Feeling alienated from Church? If so, you are NOT alone!
Divorced FROM Church?
By Eric Barger
Repulsed by Emergent thinking, liberal theology, endorsements of the book "The Shack," or the Purpose Driven and "Seeker" philosophies, many authentic believers are being confronted with one of the most unsettling situations a Christian will ever be confronted with. Since alarming numbers of once-trustworthy pulpits and leaders are trumpeting varieties of Emergent and other heresies, what is the dedicated Bible-believer to do? Should we stay or must we go? While God may call some to try to warn others and to initiate a return to orthodoxy within their local churches, many are faced with either accepting or putting up with error or with leaving.
A recurring painful theme I read in many emails each month is the plight of so many brothers and sisters who've been treated as theological outcasts due to their continued stand for God's truths. Often, the letters start out by saying "We've been members of the "so and so" church for 40 years but now we just stay home."
The fact is many saints have been disfellowshipped without a hearing and have been disenfranchised for simply believing the Bible. The crux of the issue is that the same sort of destruction that came upon the older "mainline" denominations 100-150 years ago is now being revisited on the Evangelicals of our day. It is literally Satan's redo of deceit as once-sound, Bible-believing churches, denominations and seminaries are being reduced to theological ruins by the likes of today's counterfeit versions of Christianity. As in at least one example below, many who write are also desperately concerned for family and friends who have been consumed by liberal or Emergent darkness.
I have been up since well before dawn this morning considering how just one email update would be able to hold all of the letters we've received concerning this troubling topic. Simply, it cannot. However, here below I have selected just a few with the common theme "Divorced FROM Church." Here below are several letters which reflect tragic and sometimes desperate situations that many in the Church are facing in our day. I know many of you can imagine that as we read and answer letters such as these, our hearts break for those writing. I constantly try and remind folks, though, that our solace is in knowing Him in a genuine and personal way. Also, with the predicted apostasy underway, maintaining orthodox, biblical thinking in these end-times takes fortitude and stamina that only the Holy Spirit can provide. To my reply letters I usually add, "hang in there!"
If the letters here are not descriptive of your church situations, thank God. But if these letters describe what is happening to you, take heart for you are not alone. Regardless, I do challenge each reader to examine through the prism of scripture what is being taught and what we are accepting. Ask questions. Be inquisitive and, yes, respectfully and biblically demand answers from those who seek to lead you. I also exhort each of us to speak up when Emergent heresy comes knocking at our church's door. If it hasn't yet, it eventually will.
* Not sure what the Emerging Church actually is? Check out the video clip from Eric's seminar teaching "The Errors of the Emergent Church." Click here for the section "What is the Emergent Church?"
Rob Bell and Deception
Eric,
I don't need or expect a response, but I just want to let you know I've already listened 3 times to Eric's presentations on CD from Jan Markell's Oct. conference. He is absolutely outstanding in his discernment messages and I'm ordering 2 extra sets of Cd's to circulate. Ten thousand people in my area go to Rob Bell's Mars Hill Emergent church, including my own precious son and family. People just don't understand what is going on & don't get it, which grieves me deeply. I seem to be arguing to brick walls! I personally taught music to Rob's kids. Middle C is always Middle C. I didn't deceive his children but he is deceiving mine and now my adorable grandson with his message of relativism and "What ifs?" He wasn't that way at 1st....he was an incredible, right on Bible teacher, so I encouraged my son to go there. The changes were slow and subtle and now many in this "Bible-belt" area are among those who have "fallen away and are following deceiving spirits and things taught by demons."
Thank you for your ministry...please don't ever give up! There are a "remnant" of us out there who need your teaching to help contend for the faith and to be effective watchmen on the wall.
In the Dust of our Rabbi,
M.G. (Michigan)
Click here to view slides pertaining to Rob Bell from Eric's presentation "The Errors of the Emergent Church."
Rick Warren on a Pedestal
Eric,
I heard you on Jan Markell - and I just wanted to tell you thank you so much! I have been unhappy with our church for some time - and I think it is because our pastor puts Rick Warren on a pedestal and he preaches political correctness and inclusiveness - is that part of the Emergent church? Your testimony was very touching thank you so much for sharing it! I will be praying for your ministry and coming back to your website!
S.W. (Georgia)
Thanks for your encouraging words!
As for the question you have about your Pastor, it's hard to say if he is Emergent but many evangelicals are falling into liberal theological traps because of Warren and also because of the pervading and deceptive pressure of political correctness we see all around us.
