A couple weeks ago in our discussion after a Wide is the Gate episode on Wednesday night, a question was raised about Brian McLaren’s comments in the episode. Brian McLaren, a leading Emergent teacher and author, said about the cross of Jesus Christ, “"[T]his is one of the huge problems with the traditional understanding of hell, because if the Cross is in line with Jesus' teaching, then I won't say the only and I certainly won't say ... or even the primary or a primary meaning of the Cross... is that the Kingdom of God doesn't come like the kingdoms of this world by inflicting violence and coercing people. But that the kingdom of God comes thru suffering and willing voluntary sacrifice right? But in an ironic way the doctrine of hell basically says no, that's not really true. At the end God get's his way thru coercion and violence and intimidation and uh domination just like every other kingdom does. The Cross isn't the center then, the Cross is almost a distraction and false advertising for God."
This is a blasphemous statement by McLaren that exposes error in his understanding regarding 1) the justice of a holy -loving God, 2) the meaning of the cross of Jesus Christ, and 3) the nature of the kingdom of God. This brief response is an attempt to help Christians have clarity in these matters.
First, God has so revealed Himself in Scripture to be holy that one may say He has made His holiness the priority. But, in McLaren’s world, God’s love is emphasized to the exclusion of His holiness. It is true that God is love (1 John 4:16) but it is equally true that He is holy (Rev. 4:8; Isa. 6:3; 1 Pet. 1:16) and He is just (Dt. 32:4). These are attributes that are dismissed by Emergent leaders like McLaren.
Holiness is a word that means “separate”. God is separate from everything else that is not God. There is an infinite gulf between what He is like and what everything else is like. When we say that God is holy we mean that He is perfectly pure, morally undefiled, and entirely without sin. He is absolutely separate from anything that is impure, defiling, and sinful. It must be pointed out too that He does not conform to any standard of holiness outside of Himself. He is the standard of holiness. It is everyone else that must conform to Him as the standard. Anyone that falls short (Rom. 3:23) of His holy standard is guilty of being in violation of that standard.
This “falling short” is called sin. Sin is a trespass, a violation, an offense against God that really comes from rebelling against Him. Sin by nature is “against” God. It is in essence rebellion against Him. It is when a creature that God has made rejects God’s authority and rejects Him as God. It is when that creature refuses to acknowledge and conform to the holy standard of God and instead tries to become his own standard for himself apart from God.
Now because God is holy He is also just. And, because God is just, He demands payment for sin. He will come against sin and judge it. There is no toleration of sin. Sin will never be “gotten away with” or “get off the hook”. So, when we say that God is “just”, we might say that He brings equity. He rewards everyone according to what they have done - good or bad. He will not deny reward and He will not deny retribution. Reward will correspond exactly to the good and so will any retribution for evil. If God did not reward good then He would be unjust. Equally so, if He did not pay back evil then He would be unjust. But, God is just, and, every infraction of His holy law will be repaid.
When we see He is holy and just we will see that we have trespassed against Him. We will see that there really is no good in us. Actually, we will begin to know that there is only evil in us. When we see that we will also see that we are accountable to God and that the payment for our trespasses are too great. Now, it is here, when we see that the payment is too great for us, that we will be in a position to finally see the great love God has for us. This is because it is at this point we can see how much has been forgiven us. We can see it also in how great the price was that He paid in giving His own priceless Son to make the payment for our trespasses. His plan to pardon us from our sins and remove our guilt revolves around the most valuable person in existence. His Son, Jesus Christ, was given over to suffer for us on the cross and be our substitute so that we would not perish for our sins. That is love. Plain and simple. In Jesus Christ the integrity of God's holy justice was expressed, and, the integrity of His love for us was expressed. In Jesus Christ's death on the cross, the demand of His holy justice was met, and, the demand of His holy love was also met.
So, in reality, by rejecting the holiness of God, the loving god imagined by Mclaren is far inferior to the holy-loving God in the Bible. Truly, without a right understanding of God's holiness no one (including McLaren) can have a right understanding of His love. If we have a low view of God's holiness then we will have a low view of His love. It is through seeing how great God’s holiness is that we see how great our sin is. And it is through seeing how great our sin is that we see how great His love is to forgive our sins. Great love shines through forgiving great sins. In applying this to our own lives, we ought to apply this principle. We demonstrate great love when we forgive great sins. Such love and such forgiveness only become possible for us to express when we ourselves see that it was God Who loved us so greatly first.
Finally, Brian McLaren also displays a wrong view of the kingdom of God. He believes that the kingdom of God will be built by man and through peaceful means, “…the kingdom of God comes through suffering and willing voluntary sacrifice, right?” No, the kingdom of God will come only when Jesus Christ returns. The Church will not establish it, nor will human government. Jesus Christ will return to the earth and establish His kingdom where He will rule as King of kings (Rev 19:16) for 1000years (Rev. 20:1-6) over the entire earth. And contrary to McLaren’s thinking, His kingdom will be established by force and with violence. Daniel describes Christ’s kingdom as a rock that will crush the other kingdoms when it is established (Dan. 2:34-35, 44-45). Jesus will destroy the armies of the world gathered against Him at His appearing (Rev. 19:15, 21; 2 Thess. 1:6-10). He will throw Satan into the Abyss (Rev. 20:1-3). He will throw the Beast and False Prophet into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20) along with the “goats” (Mat. 24:41-46). It will not be peaceful and it will not be “nice” when Jesus Christ returns. He will use violent force to take over the world for Himself.
What this amounts to is selecting the pieces of Scripture that fit with their worldview while ignoring the passages that do not. There is a pre-conceived idea of who God is and only those passages that support that idea are used. This is a dishonest approach. God has given us revelation of who He is. Brian McLaren has imagined another god of his own liking and rejects the God who has revealed Himself in Scripture. A god of love-only and no holiness is another god than the One who has revealed Himself in Scripture. McLaren’s god, though touted as a loving god, can never compare to the true love of the true God in the Bible who expressed His great love for us by saving us from our sins.
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