A recent Christianity Today article (Five Streams of the Emerging Church) speaks directly to the concerns Eric and I have spoken to this week on the blog [see below] and in last week’s How to Read the Bible… class. Truth is under attack, and with it, the very words of Scripture.

The author of the CT article, Scot McKnight, a self-proclaimed “friend of Emergent,” quotes LeRon Shults, a former professor of theology at Bethel Theological Seminary:

The truly infinite God of Christian faith is beyond all our linguistic grasping, as all the great theologians from Irenaeus to Calvin have insisted, and so the struggle to capture God in our finite propositional structures is nothing short of linguistic idolatry.

McKnight continues, this time in his own words:

The emerging movement tends to be suspicious of systematic theology. Why? Not because we don’t read systematics, but because the diversity of theologies alarms us, no genuine consensus has been achieved, God didn’t reveal a systematic theology but a storied narrative, and no language is capable of capturing the Absolute Truth who alone is God.

Dr. Gordon Lewis, senior professor of Christian philosophy and theology at Denver Seminary, has responded with eloquence. Lewis’s colleague, Dr. Douglas Groothuis, professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary, has posted Dr. Lewis’s letter to Christianity Today on his blog. Please read the whole response — it’s worth reading in full, and it’s not long — but I offer a small excerpt:

Does not McKnight’s assertion that “no language is capable of capturing absolute truth” contradict what Jesus said to his heavenly Father? “I gave them the words you gave me” (John 17:8). “I have given them your word” (v.14) and “your word is truth” (v.17).

Apparently McKnight’s wordless god is not the God who has spoken in human languages. “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb 1:1-2).

… Logic haters to the contrary, Jesus used indicative sentences conveying propositions to teach about God, angels, human souls or spirits, his own deity and mission, signs of the end of the age and a spirituality that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. Paul’s letters, furthermore, began with doctrinal assertions before moving to their applications in life. If McKnight’s postmodern theory of language were true, Jesus and Paul would be guilty of “linguistic idolatry!” In contrast, Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). His assertions were not limiting but liberating. “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

I think this just underscores a key point for Christian apologetics in the 21^st century. A large part of our job in apologetics is going to be defending the integrity of Scripture from those inside the church.

Footnote: The blog posts referred to are:

• Feb. 5: What is Truth?,
• Feb. 6: Your Story or Mine?,
• Feb. 7: Postmodernism: Unworthy of the Martyrs’ Blood,
• Feb. 8: Truth vs. Postmodernism on MP3, and
• Feb. 9: The Emerging Church, In Its Own Words