I have developed a quick resource to help identify the Emergent heresy inside of churches. It's not all inclusive in scope but the piece I am talking about is a good starting point when examining whether a church or teacher has fallen into the Emergent cesspool.
Find "How to Spot the Emergent Church" by clicking here. Also note that at the end of the article there is a link that leads to the same article formatted so you can print it, tri-fold it and give it out to anyone you wish.
God bless you!
Eric
Concerned Nazarene (Received January 14, 2010, at 5:47am from Facebook)
Eric,
I am "Concerned Nazarene", who recently left my home church of 5 years because it has become an apostate church, heavily teaching the characteristics of not only the Emergent Church hub, but all its little spokes, like "Kingdom Now", "Dominionism", and "Open Theism". My former pastor has deconstructed the Lord's Prayer to teach people that we are living in the Millennial Reign right here, right now, and he called it "On Earth, as it is in Heaven". You can hear this heresy for yourself at www.xxxxxxxxxnaz.org. His last sermon, on Jan 9th was a doozy!
Anyhow, we have about 200 people in our church, about a 50% decline from where we were three years ago. Nevertheless, God has given me this knowledge of the Emergent Church, I believe, so that I can "fight" against it.
I LOVED your video, it was very easy to listen to, and it touched on many of the key teachers, and characteristics.
I was wondering how I might obtain several copies of the DVD? Most of the people from my old church will not have any fellowship with me, but I still feel the urgency to keep them informed.
May the Lord keep you and bless you, and encourage you to keep fighting for the Truth of His Word! Know that you are prayed for often, and you are not alone in this fight!
A.H. (Ohio)
For more, see the menu "The Church of the Nazarene and the Emergent Church"
Reprimanded for Exposing "The Shack"
Eric.
I appreciate your site and study in areas that have caused confusion and that have mislead thousands, for instance the book "The Shack". I knew in my heart just from glancing at a few excerpts from that book there was something drastically wrong with the book. My Pastor has encouraged staff and other members of the church to read it saying if you want to serve God and make a difference the book can help you. I told my Pastor the book only made me to study harder to learn to teach against many things such as The Shack taught that I see the book The Shack as complete heresy and no born again believer ought to read it. I was reprimanded sharply and told to keep my mouth shut. So now I speak out all the more against such things as the shack and the so called emergent church. I see those as diabolical. Unfortunately now I no longer have a church to attend since many in my area are now becoming "seeker friendly" of which I say it is all garbage. It is a deep shame what is taught today as truth in many churches. Thanks again for your ministry.
A.F. (Connecticut)
Want more info on "The Shack"? Read here or view video clip from "The Death of Discernment" DVD here.
The "Self-Amputation" of the Church
What a blessing the Lord Jesus is! And I praise Him for your willingness to display His presence in your writing. I read your personal testimony and also your email response to the church member regarding the seminar on Purpose Driven Life and Purpose Driven Church. There is a sort of "Christian veneer" that does appeal to a world full of people who seek the convenient and comfortable, advertised and sold to them like a spiritual "product necessity". Looking for salvation? We have an "app" for that.....I am a born-again, blood-bought believer in Jesus, and I am seeing in my lifetime what appears to be the self-amputation of the reach of the Church in our world today. Thankfully, my last statement does not apply to each and every group of believers as individuals or as corporate worshippers, but how heart-breaking to know that some souls are embracing this carefully crafted sparkling "new" message, and why shouldn't they after all, because they're hearing it from the pulpits and the publishers! And now we have to be careful about which "Bible" to read, given all the current translations and paraphrases designed to package the Word of God in a more "sellable" format. My intent in this message to you is simple and clear: KEEP GOING! I learned a long time ago that when you're in the center of God's will, you're in the crosshairs of the devil, and Satan won't lighten up on you when you declare the Truth of The Word, Jesus, the Lord. I will joyfully commit prayer to your ministry, and to blessing and protection for you and your family on the Authority of the Word. Press on, brother!
K.W. (North Carolina)
Posted with permission:http://www.ericbarger.com/
More Thoughts on... Divorced FROM Church?
By Eric Barger
Since sending "Divorced FROM Church?" to our email subscribers on January 17, we have received a steady stream of comments and response. Rarely has an email update or newsletter struck such a chord. Many of you who read my thoughts in "Divorced FROM Church?" have experienced the pain of watching your local church and even your denomination implode theologically. In the early days of my walk with God, Melanie and I experienced this and, even though I was certainly a babe when it came to understanding doctrine and theology, I vividly remember what it feels like to be ostracized by others who had drunk the kool-aid of spiritual liberalism and who were trying their best to give me a sip.
