There are folks out there in Christianity these days saying that apologetics is an endeavor that is past its time or that it is dead. If that's true, what does one do with 1st Peter 3:15? And where does that put the Christian with the gift of communication who hears apostasy preached openly? There are so many men and women out there these days claiming to be part of Christianity who aren't. I hate to say it, but their bent is just so....liberal----that they have left the gospel behind. It's no longer the blood of Jesus that has any real place or importance in their services. Their affections are all wrapped up in social justice and in this world, when their affections are supposed to be centered on the world to come. Yes, the world to come. The world to come is all about Jesus. He will be the unshakable center of it, and when we concentrate on Him, and upon doing the work He told us to do here, namely giving the gospel to any who will listen and showing them His love, the social justice thing will have its proper place.

Brian McLaren is one of those guys who claims Christianity but whose teaching is focused elsewhere. It has enough elements from Christianity within it to qualify in the minds of some genuine, but it is really more like something from a malfunctioning copier whose image grows more and more unrecognizable with each appearance. With each transmission, it seems to lose more and more of the original information, and it gets replaced with something else.

McLaren reportedly participated in a worship service in Seattle, where he suggested that the interpretation of John 3:16 which contextually and conceptually has always been understood and applied to personal salvation---was actually referring to the earth. His thinking was that the word "world" was talking about the cosmos, and that the real concern was the environment. I read that he gave an altar call in which people had the opportunity to walk forward and run their hands through some dirt and make a covenant to save the earth from destruction.

This kind of thing needs to be confronted when it reaches the public domain. Guys like this are increasingly being asked to speak at seminaries and universities. Why? They have enough of their own writings in print certainly to gain a handle on their apostate perspectives. Does one have to hear them in person? Doesn't that contribute to and promote in a way to their popularity? To their strange success and ability to proliferate their works? I mean, once a publishing company has any idea that crud like this man's stuff will sell and be read, they are like a hound on a trail.

There is a popular pastor out there now whose books and programs have caused a lot of unnecessary upheaval and church splits. He's been asked by another pastor who has always been a solid teacher to attend a yearly conference. It's caused a lot of hoopla because enough people recognize that it's a bad idea. Why give place to someone who has a huge platform but consistently does a very poor job (when he does it) of explaining the gospel. I say, don't attend the conference. Stay away. Sure there will be some people there who are just curious enough to attend, but I think not giving place to this kind of poor teaching would send a message to those in leadership who are making these decisions. We have leadership in our churches. They are to be prayed for, respected, encouraged and helped. But there are the rank and file Christians who sit in the pews too. I am one of those rank and file types, and I believe that the chief burden of responsibility for these kinds of things happening lies squarely on our shoulders.

We aren't supposed to sit in the pews and become complacent about whether or not our brothers and sisters in the faith actually know the fundamentals of the faith they profess to have, much less the ability to articulate the gospel or how to defend it. Week after week, I meet Christians who believe that their Biblical knowledge is solid, but who believe things that are diametrically opposed to what the Bible has to say. Apologetics is not dead. Discernment is dying slowly. Those two facts alone make it important that rank and file members know how important their vote is. What vote? The vote they can make with their feet. If your pastor invites a Brian McLaren or someone like him to speak at your church or conference, and he doesn't respond to your reasonable requests to change his mind, then keep your feet out. Keep them somewhere else where they will do more good.