Intro
Today we will address a popular movement known as Progressive Christianity. Its adherents describe this movement as being “characterized by a willingness to question tradition, acceptance of human diversity, a strong emphasis on social justice and care for the poor and the oppressed, and environmental stewardship of the earth. Progressive Christians have a deep belief in the centrality of the instruction to "love one another" (John 15:17) within the teachings of Jesus Christ.”i
While that definition may sound attractive on the surface, the devil is in the details.
1. Their “willingness to question tradition” includes a rejection of the inerrant inspiration of Scripture. This allows them to pick and choose verses as they please, rejecting those that don’t suit their fancy.
2. Their “acceptance of human diversity” includes acceptance fornication, homosexuality, and other violations of God’s commandments.
3. Their “strong emphasis on social justice and care for the poor and oppressed, and environmental stewardship of the earth” is a substitute for biblical salvation through the cross of Christ and godly living according to New Testament admonitions.
4. Their “deep belief in the centrality of the instruction to ‘love one another’ (John 15:17) within the teachings of Jesus Christ” rests upon a distorted, unscriptural definition of what love is and how it is practiced.
Behind all the high-sounding concepts of love and justice are false definitions of terms and a rejection of the Gospel of Christ as presented in the New Testament.
NEW TESTAMENT CONDEMNATION OF PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY
In Galatians 1:6-9, Paul rebuked that church for departing from the true Gospel of Christ. He wrote,
“I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”ii
While the error of Progressive Christianity is different from that of the Galatians, any substitution of a “different gospel” for the true gospel of Christ incurs a curse.iii At its core, progressive Christianity develops its own standards of morality and rejects the standards given by Jesus and the apostles.
In his warning against this deadly error, Franklin Graham says,
“Progressive Christianity denies the divinely inspired, authoritative truth of the Bible as it intersects every facet of living. For example, although Scripture clearly says that marriage is between one man and one woman, proponents of progressive Christianity twist and distort the truth of God’s Word on sexuality, focusing on such nonsensical trends as gender identity. They deny God’s distinction of the sexes, and instead invent their own misguided standards, unguided by the Word of God. The degrading cultural influences that embrace such movements as gay marriage have more sway on their beliefs than the Bible does.”iv
The havoc this movement is having on our culture is hard to overstate. It is dividing brother against brother. It is destroying the economy as governments burden businesses with excessive environmental regulations. It is throwing the society into lawlessness to the extent that crime is driving people out of some cities. As horrific as all that is, it is not the worst of it. Since this diabolical agenda turns people from the true gospel, is sending eternal souls to hell. The true gospel is the only way of salvation. When that is rejected, eternal damnation is the consequence.
We believe in social justice. It is an important theme in Scripture.v But it is not a substitute for redemption through the cross of Christ. A passion for social justice should characterize every believer. James 1:27 says, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” Reaching out to the oppressed is something Christians should be doing. If we do what James is commanding, it will be costly for us. It will cost time, energy, and money.
One problem with many adherents of Progressive Christianity is that they want that to be someone else’s time, energy, and money. They want the government to do all that in response to their protests and political agenda. In fact, many of them what this social justice because it means more resources for them.vi That is not what James had in mind when he spoke this verse.
The other problem is this: Even if a progressive is sincere about the first half of this verse, they reject the second half. Keeping oneself unspotted from the world is not part of their agenda. They support the murder of unborn babies. Indulgence of the flesh and the pride of life are supported in their philosophy. They pick one half of the verse and reject the other half. How can they do that? They have a low opinion of Scripture. For them, their own opinion ultimately trumps biblical truth.
So, we do find progressive Christianity in the Bible. The problem is: it is condemned in the strongest terms. A hallmark of Progressive Christianity is the freedom to do what you want to do without the constraints of traditional Christianity. They do all this under a banner of a distorted, perverted understanding of love. In their message they promise liberty from biblical moral restraints.vii
The apostles were dealing with this error centuries ago. Progressives claim they have discovered new truths, but in reality, they have only reclaimed old Gnostic errors. Peter talks about these apostates who have “forsaken the right way.” He says, “
“These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (2 Pet. 2:14). It doesn’t get much worse than that. In verses 18-11 he continues:
“For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. 20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.’”
