In our backyard we used to have a beautiful lime tree.<\/p>\n
One day I noticed that a thorny vine of some kind had started growing around it. It looked enough like the rest of the tree that I figured it was just another stage of growth. A quick Google search told me thorns often grow around citrus trees, so I didn\u2019t think much more about it.<\/p>\n
Then, within a couple of months, the thorns took over the tree and it began to die. A gardener looked at it and said these particular thorns weren\u2019t part of the tree at all. It turns out they were a foreign invader.<\/p>\n
Had the foreign invader\u00a0looked<\/em>\u00a0more foreign, I would have realized the need to uproot it immediately. But because it shared surface-level similarities with the tree, I was fooled into thinking it was all the same thing.<\/p>\n I often write here about the threat hostile atheists pose to kids\u2019 faith today. But atheism is not the only threat. In fact, there\u2019s a particular threat that can be even more dangerous because it less obviously requires attention. It\u2019s like the thorny plant that gradually killed my lime tree because I didn\u2019t even\u00a0realize<\/em>\u00a0it was foreign.<\/p>\n That threat is called progressive Christianity.<\/p>\n What is Progressive Christianity?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n It can be hard to define progressive Christianity because it\u2019s an umbrella term for a lot of different beliefs. But I think my friend and fellow blogger, Alisa Childers (who was once part of a progressive Christian church) hit the nail on the head when she summarized it this way in a recent post:<\/p>\n A lowered view of the Bible<\/p>\n Feelings are emphasized over facts<\/p>\n Essential Christian doctrines are open for reinterpretation<\/p>\n Historic terms are redefined<\/p>\n The heart of the gospel message shifts from sin and redemption to social justice<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the danger. To the untrained ear, the progressive Christian message can\u00a0sound<\/em>\u00a0a lot like biblical Christianity. There\u2019s talk of God, Jesus, the Bible, love, and compassion. If a child has never learned to think more deeply about theology and what the Bible actually teaches, they can easily mistake progressive Christianity for biblical Christianity.<\/p>\n And progressive Christianity often teaches an incomplete or false gospel.<\/em><\/p>\n Exhibit A: There\u2019s a blog called\u00a0Unfundamentalist Parenting<\/em>\u00a0that promotes parenting according to progressive Christian views. This Easter, the blog featured a guest post by a Children\u2019s Pastor at a progressive Christian church. In her post,\u00a0The Trouble with Easter: How To (and not to) Talk to Kids about Easter<\/span><\/em>, the author expressed how difficult Easter is because she doesn\u2019t want to teach the kids in her spiritual care that:<\/p>\n Jesus died for you\/your sins (this is \u201cpsychologically damaging\u201d)<\/p>\n God intended for Jesus to die (this is \u201cconfusing and jarring\u201d)<\/p>\n Jesus died to save them from God\u2019s judgment (\u201can atonement theology of inborn corruption in need of redemption has no place in a conversation with kids about Easter\u201d)<\/p>\n The whole article literally made my heart hurt.<\/p>\n Views like these are thorny, foreign invaders in the church.<\/p>\n Why Progressive Christians Don\u2019t Like Apologetics<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The\u00a0Unfundamentalist Parenting<\/em>\u00a0blog recently featured another post that caught my eye:\u00a0Why Your Children Do NOT Need Apologetics<\/span><\/em>. (If you\u2019re not familiar with the term,\u00a0apologetics<\/em>\u00a0is the study of why there\u2019s good reason to believe Christianity is true.) The post is filled with misunderstandings, but my purpose here is not to rebut it. Instead, I want to highlight why progressive Christians don\u2019t like apologetics\u2026and why that shows just\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0important the study of apologetics actually is.<\/p>\n The author bemoans the fact that apologetics \u201cconfines faith as doctrine,\u201d explaining:<\/p>\n \u201cOur faith is a dynamic experience that shifts and evolves for us and especially for a child growing leaps and bounds in their development. We cannot capture that experience and box it into a set of propositions to memorize and defend\u2014that limits and denies the realities of the human experience.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n This statement says so much. The author is confused between the\u00a0objective, unchanging<\/em>\u00a0truth of God and the\u00a0subjective, changing<\/em>\u00a0experiences we have as we\u00a0relate<\/em>\u00a0to God throughout our lives.<\/p>\n God and the truth He has revealed do not shift and evolve.