Here are a few highlights.
What Jesus would really do is take the list of sins found in the Old Testament and proclaim them all from a mountainside, making all people doubt that they have any hope at all of being seen as righteous before God, and then when he had their attention and their conviction under the law of Moses, he would tell them that God saves sinners who repent. And then he would get on a cross and die for the sake of the sins of world, and raise himself from the dead to prove he wasn't kidding.
He then concludes:
This is really the key issue. Even if the church is full of sinners -- and it is, as it ought to be -- the Gospel does not change, because it is not about what we can possibly do for ourselves or others. The Gospel is, and has always been, that at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly; God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is: my problem is not that I have to accept who I am because this is exactly what God made me to be. My problem is that I am actually wretched, and I do things I do not want to do, and what I say I really want to do I cannot do. So I must cry out -- if I am not utterly deceived by my own desires -- "Who can save me? Can anyone save me?"
When we stop believing that, and stop declaring that, we are doing something reprehensible, Brian -- far worse than racism and terrorism. We are doing something which actually makes it easy for someone else to die forever, and never to see Christ as God's Son and our Savior -- but only as a final judge who will condemn them for their foolish belief that their pleasure right now was the most important thing.
So given my own sense of compassion, Brian, I end this letter to you plainly: after 5 years, I have considered this thing, and because of it, I call you to repent. Turn away from your cleverness, and your passive-aggressive moral intimidation of others, and your preying upon people who want to be seen as smart and cool and somehow also "spiritual", and turn to Jesus who is no longer hanging on a cross but justly seated at the right hand of the Father -- and repent.
Repent, Brian. Make that your new kind of Christianity -- the kind which the martyrs died for, and to which the abjectly-lost have run for millennia. I say it for your sake, and for the sake of the many you lead and mislead.
And I leave it to you in Christ's name .
Pyromaniacs - Open Letter to Brian McLaren
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology: From Cultural Accomodation to the Kindgom of God - Chapter 1
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology: From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 2.1
Thesis| Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology: From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 2.2
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology: From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 2.3
Thesis | Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology: From Cultural Accommodation to the Kingdom of God - Chapter 3.1
For more:
Theology/Reviews - "A New Kind of Christianity" - A 11 part review and critique of McLaren's book
Reviews - McLaren - A Generous Orthodoxy
Reviews - McLaren - A New Kind of Christian
Reviews -McLaren - A Search For What Makes Sense: Finding Faith
Reviews -McLaren - Adventures In Missing The Point
Reviews - McLaren - Church On The Other Side
Reviews -McLaren - Everything Must Change
Reviews -McLaren - Finding Faith
Reviews -McLaren - More Ready Than You Realize
Reviews - McLaren - The Justice Project
Reviews - McLaren - The Secret Message of Jesus
Reviews -McLaren - The Voice of Luke
Theology - Revelation and the Ambiguity of Justification: McLaren Adds to the Confusion
Theology - Does McLaren Reject Penal Substitution?: A Review of the Evidence
Theology - Hamilton: McLaren and Whole Foods Stores
Theology - SBTS and McLaren: A Response to SBTS Panel Discussion
Theology - The Evolving God: McKnight's Critique of McLaren
Theology - The Future of the Emergent Church: McLaren Weighs In
Theology - The Immutability of God: Its Truth and Relevancy - Introduction
Theology - The Postmodern Social Gospel: Brian McLaren Proves My Point
Theology - Where to Begin?: 10 Emergent Must Reads
Theology - Who Isn't One?: Brian McLaren and Social Christians
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Narrative Question - Part 1
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Authority Question - Part 2
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The God Question - Part 3
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Jesus Question - Part 4
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Gospel Question - Part 5
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Church Question - Part 6
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Sex Question - Part 7
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Future Question - Part 8
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Pluralism Question - Part 9
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: Where Do We Go From Here - Part 10
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: Some Final Thoughts - Part 11
Theology - The Clarity of Ambiguity: The Erosion of the Perspicuity of Scripture in the Emergent Church - Part 1
Theology - The Clarity of Ambiguity: The Erosion of the Perspicuity of Scripture in the Emergent Church - Part 2
Theology - The Clarity of Ambiguity: The Erosion of the Perspicuity of Scripture in the Emergent Church - Part 3
Theology - The Clarity of Ambiguity: The Erosion of the Perspicuity of Scripture in the Emergent Church - Part 4
Theology - The Clarity of Ambiguity: The Erosion of the Perspicuity of Scripture in the emergent Church - Part 5
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