Progressive Christians Going To Hell- According to Decision Magazine

Christians are divided by sets of beliefs—that’s no surprise. I’ve been writing about these divisions in this blog, which grew out of the book, A House Divided.

This post is about Franklin Graham’s warning in the May 2022 stark Decision Magazine cover.

PROGRESSIVE

CHRISTIANITY

CAN LEAD

YOU TO

HELL

Decision Magazine stakes their claim, “The Evangelical Voice for Today.” It’s hard to find a more influential voice when you tally the followers on social media. Like it or not, and some don’t, Franklin Graham is the go to voice of evangelicals.

Graham’s followers 21 May 2022

Facebook: 9,913,970

Twitter: 2,485,942

Instagram: 1.2 million

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What's seems to be the problem?

Franklin

Inside the magazine, Franklin Graham warns of “The Eternal Peril of Progressive Christianity.” In his aggressive style, he casts the division as a decades long “war” that’s “raging against Biblical Christianity.”

Referencing St Paul, Graham finds a quote from Galatians (1: 6-9) applicable to “the advocates of progressive Christianity.”

What’s in Graham’s mind?

Bible, Sex, Punishment, Theology.

Graham claims, “Progressive Christianity denies the divinely inspired, authoritative truth of the Bible as it intersects every facet of living.” What’s left unsaid is the meaning of “divinely inspired” and the notion of “authoritative truth.” Plenty of evangelical Christians cannot decide on the authoritative divinely inspired biblical truth about the role of women in the church or the home. Christians argue about what the Bible teaches concerning baptism, birth control, dancing, drinking alcohol, and military service.

If biblical teaching were clear, there would be no need for so many different Christian groups or denominations. And for Graham's evangelicals, there would be one evangelical church.

[See St Paul and Christians Divided About Women.]

Graham’s choice of an example reveals his passion about sex. For Franklin, gender identity is among the “nonsensical trends.” Next up is “gay marriage”—a example of “degrading cultural influences.”

When it comes to sex and gender, Graham is clear.

Evangelicals born with male sex organs are men.
Evangelicals born with female sex organs are women.
Evangelical men only marry women.

If you claim to be a Christian and you do not accept this Graham-evangelical-doctrine, then you are progressive. And you are wrong.

It’s no surprise to see his concern about justice. Graham does not deny that the Bible includes social and racial justice but he believes Progressive Christians deny “God’s justice—how a holy and just God deals with sinful and wicked men.”

[See Jesus’ good news in the mission statement in Luke 4:18.]

Graham's focus on theology deals with beliefs about the trinity, Jesus, salvation, the atonement, and more. You will need to read his article to get the details, which Graham calls “orthodox, Biblical Christianity.” Perhaps ironically, he closes with advice to pastors quoting 2 Timothy 4:2-5 from the New King James Version. The letters of Timothy pop up a lot. Those letters make it clear that a woman's place is not in the pulpit.

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Alisa

Paradoxically, a woman, Alisa Childers, teaches readers “5 Ways to Counter Progressive Christianity.” I write paradoxically because many Christian groups prohibit women from many or all leadership roles in church and the family. And some take a verse literally to mean women should not teach men (1 Timothy 2:12). Here we have Alisa teaching readers about progressive Christianity. Perhaps it's ok if a Christian woman teaches men in what she writes?

Alisa attacks her perception of progressive views on biblical authority (#1), biblical sexuality and the sanctity of life (#2). She advises readers to adhere to biblical morality and mentions “a historical Biblical sexual ethic (#3 ).” There’s a reference to “truth” (#4) and the importance of proclaiming the gospel (#5).

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R. Albert Mohler Jr. offers a moral history lesson in “The Subversion of Christian Morality.” Al Mohler offers a brief history of morality leading up to the “sexual revolution.” Here’s his view:

One by one, major churches and denominations joined the sexual revolution and reformulated their teachings on divorce, birth control, premarital sex, adultery and homosexuality. These churches had destroyed any objective foundation for believing there are any consensual sexual behaviors that are inherently wrong. They did not resist the sexual revolution, they joined it.

