In recent years, a movement called Progressive Christianity (formerly known as Liberal Theology) has gained popularity. It wears the clothes of faith in actions and uses the vocabulary of the church in words, but its foundations are completely different. Before we engage with it, it’s important to understand what Progressive Christianity actually is and why, despite its appearance, it is not biblical, historic Christianity.

Defining Progressive Christianity

Progressive Christianity is less a single set of beliefs than a cluster of ideas and tendencies that share certain fundamental characteristics. Progressive Christians may differ from one another in many ways, but they’ll share these in common:

Relativizing Scripture: The Bible is no longer treated as the ultimate authority but as one source among many for moral guidance or personal insight. Its historical claims are often reinterpreted or dismissed. Its doctrinal claims are sentimentalized or moralized as lessons on life. It’s ethics are rejected as the product of primitive, unenlightened men speaking only from their own culture. It rejects the Bible as God’s authoritative, inerrant Word and instead sees it as one imperfect, but helpful book among many others. For the Progressive Christian, the Bible is not God’s perfect Word to Man, but Man’s imperfect words about God.

Redefining God and Christ: God is often presented more as an impersonal force, a feeling, a moral example, or a source of personal empowerment. Progressive Christians reject the transcendent, holy, and personal God revealed in Scripture. For them, Jesus is a teacher of spiritual wisdom or social justice rather than the only Savior who redeems sinners through his atoning work on Calvary. He is a godly man, but not the God-Man; a way, but not the way (John 14:6).

Prioritizing culture over truth: Progressive Christianity tends to mirror the always changing moral and social winds of our age rather than submitting to the unchanging truth of God’s Word. They do not confront the world with the gospel, but are conformed by the world.

Though it comes in many forms, these traits are consistent: the authority of Scripture is rejected, the uniqueness of Christ is denied, and moral and spiritual truth merely reflects the popular ideas of the world around them.

Fundamentals of Biblical Christianity’s

J. G. Machen, writing in the early 20th century, warned of precisely this kind of drift in his stellar book, Christianity and Liberalism. He rightly pointed out and emphasized that Christianity is not a matter of ethical teaching, cultural sensitivity, or personal experience. Instead, at its heart, biblical Christianity is:

Based in God’s Revelation in Scripture: The Bible is not merely inspirational—it is historically true and divinely authoritative. Christianity responds to God’s revelation, not to our preferences or feelings. Progressive Christianity, by contrast, treats Scripture as optional or symbolic, undermining the very foundation of the faith.

Centered on Christ’s Atoning Work: The heart of Christianity is that salvation comes only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The substitutionary atonement of Jesus fo sinners distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. Without this truth, faith becomes something entirely different, no longer offering eternal life.

Assumes Objective Truth: Christianity is grounded in objective truth, not subjective experience. Progressive Christianity makes religion about subjective feelings and experiences. Biblical Christianity sees all things by the standard and authority objective truth revealed in God’s unchanging Word. When truth becomes relative, the faith itself ceases to be Christianity.

Machen argued that any movement that denies these fundamentals, no matter how sincere or morally appealing, is not Christianity. It may share some Christian habits, language, or symbols, but it is a different religion entirely. He wrote:

“In my little book, Christianity and Liberalism, I tried to show that the issue in the Church of the present day is not between two varieties of the same religion; but, at bottom, between two essentially different types of thought and life.”

And again, more directly:

“What the liberal theologian has retained…is not Christianity at all, but a religion so entirely different from Christianity as to belong in a distinct category.”

The point? Liberal or progressive Christianity, as described above, is not simply a variation of Christian faith—it is fundamentally at odds with it. It trusts a different authority, proclaims a different gospel, and worships a different god.

Why This Matters

1. Important for Our Personal Faith

We must be on guard against empty philosophies and false teachers so we do not stray from the path of truth. “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition…and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8). It’s hard to avoid a danger we don’t know about or can’t discern. The most dangerous kind of non-Christians are those who look and speak a lot like Christians. That is why Jesus warned, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15). Awareness and discernment protect us from being subtly pulled away from Christ (2 Peter 2:1–2).

2. Important for Our Evangelism

We must be able to recognize Progressive Christians so we know how to engage them rightly. Our goal is not to disciple them (i.e. to help them follow Jesus) but to evangelize them in hopes they might repent of their Temu-Christianity and find true life in Christ. Not knowing a person’s true spiritual state will keep us from knowing how to love them. When someone holds “a form of godliness but denies its power,” we are called to turn them to the true gospel (2 Timothy 3:5) so they may be saved and satisfied by the glory of God in Jesus Christ.

3. Important for Our Churches & Institutions

Christian institutions (whether churches, schools, or ministries) do not die quickly, but slowly. Their decline happens degree by degree, often unnoticed, as they allow themselves to be infiltrated by progressive Christians or quietly adopt progressive Christian ideas. What begins as a desire to appear thoughtful or compassionate soon becomes a surrender of conviction.

History gives us sobering examples of this. Many of America’s most prestigious schools (e.g. Harvard, Yale, Princeton) were founded to train faithful ministers of the gospel and send them into the world for Christ. Yet today, not a hint of biblical Christianity remains in their identity or mission. Their fall didn’t happen overnight. It came by small compromises over many years as they hired and put up with leaders who no longer obeyed the authority of God’s Word or proclaimed without shame the gospel of God’s Son.

The same thing will happen unless believers are willing to recognize Progressive Christianity for what it is and act accordingly. Remember, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (Galatians 5:9). Institutions and leaders that fail to be discerning about whom they hire or what they teach are putting leaven in their loaf or, better said, cancer in their congregation. Once unfaithfulness takes root, it will mercilessly and silently spread unless it is stopped or until it finishes its work.

No one is faithful by accident. It requires conviction, courage, intentionality, and discernment “to guard the good deposit” (2 Timothy 1:14) and “not drift” (Hebrews 2:1). Without discernment, we won’t see the cancer of Progressive Christianity. Without diligence, we won’t be able to stop her spread and our institutions will drift from the truth until the faith that once defined them is only a faint memory.

Are You Willing to Contend?

Progressive Christianity is not a fresh expression of faith. It is a different faith altogether. It offers the comfort of religion without the cost of repentance. It speaks the language of grace without the reality of truth. It promotes a custom image of Christ without His cross. The church must not be naïve. Our faith, our evangelism, and our institutions all depend on our ability to discern truth from counterfeit. Faithfulness never drifts. It must be fought for, guarded, and renewed generation after generation. Jude said it well, “Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).