Understood and I agree.

Iggy said: “If that is what you got from what I stated, you really missed the point… It is Jesus I am saying follow; not a man… and I never stated other religions can teach us a “new way” to follow Jesus… as far as i follow this thread you are the first to state that.”

Hello Iggy,

The quote that I was referring to was the one by McLaren, not you. What I responded to you with, was THANKS for providing the quote and the source!

McLarens quote: ” You must have the courage to go with them to a place that neither you nor they have been before.’ ”

That sounds like something Rev. Jim Jones might have said?

Can the Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim teach the Christian a better way to “follow Jesus”? Can other religions teach the Christian a “new way” to follow Jesus?

FW response to Iggy in the post:

“Thank you for the response,Iggy.

I probably need to get a copy of the book and read it in the full context. Actually the two excerpts from his book Generous Orthodoxy posted in this comment section are the only things I have ever read from his writings. Does he do any deeper writing on spiritual matters? I am curious on his understanding of the New Jereusalem and his understanding of the temple (Ezekiel 8:3 KJV) and how it relates to the Christian’s “spiritual newbirth”. Do you know if McLaren has ever been there before? Where did his “spiritual newbirth” take place, and the “spiritual circumscion” performed. I am curious if he has had any of the same spiritual experiences as me. Has he wrote anything on this? I have not ever read any of his material. What book of his would be the best to find that information of the depth of his spiritual experiences.”

If you go back and look at all my previous posts and comments on other posts, as far as I know, I haven’t even talked about McLaren until now and in response to a quote by him, YOU posted. I then stated I need to read his book myself to see it’s full context. What is your problem with that? I never stated you quoted anything!

I also just had to deal with some condescending garbage from Zan and Rick on another post that I made that was suppose to be edifying and instructive and was taken by them to be negative.

Joe Martino asked me one time, “What was my agenda”?

When I come to a blog, I first listen for awhile to the posts, looking for some spiritual wisdom. If I hear some, I ask specific questions to see the level of spiritual understanding on those topics, maybe I can learn something (Proverbs 9:9 KJV). If I find none, I try to leave some wisdom on those topics that I have learned in my spiritual journey that may help them. Sometimes they can be controversial. Truth be known, I probably am walking in “the way of Jesus” just as much as anybody on this site by doing that. I am just on a different “Jesus path” than everyone else, I guess. What would Jesus do?

And it came to pass, that after three days they found him (Jesus) in the temple, sitting in the midst of doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers (Luke 2:46 KJV).

These scriptures that I quote are my treasure that I wished to share with the people on this blog. I take scripture that I feed on and break it open how I understand it and attempt to share it with others. I think now, I need to put my treasures back in my pocket. When it gets to the point that everyone is taking my posts to be constantly negative, it is time for me to leave.

Example: When I tried to explain how Mary was with child by the Holy Ghost on a previous post, something spiritual and edifying to me, the response I got from Joe Martino was “so are you saying God had sex with Mary, do you think God has body parts”? What kind of garbage response is that? I think I have now worn out my welcome. Chris L, thanks for letting me comment.

I think I will journey north for awhile…..

F Whittenburg
http://www.christiannewbirth.com

I think it’s more like “Emerging/Emergent” is to blame for anything and everything. It’s all very “Lee Harvey didn’t shoot Kennedy” to me. i.e “Ecumenical Church of Deceit”, that’s very conspiratorial based on little or no evidence. I mean sure, I’ve read the articles on Aprising about it, but it’s really all guilt by association stuff.

One time, my traditional protestant church showed a Rob Bell Nooma (the fire one…) video during the service as a lead-in to what the pastor was going to speak on…

I’m sure we’d be considered “emergent” by the ODMs, because of that.

It really seems like a witch hunt to me.

Joe

You made sense to me!

I have found that if one has a judgmental spirit there is not much that can change that persons mind… not even Truth…

It is sad how they claim truth, yet cannot comprehend things they read… it shows in how they read the bible and in how they read literature…

I was tested as having very high reading and comprehension as a young kid… in fact I used to tutor my honor student girl friend as a D student to help her understand literature in high school… and she still could not understand things as she read them… metaphors were lost on her. So intelligence has very little to do with understanding. I see these guys are not stupid, yet I wonder at their inability to take something in context… Maybe the hatred of contextualization goes very deep! LOL!

But I see over and over that they take a statement that has before it disclaimers and after more explainaiton… and they ignore all and then create a whole new context on what they quoted… and then give no answer if it is pointed out. They will not. Pride blinds people.

iggy

Not at all, Joe, made perfect sense to me!

Neil

For the second time I will ask you to argue your points without becoming ad hominem. We are implementing a higher standard on this site and name calling (from either side to either side) is inappropriate.

Neil

” You must have the courage to go with them to a place that neither you nor they have been before.’ ”

That sounds like something Rev. Jim Jones might have said?

Can the Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim teach the Christian a better way to “follow Jesus”? Can other religions teach the Christian a “new way” to follow Jesus? – FW

I concur that you missed the point. I’m no fan of McClaren overall, I think he’s swung the pendulum too far… but it did need swinging.

For too long missions has been the exportation of the Gospel AND the Western Cultural expression of it. To allow the Gospel to grow within another culture is the point I think he’s trying to make.

Neil

Chris R.,

If the ODMs limited the discernment to critiques of McLaren and quit with the you tube trolling, name-calling, ad-hominems, distortions, and general lack of basic journalistic integrity, then I’d be on-board 100 percent.

As it is, I sadly have no respect for people who call Miley Cyrus “the personification of the flesh” accuse Warren of telling parents to lie to their kids, and connect a Wiccan pastor to the Emerging conversation because he says in an interview that he identifies with them.

I am sympathetic to the message but have my suspicions regarding the integrity of some ODMs.

Scroll through the last twenty posts on this site. How many have defended McLaren?

Exactly…

In response to Pastorboy and Ingrid – I posted links to Emerging churches that made definitive and thoroughly biblical truth declarations –

No response was forthcoming…

Neil

Joe