The Drift of Doctrine: Why Accommodation Is Apostasy
In every generation, the church faces the temptation to reshape the gospel to meet the expectations of the culture. The impulse to remain relevant and compassionate—noble in its origin—can become spiritually lethal when it replaces revealed truth with human opinion. In our day, this drift finds form in what is commonly labeled “progressive Christianity.” Behind the appealing language of inclusion, deconstruction, and authenticity lies a theological system that is not simply a variant of biblical Christianity but a departure from it altogether.
Theological Drift and Doctrinal Dilution
The progressive movement tends to reinterpret or reject core doctrines of the Christian faith in the name of compassion, intellectual respectability, or cultural advancement. It prioritizes human experience and sentiment over divine revelation. As J. Gresham Machen famously warned nearly a century ago, “What the liberal theologian has retained after abandoning to the enemy one Christian doctrine after another is not Christianity at all, but a religion which is so entirely different…as to belong in a distinct category.”¹
While every Christian tradition rightly wrestles with biblical interpretation, progressive theology often begins with the assumption that Scripture must yield to modern sensibilities. In such a model, sin is redefined as systems of oppression, salvation becomes self-realization or social liberation, and the cross is viewed less as substitution and more as an example of victim solidarity. This is not Christianity reimagined—it is Christianity rejected.
As Kevin DeYoung notes, “The fundamental problem with the so-called progressive Christianity is not just that it’s progressive, but that it often isn’t Christianity.”² It offers a gospel that neither convicts nor saves because it strips away the holiness of God, the depravity of man, and the exclusivity of Christ.
Modern Examples of Progressive Theology
To identify progressive Christianity is not to caricature, but to discern. Prominent leaders and authors within this movement have publicly affirmed views that depart from historic orthodoxy in unmistakable ways.
For instance, Richard Rohr, a Franciscan friar influential in progressive circles, argues that Jesus did not come to change God's mind about us, but to change our minds about God.³ While sounding compassionate, this interpretation dismisses the necessity of the atonement and God's just wrath against sin. Rohr’s version of Christianity is deeply influenced by panentheism and mysticism, drawing more from Eastern philosophy than from biblical revelation.
Nadia Bolz-Weber, another progressive leader, has stated that traditional sexual ethics are harmful and outdated, advocating a sexual reformation that affirms nearly all expressions of consensual sexuality.⁴ In doing so, she not only rejects the biblical teaching on sexual holiness but substitutes human desire as the highest moral guide.
Similarly, Brandon Robertson, a self-described “progressive pastor,” has publicly claimed that Jesus was not sinless and that the resurrection may not be literal.⁵ Such assertions directly contradict both the testimony of Scripture and the ecumenical creeds of the church.
These are not fringe perspectives. They are widely published, platformed, and followed. Yet they undermine the core claims of Christianity. To deny Christ’s sinlessness (Heb. 4:15), bodily resurrection (1 Cor. 15:17), or the authority of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16) is not a matter of interpretation but of apostasy.
As Albert Mohler explains, “When a church buys into the moral revolution, it puts itself in direct conflict with the Bible’s teaching and the gospel itself. There is no safe harbor in compromise.”⁶
The Old Lie in a New Language
The threat posed by progressive Christianity is not that it openly attacks the faith, but that it subtly redefines it. Like the serpent’s question in Eden—“Did God really say?”—progressive theology casts doubt on the reliability and relevance of God’s Word. It couches disbelief in the language of compassion and casts orthodoxy as unloving or oppressive.
This distortion of the gospel trades transcendence for tolerance, holiness for affirmation, and truth for personal narrative. As H. Richard Niebuhr once observed, liberal religion leads to “a God without wrath [who] brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”⁷
What results is not an updated Christianity, but a different religion altogether—one that mirrors the values of the age more than the voice of the Shepherd.
A Call to Faithful Resistance
The church’s calling in this cultural moment is not innovation but fidelity. We are not summoned to reinvent the gospel, but to contend for “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). This does not mean we are dismissive or harsh; it means we are grounded and immovable in the truth that saves.
Scripture must remain our ultimate authority, not merely a springboard for personal insight. The gospel must remain centered on Christ’s substitutionary death and resurrection, not co-opted into a vehicle for political or psychological self-help. And the church must resist the urge to trade clarity for applause.
The Reformed tradition holds fast to the conviction that God's Word is sufficient, His gospel is unchanging, and His church is called not to echo the world but to proclaim Christ crucified (1 Cor. 1:23)—even when that message is foolishness to the culture.
If we lose the gospel, we have nothing left to offer the world. Theological accommodation may feel loving, but it leads only to spiritual ruin. As Paul warns, “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8, ESV).
In a time of doctrinal drift, may we be found holding the line—not to preserve tradition for its own sake, but because the truth is too glorious to dilute and too necessary to replace.
Footnotes:
J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1923), 6.
Kevin DeYoung, The Ten Commandments: What They Mean, Why They Matter, and Why We Should Obey Them(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 22.
Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe (New York: Convergent, 2019), 31–33.
Nadia Bolz-Weber, Shameless: A Sexual Reformation (New York: Convergent, 2019), 4–6.
Brandon Robertson, “Jesus Wasn’t Perfect—And That’s Good News,” Revangelical, accessed July 10, 2025, https://www.revangeligical.com/jesus-wasnt-perfect.
R. Albert Mohler Jr., We Cannot Be Silent: Speaking Truth to a Culture Redefining Sex, Marriage, and the Very Meaning of Right and Wrong (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2015), 105.
H. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America (New York: Harper, 1937), 193.