Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.
2 Timothy 4:2-4
There is an attack on Christianity from within. There is a movement of people and churches who claim Christianity but deny much of the core and clear doctrines that make up the faith. This is often referred to as “progressive Christianity.” I would like to, over the next several posts, confront some of the wrong doctrines that plague the church today. I would like to get back to the core truths of our faith, and not only that, but discover why we can trust those core truths.
First, I want to share a little bit of my story. When I was younger, I believed strongly that Christians should end their focus on denominations. I grew up in a Free Will Baptist church, but I did not understand the point of labeling ourselves because inherently that meant that we would be separated from other Christians within our community, and that bothered me. Thankfully, the pastor I grew up under was open to worshiping with all types of churches. Every year, for several years, he would organize a revival at the high school auditorium and invite any church that wanted to attend. I remember seeing Baptists, Free Will Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, and other denominations all attend these meetings.
Another example I have seen of unity happened in college. I attended a group called Cru (short for Campus Crusade for Christ) that included college students from all types of denominations, including Catholics, who agreed on the truth of the Gospel. That’s amazing to see. Especially considering Jesus wants unity. His prayer in John 17:20-21 said, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Seeing examples like those revivals I grew up with or worship at Cru are faith-building, because they show that Jesus’ prayer for unity is possible to achieve, even if these examples are small. Jesus said that our unity is how people would know to believe, so He obviously found it important. Nevertheless, more often than not, we don’t see unity. Christianity, on the surface, appears to be a horribly divided religion. And when the world sees this, it is often a cause for them to turn away. Who wants to follow a worldview that its own followers cannot agree on?
Again, unity is extremely important. If I trust Jesus, I have to believe that. I also have to believe it is possible to achieve. And in truth, I think many denominations and Christians are unified on the things that matter most. So, though they have a denominational name that seems to indicate division, they may just be using that to clarify where they stand on a certain non-essential issue. That’s why many denominations are able to worship together without much problem. There is much in our belief system that is hard to grasp, so disagreements on those non-core doctrines should not end unity. So, all that is to say, perhaps Christianity already isn’t as divided as the denominational labels suggest.
But even though there is room in scripture to disagree on non-core doctrines (how worship music should sound, Bible versions, what to wear, spiritual gifts, etc.), the core truths of Scripture are easy to see. And if they are disagreed on, then those who don’t agree on them should not be labeled Christian at all. That can sound harsh, but when we are talking about salvation–about eternity with God or eternal punishment–we can’t mince words.
Also during college, I had an experience that opened my eyes to the infiltration of progressive Christian doctrine into the church. At this time of my life, I wanted to try churches of many denominations. I wanted to show that it didn’t matter what kind of church you attended. So I went to several churches and enjoyed them. I enjoyed learning about different traditions and different ways of wording beliefs that I’d always held to. And for quite a while I attended a certain church of a denomination different than what I grew up in and loved it. Then one day, they planned an entire message on the topic of homosexuality. Even typing that word feels like I’m holding a match over a lake filled with gasoline. But regarding that topic, I was interested in hearing the message, because I thought, “Wow, they are not afraid to confront volatile issues head-on.” When I got to church that day, they brought up two speakers that talked about homosexuality in a very loving way. They talked about nuanced issues of people who struggle with same-sex attraction. I think throughout the years, people who have these temptations have felt more ostracised and demonized by churches than people who struggle with different temptations, so I believe this is an issue that needs carefully addressed with love. And at the start, that is exactly what these speakers were doing.
Then, it shifted.
Suddenly, they were quoting scriptures about caring for fatherless and widows as reasons that we should just affirm same-sex relationships as we would heterosexual relationships. Never was Romans 1, 1 Timothy 1, or 1 Corinthians 6 addressed. Not to mention this passage from Jesus Himself: “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Matthew 19:3-6).
This is a story I hesitate to share, because I do think that dealing with the issue of homosexuality needs to be done carefully and with love. Many people who have these struggles, genuinely have these struggles. This is the same as others who may struggle with lust, alcohol, or gossip. And each person’s sins should be worked through in an individualized process of sanctification and discipleship.
But at the end of the day, there are many scriptures and teachings throughout church history that reinforce the teaching that acting on these homosexual temptations is sinful. And the church I was attending changed these established teachings without ever addressing the reason it is held in the first place.
This is dangerous ground, and unfortunately is happening more and more often. As people struggle with sinful desires, instead of denying themselves, taking up their crosses, and following Jesus, as Mark 8:34 says, they are able to lay their cross down, indulge in their own desires, and walk down to the next church on the corner that will tell them this is okay. As 2 Timothy 4:2-4 says, their itching ears will be told that their own desires are fine to have, they will turn away from hearing the truth that is in the difficult parts of Christianity, and will embrace their myths. This is dangerous deception. It is a Trojan Horse type of attack. It has the appearance of Christianity, but is really a cheap substitute that the enemy is just using as vehicle for his assault.
So after that experience at that church, I realized that while unity is extremely important, we must hold to what is true. Progressive Christianity like that is appealing, especially to my age group and younger, but if it is not true, it should be abandoned completely. After this experience, we left that church and found one that loved all people well, but accepted the truth of the Bible even when it was hard to take. In true Christianity, there’s no way around that. As I’ve said countless times, if we believe something, there has to be reason for it. If there’s no good reason to believe it, then what’s the point?
As mentioned above, over the next several posts on this website, I want to go through core doctrines of Christianity, why they are important, and why they are reliable. These will include, scripture alone, original sin, what Jesus’ death accomplished, the resurrection, the Trinity, the dual nature of Jesus, and Heaven and Hell. Some of these issues, like the one briefly discussed above, are touchy subjects. But the Gospel, by nature, is a touchy subject.
If you’re drawn to these progressive doctrines, and you feel attacked after reading this, reach out to me. As I’ve hopefully made clear many times, my intention is never to belittle someone else or even to push you away. My point is to have loving discussion with everyone, while knowing that Jesus offers salvation to all, we just need to take what He says to be true.
If this is helpful to you, let me know your thoughts on this, and let me know what doctrines you want to discuss the most.
Convictions 