|
S T A T E M E N T - O T 0 8 0 7
Responding To Chris Lyons and CRN.INFO:
"It seems like the Reformation has gone enough off the rails, dare I
say like the Catholic church." Those words, spoken by
Chris Lyons on
his podcast represent the ongoing challenge by his
CRN.INFO website, to the Protestant
Reformation and the beliefs that were affirmed in it. He is joined on the podcast
by his blog contributor Tim Reed who is Senior Minister of Owosso Church of Christ.
Tim and Chris are postmodernist followers of the "No Creed But The Bible"
Restoration Movement
(stemming from 19th century Stone-Campbellism).
So it is that you will find them militating against the Confessions of Faith and
Systematic Theologies which have always been an important part of Protestant Christianity.
As you listen to the second half of
that podcast, you will note their certitude in declaring various
Reformational beliefs (most notably Reformed soteriology) as being emphatically
untrue. While calling for those who hold such beliefs to behave
less certain about them, they themselves demonstrate dogmatic certitude
that such beliefs couldn't possibly be true.
While I believe that reasonable critique of the so called 'watchdog'
website has value, I am troubled by the highly questionable methods employed by CRN.INFO in doing so.
I stand against the
site's lopsided attack of almost anything relating to the Reformation,
their misrepresentation of Systematic
Theology as being contra-biblical, and against their extremist views of
detailed belief statements as being necessarily detrimental.
The site not only circulates a tremendous
amount of misinformation pertaining to the Christianity of the last few
centuries, it is also a virtual clearinghouse for the agenda and beliefs
of various Emerging Church leaning 'new-thinkers' such as
Erwin
McManus. Readers have noted - due to the frequency in which
Rob Bell's
views are promoted, the site seems to be somewhat of an ongoing
advertisement of Bell's particular brand of postmodernism. The errant
views of Open Theism (described as unorthodox by numerous apologetics thinktanks including equip.org) are also promoted on CRN.INFO by one of the
site's writers. Phil Miller regularly comments there in support of Open
Theism and openly promotes the works of author Greg Boyd. While Open Theism is not the majority view of the other CRN.INFO writers, it is rarely challenged when it is brought up; this reflects the overall ecumenical mood of the website.
It is that ecumenical atmosphere that seems to attract the participation of - even supporters of those with radical views, such as Emergent leader Brian McLaren.
Provacative
Posts on
CRN.INFO:
-
Separation Celebration,
Chris Lyons' swipe at Reformation Day, and his reminder to us of Luther's
sins.
Note: James Swan of aomin.org has provided
this page and
this one for the missing context of these objections.
-
Systematic Theology Leads to Divisive Failure, Chris
Lyons shows his dogmatic certitude that TULIP and other man-made creeds do not reflect scripture and are only meant to divide wheat from tares.
-
Bring Out Your Dead, With rhetoric like "who needs
Jesus words when we have Charles Spurgeon" (they label Spurgeon as 'pompus'),
Chris Lyons makes accusations of 'idol worship' about those
who cite the opinions of past leaders. While
CRN.INFO's readers may not realize it, they are often being
exposed to the site owner's own Stone-Campbellite traditions, a hint of
which is seen in Tim Reed's
comment "I
stand on the shoulders of giants" (dead Restorationist giants that is).
-
Systematic Theology Kills People,
Chris Lyons floats the old claim that the "awful doctrine of election" (his words) is a detriment to evangelism.
Never mind church history; anti-anything to do with election is one of the favorite topics there.
-
Preach It and Only Preach It
In a discussion about 'death metal' music Nathan Neighbour
promotes the idea that there are no types of music that cannot be used
in worship. Nathan, who is on staff at the
Mosaic Emerging Church which uses drama, film, dance, and art during
worship services. The amazing comments on this thread by the
CRN.INFO regulars - dogmatically
assert that the Regulative Principle of Worship (info),
which is an interpretation of scripture held by
churches for centuries, is supposedly "elevated to the level
of scripture" extra-biblically.
Pages Addressing CRN.INFO's Ideas:
|
Responses To
CRN.INFO:
-
Predestinarians Produce Bad Fruit?
Answering Chris
Lyons' claim that belief in Election somehow results in bad
fruit / poor evangelism.
-
Chris Lyons: Heaven's Not Big Enough For You, Me, & Your Theology.
In response to this post, Chris Lyons issued a statement stating that not all Calvinists
are hellbound; he seems to make a distinction based on how "tied to the system" a Calvinist is.
Based on such a standard, one can only wonder how many of the Puritans, Pilgrims, hymn writers, and bible
commentators are now eternally lost, due to how ardently they believed in the Calvinistic "system".
And so it is that while Lyons' beliefs are seemingly ecumenical on the one hand, they are also selectively narrow and exclusive on the other hand.
The amount of charity afforded to other Christian views seems to be dependant upon how 'systematized'
he subjectively determines their beliefs to be. This is a misguided outworking of his Restorationism.
Responses
From Triablogue:
Responses
on Strange Baptist Fire:
Responses
From Other Sites:
-
Chris Lyons' Typically "Modern" Oversimplification -
Phil Johnson blogspots Lyons' canard about Hebrew vs.
Greek influences and "eastern" vs. "western" way of thinking. TeamPyro Blogspot
-
Chris Lyons Defends Rob Bell's Narrative Belief Statement, While rejecting mainstream Confessions,
CRN.INFO promotes this emerging church 'narrative' belief statement.
-
Embracing Emerging Spirituality,
A favorite CRN.INFO blog topic is Rob Bell. While many today feel that Bell is deconstructing Christianity, Chris Lyons gives this thumbs-up review of his "Everything is Spiritual" tour. While Rob Bell and Chris Lyons both reject any connection with the Emerging Church, the similarities are hard to overlook.
|
|
This section is subject to frequent updates and changes, for an up to date copy of this page, go to:
www.OldTruth.com/CRN.info-Chris-Lyons.cfm
This page was last modified on 2/2/08
Back to the Old Truth blog
|
Copyright 2008 (C)
OldTruth.com
No Duplication permitted without permission by owner
|