Back when I was a kid, finding the life-span of a butterfly, learning how to make a chocolate cake or figuring out how to properly contour my cheekbones wasn’t easy. Kids my age had to go to the library, borrow a neighbor’s cookbook or hope that Mom knew how to apply blush . . . because if she didn’t, they probably went to school looking sunburned.
With YouTube tutorials, Google and social media, you are growing up in a world that offers an endless stream of information right at your fingertips. I’m thankful for a lot of it. I mean,
I didn’t know how to style a proper ponytail until I was in my 40s. Thank you, internet.
But with all the convenience and simplicity of cyberspace also comes a lot of misinformation. Much of this misinformation is centered around religion, and more specifically, Christianity.
When I was a teenager, I never heard of Christians who didn’t believe the Bible was God’s Word. But now, with social media and the internet, a movement called progressive Christianity has become very popular. Progressive Christianity is a false version of Christianity that teaches you to ditch many of the core truths that believers have embraced for 2,000 years. Instead, the progressive approach invites you to come up with your own version of Christianity that feels right for you. But the Bible doesn’t give us that option.
Here are three lies of progressive Christianity you might encounter.
Worldview Lie No. 1
Your feelings determine truth.
In today’s culture, the word truth has been redefined. Individuals are encouraged to identify what’s true by how they feel. However, this isn’t how truth works. Truth is a statement or belief that lines up with reality. That’s it.
In other words, truth is what is real. Think about it this way: If I feel that I can fly without assistance (wings, an airplane, etc.), can I make it true by believing it? Certainly not. If I jump off my roof, I’m going to fall. Believing what is really true keeps us anchored to reality.
Truth is important for Christians. In fact, the Bible tells us that God is looking for people who worship Him “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23). This means God wants people to seek correct information about Him. We can’t worship Him in spirit and in truth unless we have true knowledge about Him. Where do we find that knowledge? Thankfully, He gave us His Word, the Bible.
Worldview Lie No. 2
The Bible is just a human book.
Another lie that is popular on social media is that the Bible isn’t really God’s Word. Progressive Christianity teaches that the Bible is a book about God written by humans. Therefore, you can read it as a book of opinions and suggestions rather than as the authorized source for what is true. In other words, the Bible is just someone else’s truth.
But this is not how Jesus taught us to read the Bible. In Jesus’ day, the New Testament wasn’t written yet, but the Jewish people had the entire Old Testament. Jesus continually referred to the Old Testament as the Word of God, and He even told the Jewish leaders they were mistaken about God because they didn’t know the Scriptures (Matthew 22:29). If the Bible is our authority for truth, it gets to tell us how to live.
Worldview Lie No. 3
God just wants you to be happy.
One of the most popular messages in culture today is that the goal of life is to be happy. Because of this, progressive Christianity will try to convince you that the Bible is old-fashioned when it comes to marriage, sexuality and gender. According to this line of thought, you should pursue whatever identity, relationship or experience that makes you feel happy and content.
But this isn’t the message of God’s Word. The Bible teaches that, for Christians, the goal of life is to follow Christ and obey God. There is a fancy word for this: sanctification. It just means to become more like Christ every day.
This is what Jesus prayed for His followers in John 17:17: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Isn’t it wonderful that Jesus himself prayed this for us? I love that as He prayed these words, He was declaring that God’s Word is truth. Not my truth but God’s truth. The truth.
As Christians, we aren’t called to “live our truth” and pursue whatever we think will make us temporarily happy as cultural worldview lies will have you believe. We aren’t called to “find ourselves.” In fact, Jesus said that people who want to follow Him must deny themselves (Matthew 16:24). This might sound difficult, but here’s the great news: God made us, and He knows what will bring us real contentment and happiness. And this kind of deep, abiding joy isn’t temporary; it’s eternal.
