Progressive Christianity and the Church on a slippery slope – warning signs to watch out for

The effects of post- modern and post-liberal theology on the church in general and on the Christian faith has been slow but steady ­­and the signs are ominously becoming visible each passing day. This slow churning has resulted in a form of progressive Christianity which brilliantly camouflages in myriad ways, often very subtle and not easily recognisable or identifiable by even well-meaning Christians. Remember it is always packaged as progressive and colourful as the bible calls it “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. It is not easy to pinpoint these half-truths and grey lies even for a well trained eye as it does not hold out as a coherent systematic thought or theology. It has embedded itself, widely scattering in different aspects of historic Christian faith making those slight twists and turns of deception. But the fact is that these deceptive teachings have deeply impacted and confused the body of Christ in such a way that we will find ourselves in no time on a dangerous slippery slope.

What are some warning signs to watch out for?

Questioning or casting aspersions on the Inspiration and Authority of the Scripture:-  Now, one will not hear it outright in the messages or teaching, initially most of them will sound very progressive, liberating, inspirational and thought provoking but as time goes by it will be very subtle often an innocuous looking joke or a question on the authority of scripture on our lives, or it might be a joke on the archaic nature of a particular passage or teaching for the present day world. It can be a statement like, I am totally unable to figure out why on earth Apostle Paul wrote that, doesn’t that sound like a narrow minded person? 

There are pastors who venture to the extent of saying that only the New Testament is inspired and Old Testament is like any other story or literature. Some times their messages might have absolutely nothing to do with the Bible but just a pep talk or a motivational booster with lot of anecdotes and stories from the secular and corporate world. Most of the time the interpretation of the scripture will be figurative or metaphorical or even hilariously imaginative rather than a literal interpretation of the word. Beware if you are hearing this in your church. The Bible is the inspired, inerrant word of God and the only authority for all our lives.

Fly by Feelings and signs and wonders:- another danger sign to watch out for is the overemphasis on personal feelings, signs and wonders, than on Fact or Truth. Truth becomes subjective and that affects their view on sin which in turn is defined subjectively based on how that person feels about it. So anything can become permissible. Love and grace is overemphasized and becomes the overarching principle – remember love and grace without truth becomes licentiousness.  In the name of progressiveness, diversity and pluralism any kind of sin is tolerated. So there is the hyper-grace, only grace, free grace phenomena where every sin is forgiven and we don’t have to worry about committing sin and confessing it anymore because of God’s love and grace, it is okay to continue to live in sin. Mostly they will never take a stand on grave sin and will rarely teach about repentance, confession, forgiveness and living a holy life. Apostle Jude warns about this in verse 4 ⁴ For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about^[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Another sign is the fascination for the sign gifts, healing, slaying, prophesy. There are many more weird manifestations that happen today in some of these churches which you might be aware of. I am in no way nullifying the sign gifts, God heals, He does miracles, He uses his servants and He is still in the business of authenticating His work through these gifts. But when people are drawn primarily to it than to the teaching of the word, Worship, personal edification, growth and involvement in the great commission there is a serious problem. They are there for the spectacle, they are the audience watching the performance than the audience of the ONE and only God.

Watering down of the Historic facts and core doctrines of the church:- the Virgin birth, the resurrection of Jesus, the historical nature of it, Jesus being the only way for salvation, Original sin and total depravity, heaven and hell all these facts and doctrines are open for discussion and reinterpretation. Contentious issues like sexuality, marriage, abortion, racialism etc are conveniently untouched, unspoken or “adjusted”. A biblical stand on this is never taken.

The Gospel and the great Commission is limited to social outreach:- for the progressives the gospel is social, it is not proclaiming the redeeming work of Jesus on the cross, that is narrow-minded fundamentalism and intolerance.  Off course the bible demands us as believers to be socially aware, sensitive and proactive to the needs of people around us but good works follow faith, it is the result of faith not vice versa. There will be a great emphasis on loving the other, being open minded, accepting diversity and being pluralistic. There will be lot of talk on working together, partnerships, unity and ecumenism all for social justice, uplifting the poor and needy and working for the cause of the oppressed and underprivileged of the world. There won’t be any talk on evangelism and discipleship and making disciples of all nations.

If we are part of a church or group that has any of the above mentioned signs in varying degrees we are definitely on a slippery slope, it is dangerous to be there for too long, it is high time we take a closer look, evaluate and pray and start looking for a place which is Christ exalting and Bible-centred.