For a season we stood, prayed and dialogued with many in that first church we were a part of. I can't say how much progress we made there but I cared enough for the people that I wasn't going to give up and just go away, as I'm certain some there would have liked. I had blindly gone into Christianity thinking that, if a church, book store, radio station or individual claimed to be Christian, then they actually were Christian. In the message "The MOST Dangerous Cult" I tell how we were called by God and how at the same time I came face to face with the realization that not everything that says "Christian" is deserving of that title.
I was certainly "wild fire" in those days but I knew the Jesus who had miraculously delivered me from years of drug abuse and, though I had yet to read the entire Bible through, God was as real as anything I knew in the natural realm. Regardless of how green I may have been in the faith, I was His and He was mine and nobody - especially those who were claiming beliefs against the Cross, the resurrection and this wonderful salvation - was going to separate us. (Read my testimony "How I Came 'From Rock to Rock''" here.)
I have said all of this to say that I truly understand how each of those whose letters appear below have felt. Space limitations here will not allow me to reproduce all of the correspondence we have received on this but allow me to share just a few at random. Some of you reading this will surely appreciate the fact that you've been shielded from having to experience what some others have experienced because of devilish doctrines being promoted and accepted all around us. As you read the letters below, I encourage you to consider just how you would handle the situation if you and your family and friends were to encounter the false teaching and false teachers about which the New Testament constantly warns us. They are indeed going to be more pervasive throughout the professing Church as the end-times proceed.
One note first...
Parishioners aren't the only ones feeling alone. Just imagine yourself a God-fearing, biblically-minded pastor who is watching as his once-solid denomination theologically goes down in flames. Countless leaders are feeling relentless pressure to acquiesce to the likes of Emergent, "seeker" and Purpose Driven philosophies as their congregations and other local church leaders are drawn like moths to an open flame to these unsound and unbiblical ideas.
Even the best are affected adversely. After all, when denominational leadership, peers and even the Bible college or seminary you've attended seem intent on forwarding the theology and philosophy of Emergents like Brian McLaren, it is bound to be disconcerting at very least. Some react almost subconsciously by slowly moving away from staunch biblical standards. Others resign their positions rather than be associated with the "new" Christianity. And still others are forced out of their churches by those demanding a shift from the authentic to what is nothing less than fraudulent religion.
Believers in the know must support godly pastors and staff, realizing that though they (and we) are not perfect, their job in proclaiming the unadulterated truth is getting harder and harder as the end-time deception deepens.
Two passages come to mind as I close.
2 Timothy 4:1-4 exhorts leaders what they must do and prophetically assures us that the very syndrome I've discussed here was indeed bound to proliferate through the Church in the end-days. Though we are instructed to carefully execute the preaching and proclaiming of the truth, many will reject the truths of Christianity and install people into leadership to tell them what they want to hear ("fables" i.e. myths) - instead of what is accurate and legitimate.
Paul writes: I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but aftertheir own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Secondly, for the many that have written or called us expressing how lonely their stand for truth has been, don't despair! As you can see from just these few letters, you are not alone.
Elijah mistakenly thought he was the only prophet - perhaps the only Israelite - who had not forsaken God and His truths. However, God brought him reassurance that, instead, he was not alone. I Kings 19:18 says:
Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
Indeed, Church, there are many in the Remnant who are refusing to bow to false religion and embrace its worthless gods! To them we say a resounding "AMEN!"
Emails:
Eric,
Thank you for posting the article on "Divorced From the Church" on my email. However, I am still crying over it. It does make me not feel all alone but I am so grieved by the deception in the churches. My daughter gave her information about "The Shack" to her pastor-led small group last week and received judgments from it before they even read the materials. These pastors were missionaries! They are not seeing through this stuff. It just breaks my heart. Thank you for your ministry. God is truly using it to open eyes. All I can rest on is that our God is Sovereign. Grieving over the church,
- L.S. (Internet)
Alarmed at The Church
Eric,
I found your site through my Olive Tree Ministries newsletter. I am so thankful for every ministry who still takes a stand for the Word of God in this upside down world we have found ourselves in.
I have been very, very alarmed at the church I belong to as I have watch the pastor bring in "The Purpose Driven Life", and "The Shack". My husband and I have become so alarmed and put off by the "seeker sensitive" garbage we are witnessing in our church that we now watch a trusted and true preacher of NOTHING BUT the Gospel on TV on Sundays.
We don't want to "forsake the assembling of ourselves together," but it has become increasingly difficult to find a pastor who sticks to the Blood of Jesus as THE ONLY way, and feeds the sheep so we can grow in "grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ."
