I love my people so much.
My joyful role as their shepherd/pastor/overseer is to expose and protect them from false teachers and false teaching.
I take this very seriously.
In fact, I took the opportunity to address a heresy this weekend labeled progressive christianity. You can watch or listen here.
This heresy actually dates back to the 4th century (nothing new under the sun), just updated today with added layers and jargon. It’s always lurking within the church but takes the doctrinal spotlight about every ten years (e.g. ten years ago it was the “Emerging church”).
And here we are again.
Its grip stronger than ever.
Perhaps because of being homebound the last eight months with so much time in front of our phones and laptops we’ve been fire-hosed by subtle lies that feel like Christianity. Sadly, many Christians have been led astray by a doctrinal sleight of hand. And often “feelings” are the main culprit (go here, see #2)
As a pastor, I feel the weight with the apostle Paul who, in Acts 20:31, reminded his people how he warned them for three years, night and day, with tears to guard against false teaching and teachers who’d rise up within the church.
Three years.
Night and day.
Tears.
A pastor’s love.
That’s why any Christian who feels we should all just love each other and be unified (regardless of doctrine) has not read through their Bible.
* Paul called false teachers “wolves” (Acts 20:29).
* Jesus called them, “wolves in sheep’s clothing” (Matt 7:15).
* There’s this doozy in Galatians: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!” (Galatians 1:9).
* Then these mic drops of Jesus to the churches in Pergamum and Thyatira regarding false teachers and teaching found in Revelation 2:12-29.
As Martin Luther put it: “Peace if possible. Truth at all costs.” Unity will fall apart on lies.
So this past weekend I took the time to expose what progressive Christianity denies and affirms.
I adapted my list from a blog post by author Alisa Childers, entitled: “Is My Favorite Author, Speaker, or Pastor a Progressive Christian?” Sound familiar?
Please check out her blog post HERE.
Should the church give space for their people to work through doubts? Yes. Sheep can wander. The pastors are shepherds to help protect the sheep from wolves and lead them back home in Truth and repentance (Revelation 2:14-16).
Wolves are another matter. You don’t pet wolves when they’re around your children. You don’t reason with wolves. You take them out. False teachers and unrepentant false believers are to be exposed, removed, and moved on.
Also, while the church should give space for congregants’ doubts, there must never be a culture of doubt. There should be room for conversations, but conversations must never be an excuse to avoid arriving at a conclusion or stance. Scripture is clear we stand on a solid foundation of sound doctrine that calls for all or nothing (Sound doctrine scriptures).
In the words of Richard Niehbur, what’s left with heretical progressive Christianity is simply this: “A God without wrath who brought people without sin into a kingdom without judgment through a Christ without a cross.”
This is not the faith which was once and for all handed down to the saints (Jude 1:3).
It’s a lie.
With the tears of Paul, I plead guard yourselves.
I listened today and it helped me to “tweak” my story. I am not totally sure that story is ready to share with a larger group yet. The hard message that you stated today is that God did not promise us a “comfortable” life. Through the pain I have faced, I actually think I still have a positive outlook on life. Although many that I love are not living in “comfort”. As I shared my story with people, it has been interesting to hear feedback. In some cases it has help them understand “God-incidences”, some have liked my idea of a daily calendar reminder to pray, in others they think I have had a hard life. I believe as you said today, God didn’t promise us comfort. I do believe he promises us that he loves us, and that through faith it will all work out in the end…which is not here on earth, but in heaven!
The other hard message that you delivered was that we need to watch how “progressive” the interpretations of the Bible are becoming today. One of my biggest takeaways from attending Grace OC and listening to the messages is that in addition to the discomfort that we all may face here on earth, being a Christian is not easy. There are many versions of Christianity throughout the world, which you shared could be heresy. In my story, I share how our protestant family raised two catholic girls, who became my sisters. When I started attending Grace OC, I brought that perspective with me. Did I learn that perspective from “Wolves”? Not sure. Is my perspective based on feelings? Probably. I appreciate how you educate, challenge us in the way we may look at things, and continue to help us to understand how the Bible, as written, is relevant today. I feel that I have so much to learn. Thank you!
Thank you!
Again, as always, Pastor Jarrod is on time and on point when it comes to areas of the heart. We appreciate your candor when it comes to the TRUTH!! The truth that has been distorted, especially during this lockdown, needs to be clarified. Thank you again for always aligning the truths of the Bible with the way we are to conduct our lives as Christians.
Thank you brother!
The Colson Center for Christian World view put out an article/blog this month entitled “Why Progressive Christianity is Another Gospel”. They highlight Alisa Childers and are offering her book Another Gospel for a donation. Thank you Pastor for making this so clear in your sermon. I was SO glad my 17 year old was there to hear it because Gen Z and Millenials are falling prey to this and believing all these lies because so much of what they believe is based on their feelings. It would be great if Collective Youth would go in depth with a series along the same lines that you preached. Keep preaching the Truth.
Thanks, Lisa. One step ahead of you! Thanks for sharing.
I was wanting to get out earlier this morning to enjoy a walk on this beautiful day. i was reading Proverbs and began to put my Bible back down on my bed, but stopped midway to ask the Lord if there was something HE wanted to show me before I put it down. The words Micah 3 immediately flashed through my mind. Not having any recollection of what was in that particular chapter and being obedient to heed His answer, I quickly turned to read it and saw that I had many notations written all around the chapter as I also did in my little Bible commentary handbook.
In my (NIV) Bible, the chapter is entitled, “Leaders and Prophets Rebuked”. I noticed all my notations were from December (2019), and January and February of this year – the three months prior to the ‘lockdown’.
