Progressive Christianity, like its cousin Legalist, is performance based with its own fundamentalism. Those who preach “tolerance” are some of the most intolerant people you’ll meet. I dabbled a little in progressive Christianity during Covid. Sure what was being preached sounded nice, but after reading/listening/engaging in books, podcasts, and conversations, it wasn’t really Christian. When an ideology basically becomes “Jesus says to love your neighbor”, while true, it often means “accept them as they are or else”. Proverbs 4:25-27 provides the antidote to the anathema that is progressive/legalistic Christianity.
Progressive worship bothers me. It's like, "Rah, rah, rah, I'm saved!" Again, they are celebrating themselves. "Woo, woo. I'm celebrating because I'm saved." But, what about what God went through to get you saved? I fall at his feet wondering how he could have loved me that much. And even though I keep on sinning.
Oh, but, we don't sin as much as murderers and thieves do. Look at the scattered lists of sins in the Bible. What percent of them are sins of attitude? In Revelation and other places, lying and cowardliness are right next to murder. Oh, unspeakable mercy, unimaginable love. How can I ever thank you enough?
It seems like there is a focus on works based faith that if we are “good” that we are saved. Acceptance of the sinful nature and need of a savior is foundational to the faith and cuts across both ideological spectrums, but seems to be a point that progressive Christianity doesn’t want to address, which you summarized well.
The question we have to ask Progressives is, "Where will your progress take us?"
Progress implies movement from one place to another. They want to take us somewhere. Where will their progress land us?
From what I've observed (and you bring out in your post), Progressives make their Promised Land look better by tearing down the present. Diminish the Bible, dilute doctrine, question Jesus's deity, etc. Scuttle these and their landscape looks more inviting.
Peter said Jesus came to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). There's true progress. Followers of Jesus are the true Progressives.
This is difficult for me to prove with certainty. Certainly we can't be Pharisaical nor ultra conservative. I was teaching a class on how we got here from Paul's warning the Ephesians elders the reformation and the restoration. We have a few people that have attended Sunday night and Wednesday night for decades who are Baptists. I simply stated how can a person hear the gospel so long yet refuse to obey it. One wife of one of those people went directly to the elders and demanded that i never teach another class and that's exactly what happened. She and her husband are very wealthy and make sure the contribution is always wel above budget. It's constantly catered meals for the church and the local football, basketball teams.
OThe elder joined a conversation on facebook . The question was should an elder resign if he is no longer married? His answer, some congregations would accept that some would not. That's not taking a stand. The elder (s) control every class subject and sermon to ensure all are welcome and no one is offended. That's why we fellowship non members. All of this is making it difficult to worship for me and it's affecting my wife as wel.
Progressive Christianity, like its cousin Legalist, is performance based with its own fundamentalism. Those who preach “tolerance” are some of the most intolerant people you’ll meet. I dabbled a little in progressive Christianity during Covid. Sure what was being preached sounded nice, but after reading/listening/engaging in books, podcasts, and conversations, it wasn’t really Christian. When an ideology basically becomes “Jesus says to love your neighbor”, while true, it often means “accept them as they are or else”. Proverbs 4:25-27 provides the antidote to the anathema that is progressive/legalistic Christianity.
Progressive worship bothers me. It's like, "Rah, rah, rah, I'm saved!" Again, they are celebrating themselves. "Woo, woo. I'm celebrating because I'm saved." But, what about what God went through to get you saved? I fall at his feet wondering how he could have loved me that much. And even though I keep on sinning.
Oh, but, we don't sin as much as murderers and thieves do. Look at the scattered lists of sins in the Bible. What percent of them are sins of attitude? In Revelation and other places, lying and cowardliness are right next to murder. Oh, unspeakable mercy, unimaginable love. How can I ever thank you enough?
It seems like there is a focus on works based faith that if we are “good” that we are saved. Acceptance of the sinful nature and need of a savior is foundational to the faith and cuts across both ideological spectrums, but seems to be a point that progressive Christianity doesn’t want to address, which you summarized well.
The question we have to ask Progressives is, "Where will your progress take us?"
Progress implies movement from one place to another. They want to take us somewhere. Where will their progress land us?
From what I've observed (and you bring out in your post), Progressives make their Promised Land look better by tearing down the present. Diminish the Bible, dilute doctrine, question Jesus's deity, etc. Scuttle these and their landscape looks more inviting.
Peter said Jesus came to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). There's true progress. Followers of Jesus are the true Progressives.
This is difficult for me to prove with certainty. Certainly we can't be Pharisaical nor ultra conservative. I was teaching a class on how we got here from Paul's warning the Ephesians elders the reformation and the restoration. We have a few people that have attended Sunday night and Wednesday night for decades who are Baptists. I simply stated how can a person hear the gospel so long yet refuse to obey it. One wife of one of those people went directly to the elders and demanded that i never teach another class and that's exactly what happened. She and her husband are very wealthy and make sure the contribution is always wel above budget. It's constantly catered meals for the church and the local football, basketball teams.
OThe elder joined a conversation on facebook . The question was should an elder resign if he is no longer married? His answer, some congregations would accept that some would not. That's not taking a stand. The elder (s) control every class subject and sermon to ensure all are welcome and no one is offended. That's why we fellowship non members. All of this is making it difficult to worship for me and it's affecting my wife as wel.
Niceness is not kindness.
Kindness > Niceness
One is a fruit of the Spirit (not by accident).
This is a feature of Leftism, not a bug. (It is a “bug” as it behaves a virus.)
“Seeker sensitive” churches should beware the slippery slope!
Somewhat brutal but seems from “fruit inspection” to be very true on both sides
Thanks for this .