What is Progressive Christianity?

Like me, you’ve probably noticed a rise in the number of people who identify as “progressive Christians”. And if you’re like most people, you’ve wondered, “What the heck does that mean?” Well, that question is difficult to answer for a couple of reasons. First, “progressive Christian” is not a denomination; there’s no organizational structure or doctrinal statement, and second, people who claim the name have wildly different views on many different topics ranging from biblical inerrancy, to the very nature of God. However, while the theology among progressives is all over the place (and sometimes non-existent), there are common threads that one can find amongst most of them.

● Of the commonalities between progressive Christians, sexual ethics are perhaps the most common. It is considered harmful and oppressive to suggest that sex outside of marriage is morally wrong, and narrow-minded to say that it is not what God intended. Likewise, to say that God condemns the acts of homosexuality is viewed as hateful and even dangerous to the mental or emotional health of someone who struggles with same-sex attraction. Where they will differ from one another in this area though, is why they believe that the traditional Christian views of these behaviors should be rejected and replaced with acceptance and celebration. One progressive will say that Paul was a homophobe, misogynist, and catering to the common sexual ethics of the Jews of his day and so his writings about these topics should be discarded; a view that rejects the divine inspiration of Paul’s writings (many progressives reject divine biblical inspiration altogether). While another might still hold to divine inspiration of scripture and attempt to show that scripture actually supports lgbt+ acts. One well known proponent of this position is Matthew Vines. So the sexual ethics are generally the same, but the particulars of why they hold to them may differ from person to person.

In progressive Christian circles, as far as any sort of theology is concerned, God’s love takes center stage. They absolutely love to talk about God’s love; who wouldn’t?! But in trying to focus on God’s love, they end up leaving out or sometimes even denying the other realities about God, such as His justice, or His wrath, as they believe these to be inconsistent or in conflict with His love. This leads many progressives to deny God’s judgment altogether and embrace universalism: the view that, in the end, everyone will be saved. But this is in direct opposition with what the gospel teaches; that all are guilty of sin and the penalty is death, and eternal separation from God, and that only through repenting and believing in Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross in their stead can they be saved from the penalty of their sin. If everyone will be saved in the end, then what need is there for the gospel to be preached as Jesus commanded us? Their “gospel” is universalism, which is a different gospel entirely, and as Paul said to the Galatians, if anyone preaches a different gospel than what the apostles preached, let them be anathema; that is, accursed, cut off from Christ.

But not all progressives hold to universalism. Many of them will believe that people like Hitler or Mussolini, the “worst of the worst” will rot in hell for the horrendous crimes they committed while on the Earth. However, they will typically hold that most people are good, and as long as they live a mostly good life and try to be a good person, that God will honor that and allow them access to heaven and eternal communion with Him. They will say that sincere Muslims and Jews, Buddhists and Hindus, Zoroastrianists and Shintos, since they are sincerely adhering to the religion that they think is true, will ultimately find God in their religious pursuits. “All roads lead to God,” was a common slogan thrown around back in the day (which is a topic for a different article altogether). But this is a blatantly works-based view of salvation, which is vehemently condemned by Paul and all of the apostles and Jesus Himself.

I have found more recently that instead of saying “everyone will be saved in the end,” or “all roads lead to God,” progressive Christians will just shy away from sharing their beliefs about salvation and try to change the subject. I’ve done this on multiple occasions in conversations with progressive Christians, even ones who I grew up with in my home church. As the conversations progressed, I would get a sinking feeling that they didn’t hold to the essentials of the faith and so to find out first-hand, hoping that I was wrong, I would ask them to tell me what the gospel is. “Before we continue this conversation, could you just tell me what the gospel is?” I would ask them. To my dismay, not a single one has told me the true gospel. They didn’t even tell me what gospel they believed.

So what has led to this movement? And how do we fight against the false ideas that come from it? The answer to the first question, I believe, is the failure in the body of Christ to teach sound theology and doctrine to the church as a whole, but especially to the younger generations as they get old enough to understand deeper teachings than they typically get in a half-baked Sunday school lesson. Don’t get me wrong, I loved all of my Sunday school teachers growing up, but I never once remember learning a single core doctrine from middle school through high school or even while at community college and attending the young adult Sunday school class. I knew what I believed, but never why I should believe it. It wasn’t until I started having doubts and questions about the faith that I dug deeper and started reading books, commentaries, and articles written by leading theologians of the past and present which gave me the firm foundation that I needed to extinguish the flaming arrows of the enemy. The shield of faith is not the shield of blind belief. As Anselm famously taught, ours is a faith that seeks understanding. It isn’t enough to simply tell our youth what to believe; they need to know why they should believe it. I’m speaking not only of apologetics, but of theology as well. This is the answer to the second question. This is how we fight back against the false ideology and false gospel that comes from progressive Christianity, and how we keep more of our congregants from falling into it.

Recommended Resources:
Playlist: Mike Winger and Alisa Childers
Books:
Know What You Believe by Paul Little
Know Why You Believe by Paul Little