Remember how the ancient Greeks conquered the city of Troy by concealing men within a great wooden horse? After the Trojans had brought the horse within their gates, the Greeks emerged at midnight and opened the gates to allow their army to enter Troy and capture it. Their key to success lay in the fact that the real danger was hidden inside the beautiful, but deceptive horse.

Today, a spiritual "Trojan horse" is seeking to enter Bible-believing churches. Once inside, spiritual defeat is inevitable. People’s susceptibility is their uneasiness about the future of their church. They are aware of declining attendance, fewer being saved, fewer young people in the churches, and fewer going to the mission field. Put simply, there is a growing awareness of spiritual defeat. Today’s Emergent Church movement offers a solution to churches; but is it of God or man?

Paul’s last words to his protégé, Timothy, and to us, provide the answer to this question. In 2 Timothy 3:1-5 Paul declares that "…in the last days" of the Church Age, the church will witness and experience critical times involving peril or danger. That danger will be a counterfeit religious movement within the churches, having a "form of godliness" similar to genuine Christianity, "but denying the power thereof" (vs.5).

The Emergent Church’s "form" began in the 1960’s when Peter Drucker initiated the Purpose-Driven Movement. Drucker was a global business guru who taught business how to be more efficient, how to grow businesses, and how to give the consumer what he or she wanted. He founded the consumer driven business. Drucker also believed that the application of his business principles would make churches even more successful than businesses. Through his advice and counsel, Bob Buford and Rick Warren, among others, founded the mega-church movement that would lead to the Emergent Church.

Drucker and others formulated their church growth methods after observing the significant changes in society during the 60’s and 70’s. This period of general rebellion was a counterculture to the 50’s. During this time, churches lost their influence in the community and in family life. The community became the center of one’s life. In this new world of affluence, materialism, and career pressures, people began to seek religious experience, rather than a Biblically-based faith. Their beliefs centered about themselves and their personal needs. They sought churches that would respond to their desires, rather than focus on godly living and preparation for the world to come. In the 1970’s, Drucker’s influence on a dynamic youth pastor generated a new religious movement. Bill Hybels founded Willow Creek Community Church, where he applied the teachings of the business seminar to a target group: the up and coming, affluent Chicago suburbanite. Sensing what they liked and wanted Hybels supplied it.

In an attempt to "reach" this group of "un-churched people" or seekers; he removed religious symbolism from the church. Recognizing the problem of fitting church into the many family activities the community demanded, he moved community activities into the church. He was careful to avoid controversial doctrines, such as prophecy and separation. Above all, he took great care so that people were not made to feel the least bit uncomfortable in the services.

Recent studies reveal that these methods failed to achieve their goal, for only 15% of those attending were truly unsaved seekers. The other 85% were superficially churched transfers from other churches. Over a period of thirty years it gradually became evident that people within the Willow Creek Movement showed little true spiritual growth. Analyzing their weakness, the leadership concluded that their lack of a defined purpose, goals, or a mission statement had created spiritual stagnation. Few identified the real problem—a lack of Biblical teaching and an absence of the Holy Spirit’s leading! They were consumer driven rather than Spirit-led. Rather than turning to the Bible for direction, a new movement began to form during those years, headed by Rick Warren.

Warren noted that the business world made use of mission and vision statements with defined purposes and goals. Utilizing this business world methodology, he established Saddleback Church, targeting "Silicon Valley" people. Reflecting a casual California dress style and manner, he duplicated the lessons of Willow Creek and added a significant new feature; a defined goal or a corporate-oriented mission statement of ministry.

Saddleback’s outreach emphasized finding life’s purpose through social programs rather than through the gospel of salvation. Today’s Purpose-Driven Church goal-driven programs are centered about the world’s social problems veneered with a form of godliness.

Remember, all these movements began with the desire to reach the unsaved with the Gospel, but the emphasis quickly became; business methodology rather than Bible teaching, strategy rather than Bible teaching, and mission statements rather than Bible teaching. This all equals a gospel without the Holy Spirit. Today’s Saddleback church offers a humanitarian gospel, called the P.E.A.C.E program that focuses primarily on people’s temporal needs rather than on their spiritual, eternal need for salvation through Jesus Christ. Warren’s gospel declares that "'The Scripture shows us that Jesus shared the Good News, trained leaders, helped the poor, cared for the sick, and taught the children.'' Warren add, "Our P.E.A.C.E. Plan will just do the five things Jesus did while he was here on earth. P.E.A.C.E. is an acronym that stands for 'Plant churches, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, and Educate the next generation." Notice that evangelism and the Gospel are not part of P.E.A.C.E. Warren’s program presents a gospel that believes Christ’s kingdom is to be built by people helping people. It denies a future earthly kingdom in which Christ will reign visibly for one thousand years, as taught by the Bible.

