It is becoming quite clear that in our postmodern world, Scripture is no longer sufficient to meet the needs of our faith. I have known for quite awhile now about the Emergent Movement and its deemphasis on doctrinal importance and over emphasis on social awareness. While I don't deny their concern that the Church can be negligent in its awareness of and involvement in the world around them, their belief that Christianity is simply a salvation prayer followed by Christians uniting to solve the wrongs of the world is grossly erroneous. To them Scriptural doctrine is some unnecessary idea that just creates arguments between uppity intellectual Christians who care nothing for the world around them.
What they don't understand is that knowing Scripture and doctrine IS knowing Christ. Christianity and salvation is not just saying a prayer. In order to properly understand and live one's faith requires intense study of Scripture. Living one's faith will and should involve caring about and being involved in the world around us, but we can't do that until after we begin to understand the Scriptures God gave us.
If you want to be socially aware, that's all well and good, but if you're not actually going to understand what Christianity is all about, then you're no different than any non-Christian out there who volunteers their time to lend a hand in the community, so there's no reason to mask your environmental concerns as Christianity. The Emergents want to put the cart before the horse, and that breakdown in logic is bound for failure.
Another erroneous "form" of Christianity I have just recently become aware of is Christian Mysticism. This seems to be, for the most part, an off shoot of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. These movements have always been problematic because of their poor understanding of Acts Chapter 2. On top of this, Charismatics often times base the depth of their faith on how emotional they can get during a worship service and demand signs and wonders from God, or they won't believe his existence. The flaw in logic here should be very apparent.
However, Christian Mysticism adds a new wrinkle to this idea that is even worse. Christian Mysticism is an attempt to fuse Eastern Mysticism with Christianity. So, not only are the people practicing this adding to Scripture, which is already spoken against in the Bible, but they are also attempting to add a pagan flavor to Christianity. Paganism and Christianity will never work together because at their favor base they are in opposition to each other. This is a very dangerous place to play and Pastors who are leading their flocks in this direction should be ashamed of themselves.
What is wrong with Christians today? Why is Scripture no longer sufficient? In a recent chat room discussion about Christian Mysticism I was involved in, Christians were actually defending this. The conversation went something like this:
Person 1: "I can't believe this guy on this forum has a problem with Christian Mysticism. After all, it is Christian Mysticism."
Me: "I'm sorry, but I see no Scriptural support for Christian Mysticism."
Person 2: [link to wikipedia article on Christian Mysticism] "See, there's Scriptural support. It's very similar to what Charismatics practice."
Me: "That is a complete misinterpretation of Scripture and the Charismatics have no Scriptural support for their practices either, in my opinion."
Person 2: "Well, I think we need to look deeper and not just judge things on the surface. After all, if their focus is on Christ, we shouldn't judge what they do."
Me: "If their focus is on Christ, then they should want to follow what Scripture says about worshiping Christ, not say 'We're doing whatever the hell we want...but it's alright, because our main focus is Christ.'"
