Counterfeit Christianity, Part 2 – A False Gospel

5th Century Christian sarcophagus depicting Christ and the Apostles, Museum of Fine Arts, Lyon, France, Author Vassil (PD)

Progressive Christians take the position that early Christianity was widely diverse theologically, so much so that it is impossible to know what Christ actually taught or His closest followers first believed.  This is simply false, and can readily be refuted by the early creeds incorporated into Scripture [1][2A].  

Early Creeds 

These creeds long predate the Apostles and Nicene Creeds.  Some date as early as 18 months after Christ’s death, if not before [2B][3][4].  Creeds, it should be noted, are identified by scholars through grammar, linguistic cues, and writing style among other things.

What is considered among the earliest is the statement that Jesus is Lord (Matt. 28: 18; Acts 2: 36 and 10: 36; Rom. 10: 9-13; 1 Cor. 12: 3; Phil. 2: 11; Rev. 17: 14).  The title “Lord” used here is the personal name for God in the Old Testament.

Another early creed can be found at 1 Cor. 15: 3-5:

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received:  that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.”

This supports the substitutionary death of Christ, i.e. His death for our sins (a fundamental tenet of Christianity denied by Progressives) and His bodily Resurrection (another tenet many Progressives deny) both with trustworthy lines of Scriptural and real life evidence.

Yet a third early creed can be found at Rom. 1: 3-4:

“concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

Moreover, scholars date the canonical Gospels to between 65 AD and 95 AD, within the time limits of reliable memory [7A].  This is coupled with the fact they contain highly accurate information as to geography, personal names, botanical terms, financial norms, local language and customs – details which mediate against compilation at a later date by strangers to the events described [7B].

Divinity

Christ was more than a messenger, more than a good man, more than a moral example.  He was and is the Incarnate Son of God, both fully God and fully man.  He rose bodily, physically, literally – not just metaphorically – from the dead.

It is an outright lie for Progressive Christians to state that Christ “never asked to be worshiped”.  The multiple “I Am” statements by Christ throughout Scripture (for example, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”, at John 14: 6) demonstrate Christ’s recognition of His own divinity. 

These mirror God the Father’s statement to Moses, “I am that I am”, at Exodus 3: 4, and were recognized by Jews as a claim to divinity they viewed as blasphemous. 

What is more, early Christians are known to have worshiped Christ as God.  Even extrabiblical sources from the time like the Roman Pliny the Younger confirm this [5].  In fact, early Christian martyrs died to attest that Christ was God when sacrificing to the emperor would have spared them [6].

The earliest known mosaic referring to Christ as God is the Megiddo Mosaic dated c. 230 AD (some 95 years before the Nicene Creed was first drafted in 325 AD) [10][11].

Substitutionary Death

Progressive Christians view Christ as having been crucified by an angry mob for speaking truth to power [7C].

Unlike Progressive Christians who reject the very concept, Christ embraced His substitutionary death on the cross (Matt. 26: 39; Mark 14: 36; Luke 22: 42).  He identified with the Suffering Servant, prophesied at Isaiah 53:

“And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’  Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you’” (Luke 22: 19-20).

The entire Old Testament sacrificial system instituted by God testified to this, pointing forward to Christ.  He is the Lamb of God, an image not chosen at random.

Progressives twist this to such an extent that they view God’s willingness to sacrifice His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, as “cosmic child abuse” [7D].  The mischaracterization is clearly satanic in origin.  Only Satan would misrepresent God’s love as “abuse”, and the need for atonement of sin by blood as savage and distasteful.

Hell

Since the concept of atonement is unpalatable to Progressive Christians, so too is hell.  Consequently, many Progressives deny the existence of hell as a place of eternal punishment and torment [7E] [8].  Christ, of course, referred repeatedly to hell. 

Hell is described in Scripture as a fiery lake of burning sulfur (Rev. 21: 8); a lake of fire (Rev. 20: 13-15);  a blazing furnace where there will be “wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13: 50); the punishment of eternal fire (Matt. 25: 46; Mark 9: 43; Jude 1: 7); a place of banishment from the presence of the Lord (2 Thess. 1: 9); a place of everlasting destruction (2 Thess. 1: 9); outer darkness (Matt. 8: 12); and the wine of God’s wrath (Rev. 14: 9-10).

Our just God can distinguish between good and evil, even if Progressives do not.  

Salvation by Grace

Progressives do not believe in Salvation by grace.  For them, Salvation is achieved through activism in culturally approved social justice causes like healthcare reform, green energy, and climate change – reading the correct books, joining the correct groups, protesting the correct subjects, etc.  Salvation is, in other words, a product of works.

By contrast, Scripture teaches that Salvation is by grace, the unmerited favor of God alone (Eph. 2: 8-9)[9], though faith without works is dead (James 2: 26).

While freely given, grace is not cheap, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it [7F].  We must each deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Christ.

Sin Nature

This teaching goes hand in hand with an acknowledgment of the sin nature of mankind, a concept Progressive Christians find reprehensible.  Indeed, to call anyone a sinner in the view of faith deconstruction is likewise “abusive” [7G].

Traditional Christians understand that the depravity of man does not imply that we are worthless.  Human beings were made in the image of God, so have inherent dignity and value.  That image has, however, been distorted by sin (just as Christianity, itself, has been distorted by the Progressive Movement).  

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[1]  Live Your Truth (and Other Lies):  Exposing Popular Deceptions that Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed by Alisa Childers, Tyndale Elevate Publishing, release date October 2022.

[2A and 2B]  NRB, Defending Truth Conference, speaker Alisa Childers, “Live Your Truth (and Other Lies)”, first aired 1/9/24.

[3]  Wikipedia, “Creed”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creed.

[4]  Wikipedia, “List of Christian creeds”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_creeds.

[5]  Puritan Board, “Pliny’s Hymn” by Kevin Carroll, 5/5/06, https://puritanboard.com/threads/plinys-hymn.13596/.

[6]  Wikipedia, “Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire”,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Christians_in_the_Roman_Empire.

[7A through 7G]  Another Gospel? by Alisa Childers, Tydale Momentum Publishers, release date October 2020.

[8]  Tristany Corgan, “Five Lies of the Progressive Gospel”, 7/10/22, https://tristanycorgan.com/blog-fiveliesoftheprogressivegospel/.  

[9]  OpenBible, “Save by Grace”, https://www.openbible.info/topics/save_by_grace.

[10]  Aleteia, “Megiddo Mosaic:  Earliest evidence of Jesus proclaimed as God” by Daniel Esparza, 11/27/24, https://aleteia.org/2024/11/27/megiddo-mosaic-earliest-evidence-of-jesus-proclaimed-as-god/.

[11]  Word by Word, “The Nicene Creed:  A Very Brief Introduction” by Phillip Cary, 5/12/25, https://www.logos.com/grow/nook-nicene-creed/#:~:text=When%20and%20why%20the%20Nicene,when%20he%20did%20not%20exist.%E2%80%9D.

This series will conclude next week with Part 3 – Real vs. Fake

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https://avoicereclaimed.com