What is Progressive Christianity?

Perhaps you have had conversations with people and as you talked about Christianity their beliefs began to appear quite different from what you grew up believing. Topics such as sexuality, gender, authority of Scripture, reality of heaven and hell, etc.

But you had a hard time figuring out where their beliefs were coming from. You were wondering why their faith was so different from the orthodox faith you have held onto for years. In our culture this is going to happen more and more. And the book I am introducing here is a great place to begin to understand what is going on.

I want to strongly encourage you to buy and read the book, “Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity” by Alisa Childers.

In the book Alisa does a good job of communicating what progressive Christianity is and why we so urgently need to know about it.

What are the main beliefs of progressive Christianity?

1. They don’t see the Bible as inspired or authoritative for our life. “Make no mistake, just like historic Christians, progressives find Scripture compelling. The difference is that, rather than viewing it as the authoritative Word from God to people, they see the Bible as an antiquated library of books that we can examine like ancient relics. In their view, the Bible is our spiritual ancestors’ best attempts to understand God in their own cultures, using whatever knowledge they had at the time. Because humans now have a higher and wiser view of God, progressives believe we can now read the Bible the way it is meant to be read-not as the authoritative Word of God, but as our predecessors’ spiritual journal.” p. 155
2. They don’t believe in the atoning work of Jesus on the cross. “However, with their denial of the atoning work of Jesus on the cross, many progressive Christians take it one step further: Jesus is no longer our Savior but an example of how we can do good works in the world and forgive others. That has become the highest virtue, and all other truth claims are judged by it. Thus the progressive gospel is Jesus + social justice.” p. 105
3. Hell and judgment have been rejected. “With it’s view of the Old Testament God as petty and spiteful, it’s denial of God’s wrath and hell, and its discomfort with the blood atonement of Jesus, progressive Christianity looks a bit like warmed over Marcionism.” p. 112
4. They believe in universalism. “…it’s simply the belief that all human beings (and in some cases, even fallen angels) will be saved and spend eternity with God. Some in the progressive Christian paradigm deny the idea that sin separates us from God altogether, rendering any need for a meaningful “salvation” unnecessary.” p. 186

These are not all the progressive beliefs that are mentioned in Alisa’s excellent book. Instead, these are the beliefs that she mentioned that stand out to me. The book also does a wonderful job of carefully explaining how these progressive beliefs are wrong and what the Word of God actually teaches. Again, I would encourage you to buy and read the book.

“As I’ve learned, progressive Christianity is not simply a shift in the Christian view of social issues. It’s not simply permission to embrace the messiness and authenticity in Christian life. It’s not simply a response to doubt, legalism, abuse, or hypocrisy. It’s an entirely different religion-with another Jesus-and another gospel.” p. 76