I agree with Dan, Pastor….we hope you will continue to clarify and let the incredible power of THE Word slay all the deception and shine the light on THE Truth. May His Face shine upon you.
Thank you, Joan.
I wonder a lot about the definitions and criticisms of progressive faith vs authentic faith. I also think it’s dangerous based on a historical context to use the term heresy.
One of my big questions comes back to historical context. For instance: which Bible interpretation do we read? Did we adopt faith principles outlined in the NIV from 1985? King James? Why do we sometimes cite the Greek or Hebrew words but not always? Wasn’t the Bible written to and for real people with real social structures like patriarchy as a social norm? We can acknowledge that slavery is wrong even though we are admonished that “slaves should be good to their masters” due to social context, we syphon out parts of Leviticus but cling to the icky parts about sexuality, and apply social structure conversations to some stories like the woman at the well or gentiles vs Jews, yet now that women have education and social equality we cling to patriarchy? I’m wary of any time we point out these social structures as context to faith instead of acknowledging social structures of the time, and then call those who don’t buy into it “heretical.”
When it comes to the label of “progressive Christianity,” haven’t denominations been progressing since the first church in Acts? Some might look at Grace as progressive due to the production, music, web presence, etc. We certainly aren’t Catholic. Perhaps Martin Luther was the first “progressive Christian.”
Thanks, Jon.
Too much to cover here, brother. I’ll post some resources below for you to check out that will help answer your questions. The questions you ask are not new. They’ve been around for centuries. The way progressive Christianity defines itself (progressivechristianity.org), is not only a heresy but as J. Gresham Machen put it (because the same heresy was alive and well during his time), it’s another religion altogether. In regards to that definition, Luther (for example) couldn’t be more different.
On the website above, one can find all kinds of resources to entrench thinking and believing within the heresy. My encouragement is to go search out the 2100 -years of historical, Biblical Christianity–it’s teachings. From the disciples, to the early church fathers–some of whom were mentored by the disciples, to how they confronted and exposed and debunked heresies, etc. etc. Below are some resources that you can read/listen too. A couple provide endnotes of where you can find early writings that capture the early church’s beliefs, practices, and doctrine… the very things they were tortured and martyred for believing.
Here are a few resources
Christianity and Culture (J. Gresham Machen)
Cold-Case Christianity (J. Warner Wallace)
Another Gospel? (Alisa Childers)
Confronting Christianity (Rebecca McLaughlin)
I’m struggling with the reference to the specific progressivechristianity.org website. I’m progressive socially politically and a Christ proclaiming Christian. I don’t buy into the tenants of that website’s “about us” page. I think the verbiage used from the pulpit could be more clear if you are citing a specific organization or group. Many Christians may be progressive on social issues politically but not align with those tenants. I feel the same way about how feminism was addressed purely by the extreme radical edge in the sermon on that topic. It’s dangerous to highlight movements purely based on the extreme radical edge: Christianity gets in trouble when people do that to us too. Perhaps references and points of clarity could be helpful in the sermons.
The progressive Christianity site covers all the nuances I talked about in the sermon. Extremes, however you define it, is important to address because they sprout and grow from subtleties. Furthermore, extremes can be used to point out the subtleties from which they came. For example, PC’s belief that Scriptures are not the inerrant word of God. Rather, PC’s say, it’s a book only of allegory, metaphor, poetry, and the like. And that it’s God’s inspired word as much as G.K. Chesterton’s words are inspired. That, my friend, is heresy. If one loses inerrancy of Scripture, one loses the gospel. That is as extreme as it gets. What follows then will be the sinful behavior and false doctrinal extremes that come from it.
Regarding my message that spoke on Feminism’s third wave of what we see today. I spent a great deal of time in the message explaining all the wonderful things feminism has accomplished in past decades that continues today. I simply pointed out the current wave (as defined by the research I did exploring different women’s explanation of feminism historically and currently) that constantly bombards us via the news media, social media, politicians, celebrities, and the like (I have two daughters so I see what they see). Then I spent time in the message showing how Scriptures (the Biblical Worldview) counters this wave, and also how the Scriptures uplifts, dignifies and celebrates women and their worth, dignity, strength, and value. Especially how the Scriptures reveal the greater glory and beauty of womanhood than what we see bombards us through the mediums I mentioned above.
If Christianity gets in trouble by going after the extreme edges that are forced upon us from our culture and society—extreme edges that, again, always come about because of the underlying skewed edges—then the problem is not with Christianity, but with those who say that the Christianity is the problem.
I’ve provided resources for your consideration on another response. I think you might find them helpful.
Jon, I often think how terribly horrible it is for someone seeking God or for a new Christian to seek out a Bible or a church to attend. There are so many of each with so many titles, they may have absolutely no idea what they’re getting into! I finally bought a new Bible to use thinking it was the same as what I had, but what I found was ‘updated’ changes making some Scriptures gender neutral (among other things). I believe there are definitely times the Lord wants to speak specifically to the men and He has the right to do so. After all, He treats us women like queens.
I think the point is either living in holiness or sinfulness. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So although times change like the autumn leaves, His Word does not change just because society changes and gets more tolerant and people want to choose the kind of lifestyle they want, even if it goes against the Scripture. Why did He destroy Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19)? If it was sin THEN (among many other sins), it is sin NOW.
Music and technology does change and if it’s used for His glory, all is good. The old hymns will last forever, but there are also still many beautiful Christian songwriters out there and I believe He delights to give them a ‘new song’. As long as we are careful to not allow music into The Church with lyrics that go against His Word (or the beat devised long ago in music studios to purposely raise sexual arousal), these things are not sinful. However, pride, greed, sexual immorality, disobedience, murder, theft, etc will always remain sinful and cannot continue to be tolerated in the sight of our Holy God.
God bless you.