Theological Ramblings

I’m adding one more series to my plate here on this site. As you know I’ve taken a nose dive into the Cedarville conspiracy issue. I’ll give a brief history if for a wrap up. Cedarville has been in the midst of some philosophical controversy over the past 5-6 years, and as a result some Bible professors have been let go, for what has been cited as “violations of the faculty handbook”. These professors are some of the more “Conservative” professors at Cedarville. They stand for conservative hermeneutics. Because these conservative professors have been let go, and because certain other “Liberal” professors have not been let go, there has arisen a group of students, as personified in the Facebook group “Students who want the truth about the faculty exodus away from Cedarville,” who have jumped to the conclusion that Cedarville is intentionally trying to oust its conservative faculty to replace them with liberal faculty so that they can move away from such things as “Conservative Hermeneutics… Biblical Truth… Scriptural Authority… Her Baptist Roots…” Now there are a plethora of issues that surround this. I’ve tackled the logical error that is the assumption of what is going on – the conspiracy theory that has arisen. But now I’m going to get into some other areas of this.

The whole reason this controversy even exists is because there are those who believe the Postmodern or Emergent Church has infiltrated Cedarville. Such professors as Dr. Mills, Dr. Mortensen, Dr. Miller and others are labeled as “Emergent” and are vilified by conservative students and alumni. Having never fully researched or studied the issue, I decided to take it on full board. And in an attempt to be fair I want to look at it from both angles. To that end, I’ve bought two books. The first is The Truth War, by John MacArthur and the second is Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. These are supposedly two opposite ends of the spectrum. I intend to read both. I intend to discern what their main motives and concerns are. I intend to analyze their logic. I intend to distill whether the Emergent church really is the heresy it is accused of being.

Why am I doing this? Because I can’t allow myself to take a position without fully thinking it through. I must be convinced if I am to go to war. I’ve been implored by those around me to join them in attacks against the Emergents, and when I see what is at stake, I want to be very careful that they are given due diligence and full justice when all is said and done. I intend to find out exactly what the claims against them are and if they are valid. If I discover that MacArthur’s claims of heresy are correct, I will proclaim Bell and others to be heretics. If, however, I do not find that to be the case, I will not cease to exhaust all of my efforts to protect my brothers in Christ who are wrongfully being accused of the worst possible crime. This is not a task I take up lightly, and I will post on here as I go along.

My initial observations:

The concerns of MacArthur and his ‘followers’ (I will call them Conservatives for lack of a better term) are important and good concerns. The Gospel is important and must be defended. Truth is absolute because God is absolute. Error must not be allowed to continue.

I wonder how much of this is not just a debate over what is essential and what is non-essential. Essentials would be those things that we would say you must believe in order to be a Christian. The Apostle’s Creed is a good example of a summary of the essentials.

I wonder how much of this is not just a Nominalistic reaction to the Emergents attempting to interact with a postmodern culture, which necessarily involves throwing out old terminology. Is the terminology important if the essence is there?

I’ve noticed that a lot of Conservatives equate “Emergent Christian” with “Postmodern Christian”. I believe this to be an error. The difference is that the Postmodern Christian embraces and incorporates postmodernism into his system of belief, or rather has a postmodern worldview. The Emergent Christian, in my initial assumed estimation, reacts to postmodernism and attempts to find ways to deal with its deconstructive impact on truth, language and Christianity.

We’ll see where this leads us. We’ll see who makes more sense, Bell or MacArthur. Or maybe they both do and it’s all an equivocation. Or maybe nobody is right. Maybe we should all be postmodern. OK I’m just kidding. In case anybody is wondering, I’m not a postmodern. I’m very much modern. I have a rather fundamental way of thinking, but I’ve come over the years to see things from an essentialistic perspective, which to a nominal fundamentalist would appear to be postmodernism. Gee, I have a lot of terms to define don’t I? Oh well, that’s all for now. I leave you simply with an affirmation of what I do believe so you don’t have to wonder:

I believe in God, the Father, Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,

And in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord;
who was conceived of the Holy Spirit
born of the virgin, Mary
suffered under Pontius Pilate
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day he arose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.