Today, The Bible & You

Today’s Front Page

The Nation’s Christian Newspaper

November 2025

THE EMERGENT CHURCH

and how little Christians know about it.

  One part of the future reign of Antichrist is the Bride of Antichrist, the One World Church.  One aspect of that group is called the Emergent Church, and it is about to submerge your church. The tragic thing about all of this is that most people in these churches do not even know it!  Here are some warning signs:

• Scripture is no longer the ultimate authority as the basis for the Christian faith.
• The centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ is being replaced by humanistic methods promoting church growth and a social gospel.
• More and more emphasis is being placed on building the kingdom of God now and less and less on the warnings of Scripture about the imminent return of Jesus Christ and a coming judgment in the future.
• The teaching that Jesus Christ will rule and reign in a literal millennial period is considered unbiblical and heretical.
• The teaching that the church has taken the place of Israel and Israel has no prophetic significance is often embraced.
• The teaching that the book of Revelation does not refer to the future, but instead has already been fulfilled in the past or is allegorical.
• An experiential mystical form of Christianity needs to be reinvented in order to provide meaning for this generation.
• The pastor may implement an idea called “ancient-future” or “vintage Christianity,” claiming that in order to take the church forward, we need to go back in church history and find out what experiences were effective to get people to embrace Christianity.
• While the authority of the Word of God is undermined, images and sensual experiences are promoted as the key to experiencing and knowing God.
• These experiences include icons, candles, incense, liturgy, labyrinths, prayer stations, contemplative prayer, and experiencing the sacraments (for Protestants), particularly the sacrament of the Eucharist.
• There seems to be a strong emphasis on ecumenism, indicating that a bridge is being established that leads in the direction of unity with the Roman Catholic Church. This will ultimately lead to the one world religion of Revelation.
• Some “evangelical” Protestant leaders are saying that the Reformation went too far.  They are reexamining the claims of the “church fathers,” saying that communion is more than a symbol and that Jesus actually becomes present in the wafer at communion.
• Some suggest there are many ways to God.
• Members of churches who question or resist the new changes that the pastor is implementing are reprimanded and usually asked to leave.  If you are over age 50, your opinion will not even matter. 

  There still may be time to stop your church from “submerging” to “Emerging”, but only if you act decisively and in union with others in your church who feel the same.  A delegation of one or two will never impress church leadership, who already think this “new way of doing church” is better than warm  bagels and who have swallowed the Emergent deception.  And make no mistake, it is deception.

 

  When some of the following are lauded from the pulpit or Sunday School class, you need to take that as a clue: Rob Bell, Doug Pagitt, Dan Kimball, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Dallas Willard, Erwin McManus, and many others, too numerous to name.  You may think it harmless to have a pastor just give a quote from one of these men, but when you understand that they represent the above bullet points, it should be a huge red flag. 

  We all need to take heed of Matthew 7:15-20, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.  By their fruit you will recognize them.  Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?  Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”

 

Printed with permission of Today, the Bible & You located at P.O. Box 1722, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma 74013, Phone Number (918) 279-1136 the name of the original article in the November 2025 issue of Today’s Front Page was “THE EMERGENT CHURCH and how little Christians know about it.” www.JohnBarela.com