Al’s view is that the problem stems from progressive’s denial of biblical authority. Al does not speak for those evangelicals who believe in the equality of women and men. Here’s a quote from Al May 10, 2021.

"Simply put, the only way to affirm women serving in the pastoral role is to reject the authority and sufficiency of biblical texts such as 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2."

The twin connection between biblical authority and sex is a recurrent message. It's true. Christians disagree about matters related to gender and sexuality. And it's true that the Bible does not address all these issues. Humans, mostly men, use their reasoning abilities to make statements about some matters not in the Bible.

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Erwin

Erwin Lutzer asks, “Making the Narrow Door Wider?” The lead picture is a classic church building sporting a rainbow flag. Erwin refers to Jesus' lesson about the “narrow door” in Luke 13. And he refers to “the broad road that leads to destruction.”

Interestingly, he offers a subtle difference from the attacks of others. Notice his comment on “Biblical authority.”

Progressive Christians do not reject Biblical authority outright; rather they purport to walk a middle path with the Bible in one hand and cultural sensitivity in the other.

Erwin is aware that progressive Christians focus on God’s love. He agrees but there is a but…

“But when we replace God’s view of love with our own view of what we think love requires, it can lead us to justify sinful behavior.”

Now the argument becomes challenging in the next paragraph. We may wonder if God’s love is conditional. Following is the quote:

Jesus clarified the meaning of love: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). To love God is to obey His Word.

Some Comments

As I have written about in A House Divided, Christians hold different views about morality. The morality of particular concern to evangelicals is related to sex and gender. My point in A House Divided, is that Christians in many congregations hold different views about these topics. Evangelicals themselves are divided about abortion, birth control, divorce and remarriage, the equality of women and men in the church and the home, and so forth.

The disagreements about biblical authority are not entirely fair because evangelical Christians who disagree about such things as the equality of women and men do not deny biblical authority. They simply interpret the texts in different ways.

Although there are identifiable differences between Graham’s evangelicalism and the leading writers we may categorize as Progressive Christians, there are differences between groups of evangelicals. And to be fair, there are differences between groups of people who might identify with the progressive movement.

[See Progressive Christianity to learn more about general beliefs and examples of authors.]

Psychological Notes

The presentation in Decision Magazine is an example of Terror Management Theory. In the face of a threat, that is Progressive Christianity, people who feel threatened become more conservative. As one may expect, the specter of death, and particularly eternal death, looms large in the concerns presented by the authors of Decision Magazine.

One way to analyze the differences between conservative and progressive views of sex-linked moral topics is to draw upon the findings of Moral Foundations Theory as presented by Haidt in The Righteous Mind. This is the approach I took in A House Divided. See reviews by Ev Worthington and Rod Bassett.

Abortion is a flaming hot topic in the United States. The Faultline Hypothesis may be helpful in identifying nuances in the disagreements among Christians and others in their views on an acceptable abortion (See The Faultline Hypothesis and Abortion). By nuances, I refer to the common concerns of the life of the mother, rape, and incest along with differences in when a woman may legally or ethically terminate her pregnancy.

Fundamentalism is a term often used when describing some conservative views of religion like those presented by Franklin Graham. The model of Intratextual Fundamentalism is one way to understand the link between the Bible and how it may be interpreted to support conservative beliefs. Of course, as many have written, conservatives disagree about text-based guidance.

Readers may want to think about research on the “divide and conquer” strategies used by some leaders in contrast to the promotion of group unity (e.g., see Maner, 2014). Franklin Graham and his team highlight the divisions between evangelical and progressive Christians (for examples of Progressive Christian writers). Some progressive Christians highlight the difference between their view of Christianity and the views of evangelicals. However, Brian D. McLaren promoted Christian unity in his popular book, A Generous Orthodoxy.

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