"Progressive Christianity" is difficult to define, but easy to spot. There are a variety of different ideas in progressive churches, but the one thing they have in common is that they have abandoned the idea that the Bible is true and reliable.
Abortion is always a hot topic. Some see the debate as between religious people and non-religious people, but that's hardly accurate. There are a lot of atheists who oppose abortion, for example. The question at hand is whether abortion is a moral good, a moral evil, or a neutral act.
I hear it all the time from skeptics: the Bible didn't exist for hundreds of years after Jesus died. If true, that would imply that "established Christianity" differs from "original Christianity." This opens the door to all kinds of other nonsense, like Jesus not existing, Jesus not being God, and more.
Do people end up in Hell because they're ignorant? It's easy to assume that those who refuse to be saved simply lack information. "If they had only understood," we say. "If only they had known." At first glance, these words feel compassionate, but they really expose an insufficient view of God.
The Bible speaks regularly about demons, and about the healing of physical illnesses. Sometimes, both are included in the same verse. Some conclude that demons cause illnesses, and that casting out the demons will heal the illnesses. Is this true?
Do people become angels? Are God and Satan opposites? Are unicorns in the Bible? Melissa Dougherty explains twenty more things she wish she'd known... and points out again that many non-believers - and new believers - may believe a lot of things that just aren't so.
Melissa Dougherty is a former New-Ager turned Christian apologist. Here she lists a few of the misconceptions she held before becoming a Christian. They're kind of fun to hear, but it's important to remember that most non-Christians - and many new believers - believe a lot of things about Christianity that just aren't true.
God describes Himself in mostly masculine terms: father, husband. The Hebrew names Yahweh, Elohim, Adonai, Kurios, and Theos are all linguistically masculine. At the same time, God also describes Himself in Job as giving birth, and in Isaiah as a mother. It's more complicated than simply "he" or "she."
Most businesses and churches and non-profits would love to rank #1. For anything. Most don't even rank #1 for their own name! A lot of companies pay a lot of money to try to reach #1. They pay fly-by-night SEO agencies. They pay local ad agencies who don't know much about how the web works. They also pay big money to big agencies full of experts in the field, hoping to rank well enough to get just a bit more traffic than they would naturally get.
Regular GodWords readers know about Disciples Report. I created that website as a place to share content created by others... articles and videos and podcasts by reputable writers, scholars, and apologists. It's gone now. Or is it?
Writing a definition for God is inherently difficult, and problematic. There are two main problems with each attempt to define God. The first problem is that we only know what He has revealed to us, so any definition will necessarily be incomplete. The second problem is that while we can use words to describe God, none of those words can help us actually understand Him. Still, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.
As with so many things, confusion abounds about demons. What does the Bible actually say? How are followers of Jesus to think about interacting with demons? How can we avoid falling into superstitious nonsense and - more important - how can we avoid unbiblical ideas about demons?