They promise liberty, freedom from moral restraint. That is part of their appeal. But Peter says, “they themselves are slaves of corruption.” They are slaves to their unnatural lusts and habits.
The problem with this antinomianism was so prolific that Jude felt compelled to address it. He wrote in verses 3-4, “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
They “turn the grace of our God into lewdness.” That is exactly what Progressive Christianity does, although they usually speak in terms of love rather than grace. In their deceived minds, they interpret God’s love as license to indulge in whatever sins and immorality a person chooses. They can’t imagine God judging such behavior, he’s just too nice for that. And since God is so tolerant, we should be as well. Tolerance is their moral high ground. But when you challenge their error, you find out they are not very tolerant at all.
This apostacy may be part of the great falling away Paul refers to in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. After telling Timothy to “Preach the Word,” Paul warned in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” The RSV says they “wander into myths.” The truth is too convicting. The truth confronts their corruption, and they have already decided to live in that corruption.
Are there a few platitudes and truths sprinkled in the Progressive Christianity deception? Of course, there are. That’s what makes it so deceptive. But when you dig into their definition of terms and the core of their beliefs, you find it to be a rejection of Christ and his gospel. They have embraced “another Jesus” who is contrary to biblical revelation.
Paul warned the Corinthians about those who would come preaching “another Jesus,” operating in another spirit, and leading them astray (2 Cor. 11:2-4). Then a few verses later he writes, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (2 Cor. 11:13-15).
So that is the condemnation of Progressive Christianity in the New Testament.viii
OLD TESTAMENT CONDEMNATION OF PROGRESSIVE RELIGION
But what path does God want us to follow? We have elaborated on that when teaching Christ’s Beatitudes. But let’s see what the Old Testament says about this subject.
When Israel got progressive in the wrong way, God confronted them in Jeremiah 6:16. “This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.’” (NIV). God was saying to those people, “You need to come back to the paths that I have given you to walk in, the ancient paths. Their response is immediately recorded. “But you said, ‘We will not walk in it’” (NIV). In verses 17–19 God says to them, “I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet! But you said, ‘We will not listen.’ Therefore hear, O nations: observe, O witnesses, what will happen to them Hear, O earth: I am bringing disaster on this people.” (NIV). God has shown us the right way in His word. If we will abide in His word, and let His word abide in us, we will not be deceived, and we will be okay. ix
It is not surprising to see the world going down a road of destruction. “The whole world,” John says, “is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). We see some of the decisions they make and wonder how anyone could be so blind. But they are blinded by the god of this world. Their attitudes and behavior simply manifest their fallen condition. But it is heartbreaking to see these same deceptions in the church. The church is to be the “pillar and ground of the truth’ (1 Tim. 3:15). How did we get here?
We saw one explanation in Jeremiah 6. God told them to “ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it.” Notice, the good way is not progressive. It is not new. It is “the ancient paths,” the proven paths of faith and obedience, the paths described in Hebrews 11, the paths Enoch walked in, the paths, Abraham and Sarah lived in, the paths Moses followed, the paths David found to be filled with goodness and mercy. The Hebrew word translated “ancient” is owlam. Its core meaning is enduring, everlasting, or eternal.x God does not change, and walking in his ways does not change (Mal. 3:6).
We don’t need a new form of Christianity. We need to live in the one Jesus has already provided for us. It is the good way. It is the straight and narrow path that leads to life (Matt. 7:14). The broad way, the liberal way where you can indulge in fleshly desires, leads to destruction (Matt. 7:13). “There is a way” Proverbs 16:25 says, “that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” It seems right to the carnal mind that I would live according to my own wishes and desires. It seems right that I would not be restricted by the moral boundaries recorded in an ancient book called the Bible. Initially, that feels right. But it ends in death and destruction. Going your own way does not end well.
When God offered to Israel the ancient paths, their response was “We will not walk in it” (Jer. 6:16). What did God do? He sent them preachers to warn them of the consequence of that decision. In Jeremiah 6:17 God said, “Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' [When danger was approaching, the guard on the wall would sound the alarm by blowing the trumpet.] But they said, 'We will not listen.'” It was not the message they wanted to hear. Jeremiah was one of those messengers.
