonetheless I thought his comments here were good. It's only about six minutes long.

And here is a page at Monergism.com that is dedicated to the subject of the Emerging church. So far I've only listened to John Piper's comments and the interview with Justin Taylor. Piper's comments were only a couple of minutes; the interview with Taylor was significantly longer. I would highly recommend both.

As you scroll down the Monergism page, you'll see this:

Men Are from Mars Hill by Mark Driscoll praises Jesus, blasts mega-churches, and extols Reformed theology. Interview by Jason Bailey -- "The two hot theologies today are Reformed and emerging. Reformed theology offers certainty, with a masculine God who names our sin, crushes Jesus on the Cross for it, and sends us to hell if we fail to repent. Emerging theology offers obscurity, with a neutered God who would not say an unkind word to us, did not crush Jesus for our sins, and would not send anyone to hell."

Ouch. I'll have to read that one.

The Monergism site is a fantastic site in general for those looking to study any theological topic. The links on the site are mainly from a Reformed perspective, broadly speaking.