Brian McLaren: "The cross is false advertising"

The response to that man is that he does know God. His focus is on rationalism. He does not have a basic understanding of who God is. He does not have a very basic understanding of hell in the Bible. I ifnd him to be a very confused person and creating more questions than answers. Jesus addressed the issues and he has not studied what Jesus taught. He is one of those who is ever learning but never comes to a knowledge of the truth.

 

For many people Brian has moved from being a provocative thinker to being a confused babbler.

I read his book A Generous Orthodoxy and crossed out the title and retitled it: A Book that is Neither Generous nor Awfully Orthodox: Confessions of a Meandering Christian.

His assault on the penal substitutionary atonement and reality of Hell has been ridiculous.

Sadly too many associate him with more progressive (methodologically not theologically) forms of ecclesiology. For what its worth, while I find him utterly befuddling theologically I really enjoy him personally. He's a great, winsome personality.

 

If you listen to the context of the quote, McLaren is challenging the "traditional" view of hell and saying that this view makes the cross false advertising. His beef is not with the cross but with what he believes certain views of hell do to the cross.

I agree with McLaren that Christians who emphasize hell avoidance as the primary message of Christianity cheapen the message of grace, mercy and sacrifice that should be the focus and main advertising for God.

 

I have listened to the interview in its entirety. There was a time when it was posted on liberal blog after liberal blog. The whole interview is just as disturbing. And Brian McLaren is a complete heretic.

 

I believe we are in for more of that kind of teaching coming ahead. Too many today are just like him and focused on their original intellectual theology as though nobody has ever thought of such a thing before. If one looks at Jesus' teaching it is often not about something hard to understand so much as it is about obedience and carrying out the commands God has already given. According to James 1:22, I believe the critical key to understanding does not lie so much in intellectual thinking as much of it is based on obedience. Why would God teach one about the mysteries of the faith to the disobedient?

 

I think that he is not only a heretic, he is a blasphemer.