It looks like a typical Sunday morning worship service. The praise team of multi-cultured men and women take the stage while the congregation, young and old, sways back and forth with hands uplifted, singing about brokenness, belonging, and hope. There are plenty of smiles, warm handshakes offered to visitors, and big screen TVs complete with a QR code where worshippers can find out more about the church. What’s being offered as the stylish young pastor in ripped jeans takes the stage might be encouraging, non-judgmental, and appealing, but it isn’t biblical.
The individuals gathered here are part of a growing number of people experiencing what’s known as progressive Christianity. Although replete with spiritual language and passionate teaching, progressive Christianity replaces biblical authority with perceived needs, a literal resurrected Christ with a metaphorical example of love, and personal faith and repentance with social justice.
I asked author and Christian apologist Jason Jimenez to join me on The Stand Radio to talk about the growing phenomenon of progressive Christianity. He admitted that he was astounded by the number of people caught up with this “woke” version of Jesus.
“As I began to assess people’s viewpoints, I found that that they had this – not dumbed down version – but a false portrayal of Jesus. [They] are not holding to a biblical, traditional, orthodox view of Jesus.”
Instead of being a monolithic group following a set of well-defined beliefs, the progressive Christian defies definition. Some profess atheism altogether while others retain a belief in God but adjust their views of Him to accommodate what they see as a more sophisticated society.
With progressive Christians, instead of common beliefs, there are common rejections – the chief of which is a rejection of the very words of God. Jimenez explained,
“That’s what progressive Christianity is all about. It’s questioning the validity and authority of the Bible. A guy named Richard Simon stepped in there and he became the Father of Criticism. And he began to debunk the reliability of Scripture on the face of errors and discrepancies, and so hundreds of years later we see that disseminated, not only in the West in England and Germany, but here in America.”
He went on to explain that the rejection of biblical authority and the belief that science has disproven the possibility of miracles has taken hold of the hearts and minds of many who grew up in Christian homes. This philosophy has spread to other bodies as well.
“Universities and institutions that were once built on the bedrock of Christianity and the Scriptures, are now saying, ‘Oh, they’re not to be taken literally, they’re taken metaphorically’. And that’s where you see a lot of these false viewpoints of Jesus come, because of their false interpretation of the Bible.”
Individuals and universities are not the only ones falling prey to progressive Christianity. Jason Jimenez identified five key areas to identify a church that’s drifting away.
- They believe that truth does not come from God but through one’s personal experiences.
- They deny Adam and Eve as historical people created in the image of God as male and female. This means they also deny Original Sin.
- They see the teachings of Jesus, the apostles, and the prophets as metaphorical.
- They deny that Jesus is the only way to God.
- They believe the gospel is not about the person and work of Jesus, but about social justice and other means of improving society.
The temptation to respond to friends and family members who’ve adopted a progressive version of Christianity can be one of frustration and anger. After all, many of these professed faith in Jesus as Savior and spent much of their lives hearing gospel messages in Bible-believing churches. We can find it hard to accept that anyone could hear so much truth then simply turn away from it.
Jeminez said going into “attack mode” doesn’t work. In addition to prayer for these who have fallen prey to progressive Christianity, we shouldn’t take the role as an aggressor trying to defend what we believe. Rather, we take the role of an advocate for truth and ask key questions to get an understanding of why they’ve rejected biblical truth. He emphasized that doing this in a cordial, gentle way, might provide a way of agreeing to examine the evidence from Scripture.
I found this advice especially helpful. After all, human beings often first engage on an emotional level before they open their minds to hear the truth. The progressive church with its modernized, attractive, non-offensive views of Jesus is most surely connecting with people. However, it does this at a devastating cost. Denying the Jesus of the Bible and the eternal life He provides for those who believe is denying progressive Christians with the one thing they desperately need. At its root, progressive Christianity isn’t very progressive, and it certainly isn’t Christian.
(Editor's Note: Click HERE for The Stand Radio podcast that includes Jeff's interview with Jason Jimenez.)
