I am so thankful for Alisa Childers, an apologist addressing Progressive Christianity.
Here are some highlights from two articles she wrote:
Greg Koukl describes four things every worldview must explain:
Creation (How things got started)
Fall (How things got broken)
Redemption (How things will get fixed)
Restoration (How things will look once they are fixed.)
Here is the Progressive worldview:
Creation: Many Progressives adopt a view of creation called panentheism. Panentheism denies that God created the universe ex-nihilo and sees the world as part of God that is constantly in process and changing. Philosophers Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli noted that in panentheism, God “cannot concretely exist except as vitalizing the world, nor can the world exist except as vitalized by God. Each needs the other.”
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This is not pantheism (God is everything), but panentheism (God is in everything!). Such a central message of cosmic incarnation was never seriously taught in the Western, overly individualistic church, except by a few… |
In their comprehensive survey of Progressive Christianity, Progressive authors David Felten and Jeff Procter-Murphy esteem panentheism as a good and “sacramental embrace of creation.” (3)
Fall: Typically, Progressive Christians reject the doctrine of Original Sin. In his book, A New Kind of Christianity, Brian McLaren concludes that whenever we talk about “the Fall,” and “Original Sin,” we’re smuggling foreign ideas and philosophies into the biblical narrative. (4) He views this as part of the “Greco Roman six-line narrative”
McLaren questions whether doctrines like Original Sin lead us to “a higher vision of God, a deeper engagement with Christ, a more profound experience of the Holy Spirit.” (5)
Progressive authors David Felten and Jeff Procter-Murphy acknowledge human brokenness. But they reject the doctrine of Original Sin in favor of an idea called Original Blessing.
Redemption: This concept is something many Progressives refer to as “cosmic child abuse.” The idea that God would require the blood sacrifice of His only Son is seen as immoral—nothing more than a pagan idea early Christians adopted from the culture around them.
Progressives Robert Felten and Jeff Procter-Murphy claim that this view of redemption is archaic and in desperate need of a make-over.
Restoration: Once someone denies Original Sin and the substitutionary atonement of Jesus, Heaven and Hell are the next doctrines to fall.
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When Jesus talked about heaven, he was talking about our present eternal, intense, real experiences of joy, peace, and love in this life, this side of death and the age to come. Heaven for Jesus wasn’t just “someday”; it was a present reality. (5)
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There are all kinds of hells, because there are all kinds of ways to resist and reject all that is good and true and beautiful and human now, in this life, and so we can only assume we can do the same in the next. (6)
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The Biblical worldview is much different than what is described above about creation, the fall, redemption and restoration.
Creation: Historically, Christians have believed that God created the universe out of nothing (ex-nihilo). This means He is entirely distinct from and independent of His creation. The Bible teaches that God is also omnipresent—everywhere at the same time. He is present everywhere because He isn’t contained by any particular object or location. In other words, He is not a part of this fallen world, but remains active and present in it.
Fall: Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve made that fateful choice to disobey God in Eden. As our first parents, they passed that inclination to sin on to us. You and me? We’re sinners by nature.
Redemption:In him we have redemption through his blood.—Ephesians 1:7
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.—1 Peter 2:24
For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.—Matthew 26:28
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.—1 Corinthians 15:3
These are just a few of many Bible verses indicating that Jesus died for our sins—in our place—as our substitute. Christians refer to this as Substitutionary Atonement. This isn’t all the Bible has to say about what happened on the cross. But historically, (and according to the earliest creed found in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5), this is how Christians have understood it. The atonement certainly means a lot more, but it can mean no less than this.
Restoration: Christians have historically held various views on what will happen in the future. But one thing believers have affirmed throughout history is that at some point Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. After judgment, those who rejected faith in Jesus in this life will be separated from God forever in a place of eternal conscious torment called hell. Those who have put their trust in Jesus will live forever with God in the New Heaven and New Earth.
