Excerpts from a video clip featuring Brian McLaren on "Hope":
"…I think our world is, is on a precipice, it’s on the ledge, and we’ve got three, tremendously frightening crises, that we’re facing."
"One is the crisis of how we’re treating the planet. Uh, this is our home, and, and it’s fragile, and it’s beautiful, but it’s also really in danger."
"And um, and second is the crisis of poverty, this huge gap between the rich and the poor, it’s an un… unsustainable system when you have a, a gap like that."
"And the third great crisis is our need for peace, where more and more people have more and more dangerous weapons."
"You take those three crises, and you put them together, and, and it tells us that, uh, that we have to wake up, we can’t just go on business as usual."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2Oqn6OWU3c
Really? The number ONE problem today is "how we’re treating the planet"? (I expected a liberal rant from McLaren, but this priority was honestly a surprise…) Like any other "good" heathen is also quick to point out, McLaren addresses symptoms of the real problem, but no root cause… McLaren’s message of "hope" includes no Jesus, no gospel, and therefore, no hope at all.
By contrast, consider these words of Scripture on the subject of hope:
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Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. |
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And our hope of you [is] stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so [shall ye be] also of the consolation. |
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For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; |
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To whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: |
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But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. |
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And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: |
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Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; |
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But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and [be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: |
It becomes painfully evident that McLaren’s life and "hope" are focused on the earth—a "peace" which he defines as freedom from war and poverty—for current and future generations. McLaren misses the biblical view of hope altogether, as illustrated by the declaration of the Apostle Paul, from the Word of God:
1Cr 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