<\/span><\/p>\n Our\u00a0experiences<\/em>\u00a0shift and evolve, but that has nothing to do with what is\u00a0true<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n Teaching kids apologetics isn\u2019t about putting their experiences in a \u201cbox.\u201d To the contrary, apologetics is about stepping\u00a0outside<\/em>\u00a0personal experience and examining what reason there is to believe Christianity is true\u00a0regardless<\/em>\u00a0of our feelings.<\/p>\n If kids are only developing a faith based on \u201cshifting and evolving\u201d experiences, they have no way of knowing if their faith is well placed. I could have faith that a mouse will fly out of a tree right now, but that would be a bad thing to have faith in.<\/p>\n Faith, in and of itself, is no virtue.<\/p>\n It\u2019s only as solid as the\u00a0object<\/em>\u00a0of the faith.<\/p>\n The question is, how can we be confident that Jesus, as the object of Christian faith, is \u201csolid\u201d?<\/p>\n Apologetics<\/em>.<\/p>\n Progressive Christians don\u2019t like apologetics because it challenges them to think of biblical teachings in a category of objective truth\u2014something we\u2019re not free to change just because we happen to \u201cexperience\u201d it in varied ways.<\/p>\n Two plus two equals four whether I experience difficulty with that or not.<\/p>\n Experience\u00a0cannot<\/em>\u00a0be elevated over objective truth.<\/p>\n Progressive Christianity is Just One More Reason Your Kids and the Church at Large Desperately Need Apologetics<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The study of apologetics is desperately needed for\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0Christians today, both for engaging with the secular world and, less obviously, for engaging with groups that teach an unbiblical version of Christianity.<\/p>\n But, for some reason, the church is still largely blind to this need.<\/p>\n Cold-Case homicide detective, apologist, and author J. Warner Wallace sees this all the time. He speaks nearly every week at churches and conferences across the country on the reliability of the Gospels, the reasonable inference of the resurrection, and the evidence for God\u2019s existence. Wallace has the opportunity to engage with the spectrum of believers in a way that few others do.<\/p>\n What he\u2019s found has been disappointing at best.<\/p>\n In his new book,\u00a0Forensic Faith<\/em>, Wallace says, \u201cIn many of these churches, the people I meet aren\u2019t really interested in Christian \u2018apologetics\u2019\u2026In fact, most are still completely unfamiliar with the word, and some even reject the value of such an effort. On more than one occasion, I\u2019ve heard a well-meaning believer say something akin to, \u2018Well, that\u2019s nice, but I don\u2019t really need any evidence. I just believe Christianity is true.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, Christians are largely unprepared to make the case for what they believe and many in the church still deny the need to be prepared in the first place.<\/p>\n The church is asleep.<\/p>\n And while the church sleeps, the secular world marches on, becoming increasingly hostile to the truth of Christianity, and thorny foreign invaders continue to grow within.<\/p>\n For that reason, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a more important book for the church right now than\u00a0Forensic Faith.<\/em>\u00a0In it, Wallace powerfully makes the case for the importance of apologetics for\u00a0every<\/em>\u00a0Christian. It\u2019s a wake up call to the sleeping church.<\/p>\n For those new to apologetics, it\u2019s a perfect place to start. Wallace motivates you to take your Christian case-making duty seriously and shows you, step-by-step, what to do once you\u2019ve accepted that duty.<\/p>\n For those who already understand the importance of apologetics, it\u2019s the ultimate resource to share with fellow believers who need the understanding you have. It\u2019s the book you can give to your small group members, pastors, children\u2019s ministry leaders, and friends.<\/p>\n I pray this fantastic book will truly sweep through the church.<\/p>\n As Christian parents, we must continually be vigilant. Threats to our kids\u2019 faith aren\u2019t always as obvious as the freeway billboards proclaiming \u201cThere is No God.\u201d Providing kids with a foundation of apologetics, however, will give them the training of a discerning gardener ready to identify and uproot\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0kind of invader that shouldn\u2019t exist alongside biblical truth.<\/p>\n This post is used with permission from Christian Apologist Natasha Crain. You can access more great posts like this one by visiting her blog\u00a0ChristianMomThoughts.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In our backyard we used to have a beautiful lime tree. One day I noticed that …<\/p>\n