Relax....I'm not talking about the writer of the Gospel of Mark; this is a different Mark; way different. I've been talking about the "Emergent Church" and Mark may be a poster boy for emergent's and their philosophy of fitting in. First a quote from John MacArthur: "The recent wave of popular books written by leading figures in the Emerging Church movement has unleashed an unprecedented flood of vulgarity and worldliness onto Christian booksellers' shelves. Obscenity is one of the main trademarks of the Emerging style. Most authors in the movement make extravagant use of filthy language, sexual innuendo, and uncritical references to the most lowbrow elements of postmodern culture, often indicating inappropriate approval for ungodly aspects of secular culture. In the popular book Blue Like Jazz, for example, Donald Miller writes of his experience in one of the best-known Emerging churches in the Pacific Northwest, referring to the pastor as 'Mark the Cussing Pastor,'" [Miller writes; "Even though Mark said cuss words, he was telling a lot of people about Jesus, and he was being socially active, and seemed to love a lot of people the church was neglecting, like liberals and fruit nuts. About the time I was praying that God would help me find a church, I got a call from Mark the Cussing Pastor, and he said he had a close friend who was moving to Portland to start a church and that I should join him. Rick and I got together over coffee, and I thought he was hilarious. He was big, a football player out of Chico State. At the time we both chewed tobacco, so we had that in common. He could do a great Tony Soprano voice, sort of a Mafia thing. He would do this routine where he pretended to be a Mafia boss who was planting a church. He said a few cuss words but not as bad as Mark."
[Source] The Truth War; Author, John MacArthur, pgs. 139, 140. Thomas Nelson, Pub. 2007
This was/is not typical of pastors. I find myself digging through the detritus of this dialogue in search of the Christ; His Spirit, and His methods. They are absent. If the church is built on Jesus Christ, the Rock and Chief Corner Stone, and if those claiming to represent Christ more accurately represent the world and its present ruler, in whom do they believe? ...those who flock to these churches...who are attracted because they can cuss, chew, be common and overtly sensual. Are they following Christ - or... Emergents want numbers; numbers they are getting...but not the numbered.
God Bless, e.c.
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John MacArthur & Pretrib Rapture
Who knows, maybe John (Reformedispy) MacArthur is right and the greatest Greek scholars (Google "Famous Rapture Watchers"), who uniformly said that Rev. 3:10 means PRESERVATION THROUGH, were wrong. But John has a conflict. On the one hand, since he knows that all Christian theology and organized churches before 1830 believed the church would be on earth during the tribulation, he would like to be seen as one who stands with the great Reformers. On the other hand, if John has a warehouse of unsold pretrib rapture material, and if he wants to have "security" for his retirement years and hopes that the big California quake won't louse up his plans, he has a decided conflict of interest. Maybe the Lord will have to help strip off the layers of his seared conscience which have grown for years in order to please his parents and his supporters - who knows? One thing is for sure: pretrib is truly a house of cards and is so fragile that if a person removes just one card from the TOP of the pile, the whole thing can collapse. Which is why pretrib teachers don't dare to even suggest they could be wrong on even one little subpoint! Don't you feel sorry for the straitjacket they are in? While you're mulling all this over, Google "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty" for a rare behind-the-scenes look at the same 180-year-old fantasy.
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