The following video is by vlogger, Polite Leader; therein, he explains progressive Christianity.
In the process of his description of progressive Christianity, he suggested that early 20th century Christian liberalism evolved into the emergent Church which evolved into progressive Christianity.
When I heard that, I realized I already knew a lot about progressives because I learned the basics about the emergent church a few years ago. I want to state the biggest points about them before writing the highlights of Polite Leader’s 13 minute video.
Most importantly, one should know that emergent leaders committed the error of syncretism by blending eastern religious ideas with their worship; ideas such as Hindu meditation. This is a huge error and unbiblical because it calls for emptying of the mind of thoughts, guided imagery, which subjects reason to imagination.
[See my post CHRISTIAN YOGA / CHRISTIAN HOLY YOGA / YOGA IN THE CHURCH / EASTERN MEDITATION, it explains in greater detail the unbiblical nature of this meditation and yoga.]
Christian meditation is as in Joshua 1: 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
God calls us to fill our minds with His word and repeatedly considering it, seeking greater understanding, praying for illumination by His Spirit….
One last major point is that progressives believe in doing what they need to do to make progress. The political progressives, for example, want to throw out antiquated religious beliefs that they claim are holding them back from progress; hence, the opposition to faith-based groups in blue states like CA.
Progressive Christians seem to want to do away with the old ways found in the Bible and introduce a ‘new’ way, hence Brian McLaren’s book: A New Kind of Christianity.
Sermon HIGHLIGHTS:
- Gresham Machen, 1923 wrote Christianity and Liberalism; therein, he stated that Christian liberalism is not Christianity, it is another religion. [Machen, started the Orthodox Presbyterian Church after writing that book]
- Emergent church 1990s till early 2000s; Rob Bell was a noted preacher of the movement and wrote a book, Love Wins, wherein he called the Bible a 2000 year old love letter; John Piper spoke out against Bell [he later gave up preaching and became a speaker on Christianity – don’t attend any of his lectures]
- Progressive Christianity has no formal creed, confession or statement of faith
- Among them they hold to various beliefs
- They have a low view of scripture; and although they will say that they believe in the inerrancy of scripture, they mean something different than reformed Christians
- If you dialogue with a Progressive Christian, then define your terms and have them do so [that was an old trick of Christian liberals, they kept Christian terminology but changed word definitions]
- Phrases progressives like to use were cited and explained
- They believe that the experience of Old Testament writers differed from NT writers; and that Christians of today experience Christianity differently
- All Christian doctrines are open to redefinition [in the name of progress]
- Progress presently means supporting feminism, LGBTQ, Critical Race Theory
- They emphasize deeds over creeds
- They talk about the hero’s journey [see 8 minute video below about Joseph Campbell’s works on this mythological concept from Carl Jung, it is the second video]
- The ranks of progressive Christians consist only of former evangelicals, no converts
- They generally oppose the apostle Paul’s explanation of the Bible or they reinterpret him
- They seem to subscribe to an evolutionary worldview
- Sanctification to them seems to be conforming to the image of man [also they seek to integrate the self to use Jung’s terms; they want to develop it – Christ called for self-denial]
The following narrative and links are from Polite Leader’s YouTube site and accompanied the above video; the last link is to his video page, he has videos on many false Christian teachers:
What is Progressive Christianity?
Progressive Christianity is a false, heretical and dangerous movement within Christendom today. Many Progressives deny the essential doctrines of the Christian faith including the deity of Christ, penal substitutionary atonement and the bodily resurrection. In this introductory video on Progressive Christianity, I provide a cursory look at the movement.
Edited by Zachary Hunter:
https://www.instagram.com/zachunter515
Andreas Wiget’s Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV28…
The Ten Commandments of Progressive Christianity | Dr. Michael J. Kruger
https://www.amazon.com/Commandments-P…
Another Gospel? | Alisa Childers
https://www.amazon.com/Another-Gospel…
Polite Leader’s video page at YouTube, for many other videos on false ministries and teachers:
https://www.youtube.com/c/PoliteLeader/videos
Featured Image: C-UCC.org Progressive Christian Archives – Clackamas United