We are truly living in the perilous times the Bible talks about. Thank the Lord God for the Internet, and thank you for being true to His Calling upon your life.
- K.M. (Florida)
Calling Out Apostasy
Thank you Eric for what you are doing. We have just left our church for the same reasons. Calling out apostasy is a very important thing to be doing in this time. Knowing that so many others are dealing with the same thing makes it a little easier!
- C.L. (California)
Wandered From Church to Church
This was such a great email and I do want to thank you so much. I have forwarded it to many on my email list...whether they will like it or not...I pray that God will open their eyes. One of my relatives is a Nazarene Pastor....I hope I hear back from him....We desperately need this discernment today....We have wandered from church to church for the past five years since moving to this retirement community and have seen such changes it's astounding. We are now 'trying' a PCA church....
- J.K. (Pennsylvania)
Posted with permission:
http://www.ericbarger.com/
By Eric Barger
Since sending "Divorced FROM Church?" to our email subscribers on January 17, we have received a steady stream of comments and response. Rarely has an email update or newsletter struck such a chord. Many of you who read my thoughts in "Divorced FROM Church?" have experienced the pain of watching your local church and even your denomination implode theologically. In the early days of my walk with God, Melanie and I experienced this and, even though I was certainly a babe when it came to understanding doctrine and theology, I vividly remember what it feels like to be ostracized by others who had drunk the kool-aid of spiritual liberalism and who were trying their best to give me a sip.
For a season we stood, prayed and dialogued with many in that first church we were a part of. I can't say how much progress we made there but I cared enough for the people that I wasn't going to give up and just go away, as I'm certain some there would have liked. I had blindly gone into Christianity thinking that, if a church, book store, radio station or individual claimed to be Christian, then they actually were Christian. In the message "The MOST Dangerous Cult" I tell how we were called by God and how at the same time I came face to face with the realization that not everything that says "Christian" is deserving of that title.
I was certainly "wild fire" in those days but I knew the Jesus who had miraculously delivered me from years of drug abuse and, though I had yet to read the entire Bible through, God was as real as anything I knew in the natural realm. Regardless of how green I may have been in the faith, I was His and He was mine and nobody - especially those who were claiming beliefs against the Cross, the resurrection and this wonderful salvation - was going to separate us. (Read my testimony "How I Came 'From Rock to Rock''" here.)
I have said all of this to say that I truly understand how each of those whose letters appear below have felt. Space limitations here will not allow me to reproduce all of the correspondence we have received on this but allow me to share just a few at random. Some of you reading this will surely appreciate the fact that you've been shielded from having to experience what some others have experienced because of devilish doctrines being promoted and accepted all around us. As you read the letters below, I encourage you to consider just how you would handle the situation if you and your family and friends were to encounter the false teaching and false teachers about which the New Testament constantly warns us. They are indeed going to be more pervasive throughout the professing Church as the end-times proceed.
One note first...
Parishioners aren't the only ones feeling alone. Just imagine yourself a God-fearing, biblically-minded pastor who is watching as his once-solid denomination theologically goes down in flames. Countless leaders are feeling relentless pressure to acquiesce to the likes of Emergent, "seeker" and Purpose Driven philosophies as their congregations and other local church leaders are drawn like moths to an open flame to these unsound and unbiblical ideas.
Even the best are affected adversely. After all, when denominational leadership, peers and even the Bible college or seminary you've attended seem intent on forwarding the theology and philosophy of Emergents like Brian McLaren, it is bound to be disconcerting at very least. Some react almost subconsciously by slowly moving away from staunch biblical standards. Others resign their positions rather than be associated with the "new" Christianity. And still others are forced out of their churches by those demanding a shift from the authentic to what is nothing less than fraudulent religion.
Believers in the know must support godly pastors and staff, realizing that though they (and we) are not perfect, their job in proclaiming the unadulterated truth is getting harder and harder as the end-time deception deepens.
Two passages come to mind as I close.
2 Timothy 4:1-4 exhorts leaders what they must do and prophetically assures us that the very syndrome I've discussed here was indeed bound to proliferate through the Church in the end-days. Though we are instructed to carefully execute the preaching and proclaiming of the truth, many will reject the truths of Christianity and install people into leadership to tell them what they want to hear ("fables" i.e. myths) - instead of what is accurate and legitimate.
Paul writes: I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but aftertheir own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Secondly, for the many that have written or called us expressing how lonely their stand for truth has been, don't despair! As you can see from just these few letters, you are not alone.