Before that, Isaiah was a watchman on the wall for Israel. In Isaiah 6 that prophet saw the Lord high and lifted up in the temple. He heard the seraphim declaring God’s holiness as they cried out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory! (Isa. 6:3). Out of that vision, holiness became a cornerstone of Isaiah’s message. He knew the holiness of God and he declared it in his messages to Israel. What was their response to that message? They wanted the holiness message stopped. You can talk about a loving God. But we don’t want to hear about his holiness, and we don’t want to hear about the holiness he requires in us.xi Their exact words were, “Cause the Holy One of Israel To cease from before us” (Isa. 30:11). The NIV is clearer: “stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!” It’s the holiness of God that disturbs the Progressives. They don’t want to even think about that.
What happens when people make that kind of choice? One word answers the question: judgment. It came on Isaiah’s generation. It came on Jeremiah’s generation. It came on Jesus’s generation. And it will come on our generation.
We do not have to be prophets to know judgment is coming to America. In many ways it is already here. The foundations of our society are crumbling. The music is about to stop, and the wailing will begin. God is so merciful and longsuffering that he gives space for repentance, and then additional space for repentance. He is not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11). But, as Peter says, “the day of the Lord will come (2 Pet. 3:9-10). The day of judgment will come. “The wages of sin are death” (Rom. 6:23). The wages of sin used to be death. The wages of sin are currently death. The wages of sin will always be death. For God’s kingdom to stand, this must always be. The scepter of Christ’s kingdom is a “scepter of righteousness” (Heb. 1:8). God’s kingdom rests on a foundation of his righteousness. That cannot and will not be compromised.
Righteousness is the thing about the God of the Bible that Progressive Christianity rejects. It rejects inspiration so it can reject God’s demand for righteousness. It rejects the true way of Christ because it is a way of self-denial (Matt. 16:24). It rejects God’s way because it is a way of holiness (Isa. 35).
God calls every generation to live in the tried and proven paths of faith and obedience. “This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. . . .’” (Jer. 6:16 NIV). May we say, “Yes, Lord, we will walk in your ways.”
ENDNOTES:
i Soul Play: What Is Progressive Christianity Exactly?". The Flip Side. University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. Retrieved 23 December 2012, as quoted by “Progressive Christianity,” Wikipedia. Accessed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Christianity.
ii All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
iii The Galatian error was to revert to Old Testament laws of Judaism They were living by a standard different from what Jesus and the apostles taught. Progressive Christianity also substitutes a different moral standard than taught by Jesus and the apostles. Both use a different standard for salvation than the New Testament teaches.
iv Franklin Graham, “Franklin Graham: The Eternal Peril of Progressive Christianity,” Decision, May 1, 2022. Accessed at https://decisionmagazine.com/franklin-graham-the-eternal-peril-of-progressive-christianity/.
v I want to make it clear that I am not condemning biblical calls for social justice. I am condemning a movement, Progressive Christianity, that uses social justice and other agendas as a substitute for personal salvation through the atoning death of Christ, a movement that reject New Testament moral standards (1 Cor. 6:9-11).
vi Some politicians use the social justice agenda to gain a following and maintain power. Their hypocrisy betrays the real motive behind their rhetoric. There are , no doubt, sincere adherents who are deceived by the error. As Jude 1:22-23 instructs, our desire for all these people is that they may come to a knowledge of the truth and enjoy God’s eternal goodness (1 Tim. 2:4).
vii For a fuller explanation of this, see Richard W. Tow, Authentic Christianity: Studies in 1 John (Bloomington, IN: WestBow Press, 2019), 52-67, 416-417.
viii For further elaboration on this, see Richard W. Tow, Authentic Christianity: Studies in 1 John (Bloomington, IN: WestBow Press, 2019), 416-418.
ix Richard W. Tow, Authentic Christianity, ch. 11.
x Strong’s OT:5769.
xi Cf. 1 Pet. 1:15-16.