Warren and his followers believe that the correct application of global business principles, coupled with cultural adaptation, can achieve this kingdom goal throughout the world. They want people to follow Jesus but not necessarily receive Him as personal Savior and Lord. "I happen to know people who are followers of Christ in other religions."

Despite the best efforts of Hybels and Warren’s methodology, 21^st century people have found something lacking in their churches. People are recognizing a void; it is the lack of the power of God. Whenever people reach this crossroad they have two choices:

They can cry out to God in repentance and receive Christ as Savior – He then indwells them with the Holy Spirit; they have fellowship with God and see Him work in and through their lives. For the Power of God is the gospel. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16). (See also: 1 Corinthians 1:18, 24).

A church filled with saved, committed individuals will be Spirit-led and aware that God is working in their midst and in the world through them. The void is filled by the living God and they will have true spiritual vitality. But those who seek man’s solution are easy prey for a false spirituality, a form of godliness that counterfeits God’s true presence. Paul, speaking of man’s wisdom, notes that "your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" (1 Corinthians 2:5). It is up to each individual to choose their path!

Choosing the wrong course, disenchanted followers of Hybels and Warren have sought a new religious experience or movement to correct for the perceived void in their lives and churches. This new movement is called the Emergent, Emergent Village, Emergent Conversation, or Emerging Church.

The Emergent Movement rejects the unchanging biblical model by declaring that changes in the culture signal that a new church and Bible understanding must "emerge." Basically, they apply evolution to Christianity. Those who hold to this conclude that just as the hippie movement of the 70’s sought to break the moral bands of society, the "Emerging Church seeks to break or cross the boundary of doctrine between religions." But God’s Word in Romans 12:2, gives an opposing view: "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." From its conception, the Emergent Church is contrary to true Biblical Christianity and the authority of the Bible.

Emergents believe that Paul and the other apostles spoke to a different culture and that they missed the true message of Jesus. They are now seeking to "regain" what they believe was Jesus’ teaching—that people can change the world, its governments, and societies by bringing in the earthly kingdom through human cooperation and effort.

The very fluid nature of the emergent movement makes it difficult to define. Perhaps it is best understood by observing three primary characteristics of the movement.

First: It is religion by committee. Local groups of Emergents exchange and discuss ideas until they come up with a common consensus. Obviously by the very nature of local emerging churches, there are many variations. Emergents believe that their conclusions about God and faith will bring something new into view and will arise unexpectedly; "Emergent" describes this process. They believe salvation is not found in doctrine, but in dialogue…not in truth but discussion.

Second: It is a reaction to the lack of spiritual vitality in our churches and in the lives of Christians today. This is a valid criticism. Vitality is often lacking within churches because Christians are not following the Lord’s leading in their daily lives. However, the means that Emergents promote for restoring this vitality is unbiblical. Rather than seeking the leading of the Lord through His Word, they have found man-centered, business techniques, and in some situations, satanically inspired solutions (this will be discussed in later articles). Some, such as Rick Warren, refer to this movement as a "second reformation": one based on deeds and not creeds (biblical teaching).

Emergents base their humanitarian gospel on the premise that God’s kingdom exists now. They believe that this utopian earthly kingdom will be achieved by humanitarian action and deeds and will include people of all faiths. They do not believe that Christ will reign on earth in the future, for one thousand years (Rev. 20:4).

Thirdly: It is a product of our post-modern culture. During the 20^th century, people looked to science and technology to solve many of the problems that society faced. In today’s 21^st century, however, a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific or objective efforts to explain reality has begun to take place. This "Post-Modern" era questions absolutes. Even within Christianity post-modern thinking has caused some to challenge the authority of God’s absolute and unchanging Truth (John 14:6). In fact, they reject the idea that there are any absolute truths; truth is merely what an individual personally believes to be true for him. That truth might be the exact opposite for someone else.

In essence, since post-modernists within Christianity believe that there is no absolute truth, the truths of God’s Word can and must be changed to suit the culture. This change or reinterpretation will make religion "relevant" to solving the world’s problems apart from the life-changing power of the Gospel. They consider only the temporal and not the eternal. Therefore, a whole new generation of people has arisen that is post-modern. It is to this generation that the Emergent Movement primarily speaks. It is also this generation that is bringing a spiritual "Trojan horse" into the churches.

Having this foundational background, our next article we will look into both the teaching of the Emergents and what they say about those who are looking for a coming of Jesus Christ to this earth.