Elijah mistakenly thought he was the only prophet - perhaps the only Israelite - who had not forsaken God and His truths. However, God brought him reassurance that, instead, he was not alone. I Kings 19:18 says:
Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
Indeed, Church, there are many in the Remnant who are refusing to bow to false religion and embrace its worthless gods! To them we say a resounding "AMEN!"
Emails:
Grieving Over The Church
Eric,
Thank you for posting the article on "Divorced From the Church" on my email. However, I am still crying over it. It does make me not feel all alone but I am so grieved by the deception in the churches. My daughter gave her information about "The Shack" to her pastor-led small group last week and received judgments from it before they even read the materials. These pastors were missionaries! They are not seeing through this stuff. It just breaks my heart. Thank you for your ministry. God is truly using it to open eyes. All I can rest on is that our God is Sovereign. Grieving over the church,
- L.S. (Internet)
Alarmed at The Church
Eric,
I found your site through my Olive Tree Ministries newsletter. I am so thankful for every ministry who still takes a stand for the Word of God in this upside down world we have found ourselves in.
I have been very, very alarmed at the church I belong to as I have watch the pastor bring in "The Purpose Driven Life", and "The Shack". My husband and I have become so alarmed and put off by the "seeker sensitive" garbage we are witnessing in our church that we now watch a trusted and true preacher of NOTHING BUT the Gospel on TV on Sundays.
We don't want to "forsake the assembling of ourselves together," but it has become increasingly difficult to find a pastor who sticks to the Blood of Jesus as THE ONLY way, and feeds the sheep so we can grow in "grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ."
We are truly living in the perilous times the Bible talks about. Thank the Lord God for the Internet, and thank you for being true to His Calling upon your life.
- K.M. (Florida)
Calling Out Apostasy
Thank you Eric for what you are doing. We have just left our church for the same reasons. Calling out apostasy is a very important thing to be doing in this time. Knowing that so many others are dealing with the same thing makes it a little easier!
- C.L. (California)
Wandered From Church to Church
This was such a great email and I do want to thank you so much. I have forwarded it to many on my email list...whether they will like it or not...I pray that God will open their eyes. One of my relatives is a Nazarene Pastor....I hope I hear back from him....We desperately need this discernment today....We have wandered from church to church for the past five years since moving to this retirement community and have seen such changes it's astounding. We are now 'trying' a PCA church....
- J.K. (Pennsylvania)
Not In Vain
Keep up the good work, Eric. It is not in vain. As for the church, we just don't go any more. I've only been saved for 17 years and I see the same old thing being repackaged and given out to the congregation. All the Rick Warren stuff and the rest has taken over almost all of the churches in my area. We did find a small Pentecostal church that does not entertain and the pastor preaches the Word only so we go there but we will not join or become involved. I always thought that our whole family would be part of a church. Our daughter and her husband feel the same way. They do not want their children learning what is being taught in the churches. They teach them at home instead. Bless you for being a watchman. I remain undone and ruined by who He is.
- L.B. (Pennsylvania)
We Weren't Alone!
Eric,
When we received your email tonight, telling of other believers that have been cast off or had to leave their church, it shocked me! We weren't alone! We have gone to 15 churches in our area, and have been grieved by what we found. It started around 2007.We had a good country church that taught sound doctrine, but the new pastor changed over night. He cast out mature Christians and installed unknown people in the church board. They acted like tyrants! So, we left. Each day, I cry out to the Lord for a church family, but can find no sound doctrine. Relatives say we are being too picky, but I know what the Lord has shown me. I believe He has given me the gift of discernment. I feel absolutely crushed. But I will not deny my Lord just to fulfill the exhortation by the writer of Hebrews 10:25. When two or more are gather in the Lord's name, He promises He is there. We thought about starting a home church, but nobody seems to care. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
- P.M. (Washington)
- L.B. (Pennsylvania)
We Weren't Alone!
Eric,
When we received your email tonight, telling of other believers that have been cast off or had to leave their church, it shocked me! We weren't alone! We have gone to 15 churches in our area, and have been grieved by what we found. It started around 2007.We had a good country church that taught sound doctrine, but the new pastor changed over night. He cast out mature Christians and installed unknown people in the church board. They acted like tyrants! So, we left. Each day, I cry out to the Lord for a church family, but can find no sound doctrine. Relatives say we are being too picky, but I know what the Lord has shown me. I believe He has given me the gift of discernment. I feel absolutely crushed. But I will not deny my Lord just to fulfill the exhortation by the writer of Hebrews 10:25. When two or more are gather in the Lord's name, He promises He is there. We thought about starting a home church, but nobody seems to care. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
- P.M. (Washington)
Posted with permission:
http://www.ericbarger.com/
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