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It seems that there is considerable emphasis on authenticity today, but I cannot think of anything more authentic than the Word of God, hence the name of this blog, “Authentic Truth”. The purpose of this blog is to discuss topics related to Scripture and the church. Sometimes I will post information and my personal thoughts on some subject, other times we will just explore the truths of Scripture. I have also written some articles from some research that I have done that I will try to post here. It has been my observation that the proclamation of the truth of the Bible is rapidly diminishing from the evangelical landscape. Oftentimes the truth is not totally denied, but tends to be watered down. Expositional teaching of Scripture has become rare in most churches today, having been widely replaced with incessant topical teaching and conversational dialog or storytelling. This is not to say that there is not a time and a place for topical teaching, but the endless use of this style of teaching allows for vast portions of Scripture to be ignored. Subject matter that should be addressed can too easily be ignored and passed over. Subsequently, much of the church ends up becoming spiritually starved of much needed truth. This is probably one of the major contributors to the inherent shallowness that permeates much of the evangelical community. There have been many Christian leaders who have expressed great concern over this issue. We have witnessed the era of the seeker-sensitive, market-driven church and now we are faced with the introduction of postmodernism into the church. I have done some research into the postmodern influence on the church and in particular, what is called the “emerging” church movement. What is frustrating is that I agree with some of the points that the postmodernists make and can sympathize with many of their frustrations. But the solutions that they offer are all too often contrary to Scripture and doctrinally unsound. From what I can see, much of what they are looking for can be found by just adhering to the truth of Scripture, rather than “deconstructing” Scripture thereby nullifying its authority. I will share more on these thoughts once I post the research that I did. The first research I did was prompted when a member of the church that I attend asked me if I was familiar with a book written by Brian McLaren entitled, “A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey”. I had seen the title before, but I had not paid much attention to it. This church member went on to say that it appeared to introduce some things that seemed to contradict Scripture, yet it did not totally deny the Bible. My inquiry into the book was an eye opener. It did indeed introduce concepts that called into question Biblical teaching. Like many in the postmodern “emergent” church movement, McLaren seems to have a habit of introducing more questions than answers, leaving the reader with doubt concerning Scriptural truth. I will probably be posting my writing in several parts. I hope that the information here will prove to be beneficial.